Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Pallu Bassa, Toasted coconut meat


THIS is a food with a thick gravy sauce. It was very tasty. Containing meat or offal beef or buffalo. Savory taste comes from toasted coconut brownish that sown into the broth. Pallu Bassa delicious eaten with white rice.

In some stores famous Bassa pallu in Makassar, you will find a queue of people waiting for a place to eat. As in the shop on Jl Bassa pallu Jl. Serigala or Jl Onta Lama. There, you must be willing to stand for several minutes before you can enjoy this dish. How? You already know the answer.

Though based, each shop has a unique concoction that makes it different. Bassa pallu seasoning sauce consisting of acid Java, lemongrass, galangal, salt, sugar, onion, garlic, coriander, pepper, and grated coconut is roasted. Sauce available for those who like the taste of spicy.

Source :

http://www.enjoysulawesi.com/in/makassar/wisata-kuliner/192-pallu-basa-savory-broth-meat.html

Monday, January 25, 2010

Children and sex predators



The recent murder and mutilation of an 8-year-old street child, Ardiansyah, has once again starkly highlights the serious plight of street children in Indonesia. A succession of programs has been developed in response to the problems of this population.
The government, through the Social Services Ministry, has attempted to address the problems through a number of avenues.
However, the overall effort appears to be superficial at best. The number of street children continues to climb, while their situation worsens.
In spite of the failure of various programs that are uniformly developed in the form of national programs, the government seems to be reluctant to change its position and undertake alternative approaches in addressing the problem of street children.
Intervention programs for street children are still undertaken under the framework of “social rehabilitation”, giving the impression that this group is still being pathologized as a deviant population that needs to be rehabilitated, rather than as a sector of the community that needs protection and assistance. It is in the name of rehabilitation when government action takes the form of organized mass arrests and punitive legal action.
It is important to note that the common perception of street children in Indonesia as being runaways, delinquents or abandoned by their family is a fallacy. Such an interpretation does not accurately reflect the characteristics of the majority of this population.
The fact is that most street children in Indonesia, like Ardiansyah, are simply “working kids” who engage in economically productive activities in an effort to stave off poverty. For some children, their ability to work, helping their impoverished families, is part of their sense of self-worth. The discourse on economically active children is culturally acceptable in most of Indonesian society.
It is poverty that renders their parents unable to care for and supervise these children adequately. In the case of Ardiansyah, the circumstance of his impoverished family seems to have led to neglect. He was a victim of child neglect and was vulnerable to sex predators and other street dangers.
Street children, male or female, are among the most vulnerable to sexual abuse. Unfortunately, research exploring this issue has traditionally focused on the female population, neglecting the experience of male children, whose plight has largely gone unacknowledged.
In the case of child prostitution, for instance, the general assumption is that the victims are only girls.
The reality, however, demonstrates that boys are no less vulnerable than girls to sexual abuse.
Poverty is often seen as the main underlying factor that makes children in Indonesia vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation. However, it is important to note that there are some aspects of our culture, such as the characteristics of adult-child relationships in society, which pose serious risks for children becoming easy targets for sex predators.
It is easy for pedophiles to win the trust of parents in our society. Some parents are still unaware of the danger when a stranger tries to approach their children. Some will even feel flattered to find someone who appears to be genuinely interested in and caring of their children. They do not realize that, in the manner of a hunter, pedophiles are predators who will do anything to get their victims.
The case of Ardiansyah shows how it is not difficult for even an “amateur” predator like Baikuni, who is reported to have confessed to the crime, to easily outwit people in society. Baikuni’s profile does not fit the prototype of such global pedophile rings as Wonderland or Orchid Clubs, two of the largest worldwide Internet-based pedophile rings, originating in the United States.
Predators like Baikuni do not need Internet access or sophisticated encryption codes to disguise their crimes, as they simply live among the most vulnerable children where they can easily cultivate the victims they wishes to abuse while the people around remain ignorant.
Research on street children in Indonesia tends to romanticize the circumstances of these children and emphasize the exposure to deviations experienced by this population compared to children in general. As a result, only a few studies have focused on critiquing the policy and intervention programs for this population.
International pressure seems to have led Indonesia to adopt policies and programs on street children haphazardly in an attempt to fulfill international requirements. As a result, some of the government’s responses have been grossly ineffective and culturally insensitive.
Inconsistency in the government’s policies is another significant issue that has led to the ineffectiveness of the programs. This has resulted in a climate where intervention programs for street children, such as shelters or drop-in centers, which mushroomed in the late 1990s, in the long term are not sustainable.
Drop-in centers, characterized as semi-institutional, were initially designed only as a preliminary element of intervention programs for street children. They were developed as an emergency care unit giving priority to children who were homeless and had no significant contact with families. Some other follow-up and referral programs should have been established in an integrated approach along with the establishment of these centers.
The absence of follow-up programs has resulted in most drop-in centers focusing their efforts on delivering long-term programs while neglecting their main function of reaching out to the most vulnerable children on the streets. Most drop-in centers are also no longer characterized as semi-institutional, as children must officially register and satisfy certain conditions to be eligible for services.
Society has witnessed the shortcomings of the government and concerned ministries and departments in responding to such serious yet sensitive issues. A culture of hope is emerging from the newly installed ministry of women’s empowerment and child protection. The question now remains whether this new ministry will provide a better system for child protection in Indonesia.
The inauguration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s second Cabinet has just taken place and its spirit still lingers, yet discussion on child protection remains muted. Politicians such as Tifatul Sembiring, who was appointed information and communications minister and who actively brought child protection issues to the media’s attention as part of his campaign during the Cabinet selection process, has not commented substantially on the matter since then. Nor have we had any significant comment on this case from Linda Gumelar, the state minister for women’s empowerment and child protection.



