ISI WSC 2019 Official Theme Song by Adibah Noor
I am always thankful of how God bless me much more than i deserve. Like how i am at the right place during the right time. One of the blessings is the 62nd International Statistical Institute World Statistics Congress 2019 (ISI WSC 2019) that is currently held in Kuala Lumpur starting from 18th - 23rd August 2019. The ISI WSC takes place once in every two years in different countries worldwide and organized by or in partnership with the host country's National Office of Statistics. As for Malaysia, the National Office of Statistics is the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).
ISI WSC is literally like Olympics for Statistics. The first WSC was held in Rome during the 1887. Last time, it was held at Marraketh, Morocco in 2017. This year in Malaysia. And for next two years, it will be held at The Hague, The Netherlands on 2021. The mission is to promote the understanding, development and good practice of statistics worldwide.
Truth to be told, though i studies Statistics ever since my Diploma, i never aware of this kind of congress. Shame. But this year i got to witness and experience the congress myself. Even though i am not one of the active working committees or delegates, but since i am working at DOSM, then i got about the same opportunity. Alhamdulillah.
The first event was the World Stats (WSC) Run to create public awareness on the World Statistics Congress. I signed up for the 10km Women Government and i forced my sister to joined the 10km just to accompany me lol. We both never did 10km tbh. And this was the second run that i joined. The first that i joined time was the Stats Asean Run 2017. It was just a 3km run but i was literally dead. Hahaha such a weak lamb.
During my 4 months of kursus at Sungkai, Perak, our Directors told us to run 5km (and 10km for the guys) and submit our pace, time, whatever to them. I did 5km in 1 hour 9 minutes which was still a success for someone like me. And for the 10km WSC Run, we made it earlier actually but we were so busy taking photos before crossing the finish line, so our time recorded for 10km was 2 hours 3 minutes. The cut off time was 2 hours hahaha. Whatever. As long as i made it to the finish line in 1 piece.
I also went for the opening ceremony at Plenary Hall, KLCC. Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad was present at the opening ceremony along with Minister of Economic Affairs and Bank Negara Malaysia Governor. This was the very first time i saw and met Tun in real life. The way he talks already inspiring me like a lot. Crazy hahaha. Before the opening ceremony, there was a special session by Tony Fernandez that talked about Air Asia: More Than Just An Airline. It was an inspiring talk because Air Asia may be the cheapest airline in town but still, Air Asia was not built in a day. And it was not all sunny journey as well.
On the 20th August, i went to KLCC for the congress as a representative for my division. Nothing much, just went to KLCC to see the presentations and to learn new things as many as possible. Once again, the timing was just so right that during the night, there was an event: Malaysia By Night at the Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach Resort. My name was registered during the evening, and we took the bus together with the delegates around the world from KLCC to Sunway Lagoon. It was a buffet night event with variety of local dishes and performances on Malaysia's heritage. Definitely a night to remember for all the delegates. I got to eat extra (i counted 8) dim sum than usual and even tapau another dim sum home hahaha. Thank God for good foods.
Today is the last day of the congress. And oh, do listen to the Official Song: Statistics Bloom in Harmony by Adibah Noor. It's not a lame song at all trust me. But a cool song instead. We listen to this song every morning through the PA system in our office. Hehe. I never really had a dream of presenting paper in a congress. In fact, i was not even keen when my Master's Degree Supervisor told me about presenting my dissertation paper at Center of Iizuka Research and Development, Iizuka, Japan this end of August because i was busy with my work instead. My Supervisor will be going there presenting the paper. I believe it was just not my time yet. Maybe in the future insyaAllah. Above all, Alhamdulillah for all of these opportunities.
