She’ll visit Indonesia, Japan and Okinawa to promote fruit sales, tourism and security
Gov. Linda Lingle leaves tomorrow for a 10-day trip to Indonesia, Japan and Okinawa.
Lingle will head a 24-person delegation to Jakarta, Indonesia, to sign a partnership agreement between the Hawaii National Guard and the Indonesian military. The partnership will cover areas of mutual security cooperation and disaster preparedness.
“It is an important opportunity for us to establish a relationship with their military and our Guard,” Lingle said yesterday in an interview.
“It isn’t in a military sense, but in a civil preparedness and civil defense arrangement,” Lingle said, adding that Indonesia and Hawaii share the same legacy of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis.
Traveling with Lingle will be state Adjutant General Robert Lee, Maj. Gen. Vern Miyagi, assistant to the commander, U.S. Pacific Command; and Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
Also on the trip will be Republican state Reps. Barbara Marumoto (Kalani Valley-Diamond Head) and Gene Ward (Kalama Valley-Hawaii Kai).
Ward is a former Peace Corps director for East Timor and speaks Bahasa Indonesia.
Lingle said the trip — her third journey to Indonesia, but her first as governor — will include meeting with U.S. forces participating in a disaster management exercise. She also plans to meet with Indonesian women’s leaders.
In Japan, Lingle’s group will be joined by three more state legislators, Reps. Cliff Tsuji (D, Hilo-Glenwood) and Ryan Yamane (D, Waipahu-Mililani) and Sen. Clarence Nishihara (D, Waipahu-Pearl City).
The trip to Japan will include talking up tourism from Japan to Hawaii, Lingle said, noting that there has been a decline in the number of visitors from Japan.
“Obviously, we want more people from Japan coming to Hawaii and we will also update travel writers in Tokyo,” Lingle said.
Sandy Kunimoto, state agriculture director, will also be on the trip to discuss Japan’s refusal to allow imports of Rainbow papaya and potted anthuriums.
“We have been working with the Japanese government for quite some time on this and we will be offering to give them more information and make it clear why it is a positive thing for them,” Lingle said.
Concerns about genetically modified crops and pests in the soil have precluded the importation of the plants and fruits, Lingle said.
Finally, while in Japan, Lingle hopes to go to the port of Yokohama to meet with the crew of the Polynesian canoe, Hokule’a, she said.
By Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.com
Honolulu Star-Bulletin - Honolulu,HI,USA
June 22nd, 2007
A new exhibition is bringing Buddhist spirituality to that shrine of consumerism, the shopping mall.
Late Saturday night, at Mangga Dua Square in North Jakarta, a group of youngsters whipped out their cell phones cameras and took turns posing in front of a model of Borobudur temple and an unfinished Buddha statue.
“Swell. We don’t have to travel all the way to Yogyakarta,” said 22-year-old Syukri Diwangkara after posing in front of the statue on the mall’s upper ground level.
Several meters away a boy could not take his eyes off a stack of stones that dated back to the 8th century.
Banners hung from the ceiling offered a concise explanation of what was going on: archaeology goes to mall.
For the next seven days starting Sunday, the seemingly distant topic of archaeology will be bridged by the exhibition, “Tracing the Nusantara civilization from the 9th to 12th centuries, Maha Karmawibhangga: The hidden legacy at the foot of Borobudur.”
“We want to bring this topic closer to the public and reveal things that previously remained exclusive to academics,” the Tourism and Culture Ministry’s head of cultural research and development, Junus Satrio Atmodjo, said last week.
The famed Borobudur serves as a lure to bring people in and pique their interest in Indonesia’s ancient past.
The timing of the exhibition was impeccable, with Buddhists commemorating Buddha’s Day of Enlightenment, or Waisak, the Friday before its opening.
Working with the Indonesia Sangha Conference, the ministry is putting on a full week of events as part of the exhibition, including art performances that will highlight the country’s rich cultural past.
In building Borobudur, the ancient civilization of Syailendra was thoughtful enough to provide a temple that would serve as a historical library for future generations.
“Compared to the process of carving the temple, setting up this exhibition this past two months seems like nothing,” said Lenny, the event organizer.
Inside Mangga Dua, event organizers were busy setting up the exhibition.
Statues were placed in the center of the exhibition area, and experts from the National Archaeological Research Center busily put up posters showing 160 panels of the Maha Karmawibhangga relief.
Karmawibhangga, the now hidden relief at the base of Borobudur, consists of a series of panels depicting everyday life in what is now Central Java province the peak of this advanced civilization.
“Unlike other temples concentrating on the royal and divine, Borobudur includes documentation of the larger community, the common people,” archaeologist Sonny C. Wibisono said.
And from that documentation, meticulously carved by craftsmen of the day, event organizers aim at intriguing the modern public with questions like, “If we used to have this advanced culture, what happened?”
The exhibition, “Tracing Nusantara civilization from the 9th to 12th centuries, Maha Karmawibhangga: The hidden legacy at the foot of Borobudur”, will run until Sunday, June 10, at Mangga Dua Square, North Jakarta.
Anissa S. Febrina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
June 22nd, 2007