March 1, 2016 edition

Ternate locals entertain royal guests during solar eclipses. For this year's event, the first in 33 years, Thailand's princess royal is the guest of honor. During her stay, she will be served local culinary delights, including nutmeg fruit syrup. The fruit, which is common on the Moluccan Island chain, was greatly sought after by Europeans centuries ago. "We have prepared enough for the foreign tourists to taste. We hope it becomes the equivalent of wine here," said Ternate Mayor Burhan Abdurahman.
Ternate and Maba in North Maluku are expected to have the longest-lasting total eclipse. In Maltara, Ternate, it will last two minutes and 45 seconds, whereas in Maba, East Halmahera, it will go on for three minutes and 17 seconds. It is not surprising, then, that these islands are readying themselves for a flood of foreign visitors.

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More Special Report articles in other editions

January 12, 2016 edition

Cholil Mahmud felt a certain nagging in the back of his mind throughout the entire recording process. They were in the throes of cutting Sinestesia, the band Efek Rumah Kaca's third album.
Cholil realized he was missing the old days, when Efek Rumah Kaca was still an anonymous group, whose music was hardly ever heard by anybody. In those days and for many years, the band only rehearsed in studios, never performing on stage in front of a live audience. In Cholil's view, those were their salad days when Efek Rumah Kaca was still pure and innocent.

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January 5, 2016 edition

The room is a prison cell for female inmates. But its interior resembled a hotel room. There is a home theater set in the corner. Rows of DVDs neatly fill the rack beside the television. There is also a large sofa and a double bed. In the cell, Mirna takes it easy, doing time for bribery in her work as a broker selling large tracts of land.
Maera Panigoro's acting role as Mirna is brief, only about 10 minutes long. However, Maera gives a convincing portrayal of an influential person who enjoys special facilities and privileges in prison. Her acting totally convinces audiences how morally corrupt our prisons are. Any inmate with money can bribe prison officers for these special rights. And one of them regularly calls in a beautician to give her a facial.

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December 29, 2015 edition

Becoming distracted by shimmering transformations is surprisingly easy in a country like Indonesia where national development is an imperative. Front-page stories from 2015 have told us that transformations are happening all around usfrom democratic consolidation at the regional level to disquieting new trends in violent crime. But such changes, as refreshing as they may be, do not come close to representing the big picture.
Take for instance the violent begal robbery phenomenon that made the headlines early last year. The incidents caused hysteria among residents of Greater Jakarta, stoked both by a sharp increase in sensationalist media reporting of such crimes and dramatic accounts spread by word-of-mouth and social media.

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