VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Welcome back to the weekend edition of your Miscellany. Today, we bring you the story of the 2024 Indonesian Boat Contest (KKI), which was successfully held at the Surabaya PPNS State Polytechnic of Shipbuilding from October 23 to 27, 2024. A total of 101 teams, comprising more than 500 students from 45 universities across Indonesia, competed to showcase their best designs, innovations, and technologies on the prototype boats they had created.

The participants fiercely competed for the prestigious title in this national contest organized by the Indonesian Talent Development Center and the National Achievement Center of the Ministry of Education. A total of six categories were contested, including two main categories: design and prototype performance.

As the host, the polytechnic provided various supporting facilities to ensure the competition was conducted properly and transparently. This included live streaming for nearly all competition categories, making it easier for participants to monitor their respective prototypes. In his closing remarks, Acting Director-General of Vocational Education, Tatang Muttaqim, Ph.D., expressed his appreciation to the polytechnic for its excellent organization of the 2024 event, as well as to all participants for their outstanding performances. He emphasized that, as a maritime country, Indonesia prioritizes the blue economy, which is closely tied to water-based economic activities.

There are several aspects that made the 2024 Indonesian Boat Contest particularly special. First, there was an increase in the number of participating universities this year. Second, the competition underwent a rebranding, with its new name now the National Unmanned Fast Boat Contest (KKCTBN), along with the addition of a new category: Design Innovation.

At the 2024 Indonesian Boat Contest, the research team from the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) emerged as the Overall Champion, successfully bringing home four champion trophies from this year’s event.

Welcome back to the weekend edition of Miscellany. This time, we inform you about a group of University of Indonesia students who are members of the MILBoard Team, who have successfully made Indonesia's name famous in the international arena by becoming champions at the UNESCO Youth Hackathon 2024, a prestigious event initiated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Youth Hackathon 2024 is a forum for bringing together young innovators from all over the world to design creative solutions to improve media literacy and understanding among the public. At the event, the MILBoard Team competed with 203 projects from 68 countries and managed to conquer the tight competition. This victory not only brought the MILBoard Team to the top of the championship, but also gave them the honor of attending the "UNESCO Global MIL Week Feature Conference 2024" in Amman, Jordan. In front of world leaders, they presented an innovative project that combines board games and digital applications to train children and adolescents' ability to filter information in cyberspace. As conveyed by Muhammad Rafi Aurelian R, a member of the MILBoard team, he and his team are very proud to be able to raise Indonesia's name on the world stage and play a role in advancing media literacy for the younger generation.

With an innovation that combines traditional games such as snakes and ladders, as well as interactive features such as challenge cards and QR codes, the game introduced by the UI Milboard Team offers an interesting learning experience for the younger generation. The MILBoard Team hopes that this work can reach children throughout the country, both in urban and remote areas, helping them recognize facts and avoid hoaxes. Their success shows that the creativity, innovation, and hard work of Indonesia's young generation can compete at the world level and inspire other children of the nation to continue to excel.

The Indonesian Embassy Canberra, Australia, invited more than 100 students, parents, teachers, and headmasters for a reception at the House of Indonesian Ambassador to Australia. The reception aimed to give appreciation for the students of Indonesian language and to encourage the parents, so that those students will continue studying Indonesian language at the next level of education.

The eight graders invited to the reception will decide to continue studying Indonesian language. In this event, some students gave speeches in Indonesian language. There were also explanations on Indonesian language by intern teachers at Australian schools. Some students also sang Indonesian songs, one of them was "Laskar Pelangi". Every participant also danced together to the song "Gemu Fa Mi re". The event ended with a banquet of typical Indonesian foods such as yellow rice, tempe orek, rendang, fried noodle, and meatballs.

The Education and Culture Attache at Indonesian Embassy Canberra Mukhamad Najib explained that the event was specifically designed to strengthen the promotion of Indonesian language to the students and parents. According to Najib, parents are a key factor in encouraging Australian students to study the Indonesian language.

