Malnutrition, a dirty word for local officials

The Jakarta Post, Saturday, April 29, 2006

Social workers say they’re alarmed by local administrators’ lack of interest in the problem of malnutrition, claiming the problem is being muzzled in the name of politics.

Subdistrict heads often refuse to acknowledge the existence of poorly-fed children, they said. Some even go as far as forbidding social workers to mention the word “malnutrition” in reports, a social worker from the Healthy Indonesia Foundation, Leny H.R., told a media forum Thursday organized by the Coalition for a Healthy Indonesia.

“Maybe they’re afraid of how a public acknowledgment like this would affect their careers,” she said.

The lack of government support has forced Leny herself to treat 20 malnourished children under two years old in the Mulyaharja subdistrict, Bogor Selatan district, Bogor.

“Luckily some private donors have come up and provided funding for the 20 children for three months, until the end of April,” she added, explaining that the donors provided milk, biscuits, and Rp 50,000 (about US$5.7) a day for food.

Leny said that she would have to find new sources of funding to continue the treatment for the next three months.

“It’s shameful that they (the local administrations) won’t acknowledge a major problem like this,” the head of the Health Ministry’s nutrition alert division, Tatang S. Falah, said in the media forum.

He said the Health Ministry’s policy was for people to report even one incidence of malnutrition to the nearest health institution or worker in their area, within 24 hours of discovery.

“Because it may not be an isolated occurrence, we treat that particular case, but we also immediately investigate the area for similar cases,” Tatang said.

The ministry recorded a prevalence rate of 23.2 percent for malnutrition in West Java in 2003, and 21.53 percent in Jakarta.

Tatang said one of the most effective, cheapest ways to detect early signs of malnutrition in a population was to rejuvenate the role of public health clinics (puskesmas) and integrated health services posts (posyandu).

One of the services at a posyandu is to regularly weigh infants, checking to see whether they’ve reached the appropriate weight for their age. If a child has not gained sufficient weight after two weighing sessions, he or she is immediately reported to puskesmas or a hospital for further consultation and treatment.

“People usually only go to posyandu for vaccination programs for their babies and toddlers, when these places are in fact very important to catch the first indications of malnutrition,” Tatang said.

Long, winding road to viable transportation system

The Jakarta Post, Tuesday, April 25, 2006

There was a time when a day off meant more than a day on the couch. There were errands to catch up on and friends to catch up with. An opportunity to enjoy the pleasures of a matinee or perhaps time to visit that new art exhibition. Those days have long since gone. Now the only place I want to spend my day off is on the couch, catching up on my PlayStation. I wasn’t always a couch potato; it took years of suffering through Jakarta’s horrific traffic jams to make me the kind of person who only ventures out of the house for work, and perhaps medical emergencies.

I once read Jakarta has one of the most comprehensive transportation systems on the planet. True, it’s a city where four wheels are considered better than two legs.

Walking gets you nowhere but dabbing your head with a hanky, while everyone else stares at you like you just came down from the trees.

The city administration, it seems, understands this and subtly (or not) discourages walking by declining to provide basic facilities like pedestrian bridges and, I don’t know, sidewalks. Most people have probably noticed, as they stared out their car window during the interminable traffic jam known as the daily commute, that most streets in the city don’t have sidewalks, or if they do have sidewalks they have been overtaken by trees and bushes or, that’s right, sidewalk vendors. Except of course the main thoroughfares of Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin, which seems to me a blatant attempt to fool visitors and business travelers into believing that Jakarta is a city of sidewalks; clean, wide, passable sidewalks that would be at home along the streets of any Western city.

Not to worry, there is always public transportation. In fact, there is a veritable smorgasbord of public transportation choices, from big and box-like to sleek and fast (well, not really sleek and usually not particularly fast, because we’re still talking about Jakarta).

Large air-conditioned buses drop people off in the heart of the city from their homes in Bekasi, Tangerang, Bogor and Depok — where the three-wheeled becak can still be found in some areas.

From there, they can either take a smaller bus — one of the metrominis or kopajas — or the latest in mass rapid transit, the busway, to their ultimate destination.

The city’s 40,000-plus taxis are in furious competition with each other for the privilege of taking you door-to-door. I suppose this competition could explain why so many taxi drivers seem to work 48 hours straight, and are ready to nod off at a moment’s notice. Sleep tight, fair driver. I will watch the road ahead while you enjoy your much-deserved rest.

