VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Governor of Jakarta, Anies Baswedan at Gelora Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta on Sunday opened a relay race competition in "Jakarta Kizuna Ekiden 2019" as a symbol of strengthening of Japan-Indonesia bilateral relations. He said that Jakarta Kizuna Ekiden 2019 as relay race sport establishes togetherness and relationship among nations. Ekiden is relay marathon competition in Japanese style which does not use stick to be given to another runner; otherwise it is used cloth which is called ‘Tasuki’. In Jakarta Kizuna Ekiden 2019, each team consists of 4 runners. Among of them, there is one Indonesian, or vice versa, three Indonesians and one Japanese. This year, there were 600 teams with total 2,400 participants. The event was conducted to commemorate the 61^st year of Indonesian-Japanese relations.

Indonesian embassy in Vatican conducted a training to make batik for Catholic clergies and nuns in Napoli, Italy. The activity, which was conducted in Basilica Dell’incoronata Madre del Buon Consiglio, was attended by 29 nuns and three pastors from 10 congregations in Napoli and surrounding area. The congregations are hierarchically under Vatican. The training was opened by Indonesian Ambassador to Vatican, Antonius Agus Sriyono on Saturday (14/9). In his speech, Ambassador Sriyono said that the event is aimed to expand knowledge of clergies and nuns in Italy on wealth of Indonesian culture; one of them is making batik process. The event was the first time conducted by the Indonesian embassy in Vatican to promote Indonesian culture. Batik itself has received recognition from UNESCO since 2009 as Masterpieces of the Oral and the Intangible Heritage of Humanity in the uniqueness of its making proses and symbolism.

Ministry of Education and Culture through Directorate General of Teacher and Educational Personnel sent again delegations to participate in Teacher Exchange Program. This year, 12 teachers depart to South Korea for period of August - November 2019. They are placed at elementary and senior schools. The Program is participated in by Asian-Pacific countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mongolia, and Malaysia. The aim of the program is to improve teachers’ capacity of global education and cross-cultural communication skills through experience. Furthermore, the program is to grow mutual understanding among the community in Asian-Pacific region, and also to make cooperation model of educational development.

In commemorating the National Transportation Day, Indonesian Ministry of Transportation held ‘Indotrans Expo 2019. When opening the Indotrans Expo 2019 in JCC Senayan, Jakarta on Friday (13/9), Vice President, Jusuf Kalla affirmed that good management of transportation may help the government reduce the trade account deficit through less use of fuels in transportation sector.  If the personal motor vehicles are getting bigger, consumption of fuels is also getting bigger. As a result, air pollution cannot be avoided due to the emission of the motor vehicles. A good management of transportation is by building infrastructure of public fast and comfortable modes of transportation. Consequently, the people especially the commuters are expected to change their life style from using their personal motor vehicles to public transportation. Thus, the Ministry of Transportation has to carry out rapid transformation in managing transportation in land, sea and air transportations across Indonesia. With effective and efficient transportation system, the infrastructure development across Indonesia has been evenly mobilized. Of course, this connects among people and cargo inter-region. VP Jusuf Kalla asked for the Transportation Ministry to adjust with updated transportation technology that can reduce the traffic accident. More importantly, the human resources in the transportation sector must be improved to address the obstacles in the transportation sector such as modes of sea, land and air transportations. In the commemoration of National Transportation Day, Minister of Transportation, Budi Karya Sumadi hopes that his side can improve human resources in his ministry so that transportation becomes more convenient, safer and safer. Indotrans Expo 2019 was held from Friday (13/9) to Sunday (15/9) with the theme "Knitting the Archipelago Building the Nation, a Real Service for Transportation People for Excellent Indonesia, Advanced Indonesia." The aim of the exhibition was to provide information to the public about the development of infrastructure, facilities and human resources in the transportation sector in Indonesia.

Forest is a very vital area for the earth and human life source. Indonesia is known as the world’s third biggest country of forest in the world. It consists of tropical forest in some regions across Indonesia, especially rain forest in Kalimantan and Papua. Based on the date of Forest Watch Indonesia, around 82 hectares of Indonesian land is covered with thick forest. Forest is also one of supporting parts for natural equilibrium and microbiological energy resources that are in need. The question is that what happens if the forest is burnt? The forest and land fires almost occur in some regions throughout Indonesia every year, usually entering dry season. Anyhow, the forest and land fires may bring about disadvantages for both local and people and neighboring countries. The serious negative impacts are the losses of flora and fauna, and air pollution. As consequences, the people impacted may suffer from many kinds of diseases such as respiratory infection, asthma and chronic lungs disorders. In addition, the smoke of the forest and land fires also interrupts the sight distance, mainly for the flight. In general, the causing factors of the forest and land fires are lightening and human activities which are carried out intentionally or unintentionally. The intentional burning is aimed at opening new land for plantation. The government of Indonesia has attempted to address the forest and land fires by mobilizing the local people, the police and armed forces personnel. More importantly, the government through the Ministry of Environment has seriously punished those who are proven to have burnt the forest. So far, there have been hundreds of suspected people and four companies. The serious efforts of Indonesian government to cope with the forest and land fires are worth appreciating. The local people, primarily the individual planters also have to take part in maintaining their environment. They must be aware of the negative consequences of the forest and land fires.

The Twitter account of the English-language television news station, Al Jazeera English tweeted about the recent finding of Brawijaya University -UB students. The finding is in the form of a disaster preparedness tool called ‘Deoterions’ (Detector of Interconnected Position Points). The account informs his followers that this tiny device created by Indonesian students can save lives from earthquakes, with the only US$ 7 dollars. Deoterions are cards that aim to facilitate the discovery of the position of victims buried by the collapse of a building post-earthquake. Deoterions is invented by three students of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of Brawijaya University. Located in the Southeast Asian Seismic Zone, Indonesia has the potential to experience an earthquake. This is the background of the three students who discover ‘Deoterions’. This tool functions to emit radio waves that can be captured by victims' search receivers such as the SAR team so that the position of the users of Deoterions can be known even though the building is in a collapsed state. This card is equipped with a button that is able to read movement, so that the user's life opportunity can be predicted. The cards are also connected to each other. So, the position of other users can be known from one user that has been found first. All information will be displayed on a special smartphone application in the form of a list so that it makes reading easier. One member of the discovering team, Muhammad Rikza Maulana said that SAR teams usually use heavy equipment and life detectors to search for victims. However, heavy equipment cannot be used in the search for fatalities whose position is not known with certainty, because if one predicts it can potentially increase the damage to organs of victims who have been buried by the debris of collapsed buildings.