Until the 1980s, many Indonesians, particularly those in the eastern regions, consumed non-rice products as their staple food, such as corn, assorted tubers and sago. But since the government implented its 'green revolution' program during the 1980s, rice seems to have pushed aside all other staples. Rice cultivation everywhere was intensified. According to the Agriculture Ministry's Director-General of Food Plants Hasil Sembiring, rice consumption at that time was about 152 kilogram per capita per year.

Father Jacques was abducted early in the third week of May 2015. He was sitting in his narrow room in the Mar Elian monastery on the outskirts of the town of Qaryatain in Syria when some armed men from ad-Dawlah al-Islamiyah arrived. Islamic State took him hostage. Not many people knew about it.

The Go-Jek service online application has multiplied and diversified, in an amazingly short time. Today, customers can get Go-Jek not just to take them somewhere, but also to deliver packages and order their daily needs (through its subsidiary Go-Mart, which is connected to retail stores). If you need a massage, just go to Go-Massage, and if your domestic staff leaves you in the lurch by suddenly going back to their village, call Go-Clean and get a replacement to clean the house or the office.

The House of Representatives's early approval of the 2016 state budget bodes well for the economy in the coming year, despite global uncertainty and pending key projects domestically. This means government spending can start early in the year, which could accelerate infrastructure and other capacity-building projects.

THE public is disappointed with Joko Widodo's and Jusuf Kalla's performance this year, as was indicated by polls from various survey institutions. They hope that Jokowi would create change began to fade as the year wore on, and his inability to assemble a cabinet free of political appointments has not helped.

In a language like English (and most European languages) where expressing plural is obligatory, it is not surprising that there are special words to group thingsto make all those plurals a bit more manageable. Group classifiersor in English what we often call 'collective nouns'make many entities into one group. With them we can treat a plural subset as singular. So we have 'a flock of birds', 'a herd of cattle', 'a gaggle of geese', 'a fleet of ships', 'a gang of thieves' and so on. For animals and birds, English is particularly rich with ancient terms for groups. We don't get much opportunity to use them, more's the pity, but they are good for Trivial Pursuit or crossword questions: 'what do you call a group of larks?' (The answer is 'an exaltation'). And people have fun making them up. (What do you call a group of lawyers? An answer might be 'a pack', like 'a pack of wolves'.)

It cannot be denied that some kind of 'agreement' exists between doctors and pharmaceutical companies in the sale and marketing of drugs. It's not unusual for a doctor 'tied' to a pharmaceutical company to prescribe unnecessary products to patients, such as antibiotics and vitamins. "In fact, sometimes it's enough to advise patients to rest and eat regularly in order to get better," said Zaenal Abidin, president of the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI).

One clause sticks out among the hundreds of others in the draft presidential regulation on the organizational structure of the Indonesian National Military (TNI). Only after scrutinizing the draft did a defense commission member of the House of Representatives (DPR), Tubagus Hasanuddin, see it. "There seems to be a new twist in the law," Hasanuddin said on Thursday last week.

AS a Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) detainee, Gatot Pujo Nugroho spends his days behind bars at Cipinang prison in East Jakarta. The North Sumatra Governor has been in detention since August 3, following his indictment for bribery, a week earlier.

President Jokowi's announcement that Indonesia will join the US-led 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade zone is causing quite a stir. The previous administration's efforts to join the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which opens up trade, investment and people flow among ASEAN member states, attracted considerable stiff resistance. This time the stakes are higher, as it puts the country even further on a market-opening path. The issue is that in joining the TPP, as with the AEC, requires significant support from key political, government and business stakeholders to be effective and show results.

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.