One Year Ago

13 months ago I was sitting in front of my co-worker's desk, in awe that I was in our company's LA headquarters, meeting people with different nationalities, and getting glimpses of our global operation. I had taken the job for the new post for Indonesia, but there was a feeling that these people were sizing me up. This young Indonesian girl is going to run our operation in Indonesia? Yeah, give us 10 minutes and we'll tell that she's a fake!! I thought that they could withdrew their offer... It was like going for a job interview with half a dozen people. OK, I'm going on a tangent. This post is not going to be about my job.

Rewind to the scene in my colleague's office. My VP and CEO walked in to MB's office and suddenly my CEO said, "Indonesia is hot. Who knows, our next president might be part Indonesian." My blank face must had been that apparent to him, because he went on to explain about how Barack Obama -who is currently running to be the next US President- spent a few years of his childhood in Indonesia, had an Indonesian step-father, etc, etc. Back in 2006, when this conversation happened, BO was new to the Hills. I made a mental note of google-ing him someday.

In Philly airport where my plane got delayed which resulted in an extra night in Philly, I browsed the bookshop and saw him. His face stared at you with intent, on the cover of his second book, "Audacity of Hope". The title got me, plus the curiosity build since the first time I heard of his name. The book accompanied me in the 20 hours plane ride back to Jakarta and the message stayed with me ever since.

This morning, BO was a guest on Oprah. It must've been an old episode, because it was talking about the book "Audacity of Hope", but once again he got me thinking about the idea of Audacity of Hope. For BO, the concept of Audacity of Hope derived from the people he met traveling across America; the small townfolks with problems of unemployment, lack of health care, and crime. Adversity is faced by everyone regardless of their colour, race, religious beliefs or nationality, and hope is the only thing going for them.

Those three words are such a strong statement in overcoming adversity. It was as if sombody yells out to the sky, "Tough life! Screw you! I'm not going to be beaten!" It personifies resistance and unwillingness to yield.

It is not a concept unique to the American people. Jakarta, and Indonesia is a country of people with similar challenges. Our citizens worry about what to eat today, and where they are going to live if they can no longer live under the highways of Jakarta. We read about the thousands who are displaced because of the mudslide in East Java; how they rally in front of the Parliament House to get help. Yesterday, a bunch of families blockade a toll road because they have not receive severence pay for the land on which the road was built for 4 years. In a way, these problems are not that different from the ones in a continent away. And in a country where fighting almost always means that you're going to lose, the words Audacity of Hope means so much more.

It is interesting to note that even if every country has individual problems, the solution might be global. Technological advancement has shrunk the world so much that a world-wide economic dependency and cooperation is within reach. If Audacity of Hope can be seen globally, then there is no reason to believe that a solution does not exist. All it takes is goodwill and a little bit of love, hope and faith.