Bali’s provincial administration plans to provide soft loans for all
its residents, particularly in the low-income bracket, who are eager to
work overseas but face funding problems.
Governor Made Mangku Pastika said that working overseas, on cruise liners in particular, was a good way to improve the livelihoods of poor families.
“I think, we have a big chance to overcome poverty through the program. We can give soft loans to poor people on the island to fund their courses and various expenses needed to work overseas,” Pastika said after the opening ceremony for a job fair involving 50 companies at Lila Bhuana, Ngurah Rai Sports Stadium, in Denpasar on Friday.
Currently, 3.95 percent of Bali’s 4.1 million residents are living below the poverty line, making Bali the province with the second lowest number of poor people in the nation, after Jakarta. The percentage of impoverished residents has fallen from around 6 percent in 2008. This year, the administration is targeting reducing poverty to 3.28 percent of the population. Pastika, who was re-elected in May, is eager to decrease poverty to 1 percent by the end of his leadership in 2018.
Through the Bali Mandara initiatives, the administration implements several poverty alleviation programs, comprising JKBM, a free healthcare service for all registered residents of the island; bedah rumah, house renovation assistance for poor households; simantri, cash and technical assistance for farmers’ groups willing to adopt organic farming and alternative energy sources; scholarships for underprivileged students; cash assistance for customary villages and traditional farming and irrigation societies; and gerbang sadhu, a generous Rp 1 billion (US$92,500) in aid for any village willing to establish community-based economic enterprises.
“We want to speed up poverty eradication. Working overseas may greatly improve livelihoods. I am sure that there are many people who are willing to work in foreign countries, but they mostly don’t have the money to study and depart for those destinations,” Pastika said.
An increasing number of young people on the island are now considering working overseas as the best way to improve their future. Positions in hotels, spas and on cruises ships abroad not only offer the chance to travel and learn about other cultures, but also a higher rate of pay than available from tourism establishments back home. Indonesian workers overseas can earn over $1,000 per month working on a cruise ship.
The provincial manpower agency recorded that in 2011 there were 14,944 Bali-based workers working overseas. The number decreased to 12,596 in 2012 but is expected to soar significantly this year. Most of the overseas workers are in the cruise industry. Others work in hotels, restaurants and spas in the US, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, India, the Maldives, Turkey, Cyprus, Russia and other countries.
Pastika said that it was estimated that a total of around Rp 20 million was needed for people to start work for a cruise line. This figure includes the cost of study, tickets, and many other administrative costs. “It will be hard for poor people, especially those in rural areas, to get Rp 20 million. That’s why, the soft loans are needed,” he stressed.
The administration plans to implement the soft loan program in cooperation with Bank Pembangunan Daerah (BPD) Bali, Bali Regional Bank, and the Bali Mandara regional loan guarantee company PT Jamkrida.
“We will approach BPD Bali to distribute the loans, and PT Jamkrida Bali Mandara is ready to be guarantor,” he said.
PT Jamkrida Bali Mandara is a loan guarantee institution established by the provincial administration in cooperation with the Denpasar mayoralty, Badung, Gianyar, Karangasem, Bangli and Tabanan regencies. The administrations collected total venture capital of Rp 52,675 billion, which enables PT Jamkrida Bali Mandara to distribute loans with a ceiling of up to Rp 2 trillion.
A survey in February 2013 revealed that 45,380 people, or 1.89 percent of the workforce in Bali, are unemployed. This is a decrease compared to 2012 when 47,330 people, or 2.04 percent of workforce, was unemployed.
Governor Made Mangku Pastika said that working overseas, on cruise liners in particular, was a good way to improve the livelihoods of poor families.
“I think, we have a big chance to overcome poverty through the program. We can give soft loans to poor people on the island to fund their courses and various expenses needed to work overseas,” Pastika said after the opening ceremony for a job fair involving 50 companies at Lila Bhuana, Ngurah Rai Sports Stadium, in Denpasar on Friday.
Currently, 3.95 percent of Bali’s 4.1 million residents are living below the poverty line, making Bali the province with the second lowest number of poor people in the nation, after Jakarta. The percentage of impoverished residents has fallen from around 6 percent in 2008. This year, the administration is targeting reducing poverty to 3.28 percent of the population. Pastika, who was re-elected in May, is eager to decrease poverty to 1 percent by the end of his leadership in 2018.
