Fresh Wind & Green Grass

Bali myna (Leucopsar rothschildi) in Bali Barat National Park sanctuary

This is my fourth time in Bangkok, but this is the first time I feel at home in this busy city. This city has grown so fast since my first visit in around 2012 - they even have taken serious steps in waste management. I went to a festival on my own to find the only exciting thing was that the government provided clear plastic bags assisted by two officers, which made throwing waste away even much more manageable. I don't feel that I can get lost or confused by the language. Even though the language is still a challenge here, I find more and more Thai people speak English very well. I've even mistaken one of them for a foreigner, as she speaks in a very Los Angeles accent. I always feel happy to be in such an intense event attended by a high diverse composition of people - and to see these people, no matter what their races, language, or beliefs are, work for the same goal: reducing demand for illegal wildlife products. I feel energized every time I sit at the airport gate, waiting for my flight home like this. Reminiscing all my take-home learning. But as I mistook a young lady as non-Thai because of her accent, my biggest learning this time is: I need to fight my own stereotype.

Someone said to me that "how to make indigenous people be appreciated (in many ways) in the country" is million dollar question - well turns out it is not. I sat down on a morning having breakfast with Megan Hill, NRM Specialist for USAID in their HQ (and she's from Montana!), and she said that after working in some of the developed countries around the world, she found that Paraguay is a country that has succeeded in terms of embracing their indigenous culture. People in that country are proud of their indigenous heritage culture. They even make their indigenous language a National language - and it is true, according to this article. She said that is indeed a very rare case. Paraguay even has a constitutional framework in which the rights of indigenous peoples are recognized. I checked this and found that Chapter V of the 1992 Constitution of Paraguay deals with indigenous rights, where Article 62 recognizes the pre-existence of the indigenous peoples, defined as “groups from earlier cultures” at the time of the country’s founding. Article 63 recognizes and guarantees the right of indigenous peoples to preserve and nurture their ethnic identity, to follow their own political, social, economic, cultural, and religious norms, and to be bound of their own free will by their customary laws in internal matters. Many details of indigenous rights and statutes on other issues are included: Act No. 43/89 provides regularization of indigenous settlements and Act No. 323/107 on indigenous education. Other issues like agriculture and criminality are also covered. This framework is not perfect, yet they are very progressive in making more effort to refine it.

Another case is that in this event, a member of the Vietnam National Party came and attended all sessions. The last day is an optional day, so the fact that she is attending a workshop for Social Behavioral Change Communication (SBCC) surprises me, and she got my respect. Many others chose to enjoy Bangkok - which is totally acceptable, but she was there and paid attention to the session even though she needed help from an interpreter. Having a working experience in the past with Vietnamese people, I am fully aware that they have a high level of conscientiousness - but I didn't expect that even the party members do the same. I am pretty sure that this Nation is going to be big someday.

Last but not least is the Western. Being colonized for such a long time might affect how we Asian see Westerners as intellectual people - powerful ones. In one session, a British behavioral change expert who works with UK and Singapore governments presented a lot of social psychology and behavioral economics theories and didn't mention participant bias in his presentation at all. We all know in psychology, the majority of studies published in journals have WEIRD (Western, Educated, and from Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic countries). This makes these theories and studies hard to be generalized or used in Asian countries and even the rest of the world. Then I was surprised that a Western woman then brought the issue up, and after that, this man admitted that flaw. This is crucial as I don't think the public is aware that these studies will fit in the Asian context simply not because they are stupid, but it is more because they don't have a scientific background. In the last day workshop, my trainer - a white man who works for a social cause in Bangkok also mentioned this flaw after he explained the theories around SBCC. I got the chance to talk to a BCC specialist from the Philippines who worked for more than 28 years to promote healthy behavior and also said that we in Asia face so many different challenges and contexts which can't be answered with Western theories. At the end of the day, doing and failing in a program is the sole answer for us to grow and understand better. And a note - even though Western societies are already moving forward with issues like racism, stereotype, and prejudice, universities like ETH Zurich - one of the top world universities, still face the racism problem towards Asians. But it was a nice experience to know that other Westerns acknowledge their own bias.

