VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

As many as 450 people from 134 sub-districts of Cirebon III region or commonly known as Ciayumajakuning area, consists of District element, Military Rayon Command, Sector Police, Head of port, Naval Base, Sea and Coast Guard Unity, and Police Officers were officially inaugurated by Head of Regional Office of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of West Java, Indro Purwoko, in Cirebon, West Java, on Thursday (22/2) as a Foreigner Oversight Team. After the event, ceremony, Indro Purwoko told RRI that the Foreigner's Monitoring Team -PORA will be in charge of overseeing the existence and activities of foreign citizens or foreign tourists in Cirebon City and Regency, Indramayu, Majalengka and Kuningan districts. Meanwhile, Head of Cirebon Second Class Immigration Office, Mohammad Tito Andriyanto, said, with the inauguration of the Foreigners Supervisory team, it certainly can fully  help full the task from Immigration Cirebon. Especially with the presence of International Airport Kertajati Majalengka, region III Cirebon will be more crowded.

The National Committee, organizer of the annual meeting of International Monetary Fund-World Bank 2018, went to Banyuwangi District, East Java to monitor the readiness of supporting facilities and infrastructure in the local area. The arrival of the National Committee was led by Expert Staff on  Organization, Bureaucracy, and Information Technology at the Ministry of Finance, Susiwijono, in Banyuwangi, on Thursday (22/2). Susiwijono said his arrival to Banyuwangi to see first hand the airport, hotels, and tourist destinations, because Banyuwangi is the closest area of ​​Bali which becomes one of the buffer areas of Bali and part of the seven tourist destinations of the International Monetary Fund-World Bank meeting participants. He added that next week it is planned that the Coordinating Ministry of Marine Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan will also come to Banyuwangi to ensure all supporting infrastructure is ready, so that the shortcomings can be intervened by the central government.

Postage of Placement and Protection Service of Indonesian Workers Entikong held socialization on Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers. The event, held at Entikong Industrial Training Unit, Sanggau District, West Kalimantan was followed by officials from Customs, Immigration, Quarantine & Security Support Post Entity Border Entikong Cross Border Post and related stakeholders in Entikong District. Coordinator of Post Service for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers Entom, Roni Firman Ramdani, in Entikong, Thursday (22/2) explained, this socialization aims to provide information to officers at Post Border Entikong Cross Border  Post about the process of placement, document requirements, and protection for workers Indonesian migrants who will work abroad. He added that this activity is also done in order to strengthen the commitment and inter-agency cooperation at Post Border Entikong State Cross Border  Post to provide facilitation service of migrant worker departure procedure, prevention efforts and prevention of non-procedural migrant workers, and measures in handling Indonesian migrant workers with problems,  repatriated through the Entikong Cross Border Post.

Indonesia is an agrarian country with is rich of natural resources. Various tropical plants grow easily and fertily in Indonesia; one of which is rice plant. Rice is the staple food of most Indonesians. Their dependency on rice is very high. Therefore, the government keeps encouraging to increase rice production in the country. There are many factors that support the increase of rice harvest. In addition to land availability, soil fertility, water and human resources, agricultural technology also contributes to increase the rice production. Some Indonesian farmers have already used simple technology in rice farming. They use tractors, paddy fields markers and many more.

Agricultural technology is created to facilitate the work of farmers and to increase agricultural production. As part of Indonesian society, students have an important role to contribute to agriculture, especially rice farming. Weeds or wild plants are problems that are almost always faced by all farmers. Weeds can grow in rice fields planted with crops and rice. The presence of wild plants or weeds on the sidelines of rice plants will certainly disrupt rice production. The wild grass can disrupt the growth of rice plants and reduce production.

Therefore, two Bogor Agricultural College students invent a simple machine that serves to destroy weed and fertilize rice in the fields. This machine is named 'Si Tepuk'. This mechine is the invention of Aceng Muhammad Badrudin Muttaqin and Dani Kurnia. Aceng said that Si Tepuk uses electricity from battery that can already be produced in Indonesia. This machine combines weeding and fertilizing activities. The working principle is a cutting knife which serves to cut the weeds to the roots. The engine is equipped with the first wheel that serves to immerse the weeds that have been cut off. The fertilizer discharging funnel serves to sprinkle the fertilizer near the plant roots and the rear wheel serves to immerse the fertiler. According to Aceng, the concept of making cultivators and rice fertilizers has been started since October 2017 to January 2018. The process of making the cultivator takes time for approximately two weeks. Making this machine is done in cooperation with welding workshop.

