City to reorganize utility cables in underground ducts Dewanti A. Wardhani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Jakarta | Fri, May 22 2015, 7:19 AMJakarta News

The Jakarta administration is set to develop underground ducts to deal with dangerous cables and wires dangling off poles on streets and sidewalks in the capital city.

Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama said that cables installed on city poles had been installed haphazardly, without permission and without levies paid to the city. He said such installments were not only an eyesore, but also a fire hazard.

“There are many cables and wires dangling from our poles installed by various operators, but they are all unauthorized. Such installments are dangerous and must be reorganized,” Ahok told reporters at City Hall on Thursday.

He went on to say that developing underground ducts for cables was regulated by Bylaw No. 1/2012 on the 2030 provincial spatial law. Article 60 of the bylaw states the city must integrate electricity and telecommunications-distribution media by developing underground duct networks.

“The development of underground ducts is already regulated in the bylaw, so we have a legal basis. By building the underground ducts, the city will be able to organize the cables and prevent fires caused by the cables,” Ahok said.

Separately, Roads Agency head Yusmada Faizal said the agency had earmarked Rp 50 billion (US$3.8 billion) this year to develop the ducts on Jl. Hayam Wuruk and Jl. Gajah Mada in Central Jakarta.

“We will develop underground ducts on those streets. Once they are completed, the cables and wires dangling on poles will be put underground,” Yusmada told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Thursday.

The agency has allocated Rp 30 billion to repair damaged sidewalks across the city. A number will be prioritized, including Central Jakarta’s Jl. Kyai Caringin, Jl. Abdul Muis, Jl. Raya Cideng and Jl. Salemba; and South Jakarta’s Jl. Pasar Minggu, Jl. Raya Saharjo and Jl. Soepomo.

In addition, the agency will prioritize West Jakarta’s Jl. Tomang, Jl. Kedoya Raya, Jl. Puri Kembangan, and Jl. Panjang; as well as East Jakarta’s Jl. Pemuda and Jl. Pramuka.

“We will repair pedestrian sidewalks and simultaneously install underground ducts for several of them, such as in Tomang and Kedoya. We will gradually develop underground ducts throughout

the city over the years so that there will be no more dangling cables and wires on poles,” Yusmada said.

Communications and Informations Agency head Ii Karunia said most utilities on poles were for electricity, telephone or Internet, and had been installed by state-owned telecommunications company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) and state-owned electricity company PT PLN, as well as other private Internet providers.

He acknowledged that thus far, the city had not supervised or monitored cable installments, causing operators to haphazardly install utilities on city poles. He added said his agency was currently drafting revisions on Gubernatorial Regulation No. 14/2014 on telecommunications towers to regulate the levies and permits for cable and wire installations.

“In the future, all cables must be installed underground in our ducts. Operators must seek licenses with the city administration at the BPTSP [one-stop integrated service agency] office if they wish to install cables. They will pay an annual fee to the city administration as long as their cables are in our ducts,” Ii told the Post over the phone on Friday.

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Jokowi says he’s no coward Hasyim Widhiarto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Headlines | Sun, May 17 2015, 1:22 PM

Press the flesh: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (right) talks with volunteers at a “Community Jamboree” in Cibubur, East Jakarta, on Saturday. Antara/Intan SetpresHeadlines News

For the first time after seven months in office, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo met his campaign volunteers in public, asking them to support his recent policies, including the slashing of fuel subsidies and the execution of drug convicts.

During a speech on Saturday at the Cibubur camping grounds in East Jakarta, Jokowi said he would face the consequences of his controversial policies.

“I’m ready to become unpopular. I’m ready to be attacked. Don’t ever think that Jokowi is a coward. Keep that in mind,” the President said.

On executing drug traffickers, Jokowi said he would do anything to protect the nation’s interests and sovereignty. “When [the government] was about to execute the drug traffickers, I was warned that there would be foreign pressure, including from Amnesty [International], the United Nations and leaders from other countries. But I insisted that we have the legal sovereignty — that our law recognizes the death penalty,” he said.

Jokowi repeated his standard talking point on defending capital punishment. “Fifty people die [in Indonesia] every day and 18,000 every year because of drugs, so why do we need to take care of one or two people who have been convicted as drug traffickers?” he said.

Defying international pressure, the government executed 14 death row prisoners in the first four months of the year, including 12 foreign nationals.

