I had only made contact with BETA UFO's director - Nur Agustinus for about 2 or 3 months when I found out about the group's planned gathering in Jakarta. The venue was quite conviniently accessible for me so I asked Nur Agustinus if it would be OK for me to drop in on their meeting. To cut a long story short, he gave me the green light and granted me a very intriguing up close look at the group's members & activity.
To be fair & square I didn't exactly get to the venue (in ITC Senayan shopping mall, downtown Jakarta) on time & missed most of the scheduled events. I only learned more about it a few weeks la
ter from an article (journal?) written by Nur Agustinus (links on Reference, below). It was also quite surprising to know that he made a special note of my visit in that article. Nevertheless, disgression aside, I did manage to see some interesting aspects & details from the gathering which I don't think I would've otherwise paid attention to if I hadn't been late.
The first positive impression I got is from the venue itself. It was a relatively small food court place, somewhere on the mall's upper floors, highlighted by BETA UFO's banner & merchandises. All and all, it didn't tingle my suspicious nature for most money-making scams n' hoaxes. Despite the well prepared banners & merchandises I can immediately feel the informal atmosphere of an honest, grass-root kind of community effort that is more concerned about sharing a common interest on the subject of ufology rather than about cashing-in from people's gulibilities.
Almost everyone present was dressed casually with the BETA UFO 'managing' crew all clad in black T-shirts that quickly brought back fond memories of some late 90's underground headbanger gathering. There were no seating 'arrangements' and -as I later found out- no protocols whatsoever when it comes to approaching the director - Nur Agustinus, for a friendly chit-chat.
Meeting The Man
After signing up the guest book & getting some free brochures in return I asked the lady sitting over the guest book table to help point me to Nur's whereabouts. It turned pout to be a quite easy process. The man was obviously busy talking with some other people, including some journalist, and yet he immediately approached & welcomed me with open arms. Soon enough, we end up sitting down together with some other members of the BETA UFO community joining us later on.
As the discussion lingers on I quickly noted an interesting fact of the director's personality. He never tried to speculate beyond what he really knows nor tried to dominate a conversation even when he actually knows more about the subject. Even when sharing his personal experience of a possible sighting the first thing he stressed was the fact that it could simply be the ISS (International Space Station) passing on its orbit around the earth. As subjective as it is, experience has thought me that such down to earth humility hardly ever goes hand in hand with shallow motives for fame & money. Of course, people do change with time & circumstances but I still have high hopes that BETA UFO & Nur Agustinus in particular will not degenerate should they ever be in the limelight.
All photos are taken from Nur Agustinus' personal recount (in pdf file).
To be fair & square I didn't exactly get to the venue (in ITC Senayan shopping mall, downtown Jakarta) on time & missed most of the scheduled events. I only learned more about it a few weeks la
ter from an article (journal?) written by Nur Agustinus (links on Reference, below). It was also quite surprising to know that he made a special note of my visit in that article. Nevertheless, disgression aside, I did manage to see some interesting aspects & details from the gathering which I don't think I would've otherwise paid attention to if I hadn't been late.The first positive impression I got is from the venue itself. It was a relatively small food court place, somewhere on the mall's upper floors, highlighted by BETA UFO's banner & merchandises. All and all, it didn't tingle my suspicious nature for most money-making scams n' hoaxes. Despite the well prepared banners & merchandises I can immediately feel the informal atmosphere of an honest, grass-root kind of community effort that is more concerned about sharing a common interest on the subject of ufology rather than about cashing-in from people's gulibilities.
Almost everyone present was dressed casually with the BETA UFO 'managing' crew all clad in black T-shirts that quickly brought back fond memories of some late 90's underground headbanger gathering. There were no seating 'arrangements' and -as I later found out- no protocols whatsoever when it comes to approaching the director - Nur Agustinus, for a friendly chit-chat.
Meeting The Man
After signing up the guest book & getting some free brochures in return I asked the lady sitting over the guest book table to help point me to Nur's whereabouts. It turned pout to be a quite easy process. The man was obviously busy talking with some other people, including some journalist, and yet he immediately approached & welcomed me with open arms. Soon enough, we end up sitting down together with some other members of the BETA UFO community joining us later on.
As the discussion lingers on I quickly noted an interesting fact of the director's personality. He never tried to speculate beyond what he really knows nor tried to dominate a conversation even when he actually knows more about the subject. Even when sharing his personal experience of a possible sighting the first thing he stressed was the fact that it could simply be the ISS (International Space Station) passing on its orbit around the earth. As subjective as it is, experience has thought me that such down to earth humility hardly ever goes hand in hand with shallow motives for fame & money. Of course, people do change with time & circumstances but I still have high hopes that BETA UFO & Nur Agustinus in particular will not degenerate should they ever be in the limelight.All photos are taken from Nur Agustinus' personal recount (in pdf file).
No comments:
Post a Comment