Archive for August, 2007
NUSA DUA: Thousands of children are set to benefit from The Laguna Resort & Spa’s latest fund-raising event on Saturday to support immunization projects in the Asia Pacific run by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).
More than 30,000 children die every day in the region, mostly from preventable diseases.
The Laguna Resort & Spa’s fund-raiser, organized for UNICEF’s Check Out for Children Challenge, will be held jointly with a fashion show hosted by the Bali branch of the Indonesian Fashion Designer Association (AAPMI), Fashion Tendance ‘08.
The annual Fashion Tendance features 10 young and dynamic Balinese designers who will show 12-15 pieces from their latest collections. The AAPMI aims to present the new wave in fashion design, and many of these young designers are already making names for themselves in Bali and Jakarta, as well as overseas.
This year’s Fashion Tendance will feature the work of the following designers: Ali Charisma, Angelica Wu, Dewi Suarjani, Dwi Iskandar, Eny Ming, Putu Aliki, Yenli Wijaya, Monika Weber, Muji Ananta and Oka Diputra.
Invitees to the show include prominent figures from the Indonesian fashion industry, as well as fashion media from Bali and Jakarta.
Select pieces from member designers will also be auctioned during the Sept. 1 event, with 100 percent of proceeds to be donated to UNICEF. In addition, all AAPMI members will be selling pieces from their collections in the Ballroom Foyer, of which 50 percent of proceeds will be donated to UNICEF.
Now in its fourth year, the 2007 UNICEF Check Out for Children Challenge, which is themed to mark the 18th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, targets raising US$90,000 for underprivileged children in the Asia Pacific.
The Laguna Resort & Spa-Nusa Dua is a luxury accommodation of the Starwood Hotels and Resorts group. — JP
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/
August 31st, 2007
Dewi Anggraeni, Melbourne
Tourism has become a high profile business in most countries in the world, including Indonesia. The industry is often associated with a broad potential for boosting employment as well as creating and developing secondary and tertiary businesses.
It is understandable then, based on such a promise, governments will focus on promoting tourism in their respective countries. The breadth of the scope of tourism promotion varies from country to country, depending on the extent of structural organization of the country involved, and on the needs as perceived by the countries’ authorities and business communities.
Take Indonesia. In cities and areas usually visited by tourists there have been increasing numbers of hotels with their foreign-language-speaking staff — and an inevitable growth of alternative accommodation and free-lance guides.
The industry is however, fragile and unpredictable. We have seen how SARS (Severe and Acute Respiratory Syndrome), and bombings in Bali and Jakarta were each invariably followed by a drastic drop in the numbers of incoming tourists. Yet those in the industry never stop hoping that soon they will return in droves.
One aspect which has so far failed to be included in the equation of tourism promotion is the need to review the disembodied manner the promotion campaign is conducted. Loads of audio-visual materials are continually produced, bombarding the international public with images of beautiful beaches, scenic mountains, colorful religious ceremonies (in Bali’s case), good-looking men and women in attractive traditional costumes, with traditional music in the background. They do not entirely depict how Indonesians live their lives, but the message is, “We promise this is what you’ll see when you visit us”.
In brief, we voluntarily present ourselves as exotic. The exoticism, it has been proven time and time again, never fails to attract people.
A true enough concept, except that if something remains exotic, it will never become the known, even to a limited degree. So when rumor starts that Indonesia is a hotbed for terrorists, it soon becomes “a fact”, because people do not know any better. And the governments of some countries — Australia included — in order to protect themselves from being blamed by their constituents, are driven to activate a travel warning to Indonesia.
The Australian government’s travel warning has unfortunate implications for many sectors in Indonesia. First and foremost of course, the hospitality industry itself, which employs a great number of people, and its affiliated industries which are operated by equally numerous individuals. It also has a negative impacts on the studies of Indonesian in schools. Schools teaching Indonesian, which normally send their senior-year students to Indonesia every year, have had to send them to Malaysia instead, because the travel warning not only has the potential of rendering the insurance invalid, but more importantly, it is potentially litigious for schools to ignore it.
This further hinders young people in Australia learning about Indonesia first-hand, by stopping close contact with the people and their culture. Ironically, this kind of contact is exactly what is needed to make tourism promotion effective.
Let us ponder the issue of a travel warning. The Australian government issued the warning, because after the 2002 Bali bombing, which killed 202 foreigners, mostly Australians, Canberra came under fire for not warning its citizens about the danger of traveling to Bali at the time. So now, as soon as it smells gunpowder and detects a stir of suspicious activity in any parts of Indonesia, travel warnings of various degrees are announced.
