On Saturday (13/10/2012) I was invited to the Jakarta Post office for a photo session as one of the finalist for "Speaker Ambassador 2012". The Grand Final will be held on 10 November 2012, but the excitement of it overwhelmed me already.

The mood brought my memory back to seven years ago when, in 2005, I was selected as one of the delegation to meet the President of Republic Indonesia to discuss environmental issues (Children Conference  on Energy Saving). Since then, my concerns about environment is getting stronger and stronger. And specially nowadays when a broad range of natural disasters keep occurring in Indonesia and other Asia countries, worsening not only our environment but also human life and the future of young generation.

In Indonesia, the 2004 Aceh tsunami alone affected 300,000 children. The 2009 earthquake in Padang damaged more than 215 schools. The 2010 Mount Merapi's eruption made thousands of children unable to attend schools.

I hope I can use the upcoming Grand Final speech to voice my concern about the interlinks between environment management and natural disasters. Same messages that I conveyed to the President years ago, with additional stressing on the importance of introducing disaster risk reduction concepts to school children and young generation. Wish me a really good luck, pals!