Tigers, piranhas may join crocodile guards at Indonesia jail

Yahoo – AFP, 13 Nov 2015

Indonesia's anti-drugs czar wants tigers and piranhas as prison guards

(AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad)

Jakarta (AFP) - After sparking ridicule with a proposal to build a prison island for drug convicts surrounded by crocodiles, Indonesia's anti-drugs czar has now gone further -- revealing on Friday he also wants tigers and piranhas as guards.

In an idea that seemed to come straight out of a James Bond film, Budi Waseso this week unveiled the prison island plan, explaining that crocodiles can't be bribed by drug traffickers seeking to escape jail.

He embarked on a tour of the country to find "the most ferocious type of crocodile" to guard the jail, which is to be for drug convicts who have been sentenced to death.

Budi Waseso embarked on a tour of

 Indonesia to find "the most ferocious type

 of crocodile" to guard a new jail (AFP Photo/

Romeo Gacad)

The head of the national anti-drugs agency faced widespread mockery over the plan. But far from backing down, Waseso said Friday he was considering the addition of man-eating piranhas and tigers as guards.

"It is also possible we may use piranhas, and because the number of personnel at the prison might not be enough, we can also use tigers," he was cited as saying in local reports.

Indonesia already has some of the toughest anti-narcotics laws in the world, including death by firing squad for traffickers, and sparked international uproar in April when it put to death seven foreign drug convicts.

But President Joko Widodo has insisted that drug dealers must face death as the country is fighting a "national emergency" due to rising narcotics use.

Despite the harsh laws, Indonesia's corrupt prison system is awash with drugs, and inmates and jail officials are regularly arrested for narcotics offences.

Anti-drugs agency spokesman Slamet Pribadi confirmed Waseso was also weighing the possibility of tigers and piranhas as guards, and hit back at suggestions the prison island plan was a joke.

"This is serious, this is not a joke," Pribadi told AFP.

"Drug trafficking is an extraordinary crime and therefore the fight must also be extraordinary, we cannot fight the usual way."

The idea is still in the early stages, and the agency is in discussions with the justice ministry about it. Neither a location nor a potential opening date has been decided.

The plan has echoes of the Bond movie "Live and Let Die", when the secret agent escapes from an island surrounded by crocodiles by using the reptiles as stepping stones.

As Lawyer Todung Leads Prosecution, Kalla Says Netherlands Not the Place for '1965' Tribunal

Jakarta Globe, November 10, 2015

Todung Mulya Lubis, a prominent Indonesian lawyer and activist, is the chief
prosecutor at the unofficial International People's Tribunal 1965 in The Hague.
(Reuters Photo/Darren Whiteside)

Jakarta. It is not appropriate for an activists' tribunal on the 1965-66 anti-communist violence in Indonesia to be organized in the Netherlands, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Tuesday, after other senior government officials had already dismissed the proceedings as irrelevant.

Asked how he felt about the International People's Tribunal 1965, Kalla admitted that he didn't know in detail what was going on in The Hague, but he stressed that Indonesia itself had also in the past been affected by human rights abuses committed by the Dutch.

The Netherlands ruled Indonesia for centuries and fought a bloody war to retain the colony after it declared independence in 1945, but the Dutch government has in recent years tried to make amends, for instance by apologizing for war crimes committed by its troops and paying damages to relatives of victims.

But Kalla said that when it comes to human rights abuses, the Dutch are not in a position to speak about Indonesia, proven by the fact that the government of the former colonial power even paid for acts of cruelty committed here.

"So, don't judge Indonesia," the vice president said at his office.

Netherlands-Indonesia ties

Separately, Hikmahanto Juwana, an international law professor from the University of Indonesia (UI) who is not afraid of controversy, said the Netherlands should be careful not to damage its good relationship with Indonesia.

"Even though the results of this trial mean nothing in legal terms and the [Indonesian] government can ignore them, they will spark controversy among the Indonesian public," Hikmahanto said. "This will have an impact on the ties between Indonesia and the Netherlands, which are currently good."

"The Dutch government shouldn't use double standards," the professor added. "When we're talking about atrocities committed by the Indonesian government it is willing to allow an event [like IPT 1965] to take place, but it's not ready [to do the same thing] when the [Dutch] state and its soldiers commit acts of cruelty."

