VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Macron's announcement came in a video broadcast during the Paris leg of the Global Citizen Live concer -  

France will double the number of vaccine doses it will send to poorer countries to 120 million, President Emmanuel Macron pledged on Saturday (Sep 25), in a video broadcast during the Global Citizen concert in Paris.

"The injustice is that in other continents, obviously, vaccination is very late," he said. "We have to go faster, stronger.

"France pledges to double the number of doses it is giving," he added. "We will pass from 60 million to 120 million doses offered."

That amounted to more than the doses so far administered in France, he said.

On Wednesday, the United States announced that it would be doubling its donation of vaccine doses, bringing its total contribution to 1.1 billion.

President Joe Biden described the pandemic as an "all-hands-on-deck crisis," adding "we need other high-income countries to deliver on their own ambitions".

The European Union has committed to distributing 500 million doses.

And China's President Xi Jinping, in a video message broadcast to the UN on Tuesday, pledged a total of two billion doses by the end of the year, repeating a figure already given by the Chinese authorities.

It was not made clear how many of those would be sold and how many donated.

In his statement, Macron also said that France would work with the UN's children's organisation UNICEF in their efforts to help African countries organise their vaccination roll-out.

France would also redirect 20 per cent of the special funding it received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) towards projects designed to restart the economies of African countries, said Macron.

"If all the major powers do the same as France, we will reach 100 billion dollars for Africa," he added.

Finally, Macron pledged that France would spend 330 million euros to promote education in France.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, has repeatedly denounced the injustice of the massive imbalance in the distribution of vaccine doses in rich and poor countries.

"I will not stay silent when the companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the world's poor should be satisfied with leftovers," he said earlier this month.

African leaders pleaded for the chance to buy vaccine doses for their people during a meeting of the African Union earlier this month.

According to an AFP tally drawn from official sources, Africa's 53 countries, with a population of more than 1.3 billion people, has had a total of 10 vaccine doses per 100 people.

In contrast, the United States and Canada, with a population of just over 368 million people, has had 120 doses per hundred people//CNA

Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy during the Malang Muhammadiyah University new students admissions conducted virtually. (ANTARA/HO/UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG/END) - 

Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy reminded new students of the Malang Muhammadiyah University (UMM)  to not miss any opportunity to gain experience.

While addressing the new university students as quoted in a release received in Malang, East Java, on Saturday, the minister pressed for making the most of various opportunities that the Malang Muhammadiyah University had offered to them and to not miss any second, and utilize their time wisely to learn and seek new experiences.

He also encouraged new students to immediately adapt to their new environment, given they were in the phase of transforming from being a school student to a university student.

He had additional five messages for new students, who would become future leaders.

The minister expects new students to think critically through the challenges and activities presented by the university.

The second message was to foster creativity, while the third was to be innovative to tackle various problems. In the fourth message, he expects students to possess communication and collaboration skills. Lastly, he called on students to be confident.

General Chairman of PP Muhammadiyah Haedar Nasir opined that this was not an easy era, as multiculturalism had grown increasingly complex, marked by democracy, human rights, tolerance, pluralism, and relations between groups, nations, and states.

Nasir reminded that the students could no longer escape this reality while calling on them to always be introspective so as not to get carried away and become objects of multiculturalism.

According to the general chairman, this was also the era of digital and information revolution that offered convenience and speed. However, should one be so careless, they would get siphoned into a vortex of unfavorable existence.

“This can happen because of the lack of mastery of science and technology based on science, ethics, and values. Hence, there needs to be self-improvement to master it well," he affirmed.

Nasir said that now was also the era of social media as the consequence of the digital revolution. In addition to the benefits, he also drew attention to the various ill-effects, such as hoaxes, hatred, and slacking off.

"In addition to being successful in learning, you must also have a noble, intelligent, knowledgeable, and high-quality character and be a useful person in order to be able to face the three eras," according to Haedar.