This learning is far greater effective learning than one in my classroom back in 2012 when I first heard the concept and basic theories of stereotype and prejudice. I hope more and more teachers and lecturers encourage their students to go beyond the classroom and find their own learning outside.

Don Mueang,
December 1st, 2018

Three actual fossils of Sauropods in Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum

Originally, the only thing I liked about Singapore was that they have a really nice pedestrian culture. That view changed last week when I visited this small country again for a science communication conference in NUS. They do have a great scientific culture, and it is reflected by the talks I had with several Singaporean teachers and professors at that event. I usually don't share the detail of any event I attended in my blog, but I feel the urge to share about this event, as I am acknowledged that many of my readers are young researchers - striving to be good communicators as well.


I heard this sentence over and over from speakers at the conference. Whether it is an orchid hunter from Taiwan, the director of Science Center Singapore, or the designer team of Nature, Cell, and Science journal from China. I feel I belong here - a community which is consisted of a bunch of people who appreciate art as big as we appreciate science. We call ourselves "science refugees" - people who are no longer interested in doing research but still have a great interest in science and want to communicate it to a wider audience.


Various speakers from museums or botanical gardens presented their works and approach to communicating science. Some also presented their approach to measuring the impact of their science communication works. A Representative from The Mind Museum Philippines (who is married to an astrophysicist) said that scientists often intimidate people when they mention their institution and try to make an impression that it is only them who know or can do a particular thing. This is what makes people often reject science as a part of their daily lives - be it consumption decisions, policy-making, or parenting. This is where the separation of science and daily decision-making begins. Science should be like music - it activates all neural networks in the brain, and it has become part of our daily lives.

Steve Pointing, Director of the Science Division and Professor of Environmental Studies at Yale-NUS College said that in delivering science to the public, scientists should present not the numbers but what they mean. We are laymen to everything - just that we have a certain degree of laymen-ness of everything. This mindset should be inside every scientist's mind so we can understand how the public perceives our science. We, scientists, have problems with overconfidence, don't relate to the public, jargon, and skewed demographic. Not all science is Western, said Rod Lamberts from the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science - so context also needs to be understood by scientists prior to making a communication strategy.

Science communication is often a multidisciplinary collaboration. If we talk about working with designers who are going to communicate our science, we have to ensure that they: know the science and understand science so that they will be able to explain the science. People from museums said that they always have a board that will approve the design matters before they hand it over to designers. Once they pick designers who will work for them, they will trust them. Science communication requires trust. Scientists need to build their trust in designers, and the designers need to trust science. Because, at the end of the day, it is the trust of the public that they must obtain.


I met two great people at the conference. A professor from Taiwan who also works for Dr. Cecilia Koo Botanic Conservation Center, which ranks top over the world in terms of botanical collection (lots of them have been extinct in the wild), and the founder of Digital Naturalism Conference. They answered my questions with humility and excitement. They believe that science must be exciting and invoke people to do more. In Taiwan, Prof. Chia-Wei Li engaged with National Geographic and even made a movie about a collector in the botanic conservation center who only obtained a junior high school degree and was previously an orchid trader but turned to be a botanist - and botanical painter. He also initiated a movie screening which was followed by a book discussion and scientific talk to speak about the science behind the movie. And the Dinacon founder humbly answered that robustness is still a challenge in convincing biologists to support his idea to make technology in the field to support research in animal behavior. But I personally think that he nailed it in terms of making so many students in IT interested in biological science and fieldwork. Back in 2015, when I made a proposal for a hackathon - I was afraid to propose a hackathon for biological fieldwork and ended with agricultural fieldwork. He is the kind of person that makes me believe that the idea is not that bad.

Speakers from Europe or Australia mostly talked about their effort in making science a part of production, consumption, and regulation. In Malaysia, they wanted to increase the usage of science for decision-making and boost its personal usefulness. A fact in Israel: 90% of deaf-kid parents are not deaf and have no knowledge of hearing impairment or audiology. This is where scientists should be present. And that presence does not mean being an expert. A presenter from Australia emphasized how expert opinion - which is mostly used by the government in making an evidence-based policy, is not even evidence; it is still an opinion.

