Friday, October 20, 2006

"" November. Rain >>> <<<


Samantha: You have managed to Forrest Gump your way through this.
~ The Mexican

9 comments:

Emerald. said...

""" Empowering the Poor Through a National Poverty Alleviation Program



Jakarta, September 15, 2006 -- On September 1, 2006 the Government of Indonesia announced its decision to implement a nationwide poverty alleviation program which would build upon the Government's Kecamatan Development Program (KDP) and Urban Poverty Program (UPP). These programs have been supported by national and local government internal funding, donor grants, and World Bank loans.

Resources
Official Bank Sites:

Community Development in Indonesia
The World Bank in Indonesia


Related Information:

Kecamatan Development Program
Urban Poverty Program
Bank Pushes Grassroots Corruption Fight
CCD Delivers Peace Dividend in Conflict-Affected Areas


Since 1998, these flagship community driven development (CDD) programs have covered some 41,000 rural and urban villages in Indonesia. Under the new National Community Empowerment Program, all 70,000 villages in the country will be covered.


On his visit to Indonesia in April 2006, Paul Wolfowitz, World Bank President had visited several villages under the KPD and UPP programs (including reconstruction of housing in Aceh) and conveyed his appreciation to donors and the Government. Speaking at the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings in Singapore, President Wolfowitz said: "I'm very impressed by Indonesia's program on community-driven development that has local communities deciding on what projects they want to invest in and then monitoring the results."



In recent years, the Bank has channeled over US$1 billion into these programs, with significant benefits to the communities involved. The program will now be scaled up to over US$1 billion per year.




Coverage of CDD projects in Indonesia
Click map to enlarge & view details

The KDP and the UPP programs have also been instrumental in delivering the Bank’s capacity building and governance support program at the local level. They have increased community participation in governance, and found creative new ways to combine formal and informal anti-corruption programs.


The programs have been subjected to the most intensive independent audits. This public scrutiny contributes to making the KDP and UPP programs an attractive choice for leading the country’s national poverty reduction strategy.



Results to date for KDP include...






Infrastructure projects such as irrigation dams have increased the harvest and employment for women
Participatory planning and financing has improved governance in the communities
Bridges allow children to go safely to school and allow communities with access to markets
Women can access funds as seed capital for productive economic activities


...................... mmore results



The Kecamatan Development Program began in 1998 at a time of tremendous political upheaval and financial crisis. Currently, KDP is in its third phase, and is expected to run until 2009. The program started in 28 villages on a pilot basis. Eight years and 65,000 facilitators later, the program is going national with full ownership by the Government. This happened only after consistent economic returns in the 30-40 percent range, strict discipline in penalizing poorly performing kecamaten (districts), and after numerous communities had kicked out their village leaders for trying to hijack the money.



The Urban Poverty Program also began in Indonesia in 1998 in response to the rapid rise in urban poverty triggered by the financial crisis. It is in its third phase and expected to run until 2011. Through its innovative and flexible approach to learning, UPP has successfully managed to involve a growing number of communities and local government in shaping the development of Indonesia’s national level urban poverty plan. The communities, with the support of local governments, have implemented over the last years a successful community development program in Indonesia, supported by about thousands of volunteers from the communities themselves.




View the KDP and UPP program websites in Bahasa Indonesia

Emerald. said...

"" Transparency

Though transparency usually refers to visible light in common usage, it can actually refer to any type of radiation. For example, flesh is transparent to X-rays, while bone is not, allowing the use of medical X-ray machines.

Examples of transparent materials are air and some other gases, liquids such as water, most glasses, and plastics such as Perspex. Where the degree of transparency varies according to the wavelength of the light, the image seen through the material is tinted. This may for instance be due to certain metallic oxide molecules in glass, or larger colored particles, as in a thin smoke. If many such particles are present the material may become opaque, as in a thick smoke.

From electrodynamics it results that only a vacuum is really transparent in the strict meaning, any matter has a certain absorption for electromagnetic waves.