New student admissions for the Malang Muhammadiyah University are held online and offline with strict adherence to protocols. The new students' admissions event from September 21 to 25, 2021, was hosted at the Malang Muhammadiyah University's Dome Hall//ANT

Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi visits the PON XX bus depot located at the ex-terminal of PTC, Entrop, Jayapura City, Saturday, September 25, 2021. (ANTARA/HO-PB PON/KT) - 

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi visited a bus depot at the former PTC terminal, Entrop, Jayapura city on Saturday and lauded bus drivers who will ferry contingents participating in the Papua National Sports Week (PON).

He urged the drivers to serve the contingents with warm hospitality.

"The slogan 'Torang Bisa' means that there are thoughts and movements that are consistently performed," Sumadi remarked, according to the official PON website, accessed from here on Saturday.

According to the minister, the slogan can be applied to people who provide good service to all sports guests from all over Indonesia.

He then asked PON XX bus drivers to serve with all their heart and pride, saying they were contributing to the national multi-sport event. 

"I am also proud to serve. (You have been) driving this bus to serve athletes who come here. Happy working. What you do will be reciprocated by God," he added.

Meanwhile, head of the Papua Transportation Office, Recky Ambrauw, said the Transportation Minister's visit to the bus depot made the bus drivers, who have begun taking the contingents to the venues, feel appreciated.

"It is an incredible honor as he gave us a positive response. We are greatly motivated and we will serve according to our duties and functions in the field of transportation," Ambrauw remarked.

The Transportation Ministry is responsible for paying stipends to the bus drivers, he said adding, they will be paid in the near future.

The bus facility provided by the Ministry of Transportation and the drivers has aided the implementation of PON XX, especially in terms of transportation, he said.

"These buses facilitate transportation, although we understand there are some flaws," he added.

Out of the 428 buses deployed for PON XX, 217 are microbus units, he informed. Furthermore, Papua's National Paralympic Week XVI, in terms of transportation, will be facilitated by all Papuan indigenous drivers, he added.

The Papua Transportation Office has recruited 261 indigenous drivers, including backup drivers, he said//ANT

House Speaker Puan Maharani. (ANTARA/HO-DPR RI/pri/my) - 

House Speaker Puan Maharani believes that building national character did not mean that one must reject foreign cultures.

In her message at a webinar titled "Youth Actualization in COVID-19 Prevention and National Economic Recovery" on Saturday, Maharani also encouraged Karang Taruna, as a youth organization, to foster the spirit of youngsters in building the nation's character.

"Karang Taruna needs to play its role actively in building the nation and character. I need to remind (everyone) that having character in the (context of) Indonesian culture does not mean that we are against foreign culture," she noted on Saturday.

She opined that when it came to building the nation's character, Indonesia could not isolate itself from foreign cultures. By having a strong character, Indonesia could instead absorb and filter cultures from overseas and coalesce them with the existing culture.

"National character does not (mean it) eliminates the regional cultural identity. Karang Taruna, as a part of Indonesian youth, should be the source of new ideas and innovations on how to embrace the younger generation," she remarked.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Maharani urged Karang Taruna to foster the spirit of collaboration that could be initiated from the smallest of things.

"During the COVID-19 pandemic, we urgently need all elements of the nation to apply Indonesian national values, such as cooperation, and when we fuse it, then it will become a large-scale mutual cooperation," she affirmed.

She also expects the youth to maintain the great legacy of the nation's founders, coming in the form of national values originating from Pancasila, the Republic of Indonesia, the 1945 Constitution, and Bhinneka Tunggal Ika.

The young Indonesian generation must also be able to mitigate and take precautionary measures against the negative impacts of the developments in information technology, as they could disorient the viewpoints of Indonesian citizens.

"Do not allow the future generations of our nation to veer away from the cultural roots of the nation, both in terms of national ethics and morals, and drown in the turbulent vortex of disruption from advancements in communication and information technology," Maharani concluded//ANT