However, other than the location of the event and the nationality of one among the panel of seven judges, Dutch involvement seems to be limited.

The government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte would likely have little to gain from such involvement, especially as it has in recent years tried hard to strengthen its relationship with Indonesia, including by boosting business ties.

No official court

The tribunal is being held from Wednesday till Friday in a former church in The Hague that is currently in use as a concert hall and is not an initiative by the Dutch government. In fact, no state has recognized the tribunal and its findings cannot be enforced anywhere.

The proceedings do follow those of a formal court -- with prosecutors and judges -- but it is a civil society initiative that, according to the IPT 1965's website, "operates outside the mechanisms of government and formal institutions like the United Nations."

The prominent Indonesia lawyer and activist Todung Mulya Lubis acts as the chief prosecutor. Other Indonesian activists and lawyers involved in the prosecution are Agustinus Agung Wijaya, Sri Suparyati, Antarini Arna, Uli Parulian Sihombing and Bahrain Makmun.

A statement on the tribunal's website says it is an initiative of the International People’s Tribunal 1965 Foundation, "which was set up in 2013 by a group of victims in exile and in Indonesia, as well as by human rights activists, intellectuals, artists, journalists and academics, and many other groups."

Valentina Sagala, a commissioner at the Indonesian NGO Women’s Institute and a member of the group behind the tribunal, stressed that it was not an attempt to indict anyone on criminal charges.

She said the tribunal’s outcome, expected to be presented next year at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, would not be legally binding, but would instead serve as a “moral verdict” so that the Indonesian government could formulate its own policies on addressing the massacres of half a century ago.

A difficult discussion

Indonesia's attorney general, H.M. Prasetyo also bristled at the fact that the tribunal was taking place outside the country.

“These are our own problems and we well solve them ourselves," Prasetyo was quoted as saying by Kompas on Tuesday. "There’s no need for involvement from other parties.”

Prasetyo has however repeatedly refused to launch an inquiry into findings of gross violations of human rights -- as detailed by the government's own National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) -- after a failed coup attempt that was pinned on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Key military leaders where killed in the alleged coup attempt, sparking a wave of violence against suspected communists across the country, which was supported by Western powers like the United States and heralded the start of Suharto's New Order regime.

Until today, however, it remains difficult to discuss the events of 1965-66 in Indonesia from the perspective of the victims and their relatives, or to question the official version of what happened.

At least 500,000, but possibly and more than a million people were killed, and many others were tortured, raped or sent to prison camps. The purges have always been presented as necessary to prevent a communist takeover.

Indonesian authorities recently threatened to close down a writers' festival in Bali if the organizers allowed discussions on 1965 and its aftermath.

Reporting by Novianti Setuningsih & Leonard A.L. Cahyoputra

Leila S. Chudori speaking with historian Martijn Eickhoff, left, and Aboeprijadi

Santoso of the International People’s Tribunal 1965, in The Hague. (Photo

courtesy of Tong Tong Foundation)

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Crash means gloomy days ahead for Egypt's tourist jewel

Yahoo – AFP, Jay Deshmukh, November 7, 2015

Mounting evidence that the Airbus A-321 was downed by a bomb has prompted 

several governments to warn their citizens against travelling to the Egyptian 

Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh (AFP Photo/Mohamed El-Shahed)

Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) (AFP) - Mohammed Mansour worries that the Russian tourists at his hotel could be the last for some time after Moscow stopped flights to Egypt over the downing of a Russian airliner.

"About 50 percent of my hotel occupants are Russians," Mansour, manager of a leading five-star hotel in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, told AFP.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered all 

Russian flights to Egypt to cease, hitting 

the tourist industry in Sharm el-Sheikh just

 ahead of the peak holiday Christmas and

 New Year season (AFP Photo/Mohamed

El-Shahed)

"The blow comes just ahead of the peak holiday season of Christmas and New Year."

"Since the 2011 revolution, the Germans, French and other Europeans are already coming in small numbers," Mansour said, referring to the uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.

"Now if the Russians avoid coming, Sharm el-Sheikh will be doomed."

"I don't know what happens tomorrow," he said, adding that more than 100 Russians were currently still at the hotel.

On Friday, President Vladimir Putin ordered all Russian flights to Egypt to cease after Cairo and Moscow initially dismissed a claim by the Islamic State group that it downed the plane flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to Saint Petersburg, killing all 224 on board.

