Indonesia Bans Beef Import from New Zealand, Some from Australia
Indonesia, the biggest Muslim country in the world, has banned imports of all beef from New Zealand and some beef from Australia which does not meet religious certification, Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Apriantono said here Friday (5/6). The ban had been carried out since the Indonesian Islamic top body of the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) issued a statement on March 25 that the meat from New Zealand did not comply with Islamic certification of “halal”. Similarly with beef from Australia, the minister said that the beef which did not comply with the halal certification would be rejected. Indonesia imports around 70,000 tonnes of beef from Australia and New Zealand annually to meet the domestic demand. Most of Indonesia’s 230 million population are Muslims, who obey with the Islamic rules. (June 5th 2009, Xinhua)
Indonesian Muslim Clerics Praise Obama’s Speech
U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent speech in Cairo indicated the American leader’s good intentions toward Islam universally, Indonesian Muslim clerics said here on Friday (5/6). “I think President Obama’s speech had a positive meaning. However, we hope it will not become a mere slogan but be followed up in concrete terms,” the Antara News Agency quoted KH Salahuddin Wahid, an Indonesian influential cleric, here as saying. Salahuddin who is the leader of an Islamic boarding school in Jombang, East Java, said Obama, through his speech addressed to more than one billion Muslims in the world, intended to build a coalition with Muslim governments to revive talks particularly toward peace in the Middle East. Meanwhile, responding to the U.S. president’s speech, Amidhan, a senior official at Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) appreciated it, saying that it shows President Obama’s determination to find a solution to the world’s problems, particularly in the Middle East. Amidhan said Obama was more progressive and creative than his predecessor in responding and seeking a good solution to the problem. He believed that President Obama’s speech was not rhetorical. It had been Obama’s agenda he already voiced when was campaigning for U.S. president, he added. “I think President Obama has a good and honest will to change the image of his country,” Amidhan said. He also believed that Obama prefers to take negotiations in settling U.S-Middle East relationship problems and would try to revive peace talks between Palestine and Israel. (June 5th 2009, Xinhua)
4 More Rare Elephants Poisoned in Indonesia
Four rare Sumatran elephants were found dead in northwestern Indonesia near an oil palm plantation and are believed to have been poisoned by villagers, a conservationist said today. The carcasses of the protected giant animals were in a forest 560 miles (900 kilometers) from the capital, Jakarta, said Eddy Santoso, head of the local Conservation and Natural Resources Agency. The forest land has been rented by the government to local farmers for commercial purposes. The latest elephant carcass was discovered partly burnt today, making it difficult to determine whether it was male or female, Santoso said. He said it was apparently burned with used tires. On Monday the decaying carcass of a six-year-old female elephant was discovered near two other dead females found last Thursday. Just 3,000 Sumatran elephants remain, some of them in the forest in Riau province. Parts of the forest were converted into oil palm plantations managed by villagers with the assistance of the state-owned plantation company Perkebunan Nusantara. Santoso said he suspects the elephants were poisoned by villagers running a plantation for oil palms, which are used to make palm oil, in an adjoining forest. Elephants, confronted by dwindling jungle, sometimes run amok in farmland or villages, trampling crops and killing humans. Last month, conservationists came upon two giant males that had been poisoned with cyanide-laced pineapples in the same area, with their tusks removed. Police and the agency were investigating the latest case. (June 4th 2009, AP)
Arizona Artist Dead from Bad Booze in Bali
Artist Rose Johnson, an English-born painter and muralist who spent more than 20 years working in Phoenix and Bisbee, Ariz., has died. She was 48. Johnson was one of 25 people who died in the past two weeks after drinking homemade liquor laced with methanol on the Indonesian resort islands of Bali and Lombok. Johnson died on Monday (1/6), said Ida Bagus Putu Alit, chief of forensics at Bali’s Sanglah Hospital. Johnson moved to Bali last fall to marry, according to a marriage announcement published in the Sierra Vista Herald newspaper. Johnson was well-known in Bisbee, where her art adorns the Jonquil Motel and a peace wall commissioned by the city. She also was commissioned to produce art for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and for new electric buses in Tempe, Ariz. Johnson was born in Coventry, England, and moved to Phoenix in 1986, where she lived in a tiny apartment. She moved to Bisbee in the mid-1990s. Paintings she did while living in Phoenix were heavy and gray, reflecting the city’s concrete construction, pollution and congestion, she told The Arizona Republic in 1995. “When I moved to Bisbee it was like I was lifted off the ground,” Johnson told The Republic. “My figures started to fly, and my colors came back.” Johnson was featured in a one-woman show after her first visit to Bali in 2007, said Jane Hamilton, who owns the Tucson, Ariz. gallery where her “Beautiful Bali” exhibit was shown. “It was a dream of hers to live in Bali,” Hamilton said. “She was entranced by Bali and fell in love. She was a wonderful person, compassionate, full of life.” Information on survivors wasn’t immediately available. A memorial is planned at a Phoenix art gallery next month. (June 2nd 2009, azstarnet)
Indonesia to Host International Congress on AIDS
Indonesia will host the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific region, August 3 - 13 in Bali, organizers of the event announced Wednesday. Indonesia was selected to host the congress because it “was one of the first Asian countries to develop a far-sighted national policy that provided legal immunity for people living with HIV to seek medication officially in appointed institutions.” (June 3rd 2009, Xinhua).
