The Australian Volleyball School Cup

Have you ever dream about winning something big? In this case you will find this one quite a story. In Australia early December there is a volleyball competition and it’s called The Australian Volleyball School Cup or simply known as the AVSC. Ever year teams around Australia and even Asia comes to Australia to compete in the big event. The competition is prestigious in fact it’s one the biggest competition in the southern hemisphere.

December 3rd 2012 in Melbourne Sport Aquatic Center or MSAC the opening ceremony for the AVSC begins. The opening ceremony introduce teams that are competing for this year tournament including giving awards for schools that have been competing in the tournament over 20-30 years. There were 432 teams mentioned in the opening ceremony that year. My school Maribyrnong Secondary College competed in the grandest stage; it was the fourth national competition for the school and also my fourth as well including my last national competition I will ever compete in. My team is ambitious to win gold and the school is searching to be in the spot of top 10 teams in the AVSC ranks. After the opening ceremony of AVSC the school volleyball team had a meeting giving us an insight of what division we’re playing and what are the expectation for this year national. On Monday the fourth December 2012 the first tournament started my teams are playing in the open boys division one, our first match starts at 9 in the morning up at MSAC against Melbourne High, we’ve played them in the Vic state before and we are pump up to win this one. We started slow, but in the middle of the game we played well and win points. In the end we took the first set (25-23), in the second set we started slow again but this time more rallies are played. In the end we finished the game with 2 sets to none with the score of (25-23) and (27-25).

I was satisfied with the first win and then we went on to play the second match in the same court after the first match. We faced against Brighton College it was easy and my team were quite surprised for the win, Brighton has been one the best team in the national of all time and to beat them was like winning the national. We ended the day and the second match with the score of 2 sets to none (25-18) and (25-15). The next day we faced Santa Maria College again we won the game of the score of (25-17) and (25-16), next we played against Kilo High college the match ended with us taking the game of the score of (25-21) and (25-22). The next day we moved venue to State Volleyball Center in Dandenong where our fifth match we played against St. Bernard’s College. St Bernard’s has been our rival ever since we started volleyball and we are so pump to beat the hell out of them. This match started with long rallies and took quite a long time; unfortunately we lost the first set with the score (29- 31). The second set was like the first and we lost with a different score (25-27). We were quite disappointed but we got through to the quarterfinals with us coming second in the group stage so we were happy at least.

The Quarter finals started the next day in the same venue at 1 in the afternoon, we were up against Adelaide High it was a tight match and we won the game with the score of 2 sets to none (25-23) and (28-26). So my team was through to the semifinals, before we go home my coach called the team for a meeting, we had a talked of the team performance and many more. As we all knew that this talked would come and we also knew that this was also the time for good comments and compliment. My coach Mr. Dolan review us on the previous game and point out the mistakes and the improvement of each individual, but he was quite pleased with the teams performance in this year nationals because this was far the best performance we have ever played and also was the furthers we have ever been. As the talked finished we all waited for the fixture where we would play and whom are we facing tomorrow. Around 4 late in the afternoon we found out our fixture, we are playing against Brisbane high. We were excited and we are hoping to win this game but we were also nervous.

As we all got home I went to my back yard and got my weight on and start building myself up, I wanted to be strong and pump up during the semi. Although my coach would want me to rest for tomorrow but I was excited so I trained for the rest of the day. At night I was tired from training but I couldn’t sleep I was thinking about the semis too much but I got my sleep. The next day the semi started, it was 3 in the late afternoon as usual the same tactics is use and the same team members in the starting line up and that included me. The game started with us having the first serve for the game, the first set was quite a long one and the match was intense. So far I’ve been playing well as a passer hitter and I’ve not been bench yet. During the middle of the game my team was struggling with the defense, a lot of error was made but still long way to go. Somehow I had to switch position from passer hitter to become a setter, this time things when well we started to get back in the game unfortunately the backcourt defense was terrible, they’re struggling from the hitters of the opposition team. So my coach told me to keep switching position, alternating from passer hitter to setter, in the end we took the set with the score of (35-33). The next set we didn’t make any changes but it was the mistake my team struggled a lot during the second set due to our poor defense and a lot of errors on the pass. We lost the second set with the score of (16-25). The third final set we changed tactics and position I was asked to play as a libero (Backcourt specialize defensive player). This time things went better for the team with the change of tactics and position we controlled the third set, moment were created and lots of good saves being performed. It was great; I was on fire during the third set I dived for low hard drive from the opposition hitters, the defense are solid nothing pass through and the game ended with my team winning the game with the score of (35-33), (16-25) and (15-0).