Through the Bali Mandara initiatives, the administration implements several poverty alleviation programs, comprising JKBM, a free healthcare service for all registered residents of the island; bedah rumah, house renovation assistance for poor households; simantri, cash and technical assistance for farmers’ groups willing to adopt organic farming and alternative energy sources; scholarships for underprivileged students; cash assistance for customary villages and traditional farming and irrigation societies; and gerbang sadhu, a generous Rp 1 billion (US$92,500) in aid for any village willing to establish community-based economic enterprises.
“We want to speed up poverty eradication. Working overseas may greatly improve livelihoods. I am sure that there are many people who are willing to work in foreign countries, but they mostly don’t have the money to study and depart for those destinations,” Pastika said.
An increasing number of young people on the island are now considering working overseas as the best way to improve their future. Positions in hotels, spas and on cruises ships abroad not only offer the chance to travel and learn about other cultures, but also a higher rate of pay than available from tourism establishments back home. Indonesian workers overseas can earn over $1,000 per month working on a cruise ship.
The provincial manpower agency recorded that in 2011 there were 14,944 Bali-based workers working overseas. The number decreased to 12,596 in 2012 but is expected to soar significantly this year. Most of the overseas workers are in the cruise industry. Others work in hotels, restaurants and spas in the US, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, India, the Maldives, Turkey, Cyprus, Russia and other countries.
Pastika said that it was estimated that a total of around Rp 20 million was needed for people to start work for a cruise line. This figure includes the cost of study, tickets, and many other administrative costs. “It will be hard for poor people, especially those in rural areas, to get Rp 20 million. That’s why, the soft loans are needed,” he stressed.
The administration plans to implement the soft loan program in cooperation with Bank Pembangunan Daerah (BPD) Bali, Bali Regional Bank, and the Bali Mandara regional loan guarantee company PT Jamkrida.
“We will approach BPD Bali to distribute the loans, and PT Jamkrida Bali Mandara is ready to be guarantor,” he said.
PT Jamkrida Bali Mandara is a loan guarantee institution established by the provincial administration in cooperation with the Denpasar mayoralty, Badung, Gianyar, Karangasem, Bangli and Tabanan regencies. The administrations collected total venture capital of Rp 52,675 billion, which enables PT Jamkrida Bali Mandara to distribute loans with a ceiling of up to Rp 2 trillion.
A survey in February 2013 revealed that 45,380 people, or 1.89 percent of the workforce in Bali, are unemployed. This is a decrease compared to 2012 when 47,330 people, or 2.04 percent of workforce, was unemployed.
Images of young Balinese woman (circa 1930s) clad in sarongs, exposing naked breasts, reached Europe at a time when knowledge of this small tropical isle in the remote East Indies was practically non-existent.
The women’s casual mannerisms, along with the alluring breasts, were misconceived, suggesting a culture of liberal sexual morality. The Balinese regard the breast as a symbol of fertility and of the abundance of Ibu Pertiwi (mother earth).
The Balinese woman is industrious, either at home caring for the family, in the village attending to chores and customs, or working in the fields. Spare a thought for the small armies of women who lug enormous quantities of materials upon their heads all day, from the roads to the many construction sites around Bali.
Women spend countless hours meticulously creating Balinese Hindu offerings. Their fingers delicately weave flowers and leaves into the ubiquitous ceremonial masterpieces.
The most exploited image of Balinese femininity, immortalized by the tourism juggernaut, is that of the beautiful young lady in magnificent traditional costume, poised gracefully while dancing.
The famous traditional expressions of Balinese painting and sculpture are, by and large, patriarchal. There are, however many talented female Balinese artists who complete their academic art training.
Yet rarely does one continue on to become a successful artist, much less one with an international profile. Ni Nyoman Sani, born in Sanur 1975, has achieved this distinction.
Sani had to prove she had the talent and dedication to succeed and then eventually she gained the trust and confidence of her parents. She now raises two children along with devoting time to her cultural duties and career.
Sani is a gifted painter, photographer and fashion designer and her expressions reflect the sovereignty and liberation of women.
The Seniwati Gallery of Art is a women’s only collective established in 1991 in reaction to the invisibility of women artists in the galleries and museums of Bali.
A longtime member, Sani has recently become the new director and is a driving force behind Seniwati.
“Women of Two Continents”, 1993, by Cokorda Isteri Mas Astiti, is an icon of contemporary art by a Balinese woman. In the painting’s foreground — a beach scene — she depicts Balinese women in traditional costumes holding offerings, while in the background three foreign women, two dressed in bikinis and one taking a photograph observe. This is a remarkable composition of contrasts and cross-cultural dialogue.
Indonesia’s most important female artist was the petite Balinese painter Ni Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih (1966-2006). Murni started life as the child of a farmer, poor and uneducated, rising to the ranks of artistic distinction. Her father sexually abused her at the age of nine.