Nine of those killed in the October 31 crash had stayed in Mansour's hotel, including a woman and her two children, he said.

Mounting evidence that the Airbus A-321 was downed by a bomb has prompted several governments to warn their citizens against travelling to the Red Sea resort.

But Putin's order on Friday delivered a devastating blow to what is easily the jewel of Egyptian tourism and a favourite holiday hub for Russians.

'Look at the chaos'

The resort, long promoted by Egypt for its pristine beaches and scuba diving, has attracted millions of tourists a year, including hundreds of thousands of Russians and Britons.

At various hotels in Sharm el-Sheikh, stranded Britons mostly stayed indoors or

 on private beaches, ready to leave for the airport at short notice (AFP Photo/

Mohamed El-Shahed)

Before Putin's decision, some two dozen flights a day had ferried thousands of tourists between Sharm el-Sheikh and Russia.

Moscow said that nearly 80,000 Russians were in Egypt on Saturday.

Hundreds queued at Sharm el-Sheikh airport, waiting for their bags to be screened and hoping they could fly out.

"I really don't care what happens to Egyptian tourism now. I just want to go home safe," said Alessandra Kondratieva.

Tourists said many people would also avoid Sharm el-Sheikh because of the way airlines handled the situation in the crash aftermath.

"Look at the chaos. Nobody knows anything," said Bhuvesh Patel, an investment banker from London who has been stranded with his three-year-old son and pregnant wife.

"This puts a negative spin on the holidays and makes you think never to come back."

Sharm el-Sheikh had already been badly hit in 2005 when a series of bombings killed nearly 70 people, but it soon bounced back.

However, what happened to the Saint Petersburg flight could haunt the town for a long time.

Tourists queue up at check-in counters at the airport of Egypt's Red Sea resort

of Sharm El-Sheikh on November 6, 2015 (AFP Photo/Mohamed El-Shahed)

"Tourism in Sharm is driven by Russians," said a senior official with one foreign airline, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Russian tourists are very resort-based, and Sharm meets that profile."

"But Russians are also very disciplined. They take their government's decisions very seriously. At least for the near term, tourism in Sharm will be hit."

Jihadist attacks

Every fifth Russian tourist going abroad flies to Egypt, Russian tourism officials say, adding that even the turmoil that followed the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi failed to curb their numbers.

Tourism has faltered in Egypt since the anti-Mubarak uprising in 2011, however.

Instability and a rising tide of attacks claimed by jihadists have deterred many would-be visitors, damaging the economy and sending foreign exchange reserves plunging.

Last year, just under 10 million tourists visited Egypt, sharply down on the 15 million who came in 2010.

Tourism accounts for about 12 percent of Egypt's gross domestic product and some 15 percent of its foreign exchange reserves.

And much of this comes from Sharm el-Sheikh.

Once a remote beach on the shores of the Red Sea, the town thrives all year.

Debris from the A321 Russian Metrojet airliner at the site of the crash in Wadi

el-Zolmat, a mountainous area in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, pictured on November 1, 

2015 (AFP Photo/Khaled Desouki)

Attractions such as Soho Square are popular for their brightly lit streets, cafes, pubs and children's parks.

"All this will just die if the Russians and Britishers stop coming," one tourist guide told AFP of Soho Square.

"The consensus among intelligence agencies has emerged that an explosive device was planted on the plane, that Sharm el-Sheikh airport was infiltrated," said Fawaz Gerges, professor at the London School of Economics.

"Imagine the long term impact of this. Sharm el-Sheikh is a lifeline... It is the only bright spot for Egyptian tourism and now it has been dealt a devastating blow."

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Peru creates huge national park in Amazon basin

Yahoo – AFP, 7 Nov 2015

Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, pictured on July 28, 2015, will create the Sierra

 del Divisor National Park in a region inhabited by a variety of indigenous communities

living in self-imposed isolation (AFP Photo/Ernesto Benavides)

Lima (AFP) - Peru is creating a national park to protect a vast territory in the Amazon basin that is vulnerable to drug trafficking and illegal logging and mining, the country's environment minister said Saturday.

Called the Sierra del Divisor National Park, it covers an area of about 14,170 square kilometers (5,470 square miles) in a region inhabited by a variety of indigenous communities living in self-imposed isolation.