The most high-profile terrorism act so far was committed in New York City, on Sept. 11, 2001, yet Australians have never been officially warned against traveling to the U.S. Instead it has been the U.S. which activated a stringent screening process on those entering the country. And Australians still head for Britain following the July 2006 London Underground bombing.
Is Australian government unfairly picking on Indonesia?
It is most likely a case of the known and the familiar, on the one hand, and the unknown and the exotic on the other. Even those who have never been to the U.S. and Britain, feel that they know the countries, the people and the systems well. They are thus not deterred by the knowledge that acts of terrorism, robbery, even murders have been committed there; they feel confident they will be able to negotiate their way around any danger which may be lurking their way.
Conversely, the Americans and the British at home do not have to bombard people in other countries with tourism campaigns to exhort them to visit the U.S. and Britain. However, once there, foreign visitors, notably from Australia, will easily find the existing and continually improved infrastructure to help them negotiate their way around.
In the meantime, despite living next door to each other, Australia and Indonesia are quasi-strangers. They hardly know a thing about each other.
For a country which aspires to develop its tourism, Indonesia needs to better develop its public relations skills, beyond projecting beautiful images. Not because the images are not true, but because they are only a small part of the real thing. And unfortunately, they do come across as just that, when placed alongside images of the aftermath of a terrorism act. The two sets of images, held against the sea of the unknown, do not correlate. People become wary.
To offset this wariness, Indonesia needs to shed light on the hitherto sea of the unknown. The truth is, there is a wide, wide world of interesting people and places — some beautiful, some intriguing, and a fair slice ugly as well — that would make foreign visitors welcome if given the chance.
How to include all this into a tourism campaign? A more integrated approach is necessary, where the tourism authority cooperates with education sponsorship, for example, or where it extends its assistance to other social and cultural events, which will in turn appeal to people who are simply curious, as well as the informed.
In terms of Australia, when there is a sufficient mass who feel comfortable and at ease with Indonesia, no amount of travel warnings will stop Australians visiting the country. And hopefully the government will eventually no longer feel the pressure to issue one.
The writer is a journalist.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/
August 31st, 2007
JAKARTA (Reuters) - More than 100 experts and officials met in Indonesia on Wednesday to try to draft an action plan to save Sumatran elephants and tigers threatened with extinction.
Satellite images show large areas of lowland tropical forests, the primary habitat for elephants and tigers, have been cleared on Sumatra island mainly due to farming and logging, the WWF conservation group said.
Between 1990 and 2000, a total of 8 million hectares (20 million acres) of lowland forests have been lost to development, the group said.
Shrinking habitats have led to conflicts with humans, resulting in the deaths of 42 people and 100 elephants between 2002 and 2007, said the group.
“Immediate action is needed to save threatened tigers and elephants and increasing conflicts between people and the animals,” WWF Indonesia spokeswoman Desmarita Murni said.
The three-day meeting in the Sumatran city of Padang, attended by about 120 local and international delegates, is aimed at developing a conservation strategy and action plan to save the species, said Murni.
Officials from various government ministries were attending, as well as representatives from companies and communities affected by human-wildlife conflicts, she said.
WWF said Sumatran elephants in Indonesia had declined approximately 35 percent over the past 15 years, from 2,800-5,000 in 1992 to 2,400-2,800 animals in 2007.
Today, there are no more than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, while Indonesia’s Bali and Javan tigers are already extinct, it said.
“Saving the populations of Sumatran tigers and elephants will strongly depend on saving their remaining forest habitat,” said Elisabet Purastuti, coordinator of elephant conservation for WWF-Indonesia.
Source: http://in.reuters.com/
August 30th, 2007
JAKARTA: The Chinese government will in the near future establish a Chinese Language and Cultural Center in Indonesia in an effort to step up social and cultural relations between the two countries, Indonesian Embassy spokesman, Mohamad Oemar, said in Beijing on Monday.
“China has a profound interest in setting up its language and cultural center in Indonesia, especially in the capital Jakarta,” Oemar told Antara.
He said the Indonesian government would similarly establish its language and cultural center in China to enable people from both countries to interact among themselves.
A number of universities in China already have Indonesian language and culture programs for their students, Oemar said.
The Indonesian language was no longer a stranger in China, he said, but the government also wanted to establish a cultural center in China.– JP
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/
August 29th, 2007
Indonesia has picked an architect to design a museum in Aceh province in memory of the close to 170,000 people who died there during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. But as Chad Bouchard reports from Jakarta, the project is not without controversy.
The more than $7.4 million museum project in Banda Aceh will mark one of the most devastating natural disasters of modern times.
Aceh province was decimated nearly three years ago when an undersea earthquake - registering nine on the Richter scale - pushed towering waves onto its shores. The giant tsunami touched a dozen nations ringing the Indian Ocean - but Indonesia suffered the most casualties with 170,000 people dead and missing.
