Turning Gold Into Trash

An entrepreneur must turn trash into gold, something useless into something priceless. It can be done when someone possesses three characters of an entrepreneur: innovative, creative in searching and creating opportunities and skilful in calculated-risk taking.

Entrepreneurship education is a ‘weapon of mass-destruction’ for unemployment and poverty.

Well, that's what it says here.

My definition of an entrepreneur is someone who has an idea and puts it into practice, or enables others to do so. We've all heard the saw about giving a man a fish and he'll eat it that, but give him a net and he'll feed his family from then on. It's not about money per se, but about empowering folk to achieve their potential as members of a community.

Ron Rivera, who died on September 3rd from, perversely, malaria, was one such good person. A potter by trade, he took a pottery filter that removes bacteria and parasites from water, and devoted himself to refining its manufacture and teaching people in poor countries how to make it. The (30) factories he helped establish have to date made more than 300,000 filters. Tests by the Family Foundation of the Americas, a Guatamalan organisation, have found that the filters halve the incidence of diarrhoea in households that use them.

Pity that they don't seem to filter out malarial mozzies, one of which killed him.

Back in Jakarta, I received, by a circular route, a missive from the British Chamber of Commerce* appealing for financial support.

Sponsorship and other assistance sought for the ‘National Entrepreneurship Teaching Conference (excuse the boldness, but I'm quoting) which will be held on Thursday and Friday, November 20 – 21, at Hotel Ciputra Jakarta.

Ok, I thought, but why should a conference on Entrepreneurship be appealing for handouts? Shouldn't the conference organisers have sorted all this out ages ago, and not at the last minute?

Anyway, being a generous sort without a cynical bone in my body, I clicked on and encountered the following in a .pdf file:

Dear Sir/Madam

During November 17-23, 2008, 75 countries in the world simultaneously hold thousands of events as parts of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), the first global initiative to promote entrepreneurship around the world. Universitas Ciputra Entrepreneurship Center will participate in GEW by organizing a National Teaching Conference on Entrepreneurship education focusing on “The Distinctiveness and Superiority of K-12 Community Basis Entrepreneurship Education”.

We invite you to participate in this seminar through your financial support for teachers through out Indonesia to attend the seminar. We hope teachers will learn as well as widen their perspective to the importance of entrepreneurship education to nurture the next Indonesian generation of creative and innovative job creators.

Thank you for your attention and your support. We hope you can join us the betterment of Indonesian future.

Sincerely yours,

Drs. Dwi Sunu Pebruanto, M.Ed
Chairman of National Teaching Conference

“The Distinctiveness and Superiority of K-12 Community Basis Entrepreneurship Education”

Eh?

For the moment, let's ignore these facts: according to the National Teaching Conference site , qualified teachers total just 64.1% of junior high school teachers, and only 67.1% for senior high school teachers. Furthermore, it is well known that teachers generally moonlight as home tutors or even ojek (motorcycle taxis) drivers in order to make ends meet.

Unfortunately, I can't find any mention of the fee or the size of the expected donation but assuming some kind soul sponsors a teacher to go to this conference, can s/he be expected to understand what's going on if it takes a while to get past the title? Furthermore, is entrepreneurship part of a school's curriculum when each school competes to get the best 'results' in multi-choice tests which, in stultifying any notion of creativity from teachers and students alike, are the antithesis of entrepreneurship..

I'm all for "the betterment of Indonesian future" - and who isn't? - but if teachers' 'leaders' can't get their act together, then it's going to be a long while before our kids get a glimpse of a better life.
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*I've been asked to point out that BritCham is not itself appealing for funds, but rather letting folk know about the appeal of the Teachers' Conference.

Sorry if I didn't make that clear, but I think I made it clear that no-one seems to be clear about what they're talking about.
 

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¶ 5:30 am