Peru's President Ollanta Humala will travel to the region Sunday to sign a decree creating the park, Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar Vidal said on his Twitter account.

The park has an estimated 3,000 species of plants and animals, many of them found nowhere else in the world, according to the government.

The announcement comes just three weeks ahead of a UN summit aimed at sealing a global pact on climate change.

Advocates of the new park have said it will enable the capture of 150,000 tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of nearly 40 percent of Peru's daily carbon output.

Sierra del Divisor has been a protected zone since April 2006. Since then, the communities living there have lobbied for its designation as a national park to stiffen legal protections against encroachment by loggers, miners and drug traffickers.

Sierra del Divisor is the second national park created since Humala took office in 2011, after the Gueppi National Park, a 6,260 square kilometer expanse centered on the Gueppi River in southeastern Peru.

Related Article:

Australia marks 30 years since Uluru returned to Aboriginal owners

Volcano ash grounds flights in Bali

Indonesia has been forced to close two airports until Thursday because of ash from an erupting volcano on a nearby island. More than 100 flights have been grounded.

Deutsche Welle, 4 Nov 2015

Meteorological authorities say both Bali's international airport and Selaparang airport in West Nusa Tenggara will remained closed until at least Thursday.

"The wind has blown the volcanic ash towards Bali in such a way that it covers the sky around the airport, making conditions unsuitable for flying," Bali airport official Yulfiadi told the AFP news agency.

#Bali airport to remain closed through Thursday morning due to #volcano. #Indonesia https://t.co/MHru15wPTT pic.twitter.com/474sRR0nLz

— Bob James (@NotThatBobJames) November 4, 2015

A total of 106 flights scheduled to take off Wednesday were canceled, including 59 international flights. Ash from a different volcano had stranded thousands of passengers on Bali for days during the peak holiday season in July.

Airlines are concerned that ash could damage jet engines, even causing spontaneous failure in some cases. The eruption began Sunday.

"Volcanic ash, even if it's invisible, is very dangerous for aircraft," transport ministry spokesman Julius Barata told the DPA news agency.

Air traffic is regularly disrupted by volcanic activity in Indonesia, which is located in a basin of the Pacific Ocean home to about 130 active volcanoes, the greatest concentration in the world.

jar/jr (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Related Article:

Hundreds stranded, flights cancelled as Indonesian volcano erupts

Maldives declares state of emergency ahead of rally

Yahoo – AFP, Mohamed Visham, 4 Nov 2015

Maldives police patrol the streets of the capital Male on October 24,

2015 (AFP Photo/Haveeru)

Maldives President Abdulla Yameen Wednesday invoked draconian emergency laws for the first time in 11 years, heightening a crackdown on dissent after alleged attempts on his life.

Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon said the declaration of a state of emergency meant that a rally planned by the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) for Friday was unlikely to be allowed.

"Obviously there is every likelihood that it might not go ahead given the situation," Maumoon told AFP by telephone. "Because of the security (in the congested capital island Male)."

The Maldives is a tropical nation made 

up of 26 coral atolls (AFP Photo)

There was no immediate word from the MDP on whether the party would defy the emergency.

However, Maumoon, who is the niece of Yameen and the daughter of former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, said the emergency, which gives security forces and police sweeping powers to arrest suspects, was a "precautionary action."

It was necessary because of threats to the president's life, she said, denying that the move was to suppress Friday's planned protest by the opposition.

"President Yameen has declared state of emergency to ensure the safety and security of every citizen," his spokesman Muaz Ali tweeted.

The last time the Maldives imposed a state of emergency was in August 2004 under president Gayoom, the half brother of Yameen, to crack down on pro-democracy protests by the MDP.

Official sources said the latest declaration, initially for a period of 30 days, would lead to the automatic suspension of several constitutional provisions including the right of association and the right of assembly.

Tensions are high in the honeymoon island nation following an explosion aboard the president's speedboat on September 28 and this week's alleged discovery of a remote-controlled bomb near his official residence.

Yameen was unharmed in the boat explosion, although his wife and two others were slightly injured, and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has said there was no evidence it was caused by a bomb.

But authorities in the Maldives have called it an attempt on his life. On October 24 Yameen arrested his deputy Ahmed Adeeb, accusing him of "high treason" and linking him to the blast.