By : Muhrisun Afandi


Sources :

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Bank scams may have spread nationwide



The police on Sunday warned that recent thefts through ATM fraud, which have caused losses amounting to billions of rupiah to customers’ personal accounts, may have spread nationwide.

Police Detective chief Comr. Gen. Ito Sumadi said the police were continuing to update their investigation on the case.
“Our cyber crime unit is continuing to probe the case and for now, we are certain [the perpetrators] have also expanded their crime spree to Kalimantan, Sumatra and Java,” Ito said.
East Kalimantan Police have arrested seven new suspects who illegally withdrew money from banks on Friday and Saturday.
Ito added that the arrest of the seven people raised the number of suspects to 20 people nationwide.
Previously, the National Police had announced that they had arrested 13 suspects in Jakarta and
Kalimantan.
“We suspect they are part of a syndicate and we expect  to find more suspects,” East Kalimantan Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Antonius Wisnu Sutirta said.
The seven suspects were hotel staff who worked in the hotel’s finance, IT and general affairs departments,  Antonius said.
“They colluded to use the hotel’s guests’ BNI-issued credit cards and sent fictitious claims to the bank,” Antonius said, adding that the suspects had been pulling off the scam since 2008 with 344 transactions in total.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Eduard Aritonang said on Saturday that the perpetrators may have used several techniques in stealing money from the banks.
He said the techniques included attaching scanning devices to ATMs that were able to read personal data on ATM cards, setting up fake hotline numbers to gather customer data, including their personal identification numbers (PIN) and selling customer data to other perpetrators.
Data for each customer was sold for around Rp 1 million, Aritonang added.
As of Saturday, the police announced there had been 36 victims of ATM scams in Jakarta, Kalimantan and Bali.
“We are still waiting for reports from other victims in other provinces,” Ito said.
Bank Indonesia disclosed that  illegal transactions had caused losses to the savings of up to 200 customers of six major banks, namely  Bank Central Asia (BCA), Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), Bank Permata and Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII).
Bank Indonesia’s data showed that BNI customers suffered Rp 220 million in losses, BRI customers lost Rp 49 million, while BCA account holders are believed to have suffered the highest losses, estimated at about Rp 5 billion so far. Data on the losses suffered by the three other banks was not available.
Ito urged all banks to immediately improve their ATM security system to help prevent further occurrences of such crimes.
The central bank’s director of banking supervision, Erwin Riyanto, said after a meeting on Saturday attended by all the banks’ officials that the banks had agreed to deal with the issue as quickly as possible.

Sources :

Yudhoyono’s popularity drops over Century case



In an alarming sign for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, two recent surveys have just confirmed his declining popularity.

