Archive for October, 2007
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian workers around the rumbling Mount Kelud volcano in East Java are unable to harvest cloves and coffee because they are being evacuated from the plantations, the Jakarta Post reported on Wednesday.
The authorities are evacuating residents living within a 10-km (6 mile) zone around the 1,731-metre (5,712-foot) volcano to safer areas, as experts have warned Mount Kelud was liable to erupt.
The order to evacuate more than 100,000 people was made after an alert on one of the country’s deadliest volcano — which is 675 km (420 miles) east of the capital Jakarta but only 90 km southwest of Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya — was raised to maximum last week.
Yohannes Slamet, the director of PT Tjandi Sewu, whose 650-hectare plantation lies just 5 km from the volcano, told the Jakarta Post that the firm had been forced to stop production even though it was harvest season for coffee and cloves.
“We are incurring daily losses of 4.6 million rupiah ($503.5) for halting production, while having to continue paying the salaries of 70 employees and 400 contract workers,” Slamet told the newspaper.
But some of Slamet’s contract workers defied warnings and continued to work during the day to return to the shelter at night.
An estimated 350,000 people live within 10 km of the volcano, growing coffee, sugar cane, pineapples and papayas in the rich volcanic soil.
Indonesia’s major cigarette maker PT Gudang Garam, which has its main production facilities located about 25 kilometers west of Mount Kelud, said its production remains normal.
“There has been no significant impact so far despite what happens at Kelud. Both production and distribution remain normal,” Gudang Garam spokeswoman Vidya Rahayu told Reuters late on Tuesday.
When Kelud last erupted in 1990 at least 30 people were killed, while in 1919 about 5,000 died as the volcano ejected scalding water from its crater lake.
Indonesia, which sits on a belt of intense seismic activity known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, has had a series of major volcanic eruptions over the centuries.
(Additional reporting by Zainal Arifin in Kediri, East Java)
Source: http://www.reuters.com/
October 26th, 2007
Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Sragen, Central Java
A student group entered Sangiran Museum in Sragen, Central Java, and enthusiastically looked at the various fossils on display, which date back from hundreds of thousands to millions of years ago.
All of the fossils are kept in 15 vitrines at the museum, which is also called the Conservation Center of Early Man Site. There are mollusk fossils, fossils of water creatures like fish, turtles, crabs and crocodiles, as well as hippopotamus fossils. Other collections include fossils of stone tools and fossils of mammals like buffaloes, ancient elephants, deer, tigers, pigs and rhinoceros, and of course the Pithecanthropus erectus VIII fossil, which is the most complete hominid skull fossil ever found in the country.
Complete information about the fossils is attached on each vitrine.
“Human beings can create tools to ease their work, while animals can just use tools,” archeologist and guide Anjarwati Sri said.
In another part of the museum there is a diorama describing the life of pre-historic people who lived in caves. “They were our ancestors,” said Manik, one of the students from the University of Yogyakarta.
The visitors then went to the watch tower, from where they could view the Sangiran dome or Sangiran site underneath.
Sangiran is well-known all over the world. In that place, various ancient fossils were found, including those of ancient human beings, water, sea and land animals and plants.
Sangiran comprises two hamlets located on the border of Sragen and Karanganyar regencies. The hamlets are divided by the Cemoro River.
Many fossils have been found in the 56-square-kilometer Sangiran site, which is unique and is considered the oldest human settlement in the world, dating back a million years ago. With half of the findings comprising ancient Homo erectus fossils, Sangiran attracts experts from all over the world for research and study about the evolution of prehistoric human beings.
Sangiran began to draw scientists’ attention in 1893 when Eugene Dubois explored the area in search of the fossils of early humans. It seemed, however, that he was not that serious. Dubois found the fossils of skulls and thighs of ancient men in Trinil, Ngawi, East Java, instead. They were called Pithecanthropus erectus, which means monkeys that walked upright.
It was not until 1930 that JC van Es studied Sangiran took the exploration more seriously. His activities were continued by GHR von Koenigswald. In 1934 Koenigswald found about 1,000 tools made by people who lived in Sangiran. The tools could be used to cut, spruce spear heads and trim objects. In archeology, they are called flake tools, while Koenigswald called them the products of the “Sangiran flake industry”.
