Leadership: Intelligence Vs. Wisdom

There are many undergraduates nowadays without jobs. People used to think that if they can get a degree in the university, their life would be successful. But, unfortunately this is not the case. Intelligence, which is got from formal education, is not adequate. Another quality called wisdom is more important in determining the success of a person, more specifically, the person's leadership skills. Wisdom is more important in determining the people's performance in leadership because of prerequisites of leadership itself, such as, emotional resiliency, people interaction skills, and practical skills.

The first prerequisite of leadership is emotional resiliency. A leader is often faced with many tough decisions that are closely related to emotions. The "Berlin Paradigm" identifies "how" of dealing with decisions and dilemmas as one quality of wisdom (Hall, 2007). Knowledge (analogized with intelligence), in the other hand, would not teach you how to deal with them. As an example, one organizer in NUSSU (NUS Student Union) organizations is having a hard time in deciding the right time for conducting his workshop. There are two choices of dates. The first one is the first week, while the second one is the second week of the midterm period. The first choice would be the period when most of the first year undergraduates are having their test, while the second is when most of the second year undergraduates are having their test. Logically, both of the options are bad. Intelligence would not help you in determining choice in this context, while wisdom would. This is a common situation in leadership, thus wisdom would be more beneficial in context of emotional strength.

The second prerequisite is people interaction skills. Leadership situations would be heavily involved with people. While intelligence will only help you through arbitrary situations, it will not help you in dealing with people in which often the situation is uncertain. What will be useful in dealing with people is the experience, the way of thinking and the knowledge of human interactions. These will fit nicely with another quality of wisdom provided by the "Berlin Paradigm", which is expert knowledge of the "facts" of human nature (Hall, 2007). For illustration, NUS students are now having a hard time because of the steep increase in residents' points requirement. Many undergraduates are kicked off and do not have any place to stay for the upcoming academic year. This is where Donald Koh, as a president of NUSSU shows the quality of leadership -humility- by conducting a campaign for the undergraduates that do not secure their place in campus and submitting them to Office of Student Affairs. This illustration clearly shows people interaction skills, where nowhere from knowledge it can be got. Wisdom, by providing human interactions skills, shows its importance in leadership.

The third prerequisite is practical skills. Intelligence would focus more on theory, while wisdom would focus more on application. Leadership situations consist of practical situations with scarcely theoretical situations. The "Berlin Paradigm" states excellence at both thought and action of uncertainty conditions as one of the qualities of wisdom (Hall, 2007). As an example, Clayton's father always had positive attitudes and thought during World War II. He was drinking tea with his mother during the raid attack and celebrated if they survived from the attack. Theoretically, drinking tea during raid attack is insane and no positive attitudes can be derived from this situation but the case is reversed with wisdom. Here, Clayton's father successfully leaded and comforted his mother. Knowledge will be teaching us see the glass as half full, not half empty; in reality, will it be that easy? Wisdom plays an important role in practical implementation.

To conclude, leadership would demand emotional resiliency, human relations skills, and practical skills of a person. Intelligence would not be able to meet these leadership's prerequisites. But wisdom's qualities in emotional strength, human interactions skills and practical skills would meet leadership's prerequisites perfectly. Thus, wisdom is more important than intelligence in determining one's performance in leadership.

Timed Paragraph: Overcoming Waste Disposal Problems in Indonesia

Waste disposal is a major problem in Indonesia. In 2006, a city called Bandung in Indonesia is full of garbage because they ran out of space in their general garbage dumping site. The problem is getting bigger and bigger as it remains unsolved. Low awareness and indifference among the citizens take account in limiting the waste disposal solutions. Government should break the conditions by making stricter policy of waste disposal and limiting the use of unrecyclable materials.

The first solution for Indonesia’s waste disposal problem is making stricter policy of waste disposal. Indonesia has policies for waste disposal, but it is just not stern enough. Two kinds of garbage bin, orange for organic waste and blue for non-organic waste, are seen in the cities, but only small portion of the people follow the rules. Indonesia can learn from a clean country Singapore, which was dirty at first. Littering in Singapore would cost you S$500, while in Indonesia will cost you only $10. There is a very big difference in the charges. The government should make stricter policies about waste disposal, and thus people would abide the policies, which furthermore will contribute in overcoming the problem of waste disposal.

The second solution is limiting the use of unrecyclable materials. Plastic bags, plastic containers, and plastic bottles are very common things in daily life. In the hyper market, convenient store, and restaurant, plastics are being used. Plastic is a strong material, yet not so expensive, but it is not easily recyclable. What can be done for such useful but not so expensive material? Only government can do something about it. The changes of the mindset of environment over profit to be occurring bottom up, it should be top down. Government should set up a policy of limiting the usage of unrecyclable materials, such as increasing the prices and decreasing the productions. By limiting the usage of unrecyclable materials, government would be able to stack less unrecyclable materials in the garbage dump, and thus will ease up the process of waste disposal.

As Bath councilor Roger Symmonds said, “Zero waste is, to me, a grassroots movement from local authorities and people” (Collins, 2002), to overcome waste disposal problem in Indonesia, government should make stricter policy of waste disposal and limit the usage of unrecyclable materials. These solutions would furthermore have an implication of having the support of people in the back of overcoming waste and having less unrecyclable to be taken care of in the process of overcoming waste disposal problems.

