David Livingstone

Born in Blantyre, March 18, 1883, David Livingstone was perhaps the most popular national heroes of the late 19th century in Victorian Britain. He was the first European to see Victoria Falls, to which he gave the English name to honor Queen Victoria. Livingstone had a mythic status, which operated a number of interconnected levels. His fame as an explorer helped drive forward the obsession with discovering the sources of the River Nile that formed the culmination of the classic period of European geographical discovery and colonial penetration of the African continent.

Livingstone was born on March 19, 1813 in the mill town of Blantyre, beside the bridge crossing into Bothwell, Lanarkshire, Scotland, into a Protestant family believed to be a descended from the highland Livingstones, a clan that had been previously known as the Clan MacLea. Born to Neil Livingstone (1788-1856) and his wife Agnes (1782-1865), David, along with many of the Livingstones, was at the age of ten employed in the cotton mill of H. Monteith - David and brother John working 12-hour days as "piecers," tying broken cotton threads on the spinning machines. The mill offered their workers schooling of which David took advantage.

Other significant influences in his early life were Thomas Burke, a Blantyre evangelist and David Hogg, his Sunday School teacher. At age nineteen David and his father left the Church of Scotland for a local Congregational church, influenced by preachers like Ralph Wardlaw who denied predestinatarian limitations on salvation. Influenced by American revivalistic teachings, Livingstone's reading of the missionary Karl Gützlaff's "Appeal to the Churches of Britain and America on behalf of China" enabled him to persuade his father that medical study could advance religious ends.

Livingstone hoped to go to China as a missionary, but the First Opium War broke out in September 1839 and the LMS suggested the West Indies instead. In 1840, while continuing his medical studies in London, Livingstone met LMS missionary Robert Moffat, on leave from Kuruman, a missionary outpost in South Africa, north of the Orange River. Excited by Moffat's vision of expanding missionary work northwards, and influenced by abolitionist T.F. Buxton's arguments that the African slave trade might be destroyed through the influence of "legitimate trade" and the spread of Christianity; Livingstone focused his ambitions on Southern Africa. He was deeply influenced by Moffat's judgment that he was the right person to go to the vast plains to the north of Bechuanaland, where he had glimpsed "the smoke of a thousand villages, where no missionary had ever been".

Kimani Nganga, World Oldest Pupil

Kimani Nganga Maruge is already a great-grandfather in Kenya, aka holder of the Guinness World Record for being the oldest person to start primary school, at the shocking age of 84. Mr. Maruge had died at the age of 90 years old just recently. He was a veteran of Mau Mau independence movement who never had the opportunity to go to school when he was younger. The father of five said he wanted to learn to read so he could read the Bible for himself.
In 2004 he enrolled in Kapkenduywa primary school in Eldoret, a year after Kenya government introduced free primary schooling. He was one of the best attendance records and was made a prefect in school. Two of his 30 grandchildren who was in the same school, said he wanted to complete a veterinary diploma. In 2005, Mr. Maruge travelled to America where he called on world leaders attending a summit to make education for the poor a priority.
Mr. Maruge had spent the last year of his life in Cheshire Homes in Kenya. After he was diagnosed with cancer in February, he asked for the teachers to teach him at home.
“He was a very courageous man,” Mumbi Kamuri, head of Cheshire Homes in Kenya said. “Even if you don’t see it through to end, you have will still have achieved something.”
The BBC’s Will Ross in Nairobi says he will be remembered by many people as an inspirational figure who brought new meaning to the phrase, “it’s never too late”.

Sergey dan Larry, Dibalik Google

Sergey Brin dan Larry (Lawrence) Page berhasil menempati posisi 10 besar warga AS terkaya berkat keberhasilan search engine yang mereka temukan yaitu Google. Jangan salut pada kekayaan mereka, tetapi pada falsafah hidup dan niat mereka seperti googol; julukan bagi 100 angka nol di belakang 1 (satu). Di situs milik majalah Moment, Mark Malseed menyebutkan dua orang ini bersahaja, pria yang baik, dan tidak terlena oleh kemewahan.


Larry dan Sergey bertemu ketika sama-sama belajar teknik komputer di Stanford University. Keduanya mendirikan sergeyandlarry-proyek yang kemudian melahirkan Google, dimulai dari sebuah garasi di Menlo Park, California milik Susan Wojcicki, istri Larry. Situs ini mendalami hasil-hasil yang sudah dituangkan internet.

Namun, jalan menuju sukses tak mudah. Untuk mewujudkan Google, mereka harus meninggalkan kuliah pada program doktor komputer di Stanford. Tapi Sergey dan Larry sangat yakin, ide mereka berguna bagi orang banyak dan bisa membantu orang menemukan apa saja yang diinginkan lewat internet.

Lingkungan Sergey dan Larry adalah orang-orang intelek. Contohnya ayah Sergey, Michael Brin, adalah doktor matematika lulusan Universitas Moskwa, Rusia. Ibu Sergey, Genia, adalah periset di Badan Luar Angkasa Amerika Serikat NASA. Sedangkan Larry adalah putra Carl Victor Page, doktor komputer pertama AS dari University of Michigan dan profesor teknologi komputer di Michigan State University. Ibu Larry, Gloria Page, adalah pengajar program komputer.

Pada akhir tahun 1990-an, tak ada yang peduli dengan mesin pencari (search engine) di tengah hadirnya American Online (AOL) dan Yahoo!, yang sudah meraup untung besar dengan menawarkan produk e-mail, berita, ramalan cuaca, dan sebagainya. Tapi Sun Microsystems telah memberikan Google ruang gerak. Sergey dan Larry terus mendalami produk pencari informasi, dengan melakukan segala modifikasi dan inovasi produk dari waktu ke waktu.

Sebelum sesukses sekarang, mereka membuat situs yang menghindari pop-up (muncul situs lain yang tidak diinginkan saat membuka internet). Muncul pula Google Bar yang membuat kita bisa mengakses informasi, walau sedang membuka situs lain karena Google otomatis tampil disitu. Google adalah perusahaan fenomenal yang tidak pernah dibayangkan oleh warga AS sekalipun.

"Menjadi yang terbaik tidak menjadikan kami terlena, itu malah tantangan," kata Larry, Presiden Produk Google.


Sumber: Kompas, Kamis, 4 Oktober, 2007