The Indonesian Ministry of Health presents "Emergency and Disaster Management Program"

Since the end of 2004, Indonesia has been keeping its image as a disaster-prone country very well. Lots of disasters happened across the nation, aroused by both nature and human action. Earthquake, flood, tsunami, disease outbreak, landslide, transportation accidents, bomb attacks, conflicts, environmental pollution, industrial accidents, YOU NAME IT! An indie rock band from Bali, Navicula, even created a song entitled "Supermarket Bencana" (Supermarket of Disasters) which basically confirms that you can find any kind of disasters in Indonesia and to remind everyone to be prepared for the worst.


Sounds creepy, huh?!


Learning from previous Marriott bomb attack (2003), tsunami in Aceh (2004) and Yogya earthquake (2006), The Indonesian Ministry of Health have felt the urge to recruit volunteers as many as they can to be trained in managing things related to emergency medicine within the catastrophic areas. The vision is very clear; to increase the survival rates post-disaster.


At first I thought it is very elusive. How can you persuade people to learn Basic Life Supports (BLS) and evacuation process for the sake of saving others' life, when in facts they will not get paid? Pardon me for being pessimistic, since from what I witness in my everyday life; most people tend to save their own asses instead of helping others in many social aspects. Don't you agree with me? But well, that's another story.


Last weekend I took off my ego to participate in two days training of emergency medicine held by The Indonesian Ministry of Health at my campus. I was pretty much exhausted but I was happy cos I realized they were all worth it! I always believe experience is the best teacher (compared to theory).


The training entitled "Pemuda Siaga Peduli Bencana" (PSPB) was free of charge and already included snacks, lunch and certificate. However it was limited to 100 first registrants. As figured, many students were lining up with full enthusiasms right the second registration opened. Lucky me, I got in. I felt bad for my girlfriend who couldn't join me cos she was late 15 min. Can you imagine that? The registrations were full within 15 min! 


The PSPB team consisted of 5 speakers/trainers; dr. Theryoto, Hadi Suwondo, Ateng Surahman, dr. Erikson and dr. Imam. As for the start, they explained to us the background history and the purposes of the training and taught some theories of CPR, triage, the biomechanics of trauma, fractures and evacuation process.


Below are some pictures I've taken from the training and FYI, everyone were taking pictures during the practice sessions and wanted to upload them on Facebook! LOLz!

Adults CPR demo 

Trust me, it's harder than you think! And for the record, don't believe what you saw on the movies cos most of them are false! LOLz. 

CPR for Babies

This is the easiest part! Only use two fingers but still you need to be very careful with your compressing power unless you want to kill the baby.

First Aid to Stop Bleeding and Manage Fracture

Main Principle: "Do Not Further Harm"

THE AWESOME TEAMMATES! 

Hopefully I can help my family (at least), my neighbors and as many people as I can in case there's any emergency. Wish me luck! :)  

Quote of The Day

And probably it will inspire me forever...

Image Courtesy: OlsensAnonymous

"When I get dressed, I think of it as dress-up time, like the clothes are costume pieces. That's why I like vintage - it has a story behind it. I'm not afraid of walking down the street in something that people think is crazy. What I can't stand is looking like everybody else."
Mary-Kate Olsen, to Interview magazine.

How Often Do You Say ‘Thank You’?

A classmate of mine grumbled and told me this afternoon about how ungrateful other classmates have been to her as the class captain. People always treat her badly, both classmates and lecturers, by complaining at her about everything; especially when it comes to class cancellation.


She never had a proper vote to be appointed as a class captain, but she has been acting like one from the beginning of the semester. I know it wasn’t her fault; she was just basically being nice and took the initiative. But it seems that nobody cares or even notices about it. Nobody but me. Maybe that would explain why she talked to me.


Today the lecturer canceled the Internal Medicine class in such a short notice. Damn! That was the only reason I spent an hour to get into the campus! Oh well, I wasn’t surprise. It wasn’t the first time.


Before heading home, I saw her trying to spread the news by texting everyone (yes, every single person!) who takes the class. It was intrigued me to ask her why and suggest her to put an announcement in a piece of paper instead. I thought it’s much more simple and costs no money. She bluntly refused the idea.


Truth be told.


She has been doing everything in her power to be a good captain but nobody appreciates it. I know she always sends texts to let others know about new handouts or subjects for the following day. Most of the time I replied the texts to say 'Thank You' (for the info) since I’m kinda thankful person. I used to thank a lot, I don't know why. Even if I forget to text her back, I always thank her whenever I meet her at campus. Once she said to me, "Thanks for what? You already said that before" and so I thought she has no big deal about this 'Thank You' stuff.


Apparently I was wrong.


Deep down she wants her classmates to kindly reply her text and say 'Thank You'. She needs acknowledgments even though she rarely mentions it. She won’t ask for it, but she just wants you to be well-mannered. Well, hopefully her wish comes true. She deserves it, don't you think?


I can't help wondering though... How often do you say 'Thank You'? Do you thank your friends, even for a simple task? What about the waiters/waitresses? The parking attendants? The doorman? The housemaid? Tell me.


Image Courtesy: www.myspace.cn/thelexingtonkid

March 20, 2009: The Meatout Day

Just find it out today, thanks to my mom's friend.

Tomorrow is the Meatout aka the World Vegetarian Day. It is a day of public awareness to inspire everyone to give out meat for one day. This year's theme is "Change Your Diet - Change the World!"

Every year on the first day of the spring, thousands of caring people in all 50 states in the U.S. and two dozen other countries get active to host educational Meatout events. Activities include colorful festivals, lectures, public dinners, feed-ins, cooking demos, food samplings, leafleting, information tables and many more.

Meatout is the world's largest and oldest annual grassroots diet education campaign and this year is the 25th annual observance! Wow. All you have to do as a Meatout supporter is simply asking your friends, family and neighbors to pledge to "kick the meat habit (at least for one day) and explore a wholesome, compassionate diet of fruits, vegetables and whole grains."

I'm sure if you're a vegetarian like my mom, you'll find no difficulties to support the campaign. However if you're an omnivore like me (LOLz), trust me, it isn't as easy as it sounds. We can always try a new thing at once. Besides, there are many great benefits waiting for you if you're a vegetarian aside from saving the animals and the environment; it's for your own health. Think about all the bad cholesterol and heart diseases if you need a second thought. *wink*

Source: animalrights.about.com, meatout.org

Image courtesy: veghawaii.org

On Link Exchange

After finding this and this (both in Bahasa) on Anti Teori blog, I think it's an interesting topic to start a discussion.


As you all know, bloggers often do link exchange with others to promote their blogs and attract more people to boost the blog traffic. I honestly don't mind to do a "link exchange" with other bloggers, regardless you are newbie or "old players". LOL. Even sometimes if I love someone's blog, I tend to link it without exchange; simply because I enjoy reading the blog.


However, I have my own terms and conditions on doing link exchange. It's true that I once refused (just like the post above mentioned) to do another link exchange due to high demand. It was flattering to see lots of bloggers asking for a link exchange with mine, unfortunately most of them were spam blogs. So I decided to prevent another spam blog request, I had to open an ad space which didn't work really well (but it did stop the bad requests). Tee-hee.


I admit there are some benefits I've gotten from doing link exchange; including blog traffic and also have online turned offline blogger friends. You'll be very surprised to see that a person you know from cyber world may end up as your forever friend. *fingers crossed*


Anyway, by the end of this post, I'd like to announce that the links section on the sidebar is undergoing rigorous CLEANING process. For those who haven't updated in over a month, the blog has been deleted/removed or I can't find any link to my blog then it shall automatically be removed from mine. I'm still taking new links nonetheless, but please read carefully my terms and conditions before you submit your link request.  

• I basically accept any kind of blogs (in Bahasa or English) e.g. personal blogs, movies, reviews, fashion, beauty, etc. However I don't accept SPAM BLOGS. Sorry. Based on my experience, accepting one spam blog will bring lots of another spam blogs requests and they were so annoying.

• Newbies are welcome, as long as you have at least 3 months recent archives in your blogs.

• I like to be linked under the title of my own name "Devi Girsang" better than "It's My Life".

• As much as you enjoy requesting link exchange on comments section or shoutbox, please kindly submit your request and introduce yourself a bit to me by e-mail. I promise to get back to you ASAP.

Fair enough? :-)

*Image is taken from here

Harapan Untuk CAPRES-CAPRES 2009

Mari bicara politik. *ihik* Mumpung sekarang lagi anget2nya kan menjelang pemilu? Hehehe...


Gue gak pernah ambil pusing sama yang namanya politik. Kenapa? Karena gue gak tertarik, itu yang pertama. Gue mungkin gak akan pernah ngerti kenapa "permainan politik" bisa begitu mengerikan buat gue. Sebagai contoh, kenapa pemimpin suatu negara bisa tega2nya mengambil kebijakan politik yang efeknya jelas2 merugikan masyarakatnya? Bagaimana mereka yang duduk di kursi pemerintahan itu bisa tidur dengan nyenyak di malam hari sementara orang2 yang sudah menaruh harapan besar mempercayakan suaranya hidup dalam penderitaan, sekarat bagai pasrah menunggu tsunami datang?


Seandainya saja gue bisa melihat big picture dari kondisi politik negara gue seperti om Wimar Witoelar. Ceplas-ceplos, to the point, tapi 'nancep' banget. Hehehe... Perlu bukti? Baca aja di Perspektif.net atau beli bukunya sekalian. (FYI gue baru baca "Hell Yeah")


Mungkin memang otak gue yang 'gak nyampe' kali yah. Tiap kali nonton film ato TV shows yang berbau2 politik kayak Head of State dan 24, gue ngerti karena terbantu dengan narasi dan visualisasi kenapa-begini-kenapa-begitu. Sayangnya itu cuma terjadi di film dan gak bisa gw terapin di dunia nyata. Gak semua orang ngerti. Gak semua orang perduli. Kesimpulannya, gak ada orang yang bisa jadi interpreter gue dalam hal politik.


Sedikit berbeda dengan orang2, gue selalu excited kalo ikutan nyumbang suara di pemilu. Sampai sekarang, gue uda 'nyoblos' 2x, yaitu di Pemilu 2004 dan Pemilihan Gubernur Jakarta 2007. Tanpa harapan yang muluk2, gue uda cukup senang kok bisa berpartisipasi. Sama halnya di pemilu tahun ini, gue bersedia 'nyoblos' meskipun belum jelas mana yang mau dipilih, hahahaha... Seandainya ada presidential debate kayak Obama vs McCain di Indonesia, yang (mungkin) bisa ngasih gue sedikit gambaran mana calon yang 'sepaham' ama gue. Hahaha... *ga jelas banget sih gue*


Ngomong2 soal calon presiden RI, gue baru baca program salah satu capres RI yang ada di 3 koran sekaligus (Kompas, Seputar Indonesia, dan Koran Tempo) yang terbit hari ini. Mungkin masih ada di koran lain kali yah, tapi cuma 3 itu yang kebaca ama gue. One full page "Membangun Kembali Indonesia Raya: 8 Program Aksi Untuk Kemakmuran Rakyat"-nya Pak Prabowo dari Partai Gerindra. Gue gak bermaksud mengkritik yah, cuma ada 2 hal yang bener2 menarik perhatian gue.

(Screenshots diambil dari Seputar Indonesia)

Dari #7 di bidang "Pendidikan & Kesehatan", poin 3 yang berbunyi "Membagi sedikitnya 1 juta lap-top kepada mahasiswa per tahun". Mungkin masih terlalu dini untuk memberikan rebuttal, karena belum ada penjelasan lebih rinci dari yang bersangkutan.


Just my two cents. Daripada membagi2kan laptop kepada individu, alangkah baiknya jika nanti Pak Prabowo menjadi presiden RI terpilih, membangun public library yang dilengkapi dengan fasilitas akses internet gratis yang memadai untuk pelajar2 Indonesia di setiap daerah mungkin? Teknis pelaksanaan mungkin bisa dibahas lebih lanjut, tapi pada intinya, (dari apa yang saya tangkap) ada usaha untuk keterbukaan informasi guna memajukan pendidikan anak2 bangsa.

Pemberian laptop kepada individu memang bukan ide yang jelek, tapi pada pelaksanaannya dikhawatirkan bisa membawa dampak yang buruk; dari masalah kecemburuan sosial sampai kepada penyalahgunaan. Mengingat kondisi perekonomian yang sulit seperti sekarang ini, sudah menjadi rahasia umum bahwa seseorang akan melakukan apapun supaya bisa makan. Sayang banget kan klo pada akhirnya tujuan akhir yang mulia malah tidak tercapai...


Gue sendiri punya harapan pada capres2 RI. Mudah2an ada yang baca dan bisa menyampaikan ini ke capres2 di pemilu tahun ini, karena sampai sekarang belum ada capres satupun yang membawa harapan gue di kampanye2 yang uda gue liat di TV. Pemilu mungkin tinggal sebulan lagi, tapi who knows. I think it is worth a shot.


Gue berharap ada capres yang bisa bikin gue impressed dengan kepeduliannya pada warganya;

• GENERASI MUDA BERPRESTASI. Gue bener2 sedih dan kecewa melihat peristiwa yang menimpa David Hartanto Widjaja di Singapura, dan juga cerita sedih lainnya yg terkuak karena peristiwa naas tsb. Kenapa sih gak ada campur tangan pemerintah yang mau ngebantu keluarganya memperjuangkan kasus yang punya banyak kejanggalan disana-sini? Padahal masih sama2 negara yang tergabung di ASEAN.

• PENGHASIL DEVISA NEGARA. Kasus penyiksaan TKI yang tidak ada habis2nya sejak pemberitaan Marsinah tampaknya belum cukup menggugah. At least, kalo rasanya sulit untuk berikan mereka perlindungan, coba mulai dengan asuransi kesehatan yang memadai agar kesehatan fisik dan mental para TKI tsb tetap terjaga.
  

Lagi2 gue uda berusaha gak ngarepin yang muluk2. Gue hanya menyampaikan aspirasi gue sebagai warganegara, karena gue percaya Indonesia bisa menuju ke arah yang lebih baik.