Adamy Aulina, assistant manager for public facilities and building at the Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency, says she hopes the museum will help survivors heal.
“Aceh Tsunami Museum is a symbol. Respecting the victims and spirit of the survivors,” she said. “It would be nice if Acehnese people were proud with the building. It facilitates for people who want to remind their family, friends, or colleagues who died because of the tsunami.”
But the museum has its critics who are concerned the project comes too soon after the disaster, and could draw resources away from thousands of people who are still battling to rebuild their lives.
Aceh Heritage Community Foundation co-founder, Yeyen Rahmayati, says a less expensive commemoration would be more appropriate.
“The idea is good, but I think the timing is not right at the moment because there are many tsunami survivors that still need a house, job and something like that,” said Rahmayati.
Another issue is the building’s location. Museum planners selected a site high on a hill in the middle of Banda Aceh, where hundreds of residents scrambled to escape the waves. But Rahmayati says that hill has historic significance.
“The location is very strategic in the heart of the city center,” said Rahmayati. “There was a colonial heritage used as a railway station office, and they already demolished that building, they plan to demolish another building next to the first building, so there will be two heritage buildings demolished to build the tsunami museum, and for me it’s an irony, I think.”
Reconstruction officials say one of the historic buildings at the site was damaged beyond repair. But, in response to concerns, the museum committee is discussing ways to incorporate remaining structures into the museum design.
The building will be raised on stilts, using an element of traditional Acehnese houses.
Ridwan Kamil, the architect who won a contest to design the museum, says the elevated structure will also incorporate an evacuation center in case of another disaster.
“That escape hill in the future can be used for an emergency situation, in case there is a flood of tsunami people can use that hill as an escape space,” he said.
Kamil adds that he wanted to create a structure that would serve as more than a storage place for artifacts or exhibits.
“For me, the tsunami museum has to reflect also the psychology that people went through during these terrible times,” he said.
Kamil says the entrance to the museum, called the tsunami passage, is designed to evoke cathartic emotions for survivors and visitors.
“It’s a very tight corridor but very high walls with a waterfall from the left and the right, so people walk through the first space to experience how desperate the victims of the tsunami,” he added. “The sound of the water will remind them of the situation.”
The names of Acehnese who died in the tsunami will be inscribed in the atrium. The museum will also feature a scientific exhibition on earthquakes and tsunamis, with a before-and-after display demonstrating changes to Aceh’s coastline.
Adamy Aulina, with the Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency, says the building signals a transition in the community’s recovery, from focusing on immediate needs to exploring hopes for the future.
“It’s also a message. We have to learn from the past,” she said. “Well we can learn also what is a tsunami, how we can avoid it. That we can respect and learn nature, yeah? Because with that I hope we can make a better environment and a better life.”
Museum officials plan to begin construction on the museum by the end of the year, and hope to have it completed for inauguration on the fourth anniversary of the disaster in December 2008.
Source: http://www.voanews.com/
August 28th, 2007
Jakarta - Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago nation, is giving names to nearly 5,000 of its unnamed islands to head off territorial disputes with its neighbours, a local report said Monday.
The Southeast Asian nation is comprised of more than 17,000 islands, of which only about 11,000 are inhabited. The Jakarta government has had long-running sovereignty disputes with its neighbours about many outlying islands, including Malaysia, Singapore the Philippines and Vietnam.
Indonesia is unique in that its territorial waters are exempt from international laws so that they encircle all of its 17,000 islands.
The Jakarta government submitted a list of names and coordinates for 4,981 islands during the weekend to the 24th conference of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names in New York, The Jakarta Post reported.
Saut P. Hutagalung, a spokesman for Indonesia’s Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Ministry, said the country rushed to name all its islands - taking suggestions from its culturally diverse local communities - to strengthen its hand in any border disputes.
Alex Retraubun, another ministry official, said: ‘Local people have names for their islands. All of the time we followed what they wanted as it reflects their traditions.’
Source: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/
August 28th, 2007
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - After winning some awards in international film festivals, `Opera Jawa` (Java Opera) will appear in Indonesian and European theaters in September, its director Garin Nugroho said on Saturday.
“The film has participated in several international film festivals for a year and it is now time for Indonesians to watch the film,” Garin said, adding that among the festivals were the International Film Festival Venetia, Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Pusan Film Festival, Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, Tokyo Filmex, London Film Festival, and Gothenburg International Film Festival.
Accompanied by stars of the film including Artika Sari Devi and Martinus Miroto, Garin said the film would be run in London, Britain and Rotterdam, the Netherlands and other European nations on September 17.