Despite his popularity in the months prior to last year’s presidential election, Jokowi, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician, did not secure the nomination from his own party until March, less than a month before the legislative election and four months before the presidential election.

Observers said that the volunteer organizations supporting Jokowi put pressure on former president and incumbent PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri to drop plans to run again and instead give the ticket to Jokowi.

Jokowi won the election by a slight margin, a victory attributed to his volunteers.

Among the groups that organized Saturday’s event were the Volunteer Front for Jokowi for President (Bara JP), Pro Jokowi, the Coalition of Youths and Volunteers for Jokowi (Kawan Jokowi) and the People’s Struggle Post (Pospera).

Representing the organizations, Pospera leader Mustar Bonaventura said such gatherings would be held regularly. “This is just a start. The volunteer groups must continue existing and consolidate themselves,” he said.

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Andrea Hirata: Inspiring people through words A.Kurniawan Ulung, Contributor, Jakarta | People | Fri, May 08 2015, 9:06 AM

Andrea HirataPeople News

may have written the best-selling novel Laskar Pelangi (Rainbow Troops), but now the author says he’s more interested in motivating people to read literature.

To that end, the 38-year-old opened Museum Kata — the Word Museum — in his hometown of Gantong in East Belitung, Bangka-Belitung, in 2010. The 100-square-meter building has a library featuring authors from 70 countries as well as the works of local talents, such as the legendary poet Sapardi Djoko Damono.

The museum, which is also home to a free school staffed by three volunteer teachers, is near the white sands and beautiful boulders of Tanjung Tinggi beach, where Riri Riza’s big-screen adaptation of Laskar Pelangi was shot.

 “This museum is special for me,” Andrea says. “It proves that I, as a writer, do not spend my time for myself alone. It has become a tourist destination that benefits local people and it is free of charge.”

Andrea said that anyone could write, regardless of their background. “My educational background is economics, not literature,” Andrea, who studied at Hallam University in the UK, said.

He started writing Laskar Pelangi in 2004 as a tribute to a teacher, Muslimah, while working at state-owned telecommunication provider PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom).

Six years later — and after writing six novels — he studied at Iowa University’s prestigious International Writing Program for six months.

Andrea said that he was over the moon when learning that one of his instructors at Iowa would be James Alan McPherson, the first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. “I visited his office every afternoon to learn writing skills. [McPherson] told me that my identity was a story teller.”

Local library: established his Word Museum (Museum Kata) in his hometown, offering a place for people to read, a school run by volunteers and a perfomance space.

After digesting Hemingway, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Antonio Skármeta, Mark Twain and Truman Capote at McPherson’s direction, Andrea said that he realized that those writers were

driven by intuition, not logic. “My dream is to be an intuition-driven story teller like them,” he says.

Andrea said that he still remembered McPherson’s injunction that writers had to help people through their work instead of pursuing their own advancement.

He put that philosophy into practice as he built the Word Museum, which he financed from his royalties and profits from Laskar Pelangi, its screen adaptation and its publication in more than 120 countries.

Andrea advised beginners to just write and express what pops up in their minds – and to take a brief break and keep at it if they develop writer’s block.

As the winner of the New York Book Festival 2013, Andrea said that he also suffered from writer’s block when he was a newbie.

After writing for 10 years, it’s less of a problem, but that doesn’t mean he’s stopped learning,” Andrea adds. “Don’t be afraid to make mistake. Just write. If we keep writing, we will be very sensitive and know the do’s and don’ts. It is called ‘learning by doing’. Passion is needed to be a mature writer.”

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Search for RI nationals continues despite team departure Tama Salim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | World | Fri, May 22 2015, 7:43 AMWorld News

The search for the three remaining Indonesian nationals in Nepal continues, with the Indonesian evacuation team handing over responsibility to Nepali authorities prior to its departure.

Indonesian nationals Jeroen Hehuwat, Alma Parahita and Kadek Andana were declared missing following the disastrous 7.4-magnitude earthquake that shook Nepal on April 25 and are the only victims yet to be contacted apart from 10 other Indonesians who chose to remain in Nepal, according to a senior diplomat.

Indonesian Ambassador to Bangladesh and Nepal Iwan Wiranataatmadja expressed his hope that the three climbers could still be found, noting he would not speculate on the matter.