In 1936, Koenigswald found fossils of the jaws of bigger ancient men called Meganthropus paleojavanicus. The following year he found the skulls of Pithecanthropus erectus, which Dubois had been unable to find.
The findings drew both foreign and local scientists to Sangiran. Among the foreigners were Helmut de Terra, Movius, P. Marks, HR van Heekeren, Gert Jan Bartstra, RW van Bemmelen, Anne Marie Semah, Francois Semah and M Itihara. From Indonesia, there were RP Soejono, Teuku Yacob (the former rector of the University of Gadjah Mada who died recently), S. Sartono and Hari Widianto.
Several research institutes — both from inside and outside the country — also became interested in studying the site including the American Museum of National History; the Biologisch Archeolosgisch Instituut Groningen, Netherlands; Tokyo University; National d’Historie Naturelle Paris; the Center for Research and Development of Geology, Bandung; National Research Center for Archeology and the Archeology Center of Yogyakarta.
In his efforts to find the fossils, Koenigswald had enlisted the help of the chief of Krikilan village, Toto Marsono, who later deployed the villagers. They found a lot of fossils of bones and kept them in the village hall, which later became the Sangiran Museum, located in Kalijambe district.
When Koenigswald stopped his research, the villagers continued digging out the earth and got more fossils.
In 1974, the Central Java government established the Sangiran Museum in Krikilan village. Nine years later a bigger museum was built by the central government and since then more facilities have also been developed.
To protect the Sangiran site, the government in 1977 declared it a cultural conservation site. It covers part of Kalijambe district, Plupuh district and Gemolong district in Sragen regency and part of Gondangrejo district in Karanganyar regency. In 1996, UNESCO put Sangiran in the 593rd position on the World Heritage List under the name of Sangiran Early Man Site.
Anjarwati, who graduated from the University of Gadjah Mada, said that geomorphologically Sangiran was a mountainous area with a dome structure in the middle.
The dome structure had been through a “deformation process”, with breaks, landslides and erosion transforming it into a valley. As a result, all layers of the ancient land with all items and remains of the life on it were revealed.
There were four stratigraphic formations: the Kalibeng Formation, which was the oldest earth layer in Sangiran at about three million to 1.8 million years old. The 107-meter thick land was the sedimentation of the ocean bed where many mollusk, turritela and foraminifera fossils were found.
The younger formation was the Pucangan Formation, which dated back from 1.8 million to 800,000 years ago and was 100 meters thick. In this formation many fossils of vertebrata like elephants (Stegodon trigonocephalus), bulls (Bibos palaeosondaicus), buffaloes (Bubalus palaeokarabau), deer (Cervus sp) and hippopotamus were found. Fossils of pre-historic men were also found in the highest part.
The third formation was the Kabuh Formation, which dated back from between 800,000 to 250,000 years ago and was between 0.1 and 46.3 meters thick. Many hominid and mammalian fossils were found in the lower layer but none of the fossils of pre-historic men were found in the upper layer.
The last formation was the Notopuro Formation that contained gravel, sand, silt and mud. Volcanic mudflow and fossils were rarely found here.
The latest finding in Sangiran was in April when villagers found fossils of the skull of pre-historic elephant of Stegodon trigonocephalus in Dayu hamlet, Dayu village, Gondarangrejo district, Karanganyar regency.
Early examination showed that the elephant lived between 800,000 and 700,000 years ago. The fossil was 1.02 meters high, 46 cm wide and 69 cm high.
Until today 960 fossils of ancient elephants have been found. The one that was found in April was registered as finding number 13,813 among the collection of the Conservation Center of Pre-historic Men of Sangiran.
Sangiran now has guesthouses that were built by the Sragen administration for researchers who want to stay there for a long time and also for tourists who wish to see the site and enjoy the rural view.
Source: The Jakarta Post
October 26th, 2007
Armed police today forced Indonesian villagers to evacuate plains surrounding a volcano that experts believe is poised to erupt, as aid workers braced for a potential disaster.