The surveys suggest the causes include the alleged framing of two deputy chairmen of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah, and, most recently, the Bank Century bailout case.
Although there is no proof the President’s is involved in either case, widespread rumors to the contrary have reduced his popularity, the surveys said.
Officials from polling body Indobarometer said in a press conference over the weekend that public satisfaction over Yudhoyono’s performance in the first 100 days of his second term declined by 15 percent compared to when he had just won re-election.
Indobarometer executive director Muhammad Qodari said the result of the body’s recent survey, conducted between Jan. 8 and 18 and involving 1,200 respondents, showed the President’s public approval rating had dropped from 90 percent in August 2009 to the current 75 percent.
“The 15 percent decrease means there are public needs that the government is not addressing. This is an early indicator for the President to improve the government’s future performance,” Qodari said.
He further elaborated that the declining approval level was strongly related to ongoing legal and political issues.
Qodari said most of the respondents followed the cases of Bibit and Chandra, the alleged murder of the director of a state-owned firm by former KPK chief Antasari Azhar, and the Bank Century bailout case.
He said 69 percent, 79 percent, and 77 percent of the respondents knew about the three cases, respectively.
Another survey, conducted by Kompas daily and published in its Saturday edition, showed a similar trend.
Dividing the President’s public approval rating into four major sectors, Kompas said only 45 percent of the 1,249 respondents felt satisfied with Yudhoyono’s economic performance compared with 63 percent three months earlier.
Only 43 percent expressed satisfaction with his performance on law enforcement issues, 58 percent for his handling of political and security affairs, and 47 percent for welfare matters.
All the figures are a decrease from three months ago, and a larger drop from the President’s rating at the start of his first term in January 2005.
Kompas also found that the public’s confidence in the President’s performance in the four sectors experienced a declining trend compared with the figures three months ago and in early 2005.
The President’s drop in popularity, however, is mild compared with that of his subordinates, Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.
The two have been under intense public scrutiny since the emergence of the Bank Century bailout case, which is centered on the ballooning of bailout funds, totaling Rp 6.76 trillion (US$730 million).
Many see Boediono, then the central bank governor, and Mulyani as responsible for approving the issuing of the funds, some of which are suspected to have been channeled to certain political parties, including Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party.
Qodari said only 18 percent expressed approval for Boediono, but did not mention Mulyani’s rating.
Public policy analyst Agus Pambagyo was quoted as saying by news portal tempointeraktif.com that to restore public trust, it was important for the President to evaluate the implementation of his first 100-days programs.

Source :

Govt to reduce need for foreign loans: Vice Minister




Although there were indications Indonesia`s foreign debts would still increase because of a budget deficit, the government had n committed to lessen its need for foreign loans and encourage domestic financing through state debentures (SUN), Lukita said here Friday.

"Due to the state budget deficit foreign debts are expected to rise but in terms of ratio it will drop. In terms of foreign debt we are committed to reducing our foreign debt stock. We will proritize debts from state debentures issued at home or abroad although the majority will certainly be issued at home in the form of state debentures and shariah bonds," he said.

He said by reducing foreign debts in the budget financing the ratio of debts to gross domestic product was expected to drop quicker.

"In terms of ratio the foreign debts will drop faster as we have been committed to limit the debts," he said.

He said with the deficit to drop from 1.6 percent to 1.2 percent in 2014 it was expected the country`s debt ratio to the gross domestic product would drop drom around 30 percent in 2009 to 24 percent in 2014.

"So, every year it drops by one percent," he said.

He said the government expected a 5.5 percent growth in 2010 and up to seven percent in 2012 and "in 2014 the growth is expected to reach above seven percent."

He said the government would strive to return the source of growth to processing industries and agriculture which are expected to contribute an average 3.6 to 3.7 percent to growth.

With regard to inflation he said it was expected to reach around 5.o to 6.0 percent while the rate of poverty to drop to 8.0 to 10 percent and unemployment 5.0 to 6.0 percent in 2014, he said. (*)
Sources :
http://www.antara.co.id/en/news/1264205120/govt-to-reduce-need-for-foreign-loans-vice-minister
http://tempe.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/boediono1.jpeg

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Kawah Putih in South Bandung


Kawah Putih located in the Ranca Bali, about 44 km from the city of Bandung, precisely in the village of Pasir district Mukti Sugih Jambu. When traveling as far as 46 km from Soreang to Ciwidey, will arrive at the Kawah Putih tourist attraction. Toward the crater to the White suggested using a vehicle, do not walk because of slightly uphill road and far enough away, that is about 5 km from the entrance.
According to the data, the Kawah Putih is a crater lake of Mount Patuha with altitude 2434 m above sea level. In addition to the Kawah Putih, still terapat a crater named Crater At the height of 2194 m above sea level and located at the top of the mountain bagain west Patua. Because the lake kawahnya have very high sulfur content, in earlier times had been built with a sulfur plant Zwavel Ontgining Kawah Putih. In the Japanese era, the business was continued under the name Kawah Putih that Kenxaka Gokoya Ciwidey directly under military control.

These days we are content with the picture-image around this amazing location and joking in the crater of this heaven like. Were in another world, may be the world's gods think this may dewi.Sempet Goddess Khayangan vacant place .. or walk while eating peanuts and harp music lacks buah2an .. hehehe .., There was, it was already late afternoon, rain down. Unfortunately, we must move on from there. An unforgettable experience. The holidays would come back here.

Go to Kawah Putih
Since 1987 PT. Perhutani (Persero) Unit III West Java and Banten Kawah Putih develop this area into a tourist attraction. For admission to tourist areas Kawah Putih, every person charged Rp 10.000,00, including insurance premiums. Kawah Putih tourist attraction opened starting at 07.00 and closed at 17.00, every day Monday through Sunday. Facilities for visitors around the Kawah Putih is sufficient with the parking lots, transit transport into the crater, information, mushala, and food stalls.