Quoting okezone.com in Jakarta, Saturday (11/23/2024), Najib said that so far, parents of students have an influence in determining what foreign language lessons their children should take. Parents who do not understand Indonesia will encourage their sons and daughters to learn other foreign languages such as German and French. Therefore, promoting Indonesia to parents of students is important to strengthen Indonesian in Australia.

In addition, Najib said strengthening teachers and principals is also very important. According to him, principals have a role in determining whether or not there are Indonesian lessons in schools. The closure of Indonesian classes in several Australian schools is generally not because there are no students interested, but because the principals prefer European languages. Therefore, Najib believed that convincing principals about the importance of teaching Indonesian to students is a strategic thing to do.

In his remarks, Indonesian Ambassador Siswo Pramono conveyed the importance of learning Indonesian for Australian students. According to him, Indonesia is currently included in the group of the world's strong economic countries, namely the G20 group. Economic and investment opportunities in Indonesia are growing well and this provides opportunities for Australian companies to invest in Indonesia. If many Australian companies operate in Indonesia, then Australian students who master Indonesian will have a greater opportunity to work in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, the Principal of Trinity Christian School, Ian Hewitt expressed his gratitude to the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra for providing opportunities and support for learning Indonesian at his school. He stated that he always supports strengthening Indonesian lessons. According to Ian, the distance from Perth to Jakarta is closer than Perth to Canberra, so it is unreasonable for Australian students not to learn Indonesian as the closest neighboring country.

According to Ian, it is undeniable that Indonesia is a very rich country in terms of social, economic, and cultural. So it will be very beneficial for Australian students if they can master Indonesian. Next year, his party will take students to visit Indonesia to get to know Indonesia better up close.

One of the students who attended the speech, Frida, said that she had been studying Indonesian at school for five years. Although there are many challenges in learning Indonesian, Frida admitted that she enjoys learning Indonesian and will continue her Indonesian lessons at the next level. Frida also expressed her gratitude for the support of the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra for Indonesian language lessons by sending assistant teachers. According to her, assistant teachers provide an opportunity to practice more conversation in Indonesian.

The parents who attended admitted that they were very interested in the way the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra convinced students and parents to learn Indonesian. They felt very supportive of their students to learn Indonesian at the next level. In addition to Indonesian being an important language in the future, the richness of Indonesian culture is also very worthy of being learned by mastering Indonesian well.

The participants enjoyed Indonesian food in the backyard of Wisma Duta. They were happy with the garden party that contained a variety of Indonesian food that the students liked. While getting to know each other and chatting, parents and teachers also seemed to really enjoy the Indonesian food served at the garden party held by the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra.

The Indonesian Embassy in Ankara on Friday (Nov 22) inaugurated the Indonesian Community Center (ICC) as a cultural and community center to strengthen Indonesia's relations with Turkey.

Indonesian Ambassador to Turkey, Achmad Rizal Purnama, through the Embassy's statement on Friday (22/11), said the center will be utilized for Indonesian language courses, cultural workshops, and art performances to introduce the richness of Indonesian culture to the Turkish people.

Quoted by ANTARA, Achmad said the center will be an important space for various social and cultural activities, in addition to supporting various activities of the Indonesian diaspora and Indonesian community organizations in Turkey, particularly in Ankara.

The center is also said to be the secretariat of the Indonesia-Turkey Friendship Association, whose members consist of prominent Turkish businessmen and academics committed to strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries.

Currently, there are around 8,000 Indonesian citizens living in various cities and regions in Turkey. They include students, professionals, and individuals married to local citizens.

In Turkey, the Indonesian diaspora has established a number of organizations, including the Indonesian Student Association in Turkey, which has branches in 18 cities, an association of Indonesian citizens married to Turkish citizens in Ankara, and the Istanbul Indonesian Society.

There are also several Indonesian community organizations that have branches in Turkey, such as the Nahdlatul Ulama Special Branch Turkey, Muhammadiyah Special Branch Turkey, and the Islamic Student Association Special Branch Turkey.

The center will occupy the former Indonesian Embassy office, which was used until 2021, at 10 Prof. Dr. Aziz Sancar Street, Çankaya, Ankara.