Turn Trash into Pantomime Treasure

Five men enter the stage, each carrying a broom in their hands. They are dressed in costumes made of trash, their faces adorned with expressive makeup. Silently, they move in sequence, led by the music. They sweep the stage, covered in the debris of a world overrun with pollution and garbage.

That is the opening scene of “Broom in Hand,” a show created by pantomime troupe Sena Didi Mime, consisting of alumni from the school of performing arts at the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ).

The troupe is performing “Broom in Hand” from Friday to Sunday this weekend in Berlin as part of the Jakarta-Berlin Arts Festival. The festival, which ends on Sunday, has the goal of bringing together Indonesian and German artists in an attempt to strengthen creative bonds between the two capitals.

The pantomime performance tells the story of five friends who must try to keep the world clean after it has become overrun with trash. It is the troupe’s satirical warning to Jakartans about the consequences of their lackadaisical attitude toward the environment.

“Indonesians have no discipline when it comes to keeping the world clean,” said show director Yayu A. W. Unru after a rehearsal in Jakarta before the troupe left for Berlin. “They might when they are overseas, but here it is different. “Indonesians are used to throwing rubbish everywhere, polluting the city and destroying the environment.”

It may seem like a heavy message to convey through mime, a performance art often associated with clowns trapped in invisible boxes.

But pantomime is, in a way, an art form that predates human civilization. Before people developed language, they conveyed their thoughts and emotions through movement and facial expressions alone. In many countries, it is a performance medium that is afforded the same respect as opera or theater.

For several decades, Sena Didi Mime has been working to develop and gain respect for pantomime in Indonesia. The troupe has been invited to many international festivals to showcase their original productions. It alsoheld the Jakarta International Pantomime Festival in 1992and 1994.

Sena Didi Mime focuses on two types of performances — some with obvious plots, like “Broom in Hand,” and some that are more abstract and conceptual.

One of the troupe’s performers, Midoen Al Rasyid, said one thing that makes pantomime unique is that it does not try to impart messages on the audience, only impressions. In the end, it is up to the audience to choose their own interpretation of those impressions.

“You won’t be able to find the story of the show, since the point is not to give you the story,” said Didi Petet, troupe founder and one of its lead actors. “People are free to have their own ideas and takes on it.”

But, of course, mime is not only about hidden messages, but also about the sheer enjoyment of the show. “Above all, we’re trying to entertain the audience,” said another performer, Stephanus Hermawan, better known as Ciprut .

taken from The Jakarta Globe

More Than Youthful Indonesian Enthusiasm

History has repeatedly shown that young people can be a driving force for change. With this in mind, the Indonesian Youth Conference celebrated its second annual event in Jakarta last weekend, providing a platform for young minds to express their thoughts for the improvement of the country.

This year’s event attracted more than double the number of participants at last year’s conference, with about 900 youths in attendance, compared to 400 last year.

Rifat Najmi, one of the event’s organizers, said the conference was a success. Participants came not only from Jakarta, but cities across Indonesia, including Yogyakarta, Makassar and Balikpapan.

With the slogan “The Future Starts Now,” the event featured inspirational speakers from a variety of backgrounds, including news anchor Najwa Shihab, visual artist Jay Subiakto, and Budi Soehardi, a former airline pilot who left behind his life in Singapore to build an orphanage in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.

“We basically wanted to inspire Indonesia’s young generation,” Rifat said, adding that the speakers offered to attend the conference free of charge.

“The speakers came to the conference because they wanted to help the young generation make their dreams come true,” he said.

A number of representatives from inspirational organizations also attended the event to showcase their programs, including speakers from Berbudaya Itu Seru (Being Cultured is So Much Fun), Indonesian Future Leaders and WiserEarth.

Through the conference, Rifat and his team encouraged teenagers to join in seminar and discussion sessions, tackling issues close to their daily lives, their schools or the broader community. They hoped the event would bring young people from different backgrounds together to meet and make friends and also motivate young people to communicate their ideas and concerns through mass media.