Mount Kelut, a 1731-metre peak about 90 kilometres from Indonesia’s second largest city of Surabaya on the island of Java, was put on red alert on Tuesday amid fears it was about to blow.
Some 116,000 villagers were evacuated from the fertile land around its slopes, but many have defied local officials’ orders to stay away, instead returning home to tend their farms and to protect them from possible looting.
Asked by reporters to confirm whether police had threatened villagers with guns to get them to leave a 10 kilometres danger zone around the peak, local police chief Tjuk Basuki said: “Yes, some individual officers did so, but we wouldn’t get into any physical contact.”
“This is for their own good. The volcano is at a dangerous stage,” he added.
He did not say how many villagers were forced to leave, but many insisted on staying put.
About 350 residents at Kampung Anyar, a village 8 kilometres from the crater, said they did not want to leave their homes and they had their own way to protect themselves.
“When Kelut erupts, we will all stay in our homes and not talk, not turn on the lights, or candles or even a single match until the next daybreak,” Sugeng, 45, said.
The village was built by survivors of the 1990 volcano eruption that spewed so-called “heat clouds” - searing gas containing ash and volcanic debris - down its slopes.
“The two villages were too close to the crater, so we moved here,” he said.
Kristanto, the chief volcanologist at the monitoring station at Kelut, told AFP that he believed head clouds, also known as pyroclastic flows, would erupt this time in a manner similar to the ones in 1990.
“I predict that this time, it will be the same,” he said.
The elderly warden of the volcano, Mbah Ronggo, evacuated to a safety shelter overnight but returned home today.
“Actually I didn’t want to come down but police asked me to do so for safety reasons. In my opinion, evacuation for the time being is unnecessary,” he told AFP before he returned to the slopes to tend his farm.
The World Health Organisation and Indonesian officials mobilised 100 medical professionals, placed 200 health facilities on alert and established 41 outreach health posts in anticipation of the eruption, the UN said.
Emergency health kits, masks and other essential equipment have also been prepared, the world body added.
Separately, a so-called “mud volcano” 68 kilometres north-east of Kelut has increased its flow to about 130,000 cubic metres per day amid the rising seismic activity in the area, Soffian Hadi Djojopranoto, deputy head of a government team monitoring the mud volcano, told AFP.
The mud began spurting at an exploratory gas drill in May last year and the company operating it has been blamed. But the company insists a major quake that struck the Java city of Yogyakarta just beforehand was the trigger.
Officials said in September that the flow increased then from 70,000 cubic metres a day to 100,000.
“We have no reference to forecast what will happen if Mount Kelut erupts,” Djojopranoto warned.
More than 15,000 lives have been claimed since record-keeping began of Mount Kelut’s eruptions, including an estimated 10,000 in a catastrophic 1586 eruption.
A 1919 eruption spewed heat clouds that killed 5160 people. The last eruption in 1990 left 34 people dead.
AFP
Source: http://www.theage.com.au/
October 25th, 2007
SURABAYA - Setiap negara pasti punya dongeng soal pangeran yang mencari cinta sejati seorang putri. Salah satu kisah dari Denmark adalah The Princess and The Pea. Kisah itu bakal diangkat dalam pergelaran Dewi Ballet pada 27 Oktober di Gedung Cak Durasim, kompleks Taman Budaya Jawa Timur.
Pergelaran itu dalam rangka ulang tahun Dewi Ballet ke-34. Pada malam pergelaran itu, Dewi Ballet menampilkan 60 balerina.
Selain tarian utama The Princess and The Pea, sejumlah tarian lepas juga dipertunjukkan. Tarian lepas itu berkategori balet anak, balet klasik, disko, kontemporer, dan jazz. Koreografer lima tarian lepas tersebut adalah Amelia Tandjung, Tjindrawati, Ellycia, Amelia Ariastha, Anasthasia Yunita, dan Rudy Soenarto.
