VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

On a culinary tour to the province of West Sumatra, there are lots of delicious traditional foods. One of them is Pinyaram. The shape is simple, flat round 10 centimeters in diameter, and white or brown. In the middle of the Pinyaram meat is a little thick as if there is a buildup of sugar, with a sweet and sticky taste. If one enjoys sweet-tasting culinary delights, they must try Pinyaram, when one day visiting West Sumatra.

Pinyaram is made from fried rice flour and palm sugar. There are two types of Pinyaram known by the Minangkabau people, namely White and Black. The difference between these two types is only in the raw ingredients. The white Pinyaram uses white rice, while the black one is made from black rice. However, another variant, such as green Pinyaram made from Suji or Pandan leaves can often also be found. Regarding taste, Pinyaram can now be varied with various flavors, such as banana, durian, and so on. Currently, Pinyaram also has various sizes; some are small, medium until plate-sized, depending on individual tastes and preferences.

In Minangkabau, Pinyaram is often a special food at traditional ceremonies, such as weddings, religious events, a celebration of Prophet Muhammad, and Eid Al-fitr. Now, the traditional food is intended for not only traditional ceremonies but also snacks. Generally, this traditional Minangkabau cake can be found not only in traditional markets in West Sumatra but also in all regions in Indonesia. In various regions of Indonesia, Pinyaram cake is also known by various other names or designations, such as Kue Cucur in Jakarta, and some areas on the islands of Java and Sulawesi, Kue Dumpi in West Sulawesi, or Kue Kocor on the island of Madura. Pinyaram cakes are sold from Rp1000 to 2000 per piece.

Indonesia received an appreciation as the largest importer of dates from Egypt, which was marked by the receipt of an award from Governor of Marsa Matrouh Province, Major General Khaled Shuaib to the Indonesian Ambassador to Egypt Lutfi Rauf on the side-lines of the 5th Egyptian Date Palm Festival 2022 in Siwa City, Egypt last Sunday (23/1).

Governor Major General Khaled Shuaib expressed his high appreciation for the trust of the largest importers of Egyptian dates, especially importers from Indonesia, Morocco, and Malaysia. He also said that the award was given as an appreciation to the Indonesian Embassy in Cairo, which has promoted Egyptian dates to Indonesian citizens and provided assistance to Egyptian companies to conduct business communications with importers in Indonesia.

In his remarks, Indonesian Ambassador to Egypt, Lutfi Rauf in Egypt, explained that the total trade between Indonesia and Egypt during the Covid-19 pandemic experienced an encouraging increase. In the period January to November 2021, it reached US$1.63 billion, up 53.52 percent when compared to the same period 2020. The main imported products from Egypt include rock phosphate, dates, molasses, citrus oranges, and potatoes.

Indonesia is included in the top three largest date importing countries from Egypt. According to Egyptian statistical data, in the period January - September 2021, the exports of Egyptian dates to Indonesia reached a value of US$10.34 million with a market share of 17.89 percent of the total exports of Egyptian dates worldwide.

Ambassador Lutfi added that research and development collaboration are in need between Indonesian-Egyptian researchers and academics in seeing the benefits of dates. This has been done by the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Muslim Indonesia (UMI) in collaboration with the date management institution in Madinah KSA. They investigated the efficacy of Aiwa dates which can reduce the risk of hypertension in pregnancy and suppress menopause with very good results. The 2022 date festival held from 22 to 24 January 2022 was attended by more than 200 date producers from Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Mauritania, and Tunisia.

Crime is now rampant. Crimes, such as theft, pickpocketing, and robbery often target wallets by exploiting the carelessness of their owners. Therefore, students of Yogyakarta State University (UNY) create a wallet equipped with a security system that will provide information to the owner, if the wallet is more than 10 meters apart from its owner. Uniquely, the wallet is made of banana midrib fiber which is given a Javanese letter motif.

The students make Smart Wallets or Dompi. The materials needed are Bluetooth HC-05 Module, Arduino UNO, PCB, connecting cable, capacitor, buzzer, resistor, lithium battery, tin soldier, charger pin, and push button. Meanwhile, the tools needed are a soldering iron, IDEA Software, Arduino Application, and Bluetooth Simple. To assemble it, the material is assembled on the PCB, then set the programming code on the IDEA application and wraps the sensor in a box to make it safe, and neatly visible. The sensor on the wallet will inform if it is 10 meters away from the owner's device by sounding like a siren. This sensor is connected to the device via Bluetooth and the owner just needs to track the whereabouts of the wallet through the device.  

This product is created as a creative effort to preserve culture and promote local culture. They use banana stems because so far, it has only become waste and polluted the environment. In addition, to raise public interest, they make wallets with Javanese script patterns to introduce the nation's culture as well as to improve knowledge of Javanese script, where Javanese script is increasingly rare in existence. They also added a science motif to attract the attention of scientists, to educate the public, and to add to the unique value of the innovative wallet. This work won funds from the Directorate of Learning and Student Affairs of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology in the Student Creativity Program in the field of Entrepreneurship in 2021.

The tension between Ukraine and Russia increased. Even based on the latest news, Russia added more troops near the Russia-Ukraine border. This made many worried if Russia could easily invade their neighbor.

Reuters reported, the US and its allies kept echoing threats against Russia that have placed their soldiers and artillery in the border area. Besides a threat to give a sanction for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the US had sent some weaponry, such as anti-tank javelin, launchers, and other military hardware to strengthen the Ukrainian defence system.

But what is the real reason for the tension between Russia and Ukraine? As reported by Al Jazeera, Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus were founded around the Dnieper River 1,200 years ago. However, Russia and Ukraine are still different in language, history, and politics. Still, Vladimir Putin kept claiming that Russia and Ukraine are one part of the Russian civilization and of course, Ukraine rejected that claim. Ukraine had two revolutions in 2005 and 2014 to reject Russian supremacy. Ukraine then kept looking for paths to join the European Union and NATO.

The call for the NATO allies to share one view on the latest situation in the Russia-Ukraine border kept coming. The UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and French President Emmanuel Macron asked for a dialog with President Vladimir Putin, as requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy so that four nations namely France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine can begin a negotiation.

However, the US as the engine of NATO should keep supporting peace between the two conflicting countries. Dialogue must be the first choice in anticipating further military escalation that can bring big effects for the two sides economically, politically, and strategically, which can bring about a war crime and human rights violation.