Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself.I am large. I contain multitudes.
Walt Whitman

HUSNI Kamil Manik stared at the chess board in front of him, his brows wrinkling as he contemplated what to do with the black king, trapped by the white king and two of his pawns. "Look at this black king, he will definitely lose," he said. He picked up the black king and threw him out of the game.

The stalactites dangling from the Gong Cave ceiling resemble a curtain, some reaching all the way to the cave's floor. Stalagmites tower upward from the ground, some reaching the ceiling, others stopping halfway. Water runs down between some of the stalactites. The drops form tiny pools or springs. The locals have names for some of them, such as Kamulyan Spring, Larung Nista Spring, Panguripan Spring and Jampi Raga Spring.

Located around one kilometer north of Surabaya's City Hall, Muhammad Cheng Hoo Mosque is easy to find. Despite its secluded location away from the main road, people can immediately identify it. "It looks more like a temple than a mosque," said Gunawan Hidayat, also known as Tjio Kay Hie, a member of the congregation.

Amid the jubilation over his daughter's victory at the Wimbledon girls' doubles championships, Olivier Grende faces trouble back home in Indonesia. He has been asked by Sportama, an athlete development and management foundation, to pay off loans amounting to Rp528 million. The deadline: the end of August.

ABDUL Djalil Pirous, 82, sat together with his wife, Erna Garnasih, 77, in his painting studio on the ground floor of their home. Wearing a light brown cap and darker brown shirt and trousers, Pirous looked relaxed at the house on Jalan Bukit Pakar Timur II, Bandung, last month.

The old photo of Borobudur shows a slightly different temple than the one that stands today. Atop the structure's highest stupa is a three-tiered, stone umbrella called a chattra. Today at the temple, located in Yogyakarta, there is no such parasol. French photographer Jean Demmeni took the photo, most likely between 1907 and 1911 when Borobudur was being restored by Theodore van Erp, an engineer from the Dutch army.

The air smells of fish. But the four men hard at work at Sukiran's house in Pacitan regency, East Java, seem to ignore it. They continue on with their task: separating tuna flesh and skin from the bones. By the looks of it they are quite adept. In one day they can slice three to five tons into boneless fillets. That goes into a grinder with tapioca, garlic, salt, pepper and flavoring, and the resulting elastic dough becomes filling for tofu cakes.

Five students from Brawijaya University in Malang, East Java, have discovered that a cure for diabetes might be obtained by processing a substance called anthocyanin found in the peel of purple yam.

AFTER winning more than 70 million votes in the July 9 election, President-elect Joko Widodo and his deputy Jusuf Kalla should involve the public in choosing the right people for their cabinet. Involving the people is one way of bringing about a government that is clean, professional and interactive. This approach would be a major improvement over the type of representative government it has claimed to be for the last 10 years.

EVERY year the Public Works Ministry flushes away Rp1.2 trillion to fix the roads along Java's north coast, familiarly known as pantura. During the weeks before Idul Fitri at the end of Ramadan, when masses of people flock from the cities to their home villages, the 1,341 kilometers of road are usually repaired in a hurry.

Losing Trusted Channels

Roaming in the Jungle
The tribe of Talang Mamak in Riau believes that the tiger is their village guardian. They formed patrols to protect the king of the forest.

Hendra Utama's handwriting was unmistakable on the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) audit document from a slaughterhouse in Rockhampton, Australia, 600 kilometers north of Brisbane. The delegation from the MUI's Food, Medicine and Cosmetics Monitoring Agency (LPPOM) had discovered that the cattle owned by Jose Batista Sobrinho (JBS) Australia, a branch of the largest food processing company in the world, had not been slaughtered in the halal way, or according to Muslim standards of permissibility.

Four employees who had been engrossed in discussion near the receptionist desk at Adei Plantation & Industry's Pekanbaru office hastily parted ways. They did not take kindly to questions about their boss, who was facing legal action. "Our leader isn't in," security guard Apriyon told Tempo on Wednesday two weeks ago.

ON the night of October 20, 2004, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced his new cabinet, after delaying it three times. It was nearly midnight when, accompanied by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, he announced the names of his 36-member cabinet, comprising three coordinating ministers, 18 departmental ministers, 13 state ministers and two minister-level officials.

Fuel Policy
Subsidized Fuel Sales Restricted

This year, Indonesia and India mark 75 years of diplomatic relations. However, the ties between the two nations have existed much longer, predating the establishment of the Republic of Indonesia and the Republic of India. These connections span social, cultural, religious, economic, and trade aspects. But do those close ties of the past have any bearing on the present relationship? Why is there no direct flight between the capitals of the two countries?

Indian Ambassador to Indonesia and Timor-Leste, Sandeep Chakravorty, shares his views on this matter at TEMPO TALKS.