“Pagelaran balet dengan mengangkat cerita The Princess & The Pea tersebut baru pertama kali diadakan di Surabaya,” ungkap Amelia Tandjung, penerus Dewi Ballet. (nar/wek)
Source: Jawa Pos Online
October 25th, 2007
Alfian, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Transportation Ministry’s data shows numbers of bus and ship passengers during the Idul Fitri holiday this year decreased but train passenger numbers barely changed.
The sea transportation directorate general was still counting its total number of passengers for the annual holiday but said the provisional number stood at more than 373,000 passengers compared to last year’s 509,000.
While this year’s final number is still possible to increase, the trend shows that ships passengers may decrease this year.
There were some 360,000 passengers using ships up until the 15th day of the Idul Fitri period — a decrease of 24.66 percent compared to last year’s figure of some 478,000 passengers.
The government this year prepared 528 ships with a total capacity of more than 139,000 passengers.
Transportation Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal said the number of holiday makers for the holiday reached 11.4 million or a five percent increase on last year.
Buses also carried less passengers with some 619,000 compared to 677,00 passengers last year, or a 8.59 percent decrease.
While the data has yet to be final, the trend is likely to be the same with those of ships as the peak of returning people was reached four days after the Idul Fitri holidays.
Trains reportedly carried less passengers this year with 1.77 million people compared to last year’s figure of 1.80 million.
The train data did not however include passengers from the major destinations of Bandung in West Java, Semarang in Central Java or Jember in East Java. The total number of passengers could still increase as these towns are major train destinations.
Spokesman for the National Police Sr. Comr. Bambang Kuncoko said Sunday the death toll had increased from last year’s holiday toll.
“There was an increase of some 36 percent with at least 319 deaths from 1,051 accidents this year,” he told Detik.com.
“More than 1,200 people were also injured.”
A major accident took place Sunday evening with 12 people killed on the Merak turnpike, Detik reported Sunday.
A bus heading for Merak in Banten suffered a tire blow-out before crossing into the Jakarta-bound lane.
The bus then crashed into a minibus and a sedan.
KM Acita sea vessel capsized as it was about to enter the seaport in Bau-bau, Southeast Sulawesi, killing 31 passengers.
Jusman, however, said the number of accidents this year was lower than last year.
Source: The Jakarta Post
October 24th, 2007
More than 22,000 people were evacuated from below the Mount Kelud Volcano in East Java, according to the latest UN update published Friday in Geneva amid fears of a powerful eruption.
Experts warned that the 1,731-metre volcano, which lies about 100 kilometres south-east of the provincial capital Surabaya, was still in imminent danger of erupting despite fewer tremors.
According to information from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a total 22,154 people had been persuaded to leave their homes in two provinces Kediri and Blitar within a 10 kilometre radius of the mountain. However, another 17,000 had defied warnings and returned home.
While volcanic tremors had eased, the Directorate for Volcanology in Bandung said activity was still increasing. The deformation of the crater was also increasing, a sign of imminent eruption.
The volcano, which has been increasingly active in recent weeks, last erupted in 1990, killing more than 30 people. It is considered the most active of Indonesia’s volcanoes lying within the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where seismic activity is common. dpa hl pmc
Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/
October 24th, 2007
The bus conductor stuck his head out of the vehicle’s one and only access point to open air — a small window in the air-conditioned bus — and puffed on his cigarette.
A passenger tried to follow suit.
“You have to queue. You’re not the only one who wants to smoke,” Ibnu said in his thick Javanese accent.
It was around 9 a.m. on Friday, a day before Idul Fitri. The bus, on its way from Jakarta to Pekalongan, Central Java, was hardly moving along the Kanci turnpike in the West Java section of the north coast highway.
It had been 12 hours since the bus left Lebak Bulus bus station in South Jakarta and its 48 passengers were tired and bored.
The bus would normally reach Pekalongan on Java’s north coast in six hours, but the national homecoming ritual meant far more time on the road.
Last year, Idul Fitri saw up to 7.67 million vehicles leave Greater Jakarta, with the traffic peak occurring two days before the holiday.