Maldives President Abdulla Yameen declared

a state of emergency to to "ensure the 

safety and security of every citizen", his

spokesman said (AFP Photo)

The state of emergency order fast-tracked the impeachment of Adeeb, who could be sacked within days.

Several ministers, a police chief and key security personnel have also been sacked following the explosion.

The MDP said the emergency order was aimed at cracking down on anti-government activists.

"The discovery of a 'bomb' (on Monday) was the lead up to today's emergency," MDP spokesman Hamid Abdul Ghafoor told AFP.

"Yameen has jailed or threatened every opposition leader, placed criminal charges against 1,700 opposition activists, and is now turning on his own by jailing the vice president.

"For the good of the nation, it is time for Yameen to resign."

Travel warning

Yameen faces international censure over his jailing of MDP leader Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected leader who was forced to step down in February 2012 following a police mutiny.

Colombo-based Western diplomats, who are also accredited to the Maldives, had decided to tell their nationals to exercise caution when visiting the capital island Male, a diplomatic source in Colombo said.

Australia had already asked its citizens to exercise "a high degree" of caution when travelling to Male, warning of the possibility of terror attacks.

Every year more than one million tourists visit the Maldives, a nation of 1,192 small 

coral islands dotted around the equator (AFP Photo/Lakruwan Wanniarachchi)

Dunya said the government assured the safety of tourists, a key source of revenue for the Indian Ocean atoll nation.

Despite the political unrest, tourism -- the archipelago's mainstay -- is booming with more than one million visitors a year.

Holidaymakers who pay top dollar to relax on one of the atolls are usually whisked away by seaplane or boat, bypassing the restive capital Male where extra police have been deployed in recent months.

US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke in May of "troubling signs" for democracy in the Maldives, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi this year shelved plans to visit the islands, a move seen as a rebuke to Yameen.

Maldives declares state of emergency https://t.co/mamFQ9igM2 pic.twitter.com/2gnPnLiTBh

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 4, 2015

Yudhoyono to Joko: Don’t Force Indonesia to Enter TPP

Jakarta Globe, Hayat Indriyatno, October 31, 2015

Yudhoyono, whose foreign policy mantra was 'A thousand friends, zero enemies,'
has cautioned Joko to look at the geopolitical consequences of signing up to the
 TPP, which conspicuously leaves out China but includes US ally Japan.
(Antara Photo/Prasetyo Utomo)

Jakarta. Former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has cautioned his successor against signing up to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, insisting the justifications he gave for refusing to join the trade pact while in office are still valid today.

In a series of tweets sent on Friday, Yudhoyono said President Joko Widodo had every right to commit Indonesia to the US-initiated pact, but warned that “If Indonesia is not ready and is forced to enter the TPP, then our nation will suffer. Such is the ‘law of globalization.’”

The essence of the TPP, he wrote, “is trade and investment liberalization.”

“The TPP is actually a good thing, if all the member states are ready, their interests are accommodated and there are real benefits all parties,” he said.

“But if we’re not ready for it, our market will be flooded with goods and services from other countries, while our exports will fail to be competitive abroad.”

Yudhoyono said his reasons for refusing to sign up to the TPP when he was in office included the fact that Indonesia was preparing for a similar agreement on a Southeast Asian scale: the Asean Economic Community, which comes into force at the end of this year.

He added that Indonesia also needed time to see the benefits from another trade pact, the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement, which saw Jakarta’s trade deficit with China doubling within a year of coming into full force in 2010.

Yudhoyono also pointed out that the three other Asean countries that had signed up to the TPP – Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam – had fundamentally different economic models from Indonesia. “The economies of Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam […] are ‘export-oriented.’ Indonesia is not. We have a large domestic market,” he tweeted.

He said that in order to protect its interests, Indonesia would have to be “tough” in its negotiations – but that the current TPP members had concluded their negotiations on Oct. 5.

Yudhoyono, whose foreign policy mantra was “A thousand friends, zero enemies,” also cautioned Joko to look at the geopolitical consequences of signing up to the TPP, which conspicuously leaves out China but includes US ally Japan.

“Let us ensure that we remain friendly with all our partners, including America, China and Japan,” he wrote. “Let us maintain a free and active foreign policy […] an all-directions foreign policy. Avoid allying with one country and distancing others.

“Let us also ensure that, whichever side we partner with, Indonesia’s national interests will be prioritized above all else.”