“From the beginning, we wanted to reach out to young Indonesians of all levels,” Rifat said. But promoting the event turned out to be hard work. In the end, he said, the team of 33 organizers relied on promotion through social media. He said most of the organization was done over the Internet, because most members of the team were still at school or university, making it difficult to find time to meet up.

“We only met to finalize things or execute plans,” he said.

But the biggest challenge, Rifat said, was convincing young people the conference was not just for bright or experienced teenagers, but for anyone interested in changing the nation for the better.

Participant Vinessia William Putri, a student at Paramadina University, said she was excited to attend the event. With a list of many inspiring speakers, she said the event was both “exciting” and “informative.”

“I came to this event because I believe modern young people can do something big when they unite,” she said.

Aulia, a high school student, said she was enthusiastic about participating. “It feels so great to be surrounded by other positive-minded young Indonesians,” she said, adding that events like these should be held more often.

Filmmaker Joko Anwar, who gave a lecture on “being creative in expressing aspirations,” was impressed by the motivated young people he met at the event. A few days after attending, he praised the conference via his Twitter account: “Indonesian Youth Conference is a melting pot for young people who are creative, smart and devoted to the country,” he wrote.

Hendra, a university student, said the positive vibe of the event made him more optimistic about the future of the country.

“With this kind of young generation, Indonesia could indeed be a great nation one day,” he said.
Source : The Jakarta Globe
posted in Good News From Indonesia by Raisa Nabila

No Longer Walking, We Are Running (Part II)

In a quest for Asian food in Washington DC, I found a considerably sizable Malay food stall close to Maryland border. It’s called the “Penang Restaurant”. Glad to find that because  I had been eating Vietnamese , Thai, and Indian food (in addition to my fave Indonesian fried rice sold at a Chinese restaurant across the Indonesian embassy in DC).

I stepped in,  and got a very warm welcome from the owner; a Chinese Malaysian ( I supposed) came over and greeted me, “You must be Indonesian!”  he said. “You don’t look like Thai and Filipino, and Malaysians don’t go to my restaurant,” he added.

While ordering my meal, I asked him how long had he been in the States. Instead of responding to that, he said something shocking me, “I will not come back to Malaysia. It’s no longer a comfy place to live for people like me. And it stalls”. I enthusiastically confronted his statement, because I knew it’s not  true. It’s not the untrue statement I was concerned about. It’s his persistence.

It reminds me of someone I met years ago, when I was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  He was someone from the ruling party youth wing, saying that ‘when Indonesia grows up, Malaysia falls down. Vice versa.’ Again, it’s not true. Indonesia grows, and Malaysia grows also. Over the last decade, the world has seen the transformation Indonesia underwent, building foundation to go up, that’s when Malaysia was leaving Indonesia behind further and further. When Indonesia was reuniting its pieces, Malaysia built gigantic projects and booked outstanding growth. Malaysia set an example on how to run companies, and move the economy. Air Asia, Petronas, CIMB, TM, they are Malaysia-based giants. They’ll be more and more of those companies, I am sure.

What about now?

Well, the fact that Indonesia is catching up is something obvious. In fact, in some ways, Indonesia does better than Malaysia. While cash outflow was rampant in Malaysia, money from all over the corner was lining up entering Indonesian economy. Jakarta Stock Index clearly outperformed its Malaysian counterpart. But still, Malaysia economy has its own uniqueness. It grows, despite  all the adversities. Indonesia, I think, is going into that direction… building its own foundation, creating its own uniqueness.

(To be continued)

By Akhyari Hananto

For the Love of Her Homeland

Do you want to know what love is capable of? Ask Papua radio journalist Kathe Vince Dimara, who has unconditional love for her homeland.

It was love for her motherland that made the winner of the prestigious S.K. Trimurti Award choose to become a journalist in a remote village in Papua.

It was also love for Kurima, a district in central Papua, that made her struggle to revive a defunct radio community from scratch to bring about positive changes for local residents.