Source:

Collins, J. (2002, Oct 3^rd). Radical plans for waste could herald a big clean-up. The Guardian Weekly. p.25.

Energy: Serious Environmental Problem in Indonesia

Energy is a serious environmental problem that exists in Indonesia today. Indonesia as a developing country is consistently building and developing new infrastructures, such as industrial complex, real estates, and sky-crapper buildings. All of them are hunger with power, and a lot of power means burdening the environmental in a sense. Seeing for the wide implication of the problems, several solutions must be thought and be put into action. There are three promising solutions in overcoming the energy problem in Indonesia, which are alternative power sources, improvement in building designs, and power conservation.

Firstly, considerations of alternative power sources are popping out. From engineering side, power alternatives are being developed, such as sun-powered generator and alcohol based vehicle. Now, 50% of Indonesia’s source of energy comes from the fossil fuels, while 30% comes from renewable energy sources, such as biogas energy, solar energy (, and wind energy. This 30% will keep increasing and that is very promising! Secondly, the building design can also be improved as one of the solutions. Civil Engineers are trying to design not only the buildings that are strong, durable, and beautiful; but now, they also have to consider about the energy efficiency for the buildings. Now, they have a green rating that indicates the building’s energy efficiency. Thirdly, power conservation is also being promoted in Indonesia as another solution. The government tries to encourage people in keeping the air conditioner in stable temperature of 25⁰C, reduce the amount of time that is used in watching TV, and use public vehicle as much as possible for transportation (“Efisienkah Langkah”, 2008). This encouragement brings the Electrical Engineers into stage, where they can design electric appliances that have as much energy efficiency as possible. Altogether, they sum up as a prominent and promising solution for Indonesia’s energy problem.

Source:

Efisienkah Langkah Penghematan Energi. 2005, 16 July. BBC Indonesia. Retrieved Feb 14, 2008 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/indonesian/forum/story/2005/07/050716_energy.shtml

Indonesia – Energy and Resources. (n.d.). World Resource Institute. Retrieved Feb 14, 2008 from http://earthtrends.wri.org/text/energy-resources/country-profile-86.html

Indonesia's Most Urgent Environmental Challenge

Air pollution has become the most serious environmental problem in Indonesia. Why is it so? Air is a fundamental needs of human being and all of the other living things. According to an official at the World Bank office in Jakarta, "air pollution imposes costs of at least $400 million on the Indonesian economy every year." Not mentioning of inflammation of respiratory tract, which is directly linked to air quality becomes the sixth leading cause of death in Indonesia.

The terrible air conditions don't come from nowhere into existence, there are several causes of this circumstance. Firstly, carbon dioxide and monoxide production increase gradually. Deforestation, industry development, vehicles pollution are the ones responsible for it. Respiratory disorder, extinction of species are several of the consequences. The other cause, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) usages, are destroying our ozones, making the air into warmer state, creating the green house effect, and leading us to global warming; making our earth becomes hotter and hotter, raising the sea level, and finally will melt the eternal ice in the poles. Look at how serious the consequences can be!

With small effort, we can do something big to overcome environmental challenge in air pollution. Carbon dioxide and monoxide production and CFC all are not only the responsibility of industrial or government side. We can do something about it! Not only in Indonesia, we as a small part of the world will be able to make a large contribution if we get together and try to overcome the crisis that is putting the earth at stake right now. For example, we can try to reduce the usage of private vehicle as a primary mean of transportation. One million people that do so will reduce the amount of pollution of one million vehicle. Another thing that we can do is try to conserve energy by turning off electrical appliances that we do not use. Turning off one 50 watt lamp for each person in my country will be able to lighten the electricity of the whole Singapore. Protect our earth!

What has given meaning to my life?

Meeting with new occurrences. That is one thing that gives my life color and meaning. I love learning new things, meeting new people, and trying something different. I have been joining several committees from the past semester and it had given me a lot of new things to do, seeing a lot of types of persons in the universities. Even this evening, I had a chance to experience something new. I had a meeting with the tutor for my projects, IT Workshop, where I discussed and negotiated about the project. It taught me a lesson on how to negotiate, deal with another people, and all the dynamics in it.

But, will the encounters with new experiences be smooth? No, it is not. I experienced that I will be making mistakes when I encounter new things, not just 'mistakes' but 'a lot of mistakes'. There, I realized that the people I love will play their role. In fact, they bring the most of my life's meaning, more than all new things that I have encountered.

My family. They warned, scolded me when I am making mistakes, but they always give a room for me to correct my mistakes. In fact, they give unlimited chances for me to fix all of my missteps. My girlfriend, who is the one that I most often turned to, will also be there to watch my back, give me thoughts about things, and give me chances to fix the mess. Not forgetting to mention friends that are there to warn and prevent me from doing the mistakes. They altogether adds up into giving the most important meaning of life.

Meeting new occurrences is nothing without anyone that is supporting my back. The feeling that I am not alone and all the things that I encountered in life (including the mistakes) altogether create the meaning of my life.