The next day the grand final, we were surprised to meet with St. Bernard’s college. Obviously we were sick of them but we started the match anyway but using the last tactics, again I had to play as a libero. This time things went better even though the match was tight and intense surprisingly we took the set with the score of (33-31). Second set was not so good; a lot of mistakes were made in the frontcourt. Our hitters keep hitting out and the opposition blocked a lot of our spikes, so the second set ended with us losing the score of (27-29). Third final set of the match it was all nervousness in the air we knew if we lost we would loose. Third set starts same tactics this time long rallies are played both teams did not give up but spikes coming in from both teams are not finding the floor. So the game went on and on, each point was meaningful but my team got through but match was still on and tight. The backcourt was doing well but not enough I had to control my teammates and tell them what to do. The third set gone for hours, both teams we’re fatigued. Coming up towards the last point of the game I suddenly got a cramped in my leg so I had to be replaced, I thought this was a fatal point and it will affect the course throughout the last to points of the game. Luckily my team held on and won the last to points, as our hitter hit the ball to the opposition side of the court, we won. We won the match the whole team was happy, they all celebrated including the junior and other senior team. I didn’t celebrate though because I had to be in the first aid room getting treatment for my cramped.

After my treatment I joined my team in the closing ceremony waiting for the announcement for the winner of the open boys division one. As my team was called and we all went up the stage to receive our medals, I was happy we won the open boys division one of the grandest stage of the biggest competition in the southern hemisphere. As I receive the medal I saw the crowd around 432 team watching me up on stage, then the official announce the MVP winner of the open boys division one. My named was mentioned I was surprised and happy. I was shocked as my teammates pat me in the back I limped my way to get my MVP trophy, then the official asked me question and I also had to make a speech. I was nervous but I made my speech a round of a applause from the crowd and I was the happiest person ever. It all ended well for me my last national, my first gold for national, my first MVP for national, and my last volleyball game. Things couldn’t be better for me. As I got home I was tired but it was good day and a great competition. It was a shame that it was my last national, but at least I get to have an opportunity to played and won gold.

By: Mohamad Anugerah Ramadhan

Performance of Canista (Canisii Seminarium Orchestra)

When I was in Senior High School, my school held a music event. Te event started from 5 pm until 8 pm. The theme of this event was “Viva La Musica”. Why? Because based on our opinion, we can express about ourselves with music. So, music can help us to become better people, especially to practice about our feeling, our heart, and our behavior. Canista (Canisii Seminarium Orchestra) had the performance. My friends joined it and showed their performance with their amazing skills. They weren’t showing it based on their amazing talents, but they only wanted to serve. It’ about music, where each people can play it even though they can’t.

Canista played about 15 instrumental. Most of the songs they played were instrumental musics from Rennaisance Era until Romantic Era. Another instrumental were from Modern Era. They played “March from Carmen”, “March of Scipio”, “Farandole”, and more. Then, they also played modern songs and traditionals song from Indonesia. The title was “Medley Nusantara”, “Mahadewi”, and “Jogjakarta”.

After the event were finished, we were so happy because we could perform with elegance, and we could do it maximally. Although there were some mistakes, but it was a vert great experience for us to become better in the future.

By: Charlees Rachma Dewangga Pasopati

Pulitzer Prize Photograph Brings Awareness – At a Price

Original article by Catherine Witko

Joseph Pulitzer is most renowned for the award that is given annually in his name to outstanding pieces of American journalism. His work as a journalist and newspaper publisher was forthright and revealing; his reputation as “a passionate crusader against dishonest government” was irrefutable (Topping, 1999). Pulitzer established the prizes to honor journalists who demonstrated excellence in their work. There are twenty-one different categories in which a piece can be placed, including fiction, drama, poetry, music, and of course, journalism. The prestigious prize is so coveted that the reputation of winning such an honor is of higher value than the cash prize given alongside the certificate of honor.