A Corner in ARTBALI 2018

Science Movement is happening across the world. In Japan, science café is spreading across the Nation along with a new approach in mixing science with manga. The number of fungi-manga exhibition visitors was significantly higher than the Darwin exhibition at the same museum. So, does science communication stop making the number of visitors to museum grows higher?

The goal of science communication is not to make people who don't know to know about something. Science describes things that need definition, and there are a lot of uncertainties in the science. We should not forget to communicate the uncertainty after we provide the definition to the public. Science communication is an ongoing process of enhancing excitement over scientific evidence in daily life - rather than just showing its complexity. The goal of science communication, then, is really context-dependent. For example, in Denmark, beer corporations funded a lot of science projects, including the Royal Academy - that is because they are aware that they need science to make their production more efficient, but also how to establish a wise drinking culture and consumption. Science communication becomes important to achieve that goal - and to show the government the best way to make regulations around beer drinking in the country. As Fischhoff (2013) wrote, the goal of science communication is not an agreement but fewer, better disagreements. And scientists have an obligation to communicate their science no matter harmful it is. Remaining silent is unethical in the world of science.

The fact that I am the only Indonesian attending this event brought me to an awareness that I need to spread the insight: arts and culture (and even religion!) are not enemies of science. Instead, they can be used as tools to communicate science to young generations and wider audiences. More and more museums changed their regulation of taking pictures - and added spots to take pictures for visitors so they will be more engaged with science. I want to have this kind of thing in Indonesia. When I visited ARTBALI 2018 last October, I really hoped that someday, great scientists in Indonesia would be willing to spend their time talking to these great artists to make science accessible and understandable to everyone. As Nancy Baron wrote for scientists: "An important part of becoming an effective science communicator is to stop talking to your peers."

On the other hand, I also want to see more and more artists be more interested in science. I am grateful to have a partner who does art for a living but also parks Darwin and Sagan's masterpieces on his bookshelf. When I visited Our Ocean Conference in Nusa Dua - an important conference in marine conservation and industry, I hoped more arts involved in so many communication tools used by NGOs and the government. These things, I believe, can foster logical thinking in our daily lives and help us build a greater civilization.

From now on, I'd proudly say that I am a science refugee whose mission is to make science prominent even more.

__
PS. I'd like to express my gratitude to my office which provided me opportunity and resources to join the conference in Singapore. I am grateful to have this amazing job.

©Aji Pambudi

She gripped my hand. So tight. She stared into my eyes and tried to get her consciousness back.

Fifteen minutes later, she was busy recalling her memory of the last hour while I was trying to be grateful for the fact that her brain condition didn't turn her into someone else. She is still a good friend that went on an adventure from Dieng Plateau to Parangtritis with me many years ago. A strong woman who faces her terminal illness without losing her sense of humor.

After departing from her home, I visited two guys that have worked with me for years back in Jakarta - and I found they had changed. They are mature men now, being the backbone of the family or taking steps to be in a serious commitment with a long-time girlfriend - with the same lame jokes. On the following day, I attended a good friend's wedding - a lady who accompanied my adventure in 2013 is now tying the knot with a photographer from another island.

That was an intense trip to the Capital. I almost didn't have time alone unless I was at the airport. I was mesmerized by how I am surrounded by great people who really fight for their life. My boyfriend says I should be proud to be having supportive and optimistic circles. And yes, I am.


Two months ago in Bali, there was a festival for movies named Balinale. In collaboration with National commercial cinema, they played many great movies. One that struck me a lot was Night Bus, the best Indonesian movie in FFI 2017. The movie was brilliant. I was once on a night bus through the southern part of Java, and it was the most thrilling experience traveling by bus ever in my life. It was dark, and I couldn't sleep well. I heard so many rumors about bajing loncat, or a bandit who would suddenly jump on our bus and take all that we carry. Watching Night Bus - which tells a story about a bus carrying passengers across the border of a conflict zone, really brought back that feeling.

Last week, a good friend in the office told me about her grandmother, who died of a brain condition. That was the first time in my life that I cried when hearing somebody else's story.  I could feel her broken heart. The previous weekend I had just hiked Mt. Batur with her and just saw how happy she was with me up on the mountain, and I couldn't believe that this humorous and funny woman carried sadness over her grandmother's death even after years.

