2009 April 24 at Eliminating the Limits

Archive for April 24th, 2009

Impossible is Impossible 42 comments

Posted at 5:20 pm in Events, Global Changemakers, Traveling

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

Another round of traveling to London with the Global Changemakers! I am so grateful that I got the chance to have a go again, and terribly sorry if there are some people who think that I am showing off by posting this. No, I’m not. I just want to share the experience to you folks… therefore people will be reminded with what Walt Disney said, If you can dream it – then you can do it. Just Google about something that you really want to do, you’ll find something great, and go for it. Nothing is impossible, trust me.

Learning the hard way!

There were 21 of us, 20 people from the G20 countries + 1 from Thailand as ASEAN’s representative. This event is related to the G20 Leaders Summit, maybe you had watched about it on TV. I met some of the same people from the last event in Guildford including the British Council team (both from UK and Switzerland, plus 2 new members: Paola and Fran), Scott (UK) and Sofia (Canada). I also met new people of course, and all of them were wonderful.

This is what we did in London:

Working, working, working… We had to decide what we think the world leaders have to do to tackle the global financial crisis. We thought about it from every aspects, including environmental and social. We also worked with UK Youth to exchange knowledge about what is really happening in our countries. I could proudly say that Indonesia is holding up relatively well, the inflation pressure was reduced, and our economic growth still recorded a surplus. Most of the working sessions took place in InnovationArts, a very innovative place to work!
Roundtable discussion with Katherine Garrett-Cox, Simon Taylor, and Diana Wais at The Economist with Matthew Bishop as the moderator!
Some of us met the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP at Downing Street No. 11. Too bad I wasn’t one of them. :(
Met UK Prime Minister, Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, and President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa of Mexico at Downing Street No. 10. It was a real quick meeting, but I was still speechless.
Conversation with Cherie Booth, or famously known as Cherie Blair. Yes, she was UK’s ‘first lady’ but she prefers to be called with her maiden name. She’s a leading specialist in human rights law issues.
Went to The Bank of England. Yes, it’s pretty much the same with other museums in the UK. Real fun, free, and you don’t want to get out of there.
Reception at the House of Lords, hosted by the Lord Speaker, Rt Hon Baroness Hayman. We met David Miliband to give our version of communique. FYI, the G20 always produces communiques, you can read all of them here.
Plenary session with Rt Hon John McFall MP, Chair of UK Treasury Committee.
Went to Zuhal Amadeus Sultan’s recital. She is a Global Changemaker from Iraq and she’s organizing the first orchestra in Iraq, called National Youth Orchestra of Iraq. Check out Zuhal’s page to know more about it. She was really an inspiration.

I couldn’t even believe I was there! The main idea of this event was actually to let us meet our leaders. Unfortunately, only Leticia (Mexico) and Scott (UK) who got the chance to meet their leaders. I don’t want to miss the chance, really. So, I contacted Mr Herry who works in KBRI - I met him on January – and told him that I’d like to meet Mr President. He said that Mr President had a very tight schedule and well, I understood. But he offered another thing, which was having lunch with The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Hassan Wirajuda; Indonesian Ambassador for UK, Mr Yuri Thamrin; and also my idol… Mr Dino Patti Djalal! I said yes.

And guess what, I really got the chance to meet Mr President! I shook hands with him. It was thrilling, and exciting, at the same time! I didn’t regret running around the underground stations, walking near the demonstrators, waiting for hours at the hotel corridors… I finally met him. Other people said that it was impossible to meet him in London, but this is an evidence that,