There are transparent glass walls that can be made opaque by the press of a button, a technology known as electrochromics.

Certain crystals are transparent because there are straight lines through the crystal structure. Light passes unobstructed along these lines.

There is a complicated theory "predicting" (calculating) absorption and its spectral dependence of different materials. See: absorption (optics) - absorption of photons by a material and absorption spectroscopy.

Also visually when someone wearing fabric so thin, that others can view their bare skin or body parts; in such a case the cloth is called as a "see through". It has been popularly acronymed as CT (a.k.a. see through)

Emerald. said...

(( Monday, 3 April 2006
The Role of the Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia (BPK-RI) in Promoting Transparency and Accountability of the State Finance

Tuesday, 14 February 2006
Public Opinion and Ethics: A Complex Relationship

Sunday, 1 January 2006
Strategic Plan of Indonesian Audit Board for 2006-2010

Thursday, 27 October 2005
Auditing of Tsunami Funds with Geophysical and Environmental Perspectives

Emerald. said...

(( A PRESIDENTIAL DARK HORSE
The sultan of Jogjakarta is a modern reformer
By Jose Manuel Tesoro/Jogjakarta


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IF JAVANESE PROPHECY WERE the basis for choosing Indonesia's next president, Jogjakarta's sultan would have the inside track. Some in the country's largest ethnic group believe the names of national leaders will have at least one syllable from the word "notonagoro" (manage a country). Hence Sukarno, Suharto and, perhaps, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, 52.
In fact, the next president will be chosen by representatives of the People's Consultative Assembly, about three quarters of whom will be elected this June in Indonesia's first free parliamentary polls in four decades. Even so, the sultan remains the leading dark-horse candidate, and his name is mentioned alongside top oppositionist Megawati Sukarnoputri and Muslim preacher Abdurrahman Wahid. The reasons highlight both the idiosyncrasies of the country's politics and how its experience under Suharto will affect its next choice of leader.

The Javanese number about 70 million, or more than a third of Indonesians. The sultan is "still a perfumed name" on Java, says Jogjakarta mystic Gus Sofyan Amri. But cultural allegiance is not the only reason for the appeal. Seeing how corrupt leaders became under the rule of Suharto, says political scientist Riswandha Imawan of Gadjah Mada University (UGM), ordinary people have concluded that "those who can be trusted are those farthest from Suharto's influence."

Since Suharto bound so many in allegiance, that list is a short one. Heading it are Megawati, Wahid and Hamengkubuwono X. (Though the sultan headed the Jogjakarta chapter of ruling grouping Golkar for nearly two decades, he is rarely associated by locals with the excesses of Suharto's political vehicle.) Since the ex-strongman also prevented competition from developing political track records, parentage remains a key indication of a person's pro-people credentials. Megawati's father was Indonesia's first president and Wahid's its first minister of religion. Hamengkubuwono's father was a revolutionary monarch who adopted the idea of the republic. As a reward, Jakarta passed a law in 1950 making his sultanate a special province.

The ruler, who holds a law degree from UGM, says he is extending his father's tradition. "I may be a sultan," he says, "but is it not possible for me to also be a democrat?" Though his coronation a decade ago celebrated arcane feudal traditions, the promises he made to his people were very different. The sultan pledged "to protect the people even if they did not like me, to uphold the law, to tell the truth and to have no ambition except the desire that my people prosper." As a reminder, he is required in his own palace to carry a wooden kris, though his relatives may own jewel-encrusted blades.

Javanese leadership, the sultan explains, requires a king to control his own desires to serve the people. That, he says, is where Suharto, who is often considered to have derived his own ideas of power from Javanese culture, went wrong. "His human desires spoke," says the sultan. "He became outdated." Which leads to another irony, according to local historian P.J. Suwarno. While Jogjakarta was undergoing "defeudalization," he says, Jakarta itself was being "refeudalized." Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX and his son granted more power to local village chiefs and modernized the management of the court, while Suharto was dispensing patronage to make the elite dependent on his power. "In Jogja," says the sultan, "every ruler must change so that he is still relevant to the development of society." So far, Hamengkubuwono has vouchsafed Jogjakarta peace and protection - significant gifts in this troubled archipelago.

He is also a symbol of provincial power, which could bolster his image nationwide. After his father died, the sultan was not made Jogjakarta governor, a post guaranteed to his family by the 1950 law. After Suharto's fall, local streets filled with protesters demanding his appointment, which was initially resisted by both Jakarta and the military, as provincial governorships usually went to retired generals. But Hamengkubuwono became governor last October, and remains the only one on Java without a military background.

The sultan is image-conscious and media-savvy. Does he want to become president? His answer is non-committal: only if the people want him, and if he does well as Jogjakarta's governor. Not affiliated with any political party, he could be the best compromise candidate if no grouping gains enough votes to install its leader as president. Rumors are circulating of a possible alliance between Hamengkubuwono X and armed forces chief Gen. Wiranto, but the ruler publicly is trying to stay above the fray. "What we are now witnessing is a tendency toward disintegration because everyone speaks only of themselves," he says.

To even associates and supporters in Jogjakarta, the time is not yet ripe for the sultan to become president. His fledgling governorship runs until 2005, and some in Jogja admit he has neither the experience nor the knowledge of his father. But the sultan knows enough to do what his dynasty has always done - rise to the challenge of the times. Says Ichlasul Amal, rector of UGM: "The sultan wants to lose his image as a feudal leader and become a national one." Some portents, at least, are promising.




This edition's table of contents | Asiaweek home

Emerald. said...

(( From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies
Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights?
By WARREN CARAGATA

November 27, 2000
Web posted at 8:30 p.m. Hong Kong time, 8:30 a.m. EDT

Only a year ago, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid seemed determined to patch up relations with Singapore, home of billions of dollars in Indonesian capital controlled by ethnic Chinese business who fled after the 1998 Jakarta riots. Singapore was Wahid's first foreign stop after his election last year, and his overtures to a country that predecessor B.J. Habibie once angrily referred to as that "unfriendly little red dot" included the appointment of Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew as one of his foreign-policy advisors.

The efforts quickly bore fruit. The Singapore government announced it would invest $900 million in Indonesian companies. In March, Singapore-based Cycle and Carriage bought the 23% stake in automaker Astra International being peddled by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency. The Government of Singapore Investment Corp. put up $100 million of the $506 million deal.



INTERACTIVE
Talk back to Asiaweek's correspondents on our message boards

But this burgeoning friendship across the Java Sea now seems to have cooled. After the ASEAN summit in Singapore last week, Wahid stayed on just long enough to make more of the perplexing comments he has become infamous for, this time saying Singapore was trying to take advantage of Indonesia while it is in crisis. "They just look after themselves; all they just look for are profits," he was quoted as saying.

Race is never from the surface in Singapore-Indonesia relations, and despite Wahid's reputation for promoting ethnic and religious tolerance, he couldn't stop himself from playing the race card. "Singaporeans despise Malays. We are considered non-existent," he said. Just to make sure Singapore got the point, Wahid hinted at Indonesia and Malaysia teaming up to cut off the city state's water supply. Indonesia's leverage will increase with the completion scheduled for late December of a natural gas pipeline to Singapore from the Natuna field. Such threats could prompt Singapore to rely less on a fickle friend, with the financial consequences for Indonesia such a decision would cause.

Wahid's comments are sure to find favor with an increasingly intemperate strain of nationalism that has been growing since last year's East Timorese referendum and Australia's leadership of an international peace-keeping force in the territory. The attack on Singapore is just the latest example of an Indonesia intent on making enemies of countries that should be friends. Relations with Australia soured last year, perhaps naturally, given that Indonesia felt the Australians had abruptly changed their tune on East Timor. But Jakarta has done little in the last year to repair ties with a country that is a major source of both foreign investment and aid. Wahid has traveled the world since his election, sometimes to the oddest places (Chile and Venezuela) and yet has not made the relatively short flight down to Canberra. Whenever he mentions the possibility, he is beset by nationalists in parliament who tell him to drop such treasonous plans.

The hostility toward Australia was shown earlier this month, when outgoing ambassador John McCarthy was attacked in Sulawesi by a crowd of East Timorese toughs. Wahid apologized for the incident but, more to the point, police have made no arrests and a senior government official who heads the intelligence coordinating agency said the attack should be a lesson to foreign diplomats to watch their tongues. Days before the incident, McCarthy had suggested that Gen. Wiranto, the former Indonesian military commander, had advance knowledge of the terror that accompanied East Timor's vote for independence.

While squabbling with two of its most important neighbors, Indonesia has also been doing battle with the United States. In the most publicized incident, Muslim extremists raided several hotels in central Java with the aim of expelling American tourists. The fact that none was found and nobody was hurt will make no difference in the U.S. So Indonesia can kiss goodbye to American tourist dollars for the time being. Indonesian parliamentarians and Wahid's defense minister, Muhammad Mahfud, have accused the Americans of everything from an invasion of West Timor to support for Christians in the strife-torn Maluku islands.

Mired in an economic crisis and beset by separatist pressures and communal violence, Indonesia needs all the friends it can get it. Sadly, it seems intent on making enemies.

Emerald. said...

(( Acknowledgments
Preface
History
EARLY HISTORY
The Spread of Indian Civilization
THE COMING OF ISLAM
EUROPEAN INTRUSIONS
The United East India Company
The Dutch on Java, 1619-1755
VOC Bankruptcy and the British Occupation
THE NETHERLANDS INDIES EMPIRE
The Java War and Cultivation System
Dutch Expansion in Sumatra
Colonial Economy and Society, 1870-1940
THE GROWTH OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS
The Japanese Occupation, 1942-45
The National Revolution, 1945-50
INDEPENDENCE, 1950-65
Guided Democracy
Sukarno and the PKI
Sukarno's Foreign Policy
The Coup
SUHARTO
The State and Economic Development
The Pancasila
Irian Jaya and East Timor
Foreign Policy under Suharto

Society and Geography
GEOGRAPHY
Climate
Environment
National Territory
Population
Urbanization
Migration
SOCIAL CLASSES
RELIGION
Islam
Christianity
Hinduism
Buddhism
THE EMERGING NATIONAL CULTURE
Living Environments
Language
Food, Clothing, and Popular Culture
Tradition and Multiethnicity
Javanese
Sundanese
Balinese
Peoples of Sumatra
Ethnic Minorities
Toraja
Dayak
Weyewa
Tanimbarese
Asmat
Chinese
EDUCATION
HEALTH
Services and Infrastructure
Government Support
Traditional and Modern Health Practices
AIDS

The Economy
ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYMENT AND INCOME
AGRICULTURE
Development Trends
Land Use and Ownership
Food Crops
Estate Crops
Livestock
Fishing
Forestry
INDUSTRY
MINERALS
Oil
Natural Gas
Coal
Tin
Nickel
Copper
Gold
Bauxite

Government and Politics
THE POLITICAL DEBATE
THE CONSTITUTION
THE STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT
POLITICAL CULTURE
Pancasila
Political Parties
The Multiparty System
Golkar
United Development Party (PPP)
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI)
Elections
Political Dynamics
Openness
Islam
ABRI
Nongovernment Organizations (NGOs)
THE MEDIA
FOREIGN POLICY
Political Considerations
ASEAN
Indonesia, ASEAN, and the Third Indochina War
Papua New Guinea
Singapore and Malaysia
Australia
The Philippines
China
Japan
United States

Bibliography

Country Studies Index

Emerald. said...

Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belize
Bhutan
Bolivia
Brazil
British Virgin Islands
Bulgaria
Cambodia
Caribbean Islands
Cayman Islands
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Ethiopia
Finland
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Grenada
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hungary
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Ivory Coast
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakstan

Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Libya
Lithuania
Madagascar
Maldives
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Moldova
Mongolia
Nepal
Nicaragua
Nigeria
North Korea
Oman
Pakistan
Panama
Paraguay
Persian Gulf States
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Seychelles
Singapore
Somalia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
St. Kitts and Nevis
St. Lucia
Sudan
Syria
Tajikistan
Thailand
Trinidad and Tobago
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Turks and Caicos Islands
Uganda
United Arab Emirates
United States
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam

Emerald. said...

(( Getting there:
Jerez de la Frontera is the closest airport around 45 mins drive from the best surf spots. 3 flights per day to and from London.

Travel:
The roads have seen a sharp increase in quality over the past few years with European money being poured into the local infrastructure.

Language:
Spanish. The locals speak Spanish only!

Season:
September until April is the primes surf season. North Atlantic groundswells. Normally the winters are mild and dry.

Cost of living:
Self catering surf lodges with Winterwaves can be sought after for as little as 65 euros per week.

What to take:
A 3/2mm wetsuit will suffice. Boards that go well in 2-6ft beach breaks. A narrow (semi-gun) for the big days.


Positive

• Winter Sunshine (over 3000hrs of sun per year)
• Easy getaway from all Northern European Countries
• Cheap cost of living
• Excellent food
• Brilliant nightlife
• Cheap flights
• Relaxed and friendly locals
• Amazing sunsets
• Amazing sights and cities

Cons:
• Small summertime surf
• Expensive accommodation in the prime summertime months
• Overcrowding in the summertime


Surfing Andalucia:

The coastline is amazingly diverse for the short distance that it occupies. With powerful barreling beachies to long walled up reefs and points this area will satisfy every level of surfer.
As with all classic beach breaks there will be rips present when the surf is big, some of the more challenging spots will involve long paddles and being aware of entry and exit spots.
The best winds for the beaches come from the easterly quadrant whilst the optimum wind for the points blows from the North.
The swells are produced by deep North Atlantic low pressures that are frequently seen in the Northern Hemisphere Winter.
Access to all spots is easy with parking almost found everywhere.

The spots starting from the North:

Cabo Roche : a tubey beachbreak that is sheltered from strong easterly winds. Fast hollow waves break from low to mid tide. The beach is located in a ¨Hollywood Style Housing Development.

Conil de la Frontera: At the Northen end of the town is a beachbreak called la Fontanilla . A good option when the swell is huge and the tide is low to mid.

El Palmar: Definitely the areas best beach break with three or four distinct peaks. The sanbars here can be classic with long rides and fast bowly waves. Rips when the swell is big.

Los CaƱos de Meca : A good quality reef break. Here a stable peak form a good lefthander. The bay where the wave is located is offshore in a Northerly Wind. NE wind is the ideal wind. There a quite a few other waves in the bay.

Yerbabuena : Definitely one of the best waves around. A long reeling right hand point break very similar to those found in the desert south of Morocco . The wave is sheltered from the Northerly winds and is ideal on a NE wind. The wave has a gorgeous backdrop of pine trees and sandstone cliffs.

Emerald. said...

(( Original rating Other user rating
Type of break beach break Based on 5 vote(s)
Type of wave fun wave Your rating 1 = Poor 2 3 4 5 = Average 6 7 8 9 10= Worldclass
Direction left hand
Bottom sand
Average lenght of ride short
Suitable for beginner level
surfing Pacitan
Detailed information:
Crowd level an empty line-up



Best tide all
Ideal board size 6'4-6'8 Thruster
Ideal wind direction all directions

Wavesize & wetsuit:
Spring Summer Autumn Winter



Other info
Accomodation campsites ,hotels ,surfcamp $0 - 5
Access by plane/train to jogja. then rent a car or by local bus to pacitan city there, you can find 3 different spots to surf
Closest big city jogja
Closest Int. airport soekarno-hatta
When it's flat