Dutch documentary on poverty in RI gets Oscar nomination

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 09/13/2011

Adocumentary film made by Dutch filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich on poverty inIndonesia has secured a 2011 Academy Award nomination in the long documentarycategory.

The movie,titled Stand van de Sterren (among the stars), documents the life of Sjamsuddinand depicts various issues including poverty, prostitution and the gap betweenrich and poor, kompas.com reported on Tuesday.

Thenomination is an achievement for the Dutch film industry as this is the firsttime a Dutch documentary film has gained a nomination in this category.

The film ispart of a trilogy, with Stand van de Zon (the shape of the sun) and Stand vande Maan (the shape of the Moon) which Leonard finished filming in Indonesia in2001 and 2004.

Both of hisother films also garnered worldwide acclaim.

Indonesian Woman Wins ‘Asia’s Nobel Prize’ for Helping Poor

Jakarta Globe, July 28, 2011

Indonesian social worker Tri Mumpuni, left, pictured at the White House
 Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington in 2010. Tri is among the
 winners of Asia’s prestigious Magsaysay award this year for giving green
technologies to the poor, organizers said on Wednesday. (EPA Photo)

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Manila. Indonesian social worker Tri Mumpuni is among the winners of Asia’s prestigious Magsaysay award this year for giving green technologies to the poor, organizers said on Wednesday.

Award foundation president Carmencita Abella said Tri, along with an Indian engineer and a Philippine charity group, had helped harness the technologies to empower their countrymen and worked to create waves of progressive change across Asia.

Each year six people or organizations are named joint winners of the Magsaysay award.

This year the other winners were a man who set up an Islamic school for girls in Indonesia, a lender to India’s poorest, and a man working to restore democracy in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge murdered his father.

“Working on critical issues ... they are showing how commitment, competence, and collaborative leadership can truly transform individual lives and galvanize community action,” Abella said.

The award, often described as Asia’s Nobel Prize, is named after a famous Philippine president who died in a 1957 plane crash.

It aims to honor people who address issues of human development in Asia with courage and creativity.

Tri Mumpuni, 46, was recognized after her IBEKA foundation built 60 small power plants harnessing the energy of water stored in dams to bring electricity to half a million people, the awards foundation said.

She was once kidnapped with her husband by former separatist rebels in Aceh province while pursuing her nongovernmental group’s project to bring electricity to rural Indonesia.

Another winner was US-trained Indian engineer Harish Hande, 44, for bringing solar lights to a country where half of all households have no electricity, the awards foundation said.

His Solar Electric Light Co.-India has tapped the sun’s energy to light up 120,000 households and is now one of the country’s largest solar technology providers.

In the Philippines, Dutch marine engineer Auke Idzenga’s Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation won for using an ancient, near-forgotten technology, the ram pump, to help impoverished communities on Negros island.

Re-engineered for upland farms, the pump gave the communities clean, cheap water for household use and for raising livestock, fish, and small farms, it said.

A ram pump, which does not need an external power source, harnesses the force of a large body of moving water to pump a small amount of water uphill.

The winners are to receive their awards in Manila on August 31.

Agence France-Presse

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(Photo Auke Idzenga)

Editorial: Indonesia Must Fight Reversion to the Past

Jakarta Globe, May 11, 2011

Capitalism and democracy have long been regarded as the twin pillars of progress – socially, politically and economically. Yet as the Asian century beckons, serious questions are being asked about whether Asian nations have fully embraced those two philosophies and systems.

In a recent article, Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the Asian Development Bank, noted that while it was true the global economic center of gravity was shifting to Asia, the continent’s rise was in no way preordained. Freeing the region from extreme poverty and marching toward prosperity will require more than simply high growth.

Kuroda argued that Asia’s ultimate challenge is effective governance — governance that provides quality healthcare and education; infrastructure to move goods and people; efficient, livable cities; stable banking and financial systems; and reliable, fair legal structures that protect citizens’ rights.

“In short, Asia must modernize its governance systems and retool its institutions to ensure transparency, accountability and enforceability,” he said.