It was also her passion for the homeland that enabled her to walk for days on foot to a remote village to cover it and bring information to people.

“You can say that I am deeply in love with Kurima because I was born and grew up there. Even though my family is originally from Biak [an island in the north of Papua], I want to change the lives of local people to become better,” Kathe said in a recent interview with The Jakarta Post.

Her love is not just strong emotion but has turned into action.

The 30-year-old is the brains behind the radio community Pikon Ane, which is considered an agent of change for the people in Kurima.

She joined the station back in 2007 as a reporter. But, the station was not operating properly and the coordinator of the project fled to the city, leaving only three people behind, including Kathe.

Kathe took over the station a year later and started everything from the scratch.

“There was no money left so I had to do my best to make the radio work,” she said.

Kathe spent almost three months recruiting and made the station management more efficient.

Thanks to her hard work, the radio finally got back on the air in late 2008 despite limited funding and human resources.

Amazingly, Kathe did not stop there. Started as a radio community whose main role was to entertain and provide information to local listeners, Radio Pikon Ane and its crew have transformed the lives of Kurima’s people.

The radio has provided many benefits to locals through empowerment programs in education, health and the economy.

It has been considered an effective tool that helps move the wheels of the local economy.

Kurima residents work mainly as farmers and have been using the radio to make their agricultural products more competitive.

Before the station existed, the value of vegetables from Kurima was always below market prices. But now local agricultural products have gained in value after farmers learned how to control prices and distribution networks.

Aside from economic advantages, the people of Kurima have also enjoyed other benefits from the radio broadcasts.

They have learned the importance of washing their hands before eating, cleaning before going to bed and about air sanitation. They have also been informed about women’s rights and the need for education.

Under Kathe’s leadership, Radio Pikon Ane has gone beyond its role as a radio community. The station does not exist only to inform but also to push the local community toward a better life.

It is exactly for those reasons that Kathe was named the recipient of this year’s S.K. Trimurti Award, an honor given to female journalists and activists who fight for gender equality and freedom of expression.

When asked about the award, Kathe admitted she was surprised.

“I just found out [I got the award] when I got [to Jakarta]. They didn’t tell me anything, they only told me to come to Jakarta,” Kathe said with a giggle.

It never crossed Kathe’s mind that she could win such a big award, merely a journalist running a community’s radio station in a remote area of Papua.

Kathe developed her interest in journalism in junior high. After graduating from high school, she moved to Jayapura to study communication at a university in the capital.

Believing that information is a tool for change, Kathe said she wants to go back to Kurima and empower people with her knowledge about communication and journalism.

But, being a journalist in a remote region has been a challenge.

Kathe said the hardest part of being a journalist in Kurima was changing the local people’s paradigm.

“They still hold strongly to local tradition, making it difficult to accept new things,” she said.

The second biggest challenge was the poor infrastructure, so local reporters must work extra hard to get news.

But the persistent girl has proved that nothing can stop her from doing good things for society.

Kathe shared a story about when she spent a day walking on foot to cover a story about a school that had been closed for 10 years.

Her sacrifice and hard work paid off with the local government reopening the school after hearing her story on the radio.

With regards to opposition from locals, Kathe has managed to respond to problems by inventing simple and useful programs that give tips on health and cooking as well as information on farming, which were hits among residents.

“Listening to radio programs has become a new trend for the locals,” Kathe said proudly.

The woman added that inspiration for the programs came from monitoring daily life.

Kathe said she likes to spend time talking to locals to get information about anything, including news.

But it is not hard for a cheerful lady like Kathe to mingle with everybody.

Her aura of happiness can be seen in her face. She never stopped laughing or giggling every time she tried to answer questions, despite the fact that she had a long journey from Papua with numerous flight delays.

One thing to conclude from the less-than-30-minute interview is how strong Kathe’s attachment to Kurima people is.

After receiving the award, Kathe said she still had one big ambition — to expand Radio Pikon Ane.

“I want Pikon Ane to expand and become a work place for children who cannot go to university because their parents are poor,” she said.