Or it you don’t mind the clamor, take the cheaper three-wheeled bajaj, while they are still allowed on the streets.

In a hurry for an important meeting? Beat the traffic with the ubiquitous ojek (motorcycle taxi), because some meetings are worth dying for. That’s not entirely fair. I know several people who have taken ojek and lived to tell the tale (unfortunately they told the tale from a hospital bed, in full-body casts).

Up north, one can still find bicycle taxis, not as quick as the motorcycles, but much safer amid the ruthless North Jakarta traffic.

Oh, and don’t forget the trains, which complement the large buses in transporting people from Jakarta’s suburbs into the city. Dirt cheap and, well, dirty, Jakarta’s trains are nearly always early or late. Still, the trains are the only way to travel for the majority of commuters who enter the capital each day.

Vegetable sellers rub shoulders with white-collar workers, traveling the 80 kilometers from Rangkas Bitung in West Java to Jakarta for a mere Rp 1,500 (about 16 US cents). It’s by far the cheapest, and fastest, mode of transportation around.

Maybe it’s true after all, Jakarta has one of the most comprehensive transportation systems in the world. And when the construction of the monorail — and the subway — wraps up, the choices will be complete.

So with all these transportation options, why do people still prefer to drive their own cars?

The answer, of course, is comfort and safety, the two things none of our modes of public transportation are able to offer (not even the ojek).

Public buses and trains teem with pickpockets, who sometimes branch out to minivans.

Crowded carriages become even more so as vendors squeeze between passengers, hawking their wares.

Even the new busway system has lost some of the comfort that was its claim to fame two years ago. Not enough buses on the new routes means masses of people crushed together at the busway shelters. And while the busway does help you escape the traffic on normal days, it too falls victim to demonstrations and rain, when flooded streets shut down much of the city’s transportation system.

We can always hope the monorail and subway will make a difference, getting people out of their cars and breaking the traffic gridlock. Until that happens, I’ll be on the couch with my PlayStation.

Daisy gives the blind access to books

The Jakarta Post, Saturday, April 22, 2006

Most people take reading for granted, but for blind people, people with learning disabilities, and those who cannot hold a book, it is perceived as a distant luxury not a basic need.

Recent advances in technology have made it easier for people with print disabilities to access information. Screen reader technology, such as JAWS, has emancipated many people with visual impairments from isolation by opening up the Internet; and audio books, in digital format or in the form of cassettes, have brought the richness of literature a little closer.

But even with the ease that technology affords, differences in digital formats often bring confusion to the blind. And it’s certainly no fun to navigate through hours of audio recording to find where you left off in a novel, for example.

Recently introduced at a seminar at the State Ministry for Information and Communication in Central Jakarta, was the Digital Accessible Information System (Daisy), a standard that tries to bring order to the world of digital talking books, and make it easier for people to navigate through them.

“Compared to the traditional audio cassette recording, audio books produced with the Daisy standard are navigable by chapter, page, and even searchable through words and phrases,” the seminar’s organizer, Firdaus, who is from non-governmental organization Mitra Netra Foundation, told The Jakarta Post.

The brainchild of a consortium of international nonprofit organizations serving blind and dyslexic people in Switzerland in 1996, the Daisy allows producers the flexibility of mixing text and audio; ranging from audio-only, to full text and audio, to text-only, which can be used for the production of braille books.

“In this way a person who is totally blind can access the books using audio-only, while those with low vision can read the enlarged text of the books using a computer,” Firdaus said, adding that Mitra Netra had used the standard for the production of its digital talking books since 2000.

The standard also allows digital talking books to be used in a range of digital multimedia players, including CD and DVD players, as well as the PC.

“But portable players that can fully utilize the Daisy talking book are still rare in Indonesia, at most you can use the Bomba DVD player to play audio but without navigation tools,” Mitra Netra’s digital talking book editor Nasihah said, adding that as yet people who needed the talking books could use the computers at the foundation’s library in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta.

Thursday’s seminar was aimed at introducing the Daisy standard to a wider audience, particularly publishers, so that the digital books can be widely produced, and help those with visual impairments.

Eggs galore draw children, adults alike

The Jakarta Post, Sunday, April 16, 2006

Her already bulging pockets did not stop a five-year-old girl from running around and picking up more colorful Easter eggs to stuff in her overalls and inside her cap.

Despite the organizer’s “five eggs for snack gifts” policy, many children, like the abovementioned girl, ended up collecting more than the allotted number for the fun of it.