They made these farming tools based on their experience with farmers when they did field practice. They saw that there were farmers who cultivated rice without weeding first because the grass was still small so it was hard to do the weeding. In fact, the activity of cultivating and nurturing aims to optimize the growth of plants with the absorption of nutrients in the right target. Si Tepuk has been included in the Agriventor Technology Agricultural Youth Inventor Competition 2017 organized by the Indonesian Youth Farmers' Movement (Gempita). Aceng said the competition was followed by 36 teams of young inventors all over Indonesia. On 20 February 2018, the team presented their findings to the jury.

Meanwhile, Dani Kurnia said that the interest to following the competition had encouraged them to create simple tools useful for the agricultural sector. According to Dani, the machine of Si Tepuk is a real action of STPP Bogor students to advance agriculture in Indonesia. Dani added that they received input from the competition jury team. However, the tool still requires more trials so that it can be used by farmers.

State-Owned Enterprise -PT Bio Farma continues to expand its business to foreign countries. President Director of PT Bio Farma, Rahman Rustan said that the company will develop a cooperation scheme with UNICEF and also regional cooperation. Rahman Rustan after holding a meeting with Finance and Industry Economic Team (Ekuin), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that brought six Ambassadors visited PT Bio Farma in Bandung Monday (19/2) explained, that PT Bio Farma will continue to coordinate with the Indonesian Embassies in the respective countries. Rahman also said, the assessment will be conducted with the Indonesian Embassy in Iran. Because, there are a lot of potential can be cooperated between Indonesia and Iran.Rahman Rustan moreover said, Bio Farma needs technology transfer from Iran. For production, the development of medicines in Indonesia should continue to be done. Rahman further explained although taking assistance from the Indonesian Ambassadors in some countries, Bio Farma remains badly need advice, discussion and support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the Indonesian ambassadors, in achieving other potentials. In addition to supply vaccines, Bio Farma also want to explore the potential for cooperation of research or production which can be synergized with friendly countries. Rahman further said, if the company had previously cooperate through the UNICEF, he hoped the meeting with the team of Economy Finance and Industry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs can facilitate access for bilateral cooperation, with the existing assistances from the Indonesian Ambassadors.PT Bio Farma has 3 partners in Iran. While in Latin America the company has partners in Argentina, Brazil, and Cuba. Moreover, there are already cooperations with Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, for the shipping of semi-finished vaccines. During this time, the cooperation with the developing countries was conducted through the Unicef. But now there has been opened bilateral cooperation with Iran for Middle East region, and Mexico for Latin America region. Rahman said that the most potential to be explored is herbal products, considering the potential of biodiversity for herbal products in Indonesia is quite large. Currently the company is focusing on biotechnology products, so that for the cooperation of herbal products PT Bio Farma wants to invite three other State Owned Enterprises namely Indofarma, Kimia Farma, and Phapros.Meanwhile, the Indonesian Ambassador to Iran and Turkmenistan representing the Middle East Region, Octavino Alimudin said the embassy can receive information directly about the efforts that have been done Bio Farma. Octavino also remarked that the position of Indonesia as a producer of vaccine and serum is highly recognized by the world.PT Bio Farma, received the visit of four Ambassadors at Bio Farma Heritage Building. The four Ambassadors are the Indonesian Ambassador to Iran and Turkmenistan Octavino Alimudin representing the Middle East Region, Indonesian Ambassador to Romania representing Europe Amhar Azeth, Indonesian Ambassador to Cambodia representing Southeast Asian Region Sudirman Haseng and Indonesian Ambassador to Peru representing Regional Latin America, Estella Anwar Bey.

A shooting spree by a Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school student to his friends happened in Parkland, Florida, right on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2018. It wasn’t the first incident that happened in the United States. The latest perpetrator was a teenager who fired his gun and caused 17 school students lost their lives in vain. Indeed, the laws governing arms ownership in the United States differ from state to state. Florida is one of the states that loosely imposes it. Students, who are concerned about this latest incident, held several rallies to encourage the United States government to regulate stricter ownership of weapons. Representatives of students and parents even met President Donald Trump directly, asking him to conduct stricter supervision. Instead of getting support, they had to  hear Trump's idea of  arming teachers with guns. Parents object to this idea because they think it makes the school a shooting arena in case of an attack. Although they disagree with President Trump, howver, some schools suspended students who held anti-weapons rallies. To commemorate this event, a rally will be held on March 14, 2018, exactly one month after the Florida shooting, and on April 20, 2018 to commemorate a similar incident  at Columbine High School in Colorado. A series of shootings that occurred in schools in the United States is very alarming. Educational institutions should be a source of positive learning place  for students. School is not an arena of indulging violence whether it is physical, verbal or  emotional. There is an English saying which  puts importance on the  Man Behind the Gun. It means that it’s the person behind the tool or device, especially in a job;  that is important.  In the case of shooting in America, this saying can be taken literally. A good person holding a weapon may be doing  good, otherwise if a bad one is behind the gun, terrible  things can happen.