VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The impact of the "Covid-19 disaster" around the world is increasingly worrying. Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) as of June 24, 2021, stated that the number of people exposed to Covid-19 in the world reached almost 179 million positive cases with close to 3.9 million people dead. These numbers that continue to increase every day are really worrying for all parties.

Those who died were not only patients with certain comorbidities. The more widespread of new variants with more easily transmitted characteristics, such as the Alpha/Beta/ and Delta variants, are suspected to be the cause of the high mortality rate. Even more worrying, this virus also threatens children.

So far, many have assumed that children are more resistant when exposed to the Covid-19) than other ages. However, in Indonesia, the results of a study conducted by the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital Jakarta team showed that 40% of pediatric patients infected with Covid-19 were at high risk of death.

In comparison, the American Academy of Pediatrics this week reported that since the pandemic began until June 17, the number of infected children accounted for 14.2 percent of the total infected across the United States of America, with a mortality rate of 0.22 percent. While an article in a medical journal entitled “Children and Adolescents with SARS-CoV-2 Infection” stated that when infected with Covid-19, children did not show symptoms (asymptomatic) or only had mild symptoms.

Therefore, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of parents all over the world, including Indonesia, to take care of their children more strictly. They have to avoid taking children out of the house, except in urgent circumstances and always comply with health protocols!

World Health Organisation -WHO as a World Agency must of course move faster to deal with cases among children so that the number who died due to Covid-19 can be minimized.

on June 7 the Ministry of Media and Information (Medinfo) BEM Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) Surabaya launched an ‘ASA UNAIR application offline’ in the Amerta Hall, Rectorate Building Campus C. ASA UNAIR is an acronym for "Aplikasi Bersama Arek UNAIR". According to the Minister of Medinfo, BEM UNAIR, Rahmat Bayu, this application was created to answer the concerns of students at UNAIR as well as to realize ideas related to making applications. UNAIR students are confused about how to carry out their organizational activities during online lectures.

Rahmat further stated that ASA UNAIR application features the form of scholarships, internships, job opportunities, academic information, information of ORMAWA (Student Organization), as well as the marketplace. Besides facilitating, the ASA UNAIR application is also able to assist students in developing and establishing collaborations related to projects. This application also displays academic information, such as scientific projects and scientific works of UNAIR students. While for the ORMAWA feature, students can describe their work program or promote their organization.

As for promotion, Rahmat added, the marketplace feature is intended for students who have businesses or are starting a business so that they can promote their business at ASA UNAIR. Thereby, this application not only displays information, but also provides a profitable and facilitated bonus for students and registers for ASA UNAIR. Rahmat also said that currently, the ASA UNAIR application can be downloaded on the play-store for Android users. As for iPhone users, this application is still projected in the future so that all students, both using Android and IOS, can enjoy ASA UNAIR features.

Havana City in Cuba and Ambon City in Indonesia are exploring "sister-city cooperation" in the fields of music and education. This was stated by Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Cuba, Nana Juliana in a webinar of the Global Center of Excellence and International Cooperation for Creative Economy, which was facilitated by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia on Monday (21/6). He said that Indonesia and Cuba have established bilateral relations for 60 years. Both countries support each other in every international activity.

Diplomatic relations of both countries began on January 22nd, 1960, marked by the visit of the first president of Indonesia, Soekarno to Havana. President Soekarno was also a close friend of Prime Minister Fidel Castro. Thus, Soekarno's arrival to Cuba became the beginning of diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Cuba.

During the webinar on Monday, Cuban Ambassador to Indonesia, Tania Velazquez welcomed the planned cooperation with Ambon City. Ambon and Havana were awarded by UNESCO as music and creative cities respectively in October 2019. This collaboration will strengthen Indonesia's diplomacy and encourage connectivity and both countries’ people-to-people contacts.

Meanwhile, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno, who officially opened the webinar, said that the collaboration between Havana and Ambon is an example of cooperation in the music industry in the future. The webinar was held coinciding with the commemoration of International Music Day 21st of June. According to Minister Sandiaga Uno, this is a momentum to celebrate one of the greatest human creations in the world, namely music. Indonesian music would be less lively without Ambon; so would Cuba without Havana!

Sade is one of the hamlets in the village of Rembitan, Pujut, Central Lombok. The village is only 13 kilometers or 25 minutes away by car from the airport. This village is known as a village that maintains the customs of the Sasak tribe. The Sasak Sade tribe is well known among tourists who come to Lombok. The local Tourism Office has made Sade as tourism village because of the Sade Village’s uniqueness and the Sasak tribe that live in it. Even though it is located right next to a smooth asphalt highway, the residents of Sade Village in Rembitan still strongly maintains the authenticity of the village. Sade Village still displays the atmosphere of the original Lombok native village. It can be seen from the house building that seems very traditional. The roof is made of fibers and some the roofs are made of bamboo without nails; the walls are made of woven bamboo, and are directly grounded on the earth. The Sasak Sade people name the building, Bale.

There are eight Bales, namely Bale Tani, Jajar Sekenam, Bonter, Beleq, Berugag, Tajuk and Bencingah. Those Bales are distinguished from their function. In this village, there are 150 houses with 150 heads of families with a total of 700 people. This village has been inhabited for 15 generations. In the past, many of the population adhered to Islam Wektu Telu (only three prayers a day). But now, many Sade residents have left the Wektu Telu and embraced Islam completely. Uniquely, the villagers have a special habit of mopping the floor using buffalo dung to beautify and strengthen the floor. So, the function of buffalo dung is as an adhesive so that the floor is not porous.

Woven fabrics and accessories from threads, such as bracelets and necklaces are the expertise of the women of the Sade village. The women of the Sade Village must be able to weave. They can even get married if they are good at weaving. Sade village has an unusual marriage tradition, namely eloping marriages, where a man will elope the woman he likes and takes her away. Afterwards, the man asked for the blessing of the woman's family. This tradition is still carried out by the Sade community to this day. Proposals, and fiancées or proposing are considered a violation of custom. Amid the modernity, the Sasak Sade tribe still maintains their customs and traditions. Naturally, some tourists flock to get to know more about this village that has existed since 1500 years ago.