Another time, I finally had the chance to read Dian Fossey's book: Gorillas in The Mist. Fossey's writing in the acknowledgment section at least reduced my stigma of her cockiness, and her description of gorilla groups that she followed for many years reminds me of how formal training and education sometimes will be beaten by persistence.

But reading Fossey's book, watching Night Bus, and visiting my friends in Jakarta gave me an insight that the definition of the universe - is really debatable.

I watched Contact - a movie based on Carl Sagan's fiction book. It is a mesmerizing movie to be watched at night with a best friend. No matter how I have heard Sagan's speech or talk for thousand times, and the movie brings the same notion as his speech, it never gets old. We humans are just a speck of dust in this gigantic, limitless universe. But what is the universe? Is it only about the collective of all living matter in our space?

Fossey has her gorilla groups - several monkeys and two chickens in Africa as her universe. All passengers in a bus crossing a red zone border have their universe in the destination: their families. My friends are my universe to me. When my good friend - when was losing consciousness, her mother hugged her and shed a tear while praying for my friend; I witnessed another universe there. For her mother, her child is her universe. I now understand why many women can be rude and resentful when fighting for their kids - they are her universe. For my other friend, her universe was her grandmother. These little universes are scattered everywhere. It reminds me of the late mother of my own. No matter how ruined my relationship was with her before she died, I can feel that I have reconciled our relationship now. I can accept the fact that she was the one who taught me that even though I was her kid, I was not always right. She taught me to take care of someone we love when s/he is sick, to visit them, and to talk with them. She taught me to teach unfortunate people financial awareness and to be willing to laugh with them. I remember when she died, those people, from satay and fruit cocktails sellers to her housemaids, were the ones who helped brought her to the hospital and helped with the ceremony while my family members were busy working.

Brian Cox says when we die, we will become a dead star, and I know your consciousness is gone, but I am grateful that you have joined the universe.
You are a matter that will forever exist to me.

I had two expert meetings within 40 days in Bangkok and Rome recently. The meetings were held by two big, multinational organizations that share the same characteristics and values. They oppose people who harm the environment and mostly work at the policy level - they are stubborn and take legal action as a way to achieve their mission. People who work there have spent many years of their lives fighting in their own war (I met someone who has worked there for more than 27 years!). It is such an honor to be able to speak among them and witness their spirit despite of the fact that they are no longer young.

In my late meeting, the organization also talked seriously about its organizational climate regarding harassment. It came to my surprise that there is an environmental organization that seriously defends their female workers and non-native English speakers for being underrepresented and discriminated against. I was there, amazed and awed. I was sitting among badass women who speak for themselves - and invite men to be on the same page. There is a significant link between environmentalism and feminism because the basic value of those beliefs is sharing an equal proportion of resources and responsibility. Stopping women objectification (which includes catcalling, prostitution, and rape) and environmental objectification (which includes over-mining, overfishing, and overhunting) are basically in line. Some studies show that people who are feminists usually have a tendency to be environmentalists.

In my own personal experience, I got insight from North Flores, where men often are the ones who go to an environmental meeting - but it is a woman who controls the household and asks her man to fulfill their family needs, regardless of the environmental cost to cover those needs. For a woman, her family is everything. That shows educating women about the environment is really important no matter how strong the gender role of men is in some particular areas.

But being a feminist or environmentalist just by working in an organization that works for those issues is no longer important when we don't walk the talk. I don't trust the Ministry of Forestry ever since the honored minister was found to own a protected bird in her villa when she just had given a talk about keeping that bird is illegal. Last week, I spent time for myself to go to two museums in Amsterdam. I really like how the city really does its portion to help the environment - and science. Its national aviation brand even does things seriously with the weight of cargo nets and trolleys to reduce fuel consumption, eliminates newspapers, reduces water for cleaning their aircraft, and changes fuel to a more sustainable resource. I also can feel this spirit on the flight: the utensils, cardboard for the cake, the tissue. They do really walk the talk. I am currently working with a huge brand in making an SOP for their waste recovery system, so I know it is not easy at all to reform a policy to comply with the environmental standards of a big company. I've been working with various environmental agencies and organizations since 2012 - not that many of their workers - or the organizations really work on their own carbon emission reduction.

Well - practicing what we preach is a big homework for us all.
Me included.