Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
Donor agencies, international organizations and the body in charge of rebuilding Aceh and Nias promised Wednesday to ensure public accountability and to make it easy for people to file complaints. (more…)
Archive for the ‘English’ Category
Difference is Full of Wisdom of Life
Monday, October 23rd, 2006An Interview With Basyral Hamidy Harahap
Introduction: Recently Yaahowu website held an Online Discussion with a topic â€Welcoming and Reflecting on the Formation of the Tapanuli Provinceâ€, from 10 July – 17 August 2006. The organiser surfed various internet sites to search for the materials suitable to be included in the forum. An artcle, called: “Tribalisme: Sisi Gelap Otonomi Daerah†(Tribalism: The Dark Side of Regional Autonomy) was found in the website of Basyral Hamidy Harahap. This article was then included in the Discussion. The content of the article raised the interest of the Discussion Organiser to get to know more closely its writer. E. Halawa* of Situs Yaahowu then contacted Mr. Harahap by email. After a number of email exchanges, Pak Harahap was keen to share his views on a number of matters to visitor of Yaahowu website through an e-mail interview. (more…)
Moderate quake jolts Indonesia’s Nias Island
Thursday, October 19th, 2006Jakarta – A moderate earthquake struck Nias Island off the western coast of Indonesia’s North Sumatra Wednesday, but there were no immediate reports of structural damage or casualties, an official said.
The quake, measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale, struck off the west coast of Sumatra at about 9:01 a.m. (0201 GMT), said Novita, an official at Indonesia’s national Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG). Full Story …
Oblate-pioneered Academy offers scholarships to quake, Tsunami survivors
Friday, October 13th, 2006CILACAP, Indonesia (UCAN) — Brigita Denis Dwinatalia’s dream of studying psychology at state-run Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta crumbled when an earthquake hit south-central Java Island on May 27. (more…)
After the tsunami, waves of corruption
Friday, September 29th, 2006By Bill Guerin
JAKARTA – The outpouring of foreign aid and donations to Indonesia in the wake of the December 2004 tsunami is being pilfered by corrupt government officials and their affiliated business interests. Full story …
UNICEF opens new permanent schools in tsunami-ravaged Indonesia
Wednesday, September 20th, 2006The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has opened the first two of nearly 370 permanent schools it has agreed to build in Indonesia in a $90-million project to replace those destroyed nearly two years ago by the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami, an agency spokesman announced today. Full Story …
Website of Nias Heritage Foundation
Saturday, September 16th, 2006Yayasan Pusaka Nias (Nias Heritage Foundation) has launched a website. Please visit the website at the following link: http://museum-nias.org.
Omo Hada – Among 100 Most Endangered Sites 2006
Saturday, September 16th, 2006NIAS ISLAND, INDONESIA
The early nineteenth-century Omo Sebua, or traditional chief’s house, in the Omo Hada complex in Hilinawalö Mazingo is one of only five surviving buildings of its type on the island of Nias. Erected on stilts and towering more than 20 meters above the ground, the house, which served as both a royal residence and community meeting house, has a steep pitched roof and skylights and is adorned with some of the finest wood carvings in Indonesia. Full story …
NGOs demand probe into BRR allegations
Tuesday, September 12th, 2006Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Anticorruption watchdogs are urging an exhaustive probe of possible irregularities in rebuilding projects at the Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR).
The Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) and the Aceh Working Group (AWG) said Friday the agency’s alleged graft was “systemic”, so the investigation must be thorough.
Experts predict major quake in N. Sumatra
Tuesday, September 12th, 2006Monday, September 04, 2006
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
Geologists are warning people living along North Sumatra’s western coastal areas that a major earthquake is likely during the next few years.
(more…)
Indonesian Children in Tsunami-Hit Area Malnourished, UN Says
Friday, September 8th, 2006By Robin StringerSept. 6 (Bloomberg) — Indonesian primary school children in disaster-hit regions Aceh and Nias are suffering stunted growth and retarded intellectual development, according to a study by the United Nations World Food Programme.
“The situation is quite concerning,” said program coordinator Charlie Higgins on the UN Web Site. “ Health and nutrition-related morbidity — the incidence of disease — is high.” Full story …
ADB to Accelerate Housing Reconstruction in Aceh and Nias
Saturday, September 2nd, 2006ADB has signed agreements with five international organizations to accelerate its program to build houses in earthquake and tsunami affected Aceh and Nias.
Housing remains a top priority for the international community and the Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi (BRR), the Government agency coordinating the overall reconstruction program, following the December 2004 tsunami disaster and the March 2005 earthquake. The five agreements will involve the construction of about 2,700 new houses and rehabilitation of 900, to be completed by September 2007. Full story …
For some NGOS, another disaster means new flashy cars
Friday, August 25th, 2006Adisti Sukma Sawitri, The Jakarta Post, Depok
NGO activists are treating reconstruction projects as “battlefields” to compete for donor funding and misuse it for their own benefit, leaving locals to fend for themselves, a top UN officer says.
“It is common for me to see them benefit from disaster recovery projects: Another project, another new flashy car for each of them,” the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Puji Pujiono, said Wednesday in his keynote speech at a disaster management workshop for activists in Depok, West Java.
Flight Information
Thursday, August 24th, 2006Due to a number of enquiries from visitors, Nias Online contacted two airlines operating in Nias: Merpati and SMAC (Sabang Merauke Air Charter) and received the flight information which can be accessed by clicking on the FLIGHT INFORMATION button in the menu bar.
BRR Nias Has Lost Nias People’s Support
Friday, August 18th, 2006International institutions may laud the BRR Aceh-Nias performance (read this news), but in Nias, BRR has started losing people’s support, according to SIB newspaper report (16/08/06). The way BRR handles various projects where many were not finalised according to the ones set on paper has disappointed Nias people. This was pointed out by Fotarisman Zalukhu, the General secretary of Care Nias Society (CNS) in a discussion held recently Medan.
Zalukhu said BRR now is being viewed as being elitist and does not seem to “absorb†the local people’s aspiration. This has created a bad image of BRR among Nias people who view BRR as an institution who took advantage of Nias recent disasters to waste money channeled to Nias.
Beside losing psychological support of Nias people, BRR has also lost a momentum for its Reconstruction and Rehabilitation programme. Post disaster construction process should have been used by BRR to boost Nias people enthusiasm in rebulding their region. What has happened so far has been a merely physical reconstruction at a very slow pace.
Progress report released by BRR to public is far from a report on long term empowerment of Nias people. Instead of waiting fund from BRR, many Nias people are now trying to rebuild their own life using their own limited recources.
According to Zalukhu, if not improved and corrected continusoly, the current BRR program in Nias will become a time bomb to Nias people. When BRR finishes its term in Nias, the people will be left and dealt with with the impacts of the unfinished BRR programme.