He then called on the Indonesian people to help Joko reach an “appropriate and clear decision for the interests of the people and the nation.”

Pastikan Indonesia mendapatkan keuntungan nyata ~ dlm pertumbuhan ekonomi, lapangan kerja & pengurangan kemiskinan. *SBY*

— S. B. Yudhoyono (@SBYudhoyono) October 30, 2015

Joko’s announcement, following a visit to the White House on Monday, that he was committed to signing Indonesia to the TPP has met with concern from the business community and the political establishment alike.

Yudhoyono’s own statements follow his Democratic Party’s warning that Indonesia is not yet ready to face the competition that joining the pact would entail, citing inadequate infrastructure and low public awareness about the TPP and its costs and benefits.

“Are Indonesians and the national economy really ready for this?” asked Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono, the former president’s son and a senior member of the Democratic Party.

“How about our domestic infrastructure? Has the government asked for the public’s opinion, especially those involved in the national economy, about the possible impact of the TPP on Indonesia in the future?”

Wrong step

The Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), chaired by Joko’s rival in last year’s presidential election, Prabowo Subianto, has also criticized the president’s stance on the TPP.

Fadli Zon, a Gerindra deputy chairman and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, said the TPP would only benefit Indonesia “if we had competitive businesses.”

Without adequate infrastructure and strong supporting education, welfare and legal systems, he warned, Indonesia would only be a “passive player” in the trade agreement.

“It would be a wrong step to join the TPP,” Fadli said on Wednesday.

Economist Lana Soelistianingsih of the University of Indonesia said separately that “Countries with manufacturing-based exports will be able to perform better in this partnership.”

“Our exports are mainly raw materials like oil and gas. If we can we get our commodities into a market like Chile” – which has signed up to the TPP – “can we compete with Brazil, which is much closer to Chile than Indonesia is? That’s the concern,” Lana said on Wednesday.

“How can we improve our manufacturing sector without electricity? It’s not that we should refrain from entering the partnership, but we need a clear blueprint on what products we want to sell, which raw materials we need to manufacture the products, and what kind of infrastructure we need,” she said.

The TPP, forged by the United States and other 11 countries around the Pacific Rim, including Australia and Canada, has a stated goal to “to promote economic growth; support the creation and retention of jobs; enhance innovation, productivity and competitiveness; raise living standards; reduce poverty in our countries; and promote transparency, good governance, and enhanced labor and environmental protections.”

In practice, the biggest impact will be the lowering of trade barriers, including tariffs.

The #TPP - a 12-nation free trade agreement pic.twitter.com/1h82wFRF68

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 5, 2015

Related Article:

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Bringing the Internet within reach of 100 million Indonesians from 20 kms above Earth

Google Blog, Thursday, October 29, 2015  

In Indonesia today, only about 1 out of every 3 people are connected to the Internet. And even though most of their connections are painfully slow, they’re doing some pretty incredible things. Startups like motorcycle delivery service Go-Jek are building impressive adaptations to Indonesia’s unique challenges, while small businesses like fashionable hijab shop HiJup are using the web to redefine marketplaces.

Still, a majority of Indonesians don’t have access to the educational, cultural, and economic opportunities of the Internet. That’s why we’re pleased to announce that Indonesia’s top three mobile network operators—Indosat, Telkomsel, and XL Axiata—have agreed to begin testing Project Loon balloon-powered Internet over Indonesia in 2016. These tests represent an important step toward bringing all of Indonesia online.

From left to right: Ririek Adriansyah, CEO of Telkomsel; Dian Siswarini, CEO of
XL Axiata; Alexander Rusli, CEO of Indosat; Mike Cassidy, VP of Project Loon;
Sergey Brin, President, Alphabet Inc

Loon balloons act like floating mobile phone towers; flying on the stratospheric winds at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, each balloon beams an Internet connection down to the ground, and as one drifts out of range, another moves in to take its place. Loon can help telecommunications companies extend their networks; high in the sky, we can help overcome the difficulties of spreading equipment across an archipelago of 17,000 islands of jungles and mountains, providing connectivity to even the most remote islands.