In Indonesia, he said, the film would be played in Yogyakarta, Bandung (West Java), Jakarta and Semarang (Central Java).
The film has won some awards, including those for the “Best Actress & Best Music Director” category in the Nantes International Film Festival; “Best Music Director” category in the Hong Kong International Film Festival, the “Best Asia Film” in the Singapore International Film Festival, the “Best Screen Play” in the Festival Film Indonesia, and the “Special Mention of The Jury” in the Jakarta International Film Festival 2006. (*)
Source: http://www.antara.co.id/
August 27th, 2007
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Wednesday that his country planned to build a sport center in three years to boost the achievement of athletes in the international competitions.
“If God willing, in two or three years we can build the sport center,” President Susilo said at the Presidential Palace here.
The center will be located in a thousand-hectare land in the province of west Java, according to the national sport committee ( KONI) Rita Subowo.
The president said the government would also increase the number of funds allocated for sport.
President Susilo also said the participation from business community and other element of the communities were needed for improving the achievement of Indonesia’s athletes.
“I am confidence that we have a great capability. With a good preparation, a good exercise, and with a good ambition and a good responsibility, we will be able to boost the achievement in sport in the international championships,” said Susilo.
Source: http://english.people.com.cn/
August 24th, 2007
By Dotti Sing
From the outside, Jakarta Indonesian Restaurant looks just like any other eating place squeezed between two other bistros in New Farm’s trendy Brunswick Street.
But once inside this casual dining mecca, with its traditional Indonesian décor, I couldn’t help feeling that I was on holiday in Indonesia. The rich smell of herbs and spices permeated the restaurant and the Indonesian music in the background added to the relaxed ambience of the evening.
The restaurant was bustling with activity catering for the usual Friday crowd. Some diners were enjoying a drink or two of bintang , an Indonesian beer, and others were happily digging into a mixed entrée of lumpia (spring rolls), pangsit goreng (minced chicken and prawn wrapped in thin pastry, served with sweet and sour sauce), bakwan udang (vegetable and prawn fritters in peanut sauce) and perkedel kentang (potato and corned beef fritters).
Jakarta Indonesian Restaurant offers a diverse range of authentic Indonesian cuisine featuring popular dishes from Bali, Java, Sunda, Pandang and other provinces in Indonesia.
While the menu is written in Indonesian, each of the dishes is described in English to ensure easy selection from the à la carte menu or the banquet which is a popular choice for groups. Otherwise, the staff are more than happy to explain the dishes and help you with your selection.
For entrées, we ordered the popular pangsit goreng a combination of chicken and prawn shaped into a dumpling and sayur asam , a traditional spicy and sour vegetable soup. The entrée portions were just enough to whet our tastebuds before our main meals.
For mains, we chose the Nasi Goreng istimewa (a sumptuous rice dish topped with prawns, two skewers of chicken satay and a sunny side-up egg) and Ayam Bumbu Bali , a rice dish from the province of Bali made with spicy chicken and fresh vegetables. The meals were served on petite plates, but were deceivingly substantial and rich with flavour that is distinctly Indonesian.
Overall, our dining experience was excellent and the service was good. With dishes priced between $3 and $17, this is one restaurant that definitely won’t break the budget.
Jakarta Indonesian Restaurant is at 2/702 Brunswick Street, New Farm and is open for dinners only from Tuesday to Sunday from 5.30pm. It is licensed (BYO wine only) with a seating capacity of 100 indoor and outdoor. There is a small undercover car park, otherwise street parking is an alternative.
For reservations, call (07) 3358 5716 , or visit www.jakarta.com.au for more details.
Source: http://en.epochtimes.com/news/
August 24th, 2007
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Indonesia will build a $7.5 million tsunami museum in Aceh province to commemorate the 230,000 people who died when towering waves crashed into Asian coastlines nearly three years ago.
Architect Ridwan Kamil won a contest to design the museum, which will look like a traditional wooden house on stilts, said competition judge Kamal Arief. Names of the victims will be inscribed on the wall inside a towering chimneylike installation, said Arief, also a local architect.
The museum will be built atop a hill in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, the area hardest hit in the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami.
Many residents fled to the hill during the 2004 tsunami and Arief said it will be used as an evacuation point if there is another tsunami.
The museum will display the culture and history of Aceh people, including information on three decades of fighting between Indonesian troops and separatist rebels that only ended after the tsunami killed 167,000 people in the province and left a half-million others homeless.
The museum will also feature scientific descriptions and simulations showing the process of earthquakes and tsunami, and will show images of Aceh before and after the disaster.
Indonesia is located in the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin. Earthquakes, which can trigger tsunami, are common in the area.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/
August 23rd, 2007
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