Forest Conservation in Indonesia could be as Profitable as Palm Oil Plantations
Selling credits for the billions of tons of carbon that are locked in Indonesia’s tropical rain forests could be as profitable as converting these areas into palm oil plantations, a study released Friday (29/5) found. The study, in the current issue of the peer-reviewed journal Conservation Letters, also found that conserving the 3.3 million hectares (8.2 million acres) that are slated to become plantations on Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, would boost the region’s biodiversity. The 800 proposed plantations that were studied contain 40 of the region’s 46 threatened mammals including orangutans and pygmy elephants, the study found. Under an international climate change agreement which would replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, governments are expected to create a framework allowing countries to get compensated for protecting their forests. Among the scenarios being considered are providing countries with direct financial assistance for reducing their emissions from forests or allowing them to gain credits, which they could sell on an international carbon market to companies that have exceeded their allotted carbon cap. (June 4th 2009, AP)
RI, Australia Continue Collaborating to Address Climate Change
On World Environment Day Australia and Indonesia are continuing to work together to address climate change, a critical issue for the Asia Pacific region, according to a media release by the Australian Embassy here over the weekend. Addressing environmental and climate change challenges is central to the poverty reduction efforts of Australia’s development assistance program, including in Indonesia. Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Bill Farmer said Australia has committed significant resources to combat the effects of climate change globally and in our region. Under the Indonesia-Australia Forest Carbon Partnership the two countries are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, improve livelihoods for forest-dependent communities and to support biodiversity conservation. In 2009-10, Australia will also work with Indonesia to develop a second REDD demonstration activity, a national carbon accounting system, and a satellite-based system that will enable Indonesia to monitor forest and agricultural fires on a daily basis. World Environment Day was established by the United Nations in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. This year’s theme focuses on climate change and its links with overcoming poverty and improved management of forests. (June 6th 2009, Antara News)
Raids May Lead to liquor Shortage in Bali
Tourists in Bali may find it harder to find a stiff drink after authorities confiscated thousands of bottles of liquor from some of the holiday island’s top hotels, restaurants and bars. Customs officials have seized the booze, from high-end establishments in popular tourist areas like Kuta and Nusa Dua, because the bottles allegedly have counterfeit tax labels. The tourism industry fears the seizures will lead to an alcohol shortage which may deter tourists from visiting Bali in what is traditionally the high season. “We’ve asked for this confiscation process to be temporarily suspended because we are running out of stocks,” said Perry Markus, head of the Bali branch of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association. Ida Bagus Subhiksu, head of the Bali Tourism Board, believes the raids could damage Bali’s international reputation. “We asked the customs office to stop the process and if they have to do something, please continue it later on, after the high season,” Subhiksu said. The raids come after at least 26 people, including four foreign tourists, were killed in Bali and nearby Lombok by drinking local rice wine - known as arak - tainted with methanol. Arak has become increasingly popular in Bali since a government crackdown on imported alcohol forced up the price of spirits and wine.(June 10th 2009, AAP)
Bali’s Sanur Village Festival August 12-16, 2009
Underlining Sanur’s past as a Balinese fishing village and its continuing close connection to the sea, the organizers of the Sanur Village Festival 2009 have announced that “Marine Life” will be the theme of this year’s event set for August 12-16, 2009. Justifiably proud of Bali and the central role Sanur has played in developing the island’s tourism industry, culture will once again permeate every aspect of the Sanur Village Festival 2009 with a full program of traditional performances, a Balinese parade, live music, street bazaars, art shows, food festivals and a range of water-related sports and activities. (June 7th Balidiscovery.com)