One wonders what is it about Kurima that makes Kathe fully dedicated to the impoverished region. But, let’s not ask what Kurima gives to Kathe, but what she has given to her homeland.

And, we know for sure the answer is love.

Source: The Jakarta Post

Extending Our Hands

It is time to remember others, and GNFI are helping our friends KELAPA movement to convey this message to our readers. Please lend them your helping hands, dear good readers.

Dear all,
Dimohon kesediannya untuk mendukung gerakan Kelapa(KeciL tAPi bermAkna)dengan cara menyumbang baju/sepatu layak pakai/alat sholat utk bantu kaum papa di Cikarang berlebaran.Tolong juga kesediaannya utk memforward info ini. Di bawah tertera beberapa tempat untuk menaruh sumbangan.

Donasi akan dijual kepada mereka dengan harga Rp.500/1000 per buah pada Sabtu, 13/8.

Untuk info lebih lanjut silahkan SMS/email ke:
1. Meicky
081284222468
meicky_shoreamanis@yahoo.com

2. Fidel
085878800534
fideliayojani@gmail.com

3.Hanna
082124400942
hanna_fmp@yahoo.com

Deadline donasi tanggal 5/8.Tolong digarisbawahi bahwa institusi-institusi berikut tidak terlibat resmi dalam gerakan ini namun orang di dalamnya berbaik hati meminjamkan kantor mereka untuk meletakkan sumbangan sebelum diangkut ke Cikarang.Jadi tolong sumbangan ditaruh di dalam boks hingga kantor mereka tetap rapi.Terima kasih!

Tempat drop ke-1.
Ibu Ezki Suyanto
(Untuk Cikarang)
Komisi Penyiaran Indonesia
Jl.Gajah Mada No. 8
Gedung Bapeten lantai 6
Sebelah kantor Lion Air
Jakarta Pusat

Tempat drop ke-2.
Sdr.Victor da Costa
(Untuk Cikarang)
KontraS (Komisi untuk Orang Hilang dan Korban Tindak Kekerasan)
Jalan Borobudur No.14
Jakarta Pusat

Tempat drop ke-3
Ibu Henny Sirait
(Untuk Cikarang)
Rumah Kain Indonesia
Jl.Cipete Raya no.16 blok A8
(Sebelah Restoran Sambara)
Jakarta-Selatan

Tempat drop ke-4
Bapak Sugeng Sugiarto
(Untuk Cikarang)
Toko Furniture ‘Ibu Suhardi’
Jalan Pulo Ribung Raya No.283
Ruko Villa Galaxy,Bekasi
(Ruko Patung Kuda 2,ada di hoek)

Tempat drop ke-5
dr.Budi Darmadi
(Untuk Cikarang)
Rumah Sakit Hosanna Medica
Ruko Thamrin Blok C 3
Kompleks Lippo-Cikarang
Cikarang,Bekasi

Tempat drop ke-6
Bapak H.Maman/Ibu Hj.Yayah Zakiah
(Untuk Cikarang)
Pesantren Darunnadwah
Jalan Gatot Subroto No.55
Karang Asih,Cikarang
(Masuk dr depan Sentra Grosir Cikarang)
_____
Meicky Shoreamanis Panggabean
I touch the future.I teach.
www.gurudanpenulis.com
Kumpulan tulisan nonpendidikan dari para guru

May God repay all your kindness and good efforts. Thank you.

Love Indonesia Fruits

The government on Sunday launched a “Love Indonesian Fruits” campaign to increase local fruit consumption.

State Enterprises Minister Mustafa Abubakar, Agriculture Minister Suswono and Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) rector Herry Suhardiyanto cut through miniature durian at Senayan Timur parking lot here to mark the launch of the campaign.

Suswono said the campaign was expected to encourage the people to consume more local fruits which were not inferior to imported fruits.

“Through this movement we want the Indonesian people to become increasingly fonder of local fruits amidst the glut of imported fruits. This movement will also be supported by follow-up steps by among others improving the quality of local fruits and shortening fruit production and trade chains. By doing so, fruit growers can make profit and consumers can buy local fruits at affordable prices,” he said.

