VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yair Lapid paid an official visit to Egypt Thursday 9 December 2021. Quoting the Israeli Foreign Ministry, AFP reported that one of the important talks on the agenda of the meeting was strengthening bilateral relations, especially in the security sector.

Minister Lapid's visit is a follow-up of Israel's foreign policy to strengthen Israel-Egypt relations for regional stability.

The meeting in the security sector has not brought about a concrete agreement, yet. Both Israel and Egypt need to formulate a strong strategy and find solutions to the emerging issues discussed at the meeting, particularly the issue of hostages and the bodies of Israelis  detained by the Hamas group in the Gaza Strip since Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

According to Minister Lapid, Israel has an economic recovery plan for Gaza. This is expected to end the frequent rocket attacks by Hamas against Israel. It seems that the issue of settlement construction carried out continouesly by Israelis in the Palestinian territories was not discussed at the meeting.

Egypt has indeed been Israel's main mediator with Hamas. Minister Lapid's visit may be an important step that is expected to consolidate stability and peace in the Middle East, and reach a permanent solution for the Palestinian struggle to become a fully sovereign state.

If Israel is seriously committed to restoring Gaza's economy, significant concrete steps are needed towards an era of security and prosperity as well as an expansion of the scope of strong cooperation in various fields. Egypt's role as a mediator in the Israel-Gaza conflict is highly awaited.

Toweren Uken people in Takengan, Central Aceh, Aceh province have cultural heritage that holds a noble historical value. It’s called ‘Reje Baluntara traditional house’. It is the building where the King of Baluntara has lived for generations. This building is in the form of a house on stilts made of wood. Uniquely, the building does not use many nails. The wood used is made like a 'knock down' interlocking and locking each other.

If you enter this traditional house, the atmosphere is very dark, because there is no electricity here. In addition, the existing windows are never opened. If you pay attention, almost on every wall and wood in the building, there are various Gayo filigree carvings. This type of carving can also be found on Gayo filigree (traditional) fabrics. The typical carvings can be found in the foyer, namely on wooden poles (vertically) and the top of the inner wall (horizontally). In this building, there are carvings with philosophical content in each of its visual constructions. On the walls, there are various openwork motifs, such as puter tali (multiple gyre), emun mupesir (spreading clouds), and emun berkune (branched clouds).

Reje Baluntara traditional house is also called ‘Umah Edet Pitu Ruang’ or the Seven-Room Traditional House. The number of rooms in the building consists of four rooms, a kitchen and two foyers each for men and women so that the total is seven rooms. If you look inside the building, there are four rooms of equal size (the king's parents’ room, the king's room, two children's rooms for men and women), two porches and one front porch (lepo). In front of the traditional house building, there is a black stone resembling an inscription. It is divided into two parts; on the right and left, there is an inscription of the genealogy of the King of Baluntara who once inhabited the traditional house.

Indonesia is ready to transform the health system to overcome various hard-to-predict health issues. That was stated by Indonesian Deputy Minister of Health, Dante Saksono Harbuwono when ending the Health Business Gathering on Saturday (4/12)

Dante also mentioned that some health issues, such as Covid-19 pandemic are difficult to foresee. Those issues came when Indonesia was not ready. At that time, the Indonesian government had to import various needs to overcome the pandemic, such as medical gloves, maskers, and other health equipment. According to Dante, Covid-19 had put health as the first priority in all sectors.

He further said, the government realized that Covid-19 pandemic brought the need to strengthen health services. Therefore, it needs a self-reliance in pharmaceuticals and health equipment by transforming the health system, including the pharmaceutical and health equipment security as well as the development of technology, digitalization, and biotechnology.

Dante affirmed that the Indonesian health system is ready to transform. The pharma security is that Indonesia can produce their own vaccine, medicine, and can use local phytopharmacy companies.

Therefore, the government will produce 14 antigens for vaccination next year. While on medicine, the government will produce six of ten most-used medicine ingredients. Then for the phytopharmacy, the government will try to increase national production of 16 of 19 health equipment mostly used in Indonesia.

Through the Health Business Gathering 2021, the pharmaceutical and health equipment security had been done, among many was by signing cooperation and investment agreements.

Health Business Gathering was joined by 415 people, consisting of 345 domestic and 70 international participants from 15 countries and 228 online participants. The gathering resulted in 48 documents, namely 12 MoUs and 36 projects. There were also 181 meeting demands and 20 requests for meetings between government to government, government to business, and business to business.

Voice of Indonesia presents Let’s Speak Indonesian, a program that introduces the Indonesian vocabulary and guides you to speak in the language. Mari Berbahasa Indonesia or Let’s Speak Indonesian is a joint initiative of Voice of Indonesia and the Language Development Agency of the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology.  Today’s topic is about Bertemu Teman Lama which means Meet an Old Friend. 

Here is the conversation entitled Bekerja Dimana? which meansWhere Do You Work?This conversation happens between Kevin and his friend in a restaurant in Bandung. Kevin asks where she works.Let’s read to the conversation.

After reading to the conversation, now I am going to introduce some vocabulary and expressions related to the topic of the day.

In the conversation, you hear the expression Kamu bekerja di mana? (2x) which means Where do you work? The expression is used to ask where someone works. The answer you may hear is the name of a city like Jakarta or the name of a workplace such as a private company. To ask a workplace, you can ask specifically. For example, Kamu bekerja di perusahaan apa? (2x) which means Which company are you working for? or Kamu bekerja di bagian apa? (2x) which means In which division are you working?

Let’s read to the other examples:

Man            : Kamu bekerja di mana? (2x) which means Where do you work?

Woman      : Aku bekerja di perusahaan di Jakarta (2x) which means I work in a company in Jakarta

Man            :  Kamu bekerja di perusahaan apa? (2x) which means In which company are you working for?

Woman      : Di perusahaan makanan (2x) which means I work for a food company

Man            : Kamu bekerja di bagian apa? (2x) which means In which division are you working?

Woman      : Di bagian keuangan (2x) which means In finance division

That was “Let’s Speak Indonesian” for today. Hopefully, this edition can be useful for those of you who want to know more about Indonesian language.