The Greatest Easter Egg Hunt 2006, held at Lippo Karawaci’s golf driving range in Tangerang, was organized by the Mission Youth for Christ (MYC) organization. Saturday’s free event attracted a crowd of more than 10,000 children and parents.

“That looks so much fun, I wish I could join,” Luciana, who had just passed the age limit of 5 to 12 years, told her mother, who was watching over another of her children hunting for eggs.

From 8 a.m. until 2 p.m., some 100,000 brightly colored Easter eggs were scattered throughout the grounds of the driving range for children from the surrounding areas of Tangerang, Serpong and even Jakarta.

“The idea is to mark the resurrection of Jesus, but also to have a great day for the community,” organizer William Butte told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Although the Easter egg hunt was held to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, the event was open to people of all religions.

“The event is to show how MYC youths could be of service to their community, and by serving others also serve God,” said Butte.

MYC youths — mainly students from surrounding Pelita Harapan School, Pelita Harapan University and other schools — helped with grouping children according to their age range, so the smaller children wouldn’t get trampled on by bigger ones.

They also managed overexcited parents, missing children and in handing out snack parcels and popsicles as gifts at the end of the event.

MYC held a similar activity last year that involved some 2,000 children from orphanages around Lippo Karawaci, Butte said. By organizing a bigger Easter egg hunt this year, he added, MYC hoped to reach more people in the community.

“We plan to make the event annual, and want to make it so even more kids are involved,” he said.

Firm offers insurance for vehicle owners parking in public places

The Jakarta Post, Thursday April 13, 2006

Read the fine print on a ticket issued by any parking company in the city, and it’s clear that, apart from the steep charge, there is next to nothing offered in terms of security for the vehicle.
Beginning next week, however, customers will have the option to participate in a new insurance scheme for their vehicles.

“We want to help those who cannot afford the hefty premium on car insurance, because vehicle owners are really at a disadvantage in parking lots,” PT Bumi Artha Sukses Mandiri president Heron Rubianto said Wednesday.

The insurance company has introduced Artha Parking Insurance, providing all-risk insurance for parked vehicles — including clauses on damage sustained in riots and personal accidents for two people — of up to Rp 100 million (about US$11,000) for cars and Rp 15 million for motorcycles.

Heron said the insurance was first offered for companies wishing to give extra security for their clients, such as valet services, but would be extended to the general public beginning Monday.

“We have an agreement with the Jakarta Parking Management to start introducing the scheme. The results of the trial period also will be used as consideration in the drafting of a gubernatorial decree on parking,” he said.

The scheme will be implemented at off-street parking lots in Monas, Central Jakarta; the west side of Jl. Boulevard in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta; and the parking area in Blok M, South Jakarta.

On the street, it will cover Jl. H. Agus Salim and Jl. HOS Cokroaminoto in Central Jakarta, the east and west side of Jl. Boulevard in North Jakarta, Jl. Jatinegara Pasar and Jl. Kedoya Pasar in East Jakarta, Jl. Gajah Mada and Jl. Hayam Wuruk in West Jakarta, and Jl. Wolter Mongonsidi and Jl. Panglima Polim in South Jakarta.

Parking tickets printed from electronic ticket dispensers will have extra wording about the parking insurance policy, or the parking attendant will provide an extra ticket besides the standard parking ticket.

“This means that customers are encouraged to always ask for a parking ticket,” Heron said, adding it was in line with the Jakarta Parking Management’s effort to minimize opportunities for corruption.

A study by the University of Indonesia determined the ideal premium price at Rp 500 per car and Rp 300 per motorcycle for off-street parking, and Rp 1,000 per car and Rp 500 per motorcycle for on-street parking due to the increased risk.

For locations that have not participated in the system, vehicle owners can still get insurance policies through Bumi Artha’s SMS-based system. Type Askir#plate number#vehicle brand#vehicle type#parking location#parking ticket number on mobile phones using any cellular operator, and send to 6288.

“The cost of the SMS, at Rp 2,000 per message, will already include the cost of the insurance policy premium,” Heron said, explaining that an automatic response would immediately provide a policy number.

Using the parking ticket and policy, a customer can claim damages, such as for total or partial loss of vehicle, damage or loss through accidents or criminal acts, damage through riots, except cases related to political upheaval, terrorism and sabotage, and personal accidents occurring in parking areas or parking buildings.

“Accessories that come with the vehicle, that are factory standard, will also be insured, including tape players,” Heron said.