In 1994, Kevin Carter submitted a photograph he had taken during a trip to Sudan to cover the civil war that was ravaging the country. He had no idea at the time that he would eventually win the coveted Pulitzer Prize. He had even less of an idea that soon after receiving the award, he would succumb to depression. Although it brought about Carter’s untimely death, the photograph showed the world a tragedy occurring in Sudan. It shattered the complacency that existed among people generally walled off from such struggles. It was a disturbing call to action to help those in other parts of the world who truly needed it.

The confrontational photograph was taken during the early 1990s when Sudan was engaged in its decades-long civil war. The country had always had an enormous budget deficit as well as a large national debt, given the fact that in its early colonizing years, Britain had opted to slow down Sudan’s industrialization efforts (Metz, 1992)

Famine struck the poor country as it tried to pull itself out of a terrible debt and economic ruin. The United Nations had already begun to aid the country by establishing food centers and helping teach the citizens other ways to grow crops and speed up the economy. However, Carter published this photograph originally in The New York Times to show people how there should be more effort put into helping the people of Sudan.

His photograph cast an uneasy light on the problems Sudan and its people faced, and was confrontational in that it addressed the biggest problem: poverty. It depicts a young, starving girl crawling toward a feeding center set up by the United Nations. However, there are many subtle details in the piece that make the boldness of its message powerful. The background shows a barren wasteland with no other signs of human life or past human activity; it looks more like a place where little vegetation had grown or where a disaster had struck. This was probably due to the harsh sun that causes drought in Sudan for many years at a time. A little closer to the viewer is a vulture, which is obviously stalking the main object in the photograph—the child. The starving child is collapsed on the ground, seemingly paralyzed by hunger, given the protrusion of the child’s rib cage from her chest. Whether or not the child was actually smaller than the preying animal behind it, the way in which Carter angled the spacing of the two creatures gives the appearance that the vulture was as big, if not bigger than, the human child. The lighter colors of the environment around the child and vulture give them an even bolder contrast in the photograph, making the eye immediately jump to the two characters in the picture.

The photograph and the story of the fate of the photographer show how powerful a picture and its message can be. Philosopher Stephen Toulmin gives us strategies and language to use to understand how a text operates on readers or, in this case, viewers. For example, warrants, according to Toulmin, are the ways in which an artist constructs an image to appeal to people’s beliefs, values, and cultural and innate predispositions. This image’s implicit warrant is that people cannot stand to see innocent children suffer. It is only natural for humans to feel an inclination to help someone in need. The explicit warrant in the photograph was that people, more specifically the children, in Sudan were starving. This combination of the obvious and the subtle messages creates strong pathos; that is, they affect the emotional side of the viewer. The pathos causes so much anguish within viewers that they feel an obligation to find ways to help those suffering in Sudan.

Tragically, Carter committed suicide three months after the photograph was published and only a week after being awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Carter’s death is speculated to have been a result of one of two things: either he could not handle the fame that was brought on by the photograph and the award, or he could not bear the guilt of not helping the child in the photograph. In a Time magazine article following Carter’s tragic suicide, the piece relayed the guilt that Carter felt and how “even some of Carter’s friends wondered aloud why he had not helped the girl” (MacLeod, 1994). The guilt he had felt afterwards for not helping the little girl seemed to be too much for the man to handle.

When Carter and the newspaper company published the photograph, they as journalists knew full well the potential impact the photograph could have on those who saw it. The publisher, as well as the photographer, knew that the audience for the most part would find the scene it depicted to be disturbing. The photograph was indeed tragic, but what made it that much more horrific was the audience’s knowledge that the setting and the images were not set up or manipulated in any way; this was the starving child’s reality. The photograph was intended to draw attention to a tragedy and to encourage more humanitarian intervention.

Carter could have chosen to submit a video of the starving girl to the Pulitzer Prize foundation; however, a photograph seemed to be a better means of conveying the message. A photograph allows viewers to use their own imagination; it begs the viewer to attempt to picture what happened outside the frame and what happened after the picture was taken. The image was chosen because Carter felt it captured the isolation and desperation the people of Sudan felt at the time. He had come to Africa to capture the story of the Sudanese economy and the devastation caused by it.

