Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA News) – Lack of family education and poverty are among the main causes of an increase in child and women trafficking cases in Jayapura, a provincial woman empowerment official said. 

This fact should make families as the smallest educational unit in society have more concern about their children and to be careful about who they associate with, said Jose Luia, of the Jayapura women`s empowerment office, said here Tuesday. 

"In my opinion, trafficking cases in Papua are caused by lack of family educational and by economic problems," he added.

Based on official data, Jose Luis said, human trafficking in Papua is increasing. The government and people should be concerned about the problem while continuous information campaigns must be conducted to inform people about trafficking methods and other related issues to make people understand about this criminal practice.
Such a cautious and alert attitude towards other people was needed by individuals to anticipate trafficking crimes, he added.

"Cautious of our self and good communication in the family are needed to anticipate any criminal act," Jose said.

There were 13 reported human trafficking cases in Papua in 2002 , 46 in 2007 ans 43 in 2008. (*)

source:  http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/1283263668/low-education-poverty-root-causes-of-human-trafficking

Jakarta (ANTARA News) – Chief Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said Indonesia-Malaysia trade ties were running as usual although both nations were facing strained relations over border problems.

"So far so good," he said before attending a cabinet meeting here on Tuesday.

He said that Indonesia had no plan to withdraw Malaysian goods circulating in Indonesia, and had no intention to embargo Kuala Lumpur`s products.

Hatta said that Indonesia was admittedly in a dispute with Malaysia over their borders and security, and in this case Indonesia opted to adopt a firm stance.

However, Indonesia should remain to think logically and full of calculations in taking a decision, he said.

Tension between Indonesia and Malaysia has been on the rise since the arrest by Malaysian police of Indonesian maritime patrol officers.

Indonesian and Malaysia mutually rely on each other on trade matters. Last May, the two countries agreed to revive a joint commission which once developed by both countries but was halted in 2004.

Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu predicted that Indonesian non oil exports in 2010 would equalize those in 2008 which reached 107.8 billion dollars.

The ministry of trade has once announced Indonesia`s plan to increase its non oil exports to non-traditional export destination nations like China, India, South Korea, Malaysia and other ASEAN countries.

source:  http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/1283262523/indonesia-malaysia-trade-running-well-minister

Jakarta (ANTARA News) – Police Chief Gen Bambang Hendarso Danuri has ordered his men not to hesitate in taken actions against mass organizations which commit anarchic acts and violate the law.

"Officers in the field should not hesitate to act against those who commit violence. This is important," the police chief said here on Tuesday.

He said that his side was waiting for the result of the revision of law on mass organizations which was now under a revision process.

"Our conclusion at a meeting with the House yesterday was that there must be a team to discuss its revision first. Now we are doing our best to provide protection for the people who need speedy action by police," he said.

A number of anarchic actions and brawls among mass organizations has often taken place in the country and often causes fear among the public so that police protection is needed.(*)

source:  http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/1283263936/police-ordered-to-crack-down-on-anarchic-organizations

According to statistics, most Britons spend almost half of their waking life involved with media and communications. British regulator Ofcom calculates the average person actually squeezes in the equivalent of nearly nine hours of media and communications a day by multitasking on several devices.



This means that if you’re awake for 15 hours, you spend seven of them watching television, listening to the radio, e-mailing, texting, surfing the Net, playing games or on other activities that require gadgets.



I beg to differ. I spend a lot more hours than that interacting with my gadgets, perhaps all my waking hours. That’s not to mention sleeping with one on the bed or at least having the device within arms reach.



Upon waking, I turn the alarm off and check the time on my BlackBerry. My bathroom routine is not complete without a quick scroll of my Twitter timeline to see what exciting things I’ve missed while asleep. Shower time is probably the only time that I don’t have the device in my hand as I don’t have a waterproof cover for my phone yet.



In the car, my eyes, ears and fingers are constantly occupied, watching the in-car TV, listening to the radio, texting, instant messaging, updating my Twitter status, having a group discussion on my cellphone, reading the news online, taking pictures of interesting things that catch my eye on the way to the office and occasionally even making and receiving phone calls.



At the office, I work on my laptop with one eye on the TVs (two of them), writing, sending e-mails, watching online videos, making presentations, uploading photos, surfing the Internet, listening to music, downloading applications and all the other wonderful things you can now do with those sleek and handsome-looking devices.



Going out for a meal, the chances are my friends are similarly occupied even as we sit together and engage in real (as opposed to virtual) conversations. This is because we also have our zillion online friends to maintain with our status updates and whose activities we follow obsessively, even if we barely know them.



