· October, 2005

Stories about Indonesia from October, 2005

Indonesia: Poor Credentials

Indonesia Now lists the credentials you need to qualify for government handouts to offset the impact of fuel price rises. Some of them: no electricity, a house made of bamboo,...

26 October 2005

Effect Measure on Facing the Global Bird Flu Threat

Masked Mao With recent reports of avian flu in Western Europe, the disease is clearly no longer East Asia's problem. It's a dilemma for the world. Last week I emailed Revere, the pseudonymous leader of Effect Measure, a public health group blog. Since its inception in late 2004, Effect Measure has been covering the global response to avian flu. My goal was to discuss the pandemic fears and what the world -- and ordinary people -- can do to prepare for it. Revere, an environmental epidemiologist in a senior faculty position at a major research university, has 40 years of experience in medicine and public health. He is also one of the individuals behind the Flu Wiki, an Internet-based experiment in community mobilization and knowledge-pooling to face the feared epidemic. He paints an alarming picture. "If a pandemic is going to happen (and we don't know how to predict if it will or not with certainty), it will happen whatever we do," he writes. "There will be no "outside" for help to come from, so each community needs to prepare to cope on its own." In previous flu pandemics, hundreds of thousands of people went sick or died, leading to massive disruptions as workers failed to show up to work and instead surged into ill-equipped and ill-prepared hospitals ill-prepared. Revere sees two big tasks ahead: managing the consequences of a potential pandemic, and building (or rebuilding) the world's rotting public health infrastructure.

25 October 2005

Indonesia: Fuel Dominos

“What a year it's been,” says Macam-macam of Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's first year in power. Corruption and rising fuel prices bedevil the country, Sarapan Ekonomi notes. Meanwhile, Myanmar...

20 October 2005

Indonesia: International Muslims

Jakartass writes about being a Westerner who converted to Islam to marry his wife, and posts an e-mail he received about a charity drive at Ramadan from the Jakarta International...

14 October 2005

Indonesia: Why blog?

Must be something in the blogowaters. A. Fatih Syuhud, an Indonesian student based in India, is also moved to share his blogger's philosophy.

14 October 2005

Indonesia: Bali sentence reduced

BaliBlog reports on the reduction to 15 from 20 years of the jail term handed down by a Denpasar court to Australian national Schapelle Corby, convicted of smuggling marijuana into...

13 October 2005

Indonesia: Corruption charges

Jakartass says the suspension from duty of Indonesian Chief Justice Bagir Manan “could well be an event of cataclysmic importance in the burgeoning democracy of Indonesia”. Meanwhile, Indonesia Today reports...

13 October 2005

Indonesia: Just around the Riverbend

Nad's Notes speculates on the Ulysses Awards for Reportage, wondering why so many contenders are writing about war and other horrors, and tipping the blog Baghdad Burning as a likely...

12 October 2005

Indonesia: Bombing theory deconstructed

Paras Indonesia posts a long essay deconstructing prevailing views of Bali as the “natural” location for Islamist suicide bombers to attack Western tourists in their reactions against the forces of...

11 October 2005

Indonesia: Fuel subsidy reductions

Nad's Notes posts a summary of the Indonesian government's plans to replace fuel subsidies with more targeted spending on health, education and low-income households. Via A. Fatih Syuhud.

10 October 2005

Indonesia: Army comment reaction

Jakartass analyzes reactions to a recent suggestion by military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto that it might be good to restore the military's internal territorial command structure, in response to the...

7 October 2005

Indonesia: Military role

Jakartass analyzes a recent presidential speech, and wonders if the Indonesian military may take a higher profile following the Bali bombings.

6 October 2005

Indonesia: Why Bali is quiet

Bali Blog says that while the MSM will say tourists have fled following the suicide bombings, the Kuta and Seminyak tourist areas of Bali are quiet because of Galungan, a...

4 October 2005

Indonesia: Month of fasting

A. Fatih Syuhud wishes Muslims a happy Ramadan, as fasting begins around the world with the sighting of the moon. He provides some background and links to further essays on...

4 October 2005