The one-year campaign calls for the government to declare Friday as national fruit day and asks state institutes, government agencies, food and beverage industries, hotels and retailers to encourage local fruit consumption.

The campaign is also aimed at encouraging the application of Indonesian National Standard (SNI) to Indonesian fruits, the application of quality standard to imported fruits, and the imposition of higher duties on imported fruits to protect local fruits against the onslaught of imported fruits.

In addition, it was also meant to encourage the government to improve a fruit trading system and production infrastructures and fruit trading, he said.

The campaign would also encourage the emergence of new local fruit growers and traders through a number of programs.

The activity supported by IPB alumni would also encourage the development of fruit gardens registered at the Directorate General of Horticulture at the Agriculture Ministry. To date there are 2,000 fruit gardens registered at the ministry. They have all applied good agriculture practices.

Source: Antara News

Rosseta Stone Launches Five New Languages

Rosetta Stone Inc. is a leading provider of technology-based language-learning solutions, today announced the release of five new, online language solutions: Dari, Pashto, Urdu, Swahili and Bahasa Indonesia. The introduction of these new languages, whose demand reflects the globalization of their origin countries, showcases Rosetta Stone’s commitment to meeting consumer, cultural and market needs. These languages join 31 other languages available through Rosetta Stone and are the first new languages the company has introduced since Irish was launched in March 2008.

The five new languages, first developed exclusively for U.S. government and military language training, are now available online to U.S. consumers for the first time. The new, consumer-facing versions focus on everyday conversational content in these popular languages. Three-month online subscriptions of Version 3, Level 1 are available for $159, with six-month subscription purchases available for $259 at RosettaStone.com.

“The language demands of the global economy are always evolving,” said Eric Duehring, SVP of Global Brand Marketing, Rosetta Stone. “With the introduction of these five new languages and more in-depth study of Russian and Mandarin, Rosetta Stone maintains its position at the forefront of the evolution of language needs and encourages communication among the citizens of the world.”

Source: Official Rosseta Stone’s website.

Beauty With A Badge

There’s First Sergeant Eka Frestya, whose exotic, model-like features often stop male motorists dead in their tracks when she hands them tickets for driving recklessly.

Not just a pretty face, the 23-year-old went undercover to help bust a drug dealer last year.

There’s Second Lieutenant Eny Kuswidyanti, who has enthralled viewers on a TV cooking show, where she helped to make a dessert called “motley traffic light.”

She declined to give her age, but her impish looks suggest she is in her late 20s or early 30s.

And there’s Sergeant Avvy Olivia, 28, who could well be a teeny-bopper pop star but who appears on MetroTV as well as on Jakarta’s streets to direct traffic.

Together, the trio of attractive police officers are leading a charge by Indonesia’s embattled police force to improve its image.

“The public love having clean, nice-looking personnel serving them,” said Sgt Avvy. “This makes them feel happier and more likely to follow traffic regulations.”

Their deployment follows a number of surveys which have put the police force in a bad light, mirroring long-held accusations of graft and incompetency.

In 2008, Transparency International Indonesia ranked the police force as the most corrupt institution in the country, citing rampant cases of bribery. And last December, only 37 per cent of university students said in a survey that the police performed well.

But now, 1st Sgt Eka, 2nd Lt Eny and Sgt Avvy are trying to improve the police’s tarnished image. Since late last year, they and several other female police officers have been appearing on MetroTV to deliver updates on road conditions.

This is in addition to their daily duty of directing the traffic on Jakarta’s streets.

The attractive officers were selected from dozens of candidates proposed by various offices and departments within the police force.

The successful ones were then put through presentation classes under the tutelage of Mudakir Rifai, a former creative director at SCTV.

“To serve the public well, to communicate effectively, you need to present a good package,” he said.

The Royal Malaysian Police also plan to station good-looking, smart and personable police officers in front-line positions, they say, to present a friendlier and accessible image to the public.