Joining this year’s stream of homecoming urbanites were two Jakarta Post reporters who were onboard Ibnu’s bus for an assignment in Tegal, about 330 kilometers east of the capital and usually only five hours away.
The bus left the city at 10 p.m. As it exited Cikampek turnpike it immediately got stuck in a traffic jam.
On the previous day the Transportation Ministry said 464,000 vehicles had passed the same highway.
The passengers slept until dawn, when the bus stopped at a restaurant in Patrol, West Java, to allow a pre-dawn meal for the last fasting day of Ramadhan, and a change of drivers.
The bus had covered around 180 kilometers in six hours.
At around 8 a.m. the bus reached Kanci Turnpike, about 90 kilometers east of Patrol, where a queue thousands of cars long crawled for at least 10 kilometers.
Traffic barely budged. Cell phone ringtones broke the strange morning silence in the bus.
Other drivers stepped out to have a better view of the traffic, followed by passengers wishing to stretch their legs.
Locals tried to cash in on the congestion, selling bottled mineral water and snacks. The young ones took up busking.
After about an hour — which felt like days — the bus driver began to get frustrated and decided to turn back to Cirebon to seek an alternative route, only to find that none of his crew knew the way.
Passengers could only moan quietly among themselves.
The driver later decided to follow another bus going east and passengers hoped for the best.
The journey then continued with the bus winding through small northern cities along the border of West and Central Java.
But traffic was just the same.
A passenger tried to get some sleep — but awoke many times only to find the bus was still in the same spot. “Why are we still here?” she grumbled.
During the next few hours, vehicles struggled to find room on the small roads and tried to pass each other. As the sun reached high noon, so did the level of road rage.
Forget Ramadhan restraint: Drivers yelled and a few crashes and bare-knuckle fights entertained edgy travelers.
As many as 48 road accidents were reported during this year’s homecoming rush, claiming 24 lives in West Java alone.
Past noon, police roadblocks forced the bus to go southward through Slawi, a small city, adding 40 kilometers to the normal 65-kilometer distance from Cirebon to Tegal.
Before 2 p.m., as the bus was about to enter Tegal, the city’s altered traffic flow forced the vehicle to take yet another detour.
About an hour later the Post’s reporters finally stepped onto a street in downtown Tegal, ending the 18-hour exhausting journey.(23)
Source: The Jakarta Post
October 23rd, 2007
The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) will hold a regional investment promotion expo in Surabaya this week, the second such regional event this year in which all 33 provinces will showcase their respective business and investment potentials.
The expo, which will be held on Oct. 24-26, will give around 1,500 invited investors the chance to participate in round table discussions and forums, according to Darmawan Djajusman, BKPM deputy chairman for investment promotion.
This year’s first regional expo was held last month in Batam.
“Invitations have not only been sent to local and overseas companies, but also to foreign business chambers as far away as Brazil — who have by the way confirmed their participation,” Darmawan told The Jakarta Post recently.
“Our representatives in foreign countries have also been actively involved in promoting this event,” added Yuliot, BKPM director in charge of domestic promotion.
Yuliot said the agency organized the event in an effort to promote investment opportunities in the country. “Every year, we organize two major regional events and two others overseas.”
Earlier in the year, the BKPM organized a promotion investment exhibition in Seoul, South Korea and plans to hold another one in Paris later in the year.
Since the monetary crisis, Indonesia has been boosting efforts to lure foreign investors in order to help fuel its consumption-driven economy.
By promoting investment opportunities in regions, the government is hoping to spark competition among the provinces in terms of ensuring a business-friendly climate.
All efforts, however, are often still riddled with classic problems, such as complicated licensing procedures and bureaucratic red-tape.
According to the latest survey from the World Bank and its private sector, the International Financial Corporation (IFC), Indonesia remains a tough place for investors.
The survey says 105 days are required for an investor to start up a business in the country, far longer than its main regional competitors like China, Malaysia and Vietnam, let alone Singapore.
Acknowledging this, Yuliot said many regional governments, and especially the BKPM itself, have continued to address such issues and have in some cases, made some improvements.
“With the BKPM, for instance, all procedures can now be completed within five working days. The target is actually 10 days.