Repeat the scenario at home, plus throw in some video or computer games, and you get a pretty good idea of my pathetic little life. All this multitasking makes me feel busy, yet I often find myself not remembering half of what I’ve done, seen, read or listened to. I don’t feel any more efficient. I’m still an 11th-hour writer when it comes to deadlines. If anything, I now get distracted easier and it takes me longer to get anything done.



To turn on the computer is to expose oneself to a cornucopia of tempting activities. I don’t read the newspapers anymore. I skim lots of online news from different sources at the same time. I seem to find it hard to get through books these days, though I take comfort in the fact that I have all the classics in my e-book application, just in case I can find the time. Rather, I’m drawn to the mini stories that I follow on Twitter — FixiMini. These are 140-character fictional pieces created by Twitter users and amateur writers on a particular theme, with some of them so well written they could pass as haikus.



But even as technology allows you to do more things, enabling you to have information as it happens, today’s multitasking generation does not experience the art of doing one thing at a time, the joy of focusing on and completing a task uninterrupted, the delight of savoring a moment.



At home, the fixed phone has become a relic, while the answering machine looks ridiculously large and unwieldy. There was a time, however, when we could remember tens of phone numbers by heart and we didn’t know who was calling us when the phone rang. There was a time when we made and kept our appointments without recourse to constant updates on our whereabouts and how late we were going to be.



I remember how pleasant it was to spend hours on the phone having long, uninterrupted conversations without your ears getting irradiated, because chatting meant using your vocal cords and not your thumbs and conversing was with real friends and not sharing opinions and secrets with thousands of people you don’t know.



I also remember the pleasure of writing long letters in cursive on fine paper, signing my name with a flourish, folding it and licking the envelope shut and taking it to the post office to have it stamped and mailed. And I would collect those stamps, keeping them in books and looking up in big encyclopedias about the countries they came from.



And I also recall the satisfaction of finishing a thick novel and returning it to the library.



During these moments I was undisturbed. I was single tasking and I savored every moment of it.





Desi Anwar is a senior anchor and writer. She can be contacted at www.desianwar.com and www.dailyavocado.net.

source:  http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/technology/desi-anwar-joys-of-single-tasking/392099

Jakarta. Local researchers have recently developed bone plates specifically designed for Indonesian skeletal structures that would allow fractures to heal faster. 



Researchers at Yogyakarta’s Gadjah Mada University (UGM) said the plates would suit Indonesians better than imports molded to fit Caucasian skeletal structures. 



The idea for developing the localized plates was sparked by the May 2006 earthquake in Bantul district, which left scores of people with broken bones.



“It was a wake-up call for us to reduce our reliance on imported bone plates, whose sizes [were incompatible] with Indonesian people and therefore greatly affected the quality of bone reconstruction and recovery,” Suyitno, one of the five developers, told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday. 



“Not all orthopedic surgeons have the ability to reconstruct the bones using those plates as precisely as possible,” he said. 



The project, which began in 2007, was a joint effort by engineering experts from the university’s Material Engineering Laboratory under the School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and surgeons from the School of Medicine’s Orthopedic and Trauma Center. 



Using x-rays from 162 test subjects aged 20 to 40 years old, the team made a database of bone measurements, from which they calculated the average bone size of Indonesians. They used this data to design the plates. 



Suyitno said the team focused on developing plates for bones in the legs since these are most likely to get fractured. 



He said the plates were constructed using 316L Grade stainless steel — a low-carbon, corrosion-resistant alloy used in orthopedic implants — that had to be shipped from Sweden. 



However, Suyitno said there were no test subjects from Papua or Maluku, so the designs may not fit people in these areas. 



“It gave us a new research idea to develop implant plates for the bone structures of Melanesian ethnic groups,” he said. 



Last year, the team got a Rp 400 million ($44,000) grant from the Ministry of National Education’s Directorate General of Higher Education. The ministry provided the same amount this year for the project. 



The researchers are conducting clinical and laboratory tests to verify the safety of the plates. Initial results are expected by the end of the year. 



The plates must also be certified by the Health Ministry before they can be introduced commercially, Suyitno said. 



Joserizal Jurnalis, an orthopedist and director of the Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (Mer-C), welcomed the development of more affordable, locally produced bone plates. 



“The team must pay attention to plate-making techniques and how to attach the screws to ensure comfort for patients,” he told the Globe on Friday. 



While steel plates are strong enough to support a person’s weight and elastic enough to allow unhindered body movement, Joserizal said no man-made material could match the properties of human bone. 



“What would be a real revolutionary change is the development of a bone plate material that could be absorbed by the bones,” he said. 



“This idea is actually the current subject of research in the orthopedics community.”

source:  http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/technology/tailor-made-bone-plates-to-help-indonesians-heal/393265