To get there, visitors from Jakarta can pass Cipularang toll continues to exit toward Soreang Kopo south to the town Ciwidey. Around 20 - 30 minutes from the city Ciwidey visible sign of entry into the tourist entrance to the Kawah Putih in the left side of the road. Kawah Putih to get to the entrance area of the tourist Kawah Putih recommended use vehicles, do not walk because of slightly uphill road and far enough away, which is about 5.6 km or about 10 - 15 minutes drive. Private vehicles can be directly into the parking lot of the available area not far from the crater. While visitors with a large group who use the bus or public transport can use a special vehicle in the parking lot near the entrance gate to reach the crater from the entrance. Small road conditions and climbing is not possible to pass a bus type of vehicle or medium.
Public transportation from Bandung to Ciwidey can be found in Terminal or Leuwi Garden Kalapa length. Once on the City Ciwidey then continued the journey by using the rural transportation purposes Patengan Situ. Rural transportation to this Patengan Situ objects through tourism in the area of Plantation Ciwidey Strawberry, Kawah Putih, Ranca Upas, & hot water pool Cimanggu. To be able to surf and enjoy the natural beauty of the surrounding area and Ciwidey it is not enough for one day.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Legend of Jaka Tarub


Jaka Tarub is a handsome young man who has supernatural power. He often went out into the woods to hunt or of knowledge. When one day at a full moon night he entered the forest, from the distance he heard the faint sound of women who were joking. Impelled by curiosity, Jaka Tarub running for directions to the voices. Until finally he found a very beautiful lake in the middle of the woods, along with 7 people a very beautiful woman taking a bath and joking ria.

With sediment-ngendap, Jaka Tarub walked over. Then she found the clothes these women are lying scattered. After choosing, he stole one of them and hide them.

Some time went by and the angel was about to return to Khayangan. 6 of them wearing their clothing and fabrics, then flew into the night sky. Then Jaka Tarub understand if the women are angels Khayangan. But an angel left in the lake. Since losing her clothes she could not return to the sky and then burst into tears.

"If there is to find clothes and kainku, when a man I'll make my husband and when the woman I'll make you," vowed the angel. Jaka Tarub then reveal itself and entertain the angels. He gave a piece of cloth to wear the angel, but still hide his clothes so he could fly to Khayangan left. The angel then fulfill his vow and married to Jaka Tarub.

(There is another version where Nawang Wulan not need to swear like that. When Nawang Wulan crying on the lake, Jaka Tarub appeared immediately and comfort, and it offers a place to stay for Nawang Wulan until they finally get married)

Nawang Wulan angel's name, since married to Jaka Tarub living. The harvest is plentiful and the barn was always full of rice without ever needy. Clothing Nawang Wulan Jaka Tarubhidden in the barn that was always full. They were blessed with a child (could be boys or girls, depending on the version of the story) and live happily.

But after a long marriage life, curiosity terusiklah Tarub Jaka. Every day he and his family always eat rice, but the barn is always not as though nothing less rice they used to eat.

Nawang Wulan One day to go to a river. He told the husband to keep the fire in the kitchen, but forbade him to open the lid the pot (in other versions, Nawang Wulan prohibit even Jaka Tarub to enter the kitchen). Jaka Tarub doing her message, but curiosity had buried long ago finally make it violates the ban already booked. She opened the lid on the pot and it turned out there was only one grain of rice. Apparently during this Nawang Wulan requires only a grain of rice to meet the needs of the family of rice a day.

When Nawang Wulan home and opened the lid the pot, there is only a grain of rice in it. Nawang Wulan angry because her husband had violated the ban, and he became upset because since then he had to cook the rice as normal human beings. He was working too hard to pound rice into a lot of rice before the rice menanaknya.

The result for continuous use, over time the rice supply in the barn Jaka Tarub dwindling. Slowly but surely, the rice they grew up, while the harvest is still not arrived.

When Nawang Wulan someday return to take grain to be ground, he saw a protruding piece of cloth behind a pile of rice. When pulled and reviewed, Nawang Wulan remembered if it is bidadarinya clothes. "Apparently Jaka Tarub been hiding my clothes. And because the content of the barn continued to decrease in the end I could find it again. This would have been the will of the Above, "he thought.

Nawang Wulan bidadarinya then dressed and took the cloth. He then met Jaka Tarub to say goodbye and ask for their child care carefully. Jaka Tarub implored her not to leave, but was meant to Nawang Wulan to return to Khayangan and leave him. "Dahilan me when I saw the moon. I will entertain you from up there, "said Nawang Wulan. He was then flown to the sky to Khayangan, leaving Jaka Tarub who wept in remorse.


source :
http://www.princeofbali.com/w/image/Exhibit-200506-08.jpg
 
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