to anyone who went through hardships and at a crossroads in this confusing life..

    Hello, greetings to all mankind all over the world, alive or dead. Moved to write this open letter because after reading the news regarding the decision of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), led by Saudi Arabia, to reduce its oil production by two million barrels per day (actually this is good news for the environment, but when war wreaks havoc, causing an energy and food crisis to hit the world, are you drunk Saudi?).

I thought when all humans think about their own interests, who will carry out their shared responsibility as a caliphate on earth? Then I realized, this is the best moment in my life to reflect on and evaluate all aspects of life.

I am Whatever I am

    Usually called Izam, my full name is Izam Rafi Khanafi, for some reason this name really defines me after 25 years of living. 

At first, I didn’t have a name when I was born into this world, it took about seven days for my father to give me this name. In Arabic, the word Izam is derived from Nizam (caliph, Leader, Nizami Ganjafi (Nizami Ganjavi is famous in the world literature through his collection of 5 long poems, also known as “Khamsa” (Quintet), written in the form of masnavi. The first of his long poem “Makhzanul-asrar” (Treasure of secrets) brought the poet immense fame). 

Then, Rafi is the noblest glorious human and the fairest in his speech, behaviour, and the best example who has ever been born.

Meanwhile, Khan was inspired by the National Hero, Jenghis Khan, who combined various ideologies with his famous trilogy of struggle and endurance, “pursue the highest knowledge, purest in Tauhid, and cleverest in tactics” and combined with Nafi — the which is beneficial — with the hope that this child will become a son of Zainal and Indarwati, who can understand comprehensive teachings brought by the noblest human who ever lived while having manoeuvrability of himself, to navigate this life.

It’s a very noble hope but looks almost impossible to achieve. but this is taken from my father's last name.

 

Me and my lovely mother and sister

A fan of flora and fauna biological world of wonders since elementary school, when I first read Trubus Magazine on October 2006 entitled “Anthurium Spectacular Business” given by my aunt, I was amazed by the boom & bust business opportunity “Anthurium” which was most famous at that time is a variant called Wave of Love.

For those who still remember, the euphoria often circulated in articles and magazines that someone brought a car to the flora exhibition in Lapangan Banteng, Jakarta, and came back with only plants in hand, indicating that there had been a barter of plants for the price of a car!? Somehow the plants that I grow in my backyard were also stolen because the price was more expensive than the price of a motorbike.

This phenomenon is contrary to what I have learned that humans are pretty rational in making economic decisions, but humans are indeed weird creatures (from this oddity, I was interested in studying agriculture for my bachelor’s to understand the basics as well as the hobby that I was engaged in. The weirdness of homo economicus makes me want to study Behavioral Economics for continuing my master’s at Chicago Booth).