Motivated Metalheads
Jerinx has motivated youths to speak out loud against the reclamation of Benoa Bay, Bali. They are persistent, creative and voluntary.

OGOH-ogoh, a giant puppet clad in a white shirt and black pants, was paraded at the Renon Square, Denpasar, Bali. It had tousled hair and was handcuffed. Some money was slotted in its waist. This puppet became a mascot in a cultural parade rejecting the reclamation of Benoa Bay, Bali, followed by hundreds of youths on Friday in the fourth week of November. They were affiliated with Forum Rakyat Bali Tolak Reklamasi (ForBali), a Balinese people's forum against reclamation. Ogoh-ogoh symbolizes evil character that must be removed.

From the square, they marched to the Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) building. While walking, they chanted, "Build up Bali, reject reclamation! Love Bali, oppose reclamation!" Among the hundreds of people was I Gede Ari Astina alias Jerinx, the drummer of a band from Bali, Superman is Dead (SID). The man born in Kuta, February 10, 1977, wore a singlet. Like the others, this graduate of English literature from National Education University, Denpasar, was zealously shouldering ogoh-ogoh.

Only nomads and explorers know: the world cannot be explained with rigid boundaries. The space of life is never constant. Life is not built with fences.

PHOTOGRAPHS of elementary school students hang on the walls of the Ki Hajar Dewantara Building of the Elementary and Secondary Education and Culture Ministry in Jakarta. Most of them show children in remote areas, wearing shabby uniforms but genuine smiles on their faces. The photographs were put up at the request of the new minister, Anies Baswedan, who asked that they be hung everywhere, including in all meeting rooms. "So that when we meet, their faces will remind us that we work for them," said Anies, in his office last week.

Pairs of steel bars are arranged in groups and placed along the length of boards. Each set of plates are of different lengths. One is eight millimeters long, another six millimeters. The ends of the bars are held in place with wood. The musicians stand and strike the string of bars with small metal sticks.

Anton Hendranata*

For the last five years (Chart 1), Indonesia's private external or foreign currency debt has quietly more than doubled to US$159 billion as of September 2014 from US$74 billion in 2009. In fact, private debt has now exceeded public debt, accounting for 55 percent of total external debt. This is worrying as only 13.6 percent of the private external debt was hedged (covered against any exchange rate fluctuations). So should there be a sudden currency depreciation, those corporations carrying these foreign currency debts could be vulnerable to defaulting on these loans. And depending on the severity of the currency depreciation it could spread and deteriorate further into a financial crisis.

REDD+ has fallen well short of expectations, but there is still hope.

So asserts a new REDD+ case book, published by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) two weeks ago to coincide with the United Nations climate change negotiations in Peru.

In early November, Teguh Peristiwady, a fish taxonomy expert from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), received a call from a fisherman from North Minahasa regency, North Sulawesi. The man had some urgent news: an ancient coelacanth fish had been caught in a net off the coast of Gangga Island.

THIS particular violence is indeed too much. Kuswanto was accused of robbing a store in Kudus, Central Java. He was arrested by 13 policemen and tortured horribly. But he persevered, still refusing to confess.

Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja 'Ahok' Purnama has chosen Djarot Saiful Hidayat to run the city alongside him as deputy governor. The choice was based on Djarot's two terms of experience as mayor of Blitar, East Java. Since January, Ahok had been impressed by Djarot's leadership style, which he said resembled that of his former boss, President Joko Widodo. As Jakarta governor, Jokowi, as he is known, was known to drop in on people unannounced, crack down on the bureaucracy and prioritize the organizing of sidewalk vendors.

Culinary Edition

Thank you for dedicating your energy to explore Spice Stories from the Archipelago in Tempo's December 1-7 edition. May I ask, was this article written because the magnetic appeal of the term culinarywhich has a connotation of adventureis currently becoming a public euphoria or because there is a real interest in studying in depth the culinary world of Indonesia from historical and cultural aspects?

Building a child-friendly town or district is a long-term major investment that can bring big benefits. Lenny N. Rosalin, Deputy Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection which handles child development is well aware of this. She says a town that is child-friendly will produce a quality generation, because from the very start they are versed in caring about community affairs.

Jakarta Post Caricature Criminalized

The Jakarta Police indicted The Jakarta Post Chief Editor Meidyatama Suryodiningrat for the crime of blasphemy last week for publishing in his English-language newspaper a cartoon depicting the Islamic State (IS) banner as a pirate flag.

Police Brigadier Rudi Soik was stunned when two military police officers entered his office. On that Wednesday night in mid-November, Rudi was preparing to return home after a full day's work. The two officers came bearing bad news: They had orders to arrest him.

Mining
Greater Controls on Tin Production Needed

R. Sukhyar, director-general for coal and mineral resources at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, has called for greater controls on tin production. At present tin production is not recorded at the ministry, as it is governed by local governments and the Trade Ministry.

SWEDISH Ambassador to Indonesia, Marina Berg, arrived in Indonesia five years ago with a clear mission: to deepen and broaden bilateral cooperation between Sweden and Indonesia, particularly in the critical areas of sustainable development and the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, her commitment remained unwavering. The Sweden-Indonesia Sustainability Partnership, focusing on the sectors of energy, transport, digital technology, and health, has been actively progressing.

As her term came to an end in August, Marina Berg took the opportunity to share her valuable five years of work in Indonesia during a TEMPO TALKS session.