“More and more regencies have set up a one-roof investment service. Around 200 regencies are now doing this, although most of them are located on the larger islands, such as Java and Kalimantan,” Yuliot said.
He said the Surabaya event would also host a forum in which businesspeople from East Java could meet with relevant ministries and agencies to discuss the problems caused by the Lapindo mudflow disaster.
Source: The Jakarta Post
October 23rd, 2007
SURABAYA - Sebagai paru-paru kota, Taman Bungkul tak hanya menawarkan keindahan dan kelengkapan fasilitas. Keteduhan dari rimbunnya pepohonan membuat banyak orang meluangkan waktu sejenak untuk menyegarkan diri di tengah panasnya matahari metropolis.
Nah, sejak dipasang spray di sejumlah pohon di taman tersebut beberapa waktu lalu, suasana teduh kian terasa di Taman Bungkul. Jika panas matahari menyengat, tak usah khawatir. Pancaran air yang menyelinap di antara pepohonan di Taman Bungkul siap melawannya.
Kini, Taman Bungkul tak hanya cantik dan rimbun, tapi juga suejuk. Benar-benar bak oasis di tengah padang pasir dan cocok dengan karakteristik iklim Kota Pahlawan ini.
Kemarin (21/10), sejumlah orang tampak duduk di sekitar pepohonan yang menyiratkan butiran-butiran air tersebut. Kesejukan tak hanya merambat lewat udara, tapi juga membuat pandangan mata menjadi segar berkat pemandangan air yang berpadu dengan pepohonan yang menghijau. (nar)
Source: Jawa Pos Online
October 22nd, 2007
BLITAR, Indonesia (AFP) — The risk of eruption at an Indonesian volcano on Java island remains high but it appears no nearer blowing, residents and scientists said Sunday.
“There have been no significant changes compared to yesterday (Saturday). Nothing much happening except for some quakes,” volcanologist Agus Budianto said of Mount Kelut in Indonesia’s densely populated East Java province.
He said temperatures at the crater have remained stable but he warned that the risks of a sudden eruption remained high, as sensors continued to register increasing magmatic pressure within the volcano.
Five volcanic tremors and two tectonic earthquakes were registered in the area in the first six hours of Sunday, said another volcanologist, Umar, from a monitoring station 7.5 kilometres (4.5 miles) from the crater.
Local authorities on Sunday continued evacuations of people living within a 10-kilometre radius of the 1,731-metre (5,712-foot) peak.
“There are a total of some 90,000 people living on the slope of Kelut within radius of 10 kilometres from the crater. They are currently being evacuated,” said Kamtono, a spokesman of the Blitar district authorities.
Kamtono said that temporary shelters have been set up at 37 locations outside the danger zone.
About 1,000 people in a hamlet seven kilometres from the peak refused to leave, saying the temporary shelters would not have everything they need.
“Why do we have to evacuate? Our daily needs would not be provided there. Whatever happens, we would rather remain here,” said one man in his 50s who identified himself only as Jo.
Upstream more than 100 men continued taking stones and sand from a dry river-bed just five kilometres from the crater.
“This is our only livelihood and we do not have money. Whatever the risk, even if we risk losing our lives, we will have to continue to work for a living here,” said one of the miners, Katimin, while piling sand for pickup by a truck later.
In a neighbouring district 40,000 people living within the immediate danger area have been told to leave.
“Not everyone has left yet because of various reasons, but we are continuing efforts to evacuate them,” said Sigit Raharjo, the spokesman of the district.
“It has been the same in the past few days, lots of tremors but nothing else. Many people here are used to those tremors and do not feel the need to leave,” said Gatot Subandi, the head of a disaster mitigation team in Nglegok, a sub-district of Blitar within the danger zone.
Geologists have said the eruption would comprise “heat clouds” consisting of searing gases and volcanic debris rushing down the slopes, similar to the most recent eruption in 1990 that left 34 dead.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where continental plates collide causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity. The archipelago nation is home to 129 active volcanoes, including 21 on Java.
Source: http://afp.google.com/
October 22nd, 2007
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