Murni’s compositions often explored gender politics in her minimalist, naïve figurative style with powerful coloration. A dedicated member of Seniwati, her first solo exhibition was held at the Seniwati Gallery in 1995. Via the courage to confront her darkest emotions, Murni’s intuition was instrumental in forging new thematic grounds in Balinese art.
A notable work by Murni depicts a woman holding aloft a huge dripping penis. Her unique art was derived from a nurturing source that initiated her healing process, while also seeking to set her free.
Balinese tradition encourages figurative expressions of naked and sexual content. According to Hindu cultural practices, artworks are in no way meant to be offensive, rather their intent is to educate and communicate about the essence of life and existence.
— Richard Horstman is a cultural observer residing in Ubud
via bali - www.
What's changed in Indonesia over the four years that our correspondent has been there?
A man carries goods on his shoulder at a morning market in Bogor, Indonesia's West Java province August 1, 2013.
(Beawiharta/Reuters)
By Sara Schonhardt
posted August 26, 2013 at 12:26 pm EDT
via bali - Gwww.csmonitor. com/World/Global-News/2013/0826/A-view-from-Indonesia-beyond-Bali?cmpid%3Deditorpicks
(Beawiharta/Reuters)
posted August 26, 2013 at 12:26 pm EDT
Jakarta, Indonesia
• A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
Every time I travel for work in Indonesia, I'm tempted to describe the journey. The road to (insert destination) was smooth or twisting or pockmarked and broken. I passed roadside stands selling fruit and fried snacks. The traffic was horrendous, more stop than go, or people passed us like maniacs, swerving at 75 miles an hour on snaking back roads.
Such details give a sense of place and remoteness. They also convey the vastness and contradiction that is Indonesia, the world's largest island country by population, and the dysfunctional state of its infrastructure.
They are not always essential to the story, which varies from the battle to cope with rising maternal mortality to deforestation to improvements in rural education – or lack thereof. But I like to think they paint a picture of a country that people tend to see from either the vantage of Jakarta's malls and high rises or its sweeping rice fields and volcanic vistas.
In reality, the scenery is neither one or the other. In the poorest villages a gaudy concrete structure (usually a government office or seldom-used health clinic), often stands as a tribute to economic and social development.
I have traveled far and wide to see the nature of this "progress," to talk to people and learn what they think, how they live and how their lives are changing as the country does.
While I don't often talk about how warm and friendly the Indonesian people are, I often think it. When Indonesians ask me why I like it here, I don't wax on about the culture (vibrant!), the climate (tropical) or how far I can stretch my American dollar. I simply say it's fascinating – and that's as true today as it was four years ago when I first arrived here.
I feel lucky Indonesia has let me stay this long and tell its stories. I have loved and hated it, but my feelings have never been lukewarm. I've been terrified, joyous, overwhelmed, frustrated, and scintillated. I have rarely been bored.
When I arrived in August 2009, Indonesians were still cheering the re-election of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as president. Now, as he prepares to leave office under 10-year term limits, pundits are calling him a lame duck who not only failed to meet a key campaign promise to curb corruption, but has let it infiltrate the Democrat Party he founded.
Civil society groups have also lashed out at him for standing by silently while sectarian violence ticked upward.
In 2009 counter-terrorism police were still hunting for the militants behind twin bombings that rocked the luxury JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta, killing nine and injuring dozens of others. Today, after fracturing the country's biggest terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah, police are fighting a war against militants targeting them rather than Western influences.
Four years ago the anti-corruption commission was boldly going after high-level politicians (it still is) and political analysts worried about attempts by parliamentarians to defang it (they haven't given up). Bali had trash on its beaches, but less of it. There were more orangutans, tigers, and elephants in rainforests that have since been clear cut. 7-Eleven had not entered the market, shaking up the country's convenience store craze, and Joko Widodo, the populist governor of Jakarta who has transformed Indonesian perceptions of good governance and is, observers speculate, preparing a run for the presidency, was still a country bumpkin mayor in a mid-sized city called Solo.
At small shops, vendors handed back candies when they were short on change. The exchange rate was averaging Rp10,000 to the dollar. Today, after years of more than six percent growth and an economy often called an emerging market "darling" by investors, the rupiah has weakened to its lowest level since 2008.
On Friday President Yudhoyono announced a fiscal stimulus package aimed at restoring confidence in the sputtering economy. During a late night coffee meeting, the country's leading financial officials talked about how its rising wages and low productivity were driving investors away.