However good the reasons as to why Carter published this picture, his method of capturing that heart-rending moment invited criticism. In an article relaying Carter’s tragic death, MacLeod recounted the details that Carter had told their mutual friends about the scene he photographed:

He wandered into the open bush. He heard a soft, high-pitched whimpering and saw a tiny girl trying to make her way to the feeding center. As he crouched to photograph her, a vulture landed in view. Careful not to disturb the bird, he positioned himself for the best possible image. He would later say he waited about 20 minutes, hoping the vulture would spread its wings. It did not, and after he took his photographs, he chased the bird away and watched as the little girl resumed her struggle. (MacLeod, 1994, par. 10)

This patience for the perfect shot created the spacing and lighting needed to have the desired effect on the viewer. But in order to get the best possible shot, Carter ignored his responsibility to help the struggling girl. His professional detachment seemed to override his own humanity and morals. His decision would have a lasting effect on the world, as well as a lasting and overwhelming effect on Carter himself.

Following his death, some saw in the photograph parallels with Carter’s own death. The starving child in the foreground of the photograph symbolized Carter himself, and the vulture preying on him from behind represented the angel of death that would soon consume him through depression (MacLeod, 1994)

Although there will forever be speculation as to the true reason why Carter killed himself, one can take a guess that it was a collection of reasons, including the backlash generated by the photograph. It seemed in the end, unfortunately, that both the child and Carter suffered equally, in different senses, and eventually succumbed to a similarly tragic fate.

Carter’s suicide seemed to bring even more notoriety to the photograph, by making his own tragic feelings something that others could feel compassion for alongside the child herself. Carter wanted to bring attention to society how the Sudanese people were struggling. Although his life ended tragically, the photograph itself endures as an indelible symbol of the famine and suffering in the world and as a call to action to the rest of the world.

By: Marcellino Julius Putra
Source: http://www.jme.com

 

Interviewing Foreigners: The Experience

On Saturday, I went to Malioboro with my classmates Irene, Kezia, Nadya, Hilda, Thea, Cevy and Dona, looking for foreigners to complete the final project of ‘Speaking 1’. Before we go, we gathered in front of the chapel at 8 am for a breafing. I came there from Bantul at half past seven, and when I arrived in the front of the chapel, no one came yet, noticing that I came the earliest. So I waited for them. After waiting for an hour, we were all finally complete, at last. The we had a briefing and then we left tha chapel at 10 am

Arriving at Malioboro, we stopped by McD because there were still few foreigners walking around Malioboro Street. After 30 minutes waiting in McD, we went out and walked down the street toward 0 km Malioboro area. In front of Vredeburg Museum, we saw foreigners with the traditional dancer across the street. And, did you know? One of the dancer was Didi Nini Towok! It seemed like they were having an event. My friends and I wanted to take picture with him, but none of us dared to speak. Finally one of the foreigners walked toward the flute seller. Then my friend Nadya became the first one who interviewed him. Then we decided to look inside the mall and we were very grateful that although we were rejected by the foreigners three times, but many of them came to us and wanted to help us. Even there were foreigners from Australia volunteered themselves to be interviewed and asked to take picture with us. They were friendly, funny, and talkative. There were also two handsome foreigners, Irene and Hilda got chance to interview them,  but my other friends and I only got chance to take picture with him. In Malioboro mall we also met our friends from other classes, but they complained that many foreigners rejected them.

Finally we got the foreigners, but Nadya, Kezia, Dona and I wanted to repeat the interview because we felt very nervous in our first interviews. I went to the 3rd floor looking for another foreigner, and when I saw one who was walking alone, I quickly approached him. Luckily, he accepted my offer to interview him. His name is Robby and he is from United States. He said that Jogjakarta is his favorite cities compared with the other cities that he has ever visited. His favorite local food of Jogjakarta is fried rice and noodle, and he also said that “Jogjakarta has the typical food”. The interview was very fun, and I think he’s friendly. Although sometimes I don’t understand what he said because of the noisy condition, I felt very happy to do this project because it seemed like I was playing with my friends, but sometimes hot weather and crowded condition  made us feel hopeless. After that we ate at KFC Malioboro mall and went home.

My friend and I took picture with the handsome foreigner

Robby and I

All of us took pictures with the foreginers

By: Windy Widyawan