“I’m in no position to say whether or not there is still hope for them,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a press briefing in Central Jakarta on Thursday. “I can’t say for sure where they are. We can only conduct a reconstruction of the events in light of testimonies from the people that they came across [during the trek to Mount Everest].”

The whereabouts of the three Taruna Hiking Club (THC) members were last reported at Everest Guest House in the Langtang region, a small tourist spot near Mt. Everest that was one of the worst ravaged by the earthquake.

Ambassador Iwan said that the area, which used to house around 20 accommodations, was practically buried under sheets of snow and rocks due to the landslide that ensued.

Iwan said that the remaining evacuation team in Nepal, consisting of a Foreign Ministry official and two disaster victim identification (DVI) officials from the National Police, had returned to Indonesia, having handed over responsibility to continue the search for the three Indonesians to Nepali authorities.

According to the ambassador, the Nepali officials were well-informed of the trio’s profile. “The team has done their job and is back in the country [Thursday], because of the Nepali government’s request that all foreign [search and rescue] SAR teams leave the country [to simplify disaster mitigation],” he said.

Furthermore, Iwan said that the Indonesian evacuation team had left behind all equipment and

aid except for an operating table and medical evacuation equipment.

Since arriving in Nepal on April 30, the team has conducted two aerial SAR expeditions in the Langtang area to no avail. Iwan said the Nepali military would continue search efforts, pending better weather conditions on the field.

The evacuation team left Nepal on Wednesday after having their duties extended thrice by the local government, Iwan said.

The handover duties were represented by ministry official Hernawan Bagaskoro Abid, who left the search duties to the Institute of Medicine Tribhuvan University’s (IMTU) forensics department head, Pramoud Kumar Shrestha.

“The Foreign Ministry will continue to monitor the search and evacuation of the three Indonesians through the Nepali authorities who we’ve been collaborating with,” Hernawan said in a statement.

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Australia-Indonesia relations: Finding a path forward William Maley and Bambang Hartadi Nugroho, Canberra/Jakarta | Opinion | Mon, May 18 2015, 7:02 AMOpinion News

The deaths by firing squad on April 28 of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, two Australians convicted of drug trafficking offenses, have brought a new chill to relations between states that have much to gain from cordial and cooperative engagement.

This was by no means the first episode of a Southeast Asian state having carried out a capital sentence against an Australian citizen, but it seems to have produced much more distress in Australia than earlier cases. And not only in Australia.

A mourner at Sukumaran’s funeral in Sydney recounted that the Indonesian guards on Nusakambangan island had apologized, hugged and saluted him as he went to his death. Many seem to have shared a sense that Chan and Sukumaran were executed at the very moment that their transition from drug traffickers to quite different people had been accomplished.

Those who were close to Chan and Sukumaran, and to the others who were shot at the same time, will reflect on what the lives and deaths of these young men can teach us; as will those who supported the executions.

But it is just as important to reflect on how relations between Australia and Indonesia can be eased back into gear. It is not in either’s long-run interest for relations to be stalled; but both states stand to gain from a frank evaluation of how relations have come to take a turn for the worse.

With the change of president in Indonesia in 2014, the prospects for Chan and Sukumaran were never that bright, but Australia’s handling of the bilateral relationship even before that gave cause for alarm.

Australia had a long and ugly history of imprisoning Indonesian children who had served as crew-members on people-smuggling boats; Australia’s unilateral moves to push asylum-seeker boats back to Indonesia, actively promoted by a boorish and arrogant immigration minister, rode roughshod over Indonesia’s expressed preference for a multilateral approach to the issue; and the news that Australian officials had boasted of a capacity to intercept the phone conversations of Indonesian public figures, followed by a refusal from Canberra to offer an apology, proved sufficiently provocative to prompt Indonesia to withdraw Ambassador Nadjib Riphat Kesoema from Canberra. __________________

The lead here is best taken by skilled professionals rather than politicians.

While Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and her staff handled the Chan and Sukumaran cases with far more tact and skill, their efforts suffered near-fatal damage in February when Prime Minister Tony Abbott clumsily sought to link past humanitarian assistance to Aceh following the December 2004 tsunami to clemency for the Australians in 2015.

The lesson here is stark: Australia for too long had treated Indonesia’s concerns as subordinate to the domestically-driven concerns of the Australian government. When Australia came to Indonesia as a supplicant, it did not have enough diplomatic capital on which to draw.

