I started to like debating thingy more and more. :)

Today has been such an exhausting day but so much fun.
I have been through all this and i seriously had so much fun when i did it.
Well, what i just said is so blurry, so let me explain it clearly then. :)

So, today i had an english debating competition which is called Newbies Competition that is actually made for the "newbie" in a debate society. So, lots of university joined this competition which i thought it could`ve been around 70 people joined it.
There were UI, ITB, Atmajaya, Unpad, Unpar, UPH, and etc.

The aim of this competition is to get to know the debate world more and to get to know who`s actually in it. But, the people who actually can join it is just for the university student who are actually new in debating thingy. But, it doesn't mean that they all new. Cos, i found heaps of them that has ever done debating in their senior high school life. So, it`s kinda not very new for them.

So, in this debate, we will do 5 times of debating and we`ll collect the point to go to the final. The highest number 1 and 2 who collect the point will go to the final.

So, yeah today i have debated 3 motions which means that i have to debate 2 more motions tomorrow. And, if i`m lucky, my team will go to the final which means that i have to do 3 debates for tomorrow.

Today was so exhausting. First thing is, i am such a really NEWBIE in the debating life. And, seriously today was my first competition. Well, before i joined this competition, i cried so many times and so stressed out about this. I've even thought that i`d better just do speech competition and news casting competition rather than do debating.
But, i found it just now, that debating is actually so much fun to do. U must have a critical thinking and have a logic to debate your opponent and explain ur case clearly. :)

Today on the first debate, my team won it. The motion was "This house would legalize prostitution". I was in the affirmative side and i was the second speaker which means that i have to practically explain the case and REBUTT my opponent. This first motion was the impromptu motion which kinda philosophical motion. Our goal is to make the prostitution as a legal job in this country. Can you imagine that? We actually have to refer to lots of things. "This and that.. what happens if we do this? it is going to be like that? or this?"
Some kinda like that, and it was so much fun.


The second debate, we LOST! The motion was "This house levy high tax on cigarettes"

OMG IT SUCKED!
i dont know anything about it.
I sucked at it and my debate was too messy and i didnt even spend at least 6 minutes! I just spent 2.59 minutes to talk about high tax thingy on cigarettes!
i hated my second debating! i was too bad and too nervous. I was in the NEGATIVE HOUSE which means that i didnt want the government to levy high taxes on cigarettes. What the hell was i doing then? The affirmative actually had a really good argument which was kinda hard to attack`em! arggh.
but, it was ok.
I kinda have this excuse that "i am still a newbie" though.
hahaha :D

My third debate was so much better. The motion was "This house make sex education compulsory at schools". We were in the affirmative side of the house. We won it actually. I actually found that my 3rd experience in debating was even better. I could talk clearly and even explained it better. (is that because i`ve done it 3 times or because i actually knew the motion very well? haha, because i sucked at the 2nd motion which i didn`t know anything about) haha. :D

So, yeah, after having 3 times of debating, i kinda made a conclusion that our
adjudicators wanted our team to improve the elaboration cos it was too lack and we had to analyze the problem more. Well done UI A! GOOD JOB FOR TODAY ACTUALLY! WE ENJOYED IT ANYWAY! :)

WISH US LUCK FOR TOMORROW!

Insya Allah.
Amin.


Love always,
kitty
xo

Indonesia. Masihkah ada yang peduli?

Baru – baru ini, gue ikut pelatihan kepemimpinan mahasiswa di Fakultas Psikologi, Universitas Indonesia. Pelatihan ini mengajarkan bagaimana menjadi pemimpin dan penerus bangsa yang baik di masa depan. Lalu, pelatihan itu juga menggambarkan bagaimana keadaan bangsa Indonesia belakangan ini yang membuat hati gue miris banget. Misalnya, sumber daya alam Indonesia yang banyak disia-siakan dan di tangani oleh bangsa lain, rakyat Indonesia yang hanya bisa menjadi buruh untuk brand-brand ternama milik negara dan hal lainnya yang membuat gue pengen nangis. Gue bener-bener ngerasa belum ada yang dapat gue persembahkan untuk bangsa ini. Gue inget, dulu pas gue di tatar sebelum berangkat AFS, gue juga dapet banyak banget pelatihan kepemimpinan duta bangsa yang banyak memberikan gambaran – gambaran tentang Indonesia yang dapat gue berikan ke negara lain. Jujur aja, gue belum bisa memberikan yang bener-bener berarti buat temen-temen dan keluarga host gue di Australia. Gue cuma memberikan kepercayaan kepada mereka bahwa negara Indonesia bukan seperti negara yang mereka lihat di televisi, yang gempar banget dibicarakan di media sana. Alhamdulillah, gue berhasil memberikan kepercayaan itu. Terbukti ketika the last time I was there, my host family said,”Kitty, u`ve proven that indonesia isn’t like what the media always say, u`ve proven us how muslim could make friends and be nice to everyone, and u`ve also proven us that Indonesian has a high self-esteem who can prove that Indonesian will be Indonesian, they won`t change.”

Gue seneng. Setidaknya, kepercayaan itu udah ada di hati mereka. Dan, hal lainnya adalah ketika temen gue, Brett, ngomong sama gue by phone pas gue udah balik ke Indonesia. Dia bilang kalo dia baru aja dapet kelas Hubungan Internasional. Saat itu, topiknya adalah Indonesia. He told me that he debated his teacher when the teacher told the student that lots of people who live in Indonesia are terrorists. He got really offended. Then he said, “It doesn’t mean that if you`re Indonesian, you`re a terrorist, it`s just stupid people who did the whole things of terrorism and also muslim are not terrorist, it`s just bad people who did the stupid things like we`ve known before.” The teacher was so surprised to hear what he said.

Gue bener-bener terima kasih banget ke dia dan gue seneng, apa yang gue lakukan, ternyata emang gak pernah meninggalkan bad impression pada keluarga dan temen2 gue di sana.

Tapi, semakin gue berpikir jauh, apa lagi yang bisa gue lakukan untuk bangsa ini? Saat ini gue mahasiswa. GUE MAHASISWA. Bukankah sudah cukup jelas bahwa seorang mahasiswa adalah penerus negaranya yang memiliki andil untuk memperjuangkan bangsa ini?Jadi sebenernya apa yang bisa gue lakukan untuk bangsa ini?

Gue tahu, sebagian mahasiswa turun ke jalan untuk memperjuangkan hak – hak rakyat. Tapi, gue belum siap. Gue belum bisa melakukan itu. Gue belum terlalu memiliki cukup pengetahuan tentang politik dan ekonomi untuk turun ke jalan. Gue belum begitu mengerti tentang struktur pemerintahan dan bursa-bursa saham dunia yang dapat mempengaruhi kesejahteraan Indonesia sehingga gue mesti turun ke jalan.

Gue sering berpikir bahwa kalau gue belum mampu turun ke jalan, apa ada cara lain yang bisa gue lakukan untuk Indonesia ini? Selama hampir 4 bulan gue menjadi mahasiswa, gue pernah berpikir,”apakah hal – hal kecil seperti belajar dengan baik sebagai pelajar dan tetap saling menghormati dan menyayangi adalah salah satu cara untuk menolong bangsa Indonesia bisa lebih maju? Atau yang paling simpel adalah buang sampah sembarangan. Apakah hal itu dapat menolong untuk Indonesia untuk lebih maju?”

Hal – hal kecil seperti itu sering terlintas di otak gue. Gue merasa sebenernya keinginan Indonesia untuk maju sudah ada secara general. Tapi, untuk lebih spesifik, belum ada. Maksud gue, kesadaran bangsa itu sendiri. Bangsa kita masih belum memiliki rasa cinta yang mendalam kepada BANGSAnya sendiri. Masih terlalu egois. Masih terlalu memikirkan urusan pribadi. Sayang, padahal Indonesia memiliki banyak gono-gini yang dapat menunjang negara ini untuk menjadi yang terdepan. Tapi, intinya itu, kita masih egois sekali. Masih sedikit pejuang-pejuang yang menginginkan kemajuan bangsa ini. Masih sedikit yang peduli dengan keadaan bangsa ini. Masih sedikit yang belajar untuk mencintai bangsa ini. Jadi, bagaimana kita bisa maju?

Maaf gue jadi rada berapi-api dan rada gak nyambung. Tapi intinya sih, gue sebagai mahasiswa hanya ingin menyampaikan aspirasi gue tentang keinginan gue untuk memajukan bangsa ini dengan cara gue sendiri. Gue hanya berharap MASIH ada orang terketuk hatinya ketika membaca tulisan gue ini. Gue hanya berharap bahwa banyak orang – orang di luar sana yang MASIH memiliki hati nurani untuk peduli kepada bangsa ini, peduli pada orang di sekitar mereka, dan masih peduli pada hal – hal kecil yang ada di sekitar mereka pada saat ini.

Kitty 

Just an ordinary student in university in an extraordinary life.