For now, the publicity efforts by the Indonesian police seem to be working ? at least for many men.

On Friday, the pretty police officers raised many eyebrows and drew smiles when they distributed roses to passing drivers on busy roads.

“They are too beautiful for police officers,” said an impressed Hajoran Siregar, 39, a bank officer.

Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 021 2553 5055.

Source: The Jakarta Globe

To Palestine, with Love

“Independence is the right of all nations, therefore all forms of oppression and occupation must be abolished on this earth.” This is the tagline for a conference on the rights of the Palestinian people to be held in Jakarta this week.

A two-day humanitarian Asia-Pacific conference has been proposed by the Indonesian National Committee for Palestinian People (KNRP) along with the Palestinian Caucus of the Indonesian Parliament in an attempt to discuss steps to help curb Palestinian suffering and to raise awareness about Palestinian rights to become an independent state.

“So far, hundreds of participants from 30 countries across Asia and the Pacific, as well as the Middle East, have confirmed their attendance at the conference,” Heri Efendi of the KNRP said. The conference will take place at the Jakarta Convention Center from Wednesday to Thursday.

The event committee said in its press release that the world had witnessed Palestinian torments and grievances.

“The radical conflict with Israel has left a profound wound on both Palestine’s land and its inhabitants. With thousands of Palestinian people slaughtered, women and children becoming refugees and thousands of infrastructure [developments] destroyed, Palestine has endured relentless years of destruction,” it said.

In an attempt to “fulfill the rights of Palestinian people,” the conference will adopt six objectives it intends to discuss thoroughly.

Topics include developing an awareness program of the current Palestine and Al-Quds situation, ideas and proposals for Palestine’s road to independence, proposing fund raising objectives for humanitarian programs in Palestine and uncovering solutions for on-going problems in the country.

“Prominent figures from various backgrounds in the Asia-Pacific region have also been asked to construct plans to enhance Palestine’s horizon as well as, creating solutions for issues concerning conflicts in Palestine,” said committee member Izzudin Edi Siswanto of the WAFAA.

Izzudin said the event was intentionally held in Jakarta, where high ranking government officials and national figures are more likely to attend.

The conference will also feature presentations by prominent world figures from Arab and Asia-Pacific regions and end with a statement of resolutions and a declaration on Palestinian’s future.

Source: The Jakarta Post

Join the GNFI team!

Good News From Indonesia (GNFI) was founded by Mr. Akhyari Hananto in 2008, who was (and still is) really optimistic about Indonesia and were sick of Indonesian’s medias broadcasting bad news about this nation. He fought the many mainstream medias negative portrays of Indonesia by posting good news he collected from various sources at his blog. His blog began gaining loyal readers from every corner of the world and many of them joined forces to support the efforts in promoting the good sides of Indonesia.

GNFI is your independent and trusted premier source of all kinds of good news from Indonesia. Our vision is clearly defined within good news, with no intervention from political, religious, or any private interest that might harm our independence. In March 2009 GNFI was officially re-launched as GNFI Network at goodnewsfromindonesia.org. Now, GNFI is also on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube.

GNFI aims to be the premier source of good news from Indonesia and the leader in optimism mindset. With that in mind, we’re inviting you, yes…that’s right, YOU, to join us in our journey to restore optimism and rebuild confidence.

If you are:
1. optimistic and positive about Indonesia
2. able to speak, write and read not only in Bahasa but also in English
3. willing to contribute in GNFI voluntarily. There are many ways in which you can contribute, the choice is yours!
4. and most importantly, IN LOVE WITH INDONESIA!

if you think you have what it takes, please send in an email to farahfitrianifaruq@gmail.com no later than July 6, 2011. Kindly include in the subject of the email “Join GNFI Team” so we won’t miss them. All we need is a softcopy of your CV and tell us why you want to join the team and how can you contribute to GNFI. Keep it short and sweet please, both the CV and the application letter should not exceed 1000 words, and written in English.

We look forward to welcome all of you to the GNFI team.