I genuinely belief that the ability to communicate and diseminate ideas and info effectively is very crucial regardless of occupation for a person in this century. Not only in day to day terms of being confident and the edgy term public speaking but also in writing, in being able to tell others what is your opinion and suggestion or even to negotiate for your salary.

I really like delving deep into a certain topics and writing something about it. It feels good. I grew up watching a lot of documentaries from DW and Vice News. And the rise of video essays format in YouTube, mostly dealing with geopolitics and polemic issues has also motivated me since a long time, the desire to write something of my own.

I have a lot of projects I want to embark on, without knowing what it takes, without actually being that of an expert in each of them, oh and definitely not knowing if I’ll actually get it through completion. But they have been on my bucket list for a very long time, and I think I’m finally mentally and intellectually to start chipping away at them one by one.

  • Translating or finding a practical way of spreading major philosophical works that are the backbone of Western civilization in Indonesia as to get the conversation going and also just giving better access to philosophy. Current state of the subject is seen as too sophisticated even though it could get very practical.
  • Finding a way of spreading rational and scientific thinking as to create a better more prosperous society
  • Providing a website and community that is the go to source for learning Bahasa Indonesia for foreigners
  • Same as above but for Javanese and is focused more on preservation of the language. I am convinced that the language is dead, especially in its highest form (register, such as Krama) so the best thing to do is to archive it in the most accessible manner as much as possible. Including art works too. This is perhaps just guilt because this might be the only thing I can contribute given my ethnicity.
  • I have no idea how but, finding a way to find an identity of what it means to be Indonesian. This is much harder to answer than what it looks. I am convinced that if Indonesians are not able to answer this question than the future of cultural export of this country is gloom. We will lose, and perhaps, we already lose the cultural war, of soft power, against hundreds of other region of the world out there.
  • Having a body of work that would be a highly evidence backed, short summary of the history of the world and Indonesia’s place in it to stop misinformation and remove any misconceptions about colonialism and put a firm ground for young Indonesians such that they won’t feel like they are less capable than foreigners yet still humble enough to learn from the giants that have laid out the foundations before them

I don’t know what they would look like (I hope I can learn how to write from these) and perhaps almost all of them are very political. Perhaps that is because I still have hopes for this country and it’ll be best to do something while that is still true before I ran out of hopes. Cause honestly if there’s a button to change my nationality (to a high income developed nation ofc) and all the consequences of it taken care of for me, I would push it in a heartbeat.