VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A nice surprise came from the COP26 Summit on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland. Two big competing economies: the United States and China announced an agreement to work together in dealing with climate change. The efforts   include cutting methane emissions, stopping consumption of coal and protecting forests. Both economic giants are known to be the world's largest emitters of carbon dioxide. In addition, they account for nearly 40 percent of all global carbon pollution.

Quoted from Reuters, this deal was announced by the US climate envoy, John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua at the UN climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland last Wednesday (10/11). Kerry said that the United States and China have set their sights on the success of COP26. Meanwhile, according to Xie Zhenhua, the deal will see China strengthen its emission reduction targets. Both China and the United States will cooperate with other parties to ensure a successful COP26 and facilitate an ambitious and balanced outcome.

UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres welcomed the agreement between China and the United States. As EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans said to Reuters Timmermans, it was heartening to see the two countries known to be at odds on many fronts and have found common ground on the biggest challenges facing humanity today.

The agreement between the United States and China can indeed be said to be rare and unexpected. After a long time, both are now joining many other countries, realizing that   climate change is a common problem surpassing others. They also seem to understand more now that even big countries will not be able to avoid the negative impacts of climate change. It is proven that both of them have also experienced various quite devastating natural disasters due to climate change.

Indeed, only with the cooperation of all nations, the problem of climate change can be tackled. Now, the world is waiting for concrete actions from the agreement between the United States and China. The media noted that however, the agreement does not have details on how and when actions will be taken. Meanwhile, climate change continues to affect the life of all mankind.

The implementation of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) which is continuously carried out and evaluated by the government every week has brought about positive impacts. The number of active Covid-19 cases remains under control and continues to improve. The reproduction number (Rt) of Indonesia and Java-Bali is also still below one which indicates that the Covid-19 pandemic is under control. In addition, based on epidemiological reports, the death rate from Covid-19 has now decreased dramatically. In fact, the current number of funerals is equivalent to the number of funerals prior to the pandemic. This was revealed by Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, concurrently Coordinator for the Implementation of the Java-Bali Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM), Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan in an online press conference monitored in Jakarta, Monday (8/11).

However, on the same occasion, he also disclosed that there was an increasing trend of Covid-19 cases, especially in 43 districts/cities in the Java-Bali region, including in Jakarta. Over the last few months, the number of active cases of Covid-19 has continued to decline to 99 percent, which peaked last July. The news about the upward trend in the number of cases was certainly worrying at the time.

Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan further explained in a limited meeting that President Joko Widodo urged all parties to learn from the experiences of European countries. A number of countries in Europe have experienced a large daily spike in cases due to people's negligence in implementing health protocols.

How is the behavior of the Indonesian people according to the observation of the COVID-19 Handling Task Force? Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said that last week, his side sent a team to observe the implementation of health protocols in a number of tourism destinations in Bali and Bandung, West Java. Visitors to malls and tourism attractions have been monitored for implementing health protocols properly, in this case wearing masks. However, keeping distance is still weak, especially in tourism attractions. It's even been found that some bars and clubs violated the rules of opening hours and the number of visitors.

Based on these observations, the government can immediately make an evaluation. It is time for stricter action to be taken against violators of the health protocols, especially the management of entertainment and tourism venues. If there is no decisive action, Indonesia can experience another spike in Covid-19 cases and this time, it is worried that the government will face it with increasingly limited resources.

The Government of Indonesia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands are strengthening cooperation in the palm oil sector by adapting and mitigating the effects of climate change. The cooperation is stated in the Memorandum of Understanding on Sustainable Palm Oil Production Cooperation, which was signed in New York, the United States of America on September 26, 2019. The signing of the MoU was followed-up with a technical arrangement and the establishment of the Bilateral Economic Commission as a forum for dialogue between the two countries. This was stated by the Deputy for Food and Agribusiness Coordination, at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Musdhalifah Machmud in an official statement received by Antara, Tuesday(9/11). Musdhalifah Machmud said that the dialogue platform of both countries can prove to the international world that cooperation between consuming countries and palm oil producing countries is well-connected.

She further explained that the cooperation is established to support economic development in rural areas with the target of smallholders and communities around oil palm plantations. The method is to ensure the increase in the sustainability of agricultural commodities, including palm oil and protect the ecosystem of Indonesia's natural resources, such as forest and peat. The cooperation is carried out by establishing the National Initiatives for Sustainable and Climate Smart Oil Palm Smallholders (NI-SCOPS). The NI-SCOPS activities are carried out in four provinces in Indonesia with implementing partners, namely the Indonesia Distribution Hub (IDH) for Aceh and North Sumatra and Solidarity for West Kalimantan and East Kalimantan.

Tempe Mendoan is special food from Banyumas district, Central Java officially designated as an Intangible Cultural Heritage (WBTB) of Indonesia. This determination was decided through the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Higher Education during the 2021 Indonesian Intangible Cultural Heritage Determination session in Jakarta on October 29. In this edition, we would like to invite you to get to know more about the typical food of Banyumas Regency. The word, ‘Mendoan’ is from Banyumas language, Mendo which means half-cooked or mushy. Mendoan means to cook with a lot of hot cooking oil quickly. So, the food does not cook properly. The most common ingredients of Mendoan are tempeh and tofu. However, tempeh is more often made into Mendoan.

Besides tempeh or tofu, other ingredients of Mendoan are flour, leeks, spices, such as garlic, nutmeg, coriander and pepper. Before the tempeh is fried, first, slice the tempeh thinly, and then prepare the dough. The flour is mixed with water and spices. Next, put tempeh into the dough and then fry it. Its uniqueness is that tempeh is not fried until it is dry, but is still wet and soft. It tastes delicious and crunchy. Mendoan is served hot, accompanied with cayenne pepper or soy sauce. Mendoan can be a side dish. Or it can be enjoyed as snacks to accompany by drinking a cup of tea or coffee in the morning or evening.

In Banyumas, it is not hard to find Mendoan. You can buy Mendoan in Sawangan, Purwokerto, which is a typical hawker center of Purwokerto. In addition, the good taste makes Mendoan spread outside Banyumas. Tempe Mendoan can be found in big cities in Central Java, even in Jakarta. The price is also relatively cheap from Rp 2,500 to Rp 5,000 per piece.