Project Loon balloons travel approximately 20 km above the Earth’s surface in

 the stratosphere. Winds in the stratosphere are stratified, and each layer of wind 

varies in speed and direction. By moving with the wind, the balloons can be 

arranged to form one large communications network

  

Over the next few years, we’re hoping Loon can partner with local providers to put high-speed LTE Internet connections within reach of more than 100 million currently unconnected people—that’s enough speed to read websites, watch videos, or make purchases. From Sabang all the way to Merauke, many of these people live in areas without any existing Internet infrastructure, so we hope balloon-powered Internet could someday help give them access to the information and opportunity of the web.

But it’s not the only step Google is taking toward making the Internet both accessible and useful for people in Indonesia. Android One phones are helping to make high-quality smartphones more accessible in a country where most people first access the Internet on a mobile device. And along with that, we’re working to ease the use of data with features sure as Search Lite, which streamlines search so pages load more quickly, or by optimizing web pages so that they require less data to load. Indonesia is also one of the first countries where YouTube users can take videos offline to watch later during periods of low or no Internet connectivity.

We’re also doing what we can to ensure that language isn’t a barrier to the opportunities of the web. Google Translate was introduced for Bahasa in 2008, and more recently we’ve expanded it to Sundanese, a language that’s spoken by nearly 40 million people living on the island of Java.

Soon we hope many more millions of people in Indonesia will be able to use the full Internet to bring their culture and businesses online and explore the world even without leaving home. And for those of you who’ve never been to this country of rich culture and natural beauty, we invite you to head over to Google Street View to explore the famous temples at Borobudur and Prambanan.

Posted by Mike Cassidy, Vice President, Project Loon

Australia marks 30 years since Uluru returned to Aboriginal owners

Yahoo – AFP, 26 Oct 2015

Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, a large sandstone rock formation and the

 world's largest monolith situated in the southern part of Australia's Northern Territory

(AFP Photo/Greg Wood)

Australia on Monday marked 30 years since the world's largest monolith Uluru was returned to its traditional Aboriginal owners with the government admitting it has not lived up to commitments made back then.

The iconic symbol of the Outback, also known as Ayers Rock, was handed back to the Anangu people, the area's original inhabitants who have lived in the area for thousands of years, on October 26, 1985.

As part of the agreement, the government signed a 99-year lease to jointly manage the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park with the traditional custodians. More jobs and better living standards were expected to flow to the Anangu from the deal.

But Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion said it had not always gone as planned.

Uluru, a giant red rock that rises 348m above Australian desert, is surrounded by

 thousands of sq. kilometres of desolate Outback and forms a key part of Aboriginal 

creation mythology (AFP Photo/Torsten Blackwood)

"The implicit part of the agreement is that Anangu people do better because of the things that would come here; they would have jobs, they would have a better life, they would have more choices," he told reporters.

"The deal isn't complete, those opportunities have never been provided in the way they should have been. We need to make that change and we need to make that now."

He said 254 of the 450 Anangu community members in the area were out of work, despite the fact the Ayers Rock Resort, 20 minutes away, welcomed 300,000 visitors a year.

"We can't accept that there's 254 people in Mutitjulu on the dole," Scullion said.

"We can't just accept glibly pretty low inter-generational levels of literacy and numeracy. We can't simply look at that and say it's OK.

"This should be a reminder to us all to refocus our efforts (across Australia)."

Uluru, the iconic symbol of Australian Outback, also known as Ayers Rock, was

 handed back to the Anangu people, the area's original inhabitants who have lived 

in the area for thousands of years, on October 26, 1985 (AFP Photo/Greg Wood)

Uluru, a giant red rock that rises 348 metres (1,148 feet) above the desert, is surrounded by thousands of square kilometres of desolate Outback and forms a key part of Aboriginal creation mythology. It is also a World Heritage site.

While artist Malya Teamay told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he was pleased with the way tourists were learning about Aboriginal culture, others said the Anangu people seemed to be missing out on much of the economic activity.

Sammy Wilson, chairman of the board of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, criticised the government for directing much of its funding to the Ayers Rock Resort, which he said had become the focus of tourism and not the local people.

"It seems like a big vacuum cleaner is sucking everything away," Wilson said.

"This place (Uluru) is our culture here, but it (the funding) is ending up over there (at the resort); it should be here."

Australia marks 30 years since world's largest monolith Uluru returned to Aboriginal owners https://t.co/cEtFnzzDyE pic.twitter.com/PJ72v5vaiY

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) October 26, 2015

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