Brash young finance minister Chatib Basri, sprinkling his speech with slang, called Indonesia a victim of its own successes, while Hatta Rajasa, the coordinating minister for the economy, hammered home the need to preserve local industries and stem imports to rebalance a trade deficit that is to blame for the sickening currency.
None of that seemed to matter much by Sunday, as I zipped down a palm oil plantation-lined road from Medan to Lake Toba, where I'm on a reporting trip for The Christian Science Monitor. At one point my driver swerved onto the shoulder to avoid a collision with a van passing in the oncoming lane (our mirrors still clipped.) When we stopped for lunch an hour later I chatted with two well-mannered kids. They asked me what I wanted to buy (mau beli apa?). I asked them where they lived. Just typical Indonesian probing.
Another common question, which Saritua, the taxi driver asked me shortly after we met:
"Are you married."
"Not yet," I said.
"You should find an Indonesian man," he replied.
And when I thought about what to say to that, I thought about how much time I'd spent these past years looking for a story, for sources, for a way to tell the world about a country that is neither failing nor soaring and I realized I had the appropriate answer to encompass it all: "I'm still searching."
• A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
Every time I travel for work in Indonesia, I'm tempted to describe the journey. The road to (insert destination) was smooth or twisting or pockmarked and broken. I passed roadside stands selling fruit and fried snacks. The traffic was horrendous, more stop than go, or people passed us like maniacs, swerving at 75 miles an hour on snaking back roads.
Such details give a sense of place and remoteness. They also convey the vastness and contradiction that is Indonesia, the world's largest island country by population, and the dysfunctional state of its infrastructure.
They are not always essential to the story, which varies from the battle to cope with rising maternal mortality to deforestation to improvements in rural education – or lack thereof. But I like to think they paint a picture of a country that people tend to see from either the vantage of Jakarta's malls and high rises or its sweeping rice fields and volcanic vistas.
In reality, the scenery is neither one or the other. In the poorest villages a gaudy concrete structure (usually a government office or seldom-used health clinic), often stands as a tribute to economic and social development.
I have traveled far and wide to see the nature of this "progress," to talk to people and learn what they think, how they live and how their lives are changing as the country does.
While I don't often talk about how warm and friendly the Indonesian people are, I often think it. When Indonesians ask me why I like it here, I don't wax on about the culture (vibrant!), the climate (tropical) or how far I can stretch my American dollar. I simply say it's fascinating – and that's as true today as it was four years ago when I first arrived here.
I feel lucky Indonesia has let me stay this long and tell its stories. I have loved and hated it, but my feelings have never been lukewarm. I've been terrified, joyous, overwhelmed, frustrated, and scintillated. I have rarely been bored.
When I arrived in August 2009, Indonesians were still cheering the re-election of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as president. Now, as he prepares to leave office under 10-year term limits, pundits are calling him a lame duck who not only failed to meet a key campaign promise to curb corruption, but has let it infiltrate the Democrat Party he founded.
Civil society groups have also lashed out at him for standing by silently while sectarian violence ticked upward.
In 2009 counter-terrorism police were still hunting for the militants behind twin bombings that rocked the luxury JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta, killing nine and injuring dozens of others. Today, after fracturing the country's biggest terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah, police are fighting a war against militants targeting them rather than Western influences.
Four years ago the anti-corruption commission was boldly going after high-level politicians (it still is) and political analysts worried about attempts by parliamentarians to defang it (they haven't given up). Bali had trash on its beaches, but less of it. There were more orangutans, tigers, and elephants in rainforests that have since been clear cut. 7-Eleven had not entered the market, shaking up the country's convenience store craze, and Joko Widodo, the populist governor of Jakarta who has transformed Indonesian perceptions of good governance and is, observers speculate, preparing a run for the presidency, was still a country bumpkin mayor in a mid-sized city called Solo.
At small shops, vendors handed back candies when they were short on change. The exchange rate was averaging Rp10,000 to the dollar. Today, after years of more than six percent growth and an economy often called an emerging market "darling" by investors, the rupiah has weakened to its lowest level since 2008.
On Friday President Yudhoyono announced a fiscal stimulus package aimed at restoring confidence in the sputtering economy. During a late night coffee meeting, the country's leading financial officials talked about how its rising wages and low productivity were driving investors away.
Brash young finance minister Chatib Basri, sprinkling his speech with slang, called Indonesia a victim of its own successes, while Hatta Rajasa, the coordinating minister for the economy, hammered home the need to preserve local industries and stem imports to rebalance a trade deficit that is to blame for the sickening currency.