Kuroda may have been referring to Asia in general, but his words could not be more applicable to Indonesia. In the past decade or so, Indonesia has seen a flowering of democracy, but its institutions are still weak and effective governance remains a far-off dream.

There are also fears that hard-won democratic reforms are being eroded by ultraconservative, hard-line religious groups. Civil society is under threat, and minority groups are targeted regularly. Having come so far, we cannot afford to return to the days when power was concentrated in the hands of a few individuals.

Consolidating and enhancing democratic reforms are not only critical to societal progress, they are also central to sustained economic growth. Without strong institutions, we will not be able to attain equitable growth. The rising middle class will not be able to secure assets and investors will not risk their money if they have no legal protection.

Therefore, much is at stake. As other regional countries push ahead, Indonesia cannot, and must not, fall behind. The country has come to be seen as a role model for successful democracy and been praised for its open society. It would be a tragedy if we allowed ourselves to taken over by our baser instincts.

Indonesia's Aceh makes 'remarkable' tsunami recovery

BBC News, 22 December 2010

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Indonesia's Aceh province has made a "remarkable" recovery after the devastating 2004 tsunami but many serious challenges remain.

Aceh lags behind the rest of Indonesia in terms of health,
poverty and development, says the UNDP

A UN Development Programme report said rebuilding had been impressive in Aceh.

But it added that more needed to be done to lessen the impact of natural disasters and to reduce poverty.

In December 2004, a quake off the coast of Aceh triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, which killed a quarter of a million people in 13 countries.

Aceh sits on the volatile "ring of fire", a belt of tectonic activity that triggers earthquakes and volcanoes.

'Remarkable progress'

The UNDP report, which was requested by the Aceh administration, said the region's recovery was "beyond anything imaginable six years ago".

"The people of Aceh have achieved remarkable progress in the physical rebuilding of their communities, yet similar advances in key human development indicators remain elusive," the report said.

In terms of poverty, life expectancy and other quality of life measurements, Aceh lags behind the rest of Indonesia.

"Long years of military and political struggle, coupled with changing economic conditions and continuing natural disasters, have left Aceh today as one of the poorest provinces in Indonesia," the report said.

A year after the tsunami, Aceh's separatists signed a peace deal with Jakarta and now dominate local government. The report said Aceh had made "impressive gains in participation in the political arena".

However, it found that women were "still largely under-represented in decision-making at the community level" and that domestic violence was a "major concern".

This first Aceh Human Development Report is based on data from 2008, the latest year for which figures are available.

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RI needs to develop national character

Antara News, Saturday, May 22, 2010 18:02 WIB

Depok, W Java (ANTARA News) - Indonesia needs to develop its national character because it has a wide range of multidimensional and multi-faceted interests, Depok Mayor Nur Mahmudi Ismail said.

"It is important for Indonesia to develop its national character," Nur Mahmudi Ismail said at a function to mark National Awekening Day here on Saturday.

He said the development of national character was necessary because of a number of reasons. The first was that if the nation did not have a national character, it would also miss its next generation.

Second, character was like a steering wheel that could stabilize the nation, and the third was the character did not come by itself but it should be built so that the nation would have dignity.

He said the national character building should be made from year to year because it was the people who had the character that were able to continue with the national goal.

According to Nur Mahmudi, a nation with good character was a nation that had its own identity.

"Therefore, let us build and apply the values of National Awakening Day seriously and sincerely," he said, adding that the national character was a strong foundation on which we could build our nation and overcome various problems ahead.

He added that if the values of National Awakening Day were seriously and sincerely applied, it would be a strong foundation in the solution of various problems that the country was facing.

"Our common enemy in the past was called colonialism, but the foes we are facing today are poverty, unemployment, corruption, lenient law enforcement, and others," he said.

Nur Mahmudi said that with a big spirit in the past the common enemy of colonialism was defeated, and now the same spirit should be revived through existing human resources to fight against the present foes.

"Let us join hands with one commitment to realizing the Indonesian people`s resilience by acting and doing well in accordance with our respective field of duty," he said.