VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Various activities are held online during the pandemic. One of them is Feminist Festival 2021, a conference that raises issues related to women and gender equality. This festival with a theme ‘For a More Feminist Internet’ is held on November 26-28 2021.. This year’s event is third time the Feminist Festival has been held, and is held online for the first time. It is organized by the Jakarta Feminist Association (Jakarta Feminist) and such a festival was held previously in 2017 and 2019. It is a cross-gender feminist community in Indonesia.

The Feminist Festival 2021 carries the theme ‘For a More Feminist Internet’ and collaborates with various levels of society to jointly create a digital space, which is safe and comfortable for women and other marginalized groups. Visitors can participate for free in discussion at various plenary panels and discussion classes, attend workshops, and watch film screenings, and enjoy art performances.  

On this occasion, Jakarta Feminist will also launch the Search Service chatbot, which complements the carijasa.com website as a technology-based service to help victims of gender-based violence assistance services anywhere and anytime. This access to assistance is expected to be the beginning of the mission to eradicate gender-based violence in Indonesia.

A number of European countries reported new records related to additional Covid-19 cases on Wednesday (24/11). They are also preparing to carry out a limited lockdown and considering booster vaccine injections for residents aged 40 years and over. According to Channel News Asia, Germany, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Hungary all reported new highs in daily infections.

The spike came as winter hit Europe and people gathered indoors ahead of Christmas. Germany saw its highest new daily case addition earlier this November, touching nearly 34 thousand. The Czech Republic for the first time reported additional Covid-19 cases above 25,000, the Netherlands more than 23,700 while Hungary around 12,600.

Amid a surge in cases, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), recommends a booster vaccine for all adults. Priority is given to those over the age of 40. This will be a change from previous guidelines which suggested additional doses be considered, especially for those who are vulnerable, such as the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems.

Then, the question is what about countries whose vaccine coverage has not been comprehensive and complete? The World Health Organization -WHO is actually more emphasizing on global vaccination than providing for a third vaccine alias booster. The fact is that there are many countries in the world whose citizens have not been vaccinated, even for the first dose. However, the spike in cases is due to  the development of new variants, and the attitude of people in developed countries, such as in Europe, who began to ignore health protocols, made booster administration necessary.

The booster is expected to enhance protection and prevent additional hospitalizations and deaths in December and January 2022.

Indonesia, with a population of more than 270 million people, has managed to overcome the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic in the middle of this year. The daily number of new cases on Thursday (25/11) was 372, far below Europe. However, Indonesia must not be careless because the spike could happen again at any time, especially related to the Christmas and New Year holidays. Therefore, the government plans to start giving booster vaccines early next year after a series of clinical trials.

Indonesian Attaché of education and culture  in Canberra, Mukhamad Najib promoted an Indonesian International Student Mobility Award (IISMA) program when visiting Australian National University (ANU), Australian, Monday (22/11).

In a statement from the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra received in Jakarta, Monday, ANU was the target of universities invited to participate in the Indonesian International Student Mobility Award (IISMA) program. ANU is one of the best universities in Australia and is included in the list of the Top 100 world universities based on the QS Ranking 2021.

On that occasion, he conveyed one of the flagship programs of the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology in the context of implementing the "Independent Campus-Independent Learning" policy is the IISMA program.

According to Najib, IISMA is a scholarship program from the Indonesian government to finance students to carry out international mobility in the form of one-semester study at the world's leading universities.

He added that this scholarship program consists of registration and tuition fees for one semester, living and accommodation costs, airline tickets as well as PCR tests and quarantine fees, if needed.

This program can be followed by students studying at semester 4 to 6, having an IELTS score of 6.0 or TOEFL iBT 78, with a minimum GPA of 3.0.

In the IISMA 2022 program, not all foreign universities can participate. The Indonesian government only invites 5 leading universities in each country or universities that are included in the Top 100 QS 2022 Ranking list.

Universities that are allowed to participate must also have experience in accepting international students, especially Indonesian students.

On that occasion, Director of ANU Future Student, Amanda Barry said that she was very interested in this IISMA program.

So far, ANU has accepted many international students, including from Indonesia. But it is different from this IISMA program, Amanda said, this program is specifically for undergraduate students.

The French government keeps maintaining relations with Asian countries. To maintain good relations, especially in Southeast Asia, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean Yvs Le Drian visited Indonesia. The missions are to give support in the South China Sea issue and to accelerate economic, trade, and defense cooperation with Indonesia. About the South China Sea, France has sent their nuclear submarine in that region.

In the visit at Merdeka Palace on Wednesday (24/11), Minister Le Drian met President Joko Widodo. President Joko Widodo in the meeting conveyed 5 main points about the two countries' relations. The first is increasing communication between the two countries, considering Indonesia will lead the G20 and France is the president of the European Union next year. Secondly, Indonesia hopes that during the leadership of France in the European Union, the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between Indonesia and the European Union can be accelerated and can receive a concrete result. 

Third, Indonesia asks France to be a partner in fighting for an open, just, and non-discriminatory trade. The fourth is increasing partnership in 2+2 dialog mechanism, namely between the two countries' foreign affairs ministers and defense ministers. While the fifth is an appreciation for France's support for 4.8 million doses of vaccine supply

The visit of French Europe and Foreign Affairs Minister to Indonesia was also marked with a cooperation signing in maritime and defense.

The visit of Minister Le Drian to Indonesia has an important meaning. Aside from increasing trade and economy, it seems that France wants to strengthen defense cooperation with Indonesia. This strengthening is through Indonesia's plan to purchase fighter jets. It seems France does not want to lose their military trade after the end of defense cooperation with Australia in submarine development. Besides, Indonesia is a big market for France. 

Indonesia hopes that France, as the European Union President 2022, can give a vivid depiction about Indonesia's current situation. Since Indonesia does not want environmental issues, which are frequently imposed by the European Union to Indonesia, hamper the trade and economic relations with European Union members.