None of that seemed to matter much by Sunday, as I zipped down a palm oil plantation-lined road from Medan to Lake Toba, where I'm on a reporting trip for The Christian Science Monitor. At one point my driver swerved onto the shoulder to avoid a collision with a van passing in the oncoming lane (our mirrors still clipped.) When we stopped for lunch an hour later I chatted with two well-mannered kids. They asked me what I wanted to buy (mau beli apa?). I asked them where they lived. Just typical Indonesian probing.
Another common question, which Saritua, the taxi driver asked me shortly after we met:
"Are you married."
"Not yet," I said.
"You should find an Indonesian man," he replied.
And when I thought about what to say to that, I thought about how much time I'd spent these past years looking for a story, for sources, for a way to tell the world about a country that is neither failing nor soaring and I realized I had the appropriate answer to encompass it all: "I'm still searching."
via bali - Gwww.csmonitor. com/World/Global-News/2013/0826/A-view-from-Indonesia-beyond-Bali?cmpid%3Deditorpicks
Abbott promises compensation for victims of terrorism
Tony Abbott has promised compensation for victims of overseas terrorism after experiencing first hand the devastation days after an attack.Paul Anicich, whose life as a leading lawyer in the NSW city of Newcastle was ruined by the bombing, also told of Mr Abbott sitting at the end of his wife Penny's bed for hours, comforting her, as she believed she was dying.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott meets Bali bombing survivors Paul Anicich, left, and Peter Hughes, centre. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
''You were acting as the man you are. You can imagine the gratitude I have.''
Mr Anicich was one of several Bali bombing victims attending a small ceremony in Newcastle where Mr Abbott pledged that in the first 100 days of a Coalition government, he would ensure all Australian victims of terrorism overseas, past and future, would be eligible for victims-of-crime compensation of up to $75,000 each.
The compensation would cover Australian victims of terrorist attacks in New York, Bali, Jakarta, London and Mumbai.
Mr Abbott said the pledge was part of ''a bit of a personal journey'', which began when he and his family took a holiday to Bali in early October 2005.
Four Australians were killed and 68 were injured when suicide bombers attacked at Jimbaran Bay and Kuta.
Mr Anicich and his wife were among a large group of Australians who believe they were specifically targeted at a restaurant at Jimbaran Bay.
Mr Abbott spent many hours trying to help victims at Bali's Sanglah General Hospital and in Mr Anicich's words ''pulled from the sky'' an emergency evacuation plane when he learnt his life was in the balance. Mr Anicich was flown to Singapore, and his wife remained in the Bali hospital.
When Mrs Anicich awoke, she found ''this man she didn't know, sitting on the end of her bed, comforting her, while she thought her life was going to end''.
Mr Abbott had stayed there virtually all day.
The Opposition Leader said he had been trying for years to ensure all Australian victims of overseas terrorism received the same modest compensation as those who were domestic victims of crime.
He conceded that he had failed in 2007 when the Howard government was in power.
''I suppose we were a little past our prime [in 2007],'' he said. ''We should have done it.''
The Labor government had supported his move, but it had stopped short of providing the compensation to those who had already become victims, legislating only for future victims.
An Abbott government would, at the cost of $30 million, provide compensation retrospectively for up to 300 people who had been injured or the families of those who had been killed.
It was, he said, a modest payment, but significant in that it acknowledged those who had suffered as targets ''simply because they were Australian, representative of a way of life and a particular set of values''.
Correction: Mr Anicich's name was misspelled in an earlier version of this story.
via bali - www.theage. com. au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/bali-bombing-victim-tony-abbott-saved-my-life-20130827-2smxg.html
US President Barrack Obama and Russian Premier Vladimir Putin have
confirmed their attendances at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) summit in Bali this October.
“In addition, other presidents, including China President Xi Jinping, have confirmed,” said 2013 APEC national committee member Ahmed Kurnia at a press conference in Nusa Dua on Saturday, as quoted by kompas.com.
Of the 21 heads of states 14 have confirmed they will attend join the APEC Summit. Seven others have not yet replied to the invitation.
APEC, established in 1989, is an economic cooperation forum in Asia-Pacific with 21 country members.
Its members are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the US and Vietnam.(apt/dic)
via bali - www.
“In addition, other presidents, including China President Xi Jinping, have confirmed,” said 2013 APEC national committee member Ahmed Kurnia at a press conference in Nusa Dua on Saturday, as quoted by kompas.com.
Of the 21 heads of states 14 have confirmed they will attend join the APEC Summit. Seven others have not yet replied to the invitation.
APEC, established in 1989, is an economic cooperation forum in Asia-Pacific with 21 country members.
Its members are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the US and Vietnam.(apt/dic)
via bali - www.
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