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 Hello again fellow
Jakartans!! We
do hope you all enjoyed yourselves the last few weeks since our last
newsletter! Anyway here are some snippets of news from our
beloved city and elsewhere in Indonesia - The Century Bank scandal: Indonesia has seems to
reaching ever higher in ‘dirty’ politics recently. It has been a
disappointing drawn-out saga of personal and political agenda’s
being put in front of what is best for the country. Last week, the
world watched Indonesia’s esteemed leaders engaged in scuffles on
CNN. Indonesia has travelled a long distance over the years into the
3rd largest
democracy in the world. Let’s hope that our political
representatives become more focused on moving this country forward.
Indonesia still has a lot of work to do in order to reach its goals
of reducing the poverty rate from 14% down to 12% by the end of this
year – and down to 8% by the year 2014. We are sure SBY was glad to
get away from the political fracas during his trip to Australia. He
was very warmly received by our neighbour and in fact was the first
Indonesian leader and the fifth foreign head of state to address the
Australian Parliament in its 109 year history. He was also presented
with a hand made guitar by Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. It
must be an infinitely more friendly environment for SBY than the
recent political scene in Jakarta! Anti-terrorism efforts: Welcome news this week that
the Al-Qaeda trained terrorist Dulmatin was confirmed as having been
shot dead by police on the outskirts of Jakarta. It is unfortunate
however that he was not captured alive as the information that could
have been obtained from him would have been invaluable for
anti-terrorism efforts. It is also concerning, but perhaps not
surprising, that he was able to infiltrate back into Indonesia from
the Philippines where he had been in hiding. Dulmatin had a $10
million bounty on his head from the US government (compared to the
$25 million on offer for Osama Bin Laden) – it has not been revealed
if anyone will be claiming the reward however. There are still some
known terrorists on the wanted list such as Umar Patek and
Zulkarnaen who have been linked to bombings in the past. Let’s hope
they also found sooner rather than later. Police have also combing
Aceh searching for any more militants after an armed group was found
to be training there and have apparently been doing so for a year or
more. So far the police have captured more some 25 people and killed
five. We assume that they managed to stay undiscovered for so long
due to the ample remote mountainous terrains and also possible due
to the fact that given the previous history of armed conflict in
Aceh, seeing people walking around with guns was probably nothing
new for many residents! Hobbit sighting in Indonesia!: Since the discovery of a
hobbit-like ancient skeleton (Homo floresiensis) in Flores in
2003, there has been a steady stream of fossil hunters other curious
folk visiting the region. Although scientists believe that the
species became extinct over 17,000 years ago, there has been
increasing number of ‘short’ people on hand nearby claiming to be
descendants of the ‘hobbits’. And for a small fee you will get the
opportunity to meet them. It is good to see that entrepreneurial and
opportunistic spirit in this country is still alive and
well! Java Jazz festival 2010: More than 40,000 people
attended the Java Jazz festival where some 1,300 musicians took to
21 stages during the 3 day festival last weekend, in what is alleged
to be one of the world’s largest events of its kind. This yearly
event is a result of a huge effort from organizers and which
attracts many world renowned artists. The usual problems of ticket
scalping, insufficient parking and poor sound systems however still
detracts from the experience – let’s hope the organizers work on
fixing those issues for the future. Forced changes to International Schools curriculum: The Indonesian Education Ministry has announced that international schools will have to change their curriculum for their Indonesian students. Indonesian students at these schools will now have to undertake more local content, including classes in Bahasa Indonesian and civics, and will take part in state organized national examinations. Whilst we do agree that Indonesian students should learn and appreciate their country’s language and culture, however the Indonesian education model, rote learning and forcing children into one of only two directions, being science or social studies, should perhaps be reviewed rather than replicated. That’s all for now but do keep an eye on www.WhatsNewJakarta.com to see what events are happening around town; and then organize to catch up with your friends and make an effort to meet some new ones!
Photo Gallery update
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Best Wishes
The WhatsNewJakarta Team