There are some lessons for Indonesia too. Regarding the debate on the death penalty, the first lesson relates to the Indonesian public. The majority was quick to see the efforts to prevent the recent executions as “foreign interference”, a perception fueled by the government’s rhetoric that it was within Indonesia’s sovereign rights to exercise its own law, including executing convicted criminals.

 Yet the essence of the debate was neither about foreigners interfering in Indonesia’s domestic matter nor about supporting crimes. Instead, it was about giving convicted criminals a second chance to rehabilitate themselves after paying for their actions. In an interdependent world, absolute sovereignty claims have less standing than in the past.

Meanwhile, the growing support among Indonesians for the abolition of capital punishment, despite still being the minority view, should be taken by the government as a signal to conduct a more comprehensive review of the use of death penalty.

Is the death penalty really an effective way to deter future criminals? Is taking the lives of people to set an example morally defensible? Is there really no chance for convicts to show remorse and to become better individuals? Is the death penalty really a reflection of our conception of justice, or is it merely — to quote a former Indonesian ambassador — a form of “excessive populism”?

These are questions that the Indonesian government needs to look into very carefully; substantial labor migration means that many Indonesians are working in states where capital punishment is accepted and systems of justice are weak.

Regarding Indonesia-Australia relations, although some observers have dubbed the crisis to be the worst since the Timor crisis, the relationship is not beyond repair.

Indonesia and Australia share some common interests perhaps more than Jakarta cares to admit. As Bishop mentioned, the two countries have more than 60 areas of formal cooperation. These shared interests, therefore, should be the basis for rebuilding ties between the neighboring countries.

While political cooperation is understandably postponed, cooperation at the lower level must be maintained, with the hope that it will help to rebuild trust between the two.

The results from a recent poll by Lowy Institute provide another reason for Ambassador Nadjib

and the Indonesian Foreign Ministry to be optimistic about rebuilding diplomatic and political relations with Australia.

Although a vast majority of the respondents in Australia opposed the death penalty, around 51 percent believed that diplomatic engagements with Indonesia should be on hold only for a short period of time. Most respondents also saw that recent incidents would not make much difference to their preference of travel destination and trading partners.

Without any intention to undermine the grief felt by many Australians following the executions, these findings could be a basis for Indonesian diplomats to move forward and start anew. A possible challenge, however, is to overcome backlashes in Indonesia.

The louder voices seem to be the ones filled with nationalistic sentiment, partly triggered by the Australian government’s poor handling of the issue, notably through Abbott’s disastrous February remarks. A tactful public diplomacy directed at the Indonesian public could be a way to overcome such a challenge.

The lead here is best taken by skilled professionals rather than politicians. Indeed, the two most important figures in reconstructing the relationship are likely to be Ambassador Nadjib in Canberra and Ambassador Paul Grigson in Jakarta.

No one could possibly deny the traumatic effects of capital punishment on the families and friends of those who are executed. But there is another group who also deserve the deepest compassion, the diplomats in Indonesia and in Australia, tasked with providing consular assistance to prisoners on “death row”.

To the sorrow that they can feel if they have come to know and like the prisoners can be added a haunting sense of professional failure. There is much more to diplomacy than cocktail parties._______________________

William Maley is professor of diplomacy at the Australian National University. Bambang Hartadi Nugroho teaches in the Department of International Relations at the University of Indonesia.

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RI confirms safety of 17 citizens in Nepal Tama Salim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | World | Mon, April 27 2015, 7:12 AMWorld News

The Foreign Ministry confirmed on Sunday the safety of 17 Indonesian nationals from the 34 that are believed to have been in Nepal when an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale hit on Saturday.

“We have received confirmation that 17 Indonesians are safe,” said the ministry’s director for the protection of Indonesian nationals and entities abroad, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, adding that the ministry was awaiting confirmation on the remaining Indonesians.

According to the ministry, there are currently 18 Indonesian nationals residing in Nepal while another 16 are in Nepal as visitors, including those currently on an expedition to hike Mount Everest.

The Indonesian government, which only has an honorary consulate in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, would continue to monitor progress and coordinate with local humanitarian aid initiatives, Iqbal said.

“We don’t have an official Indonesian Embassy in Nepal, so the government’s rescue efforts will be under the auspices of the embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the Kathmandu honorary consulate,” he told reporters in a statement on Sunday.

According to the government’s current estimates, the earthquake had taken the lives of almost 2,000 people, with jolts felt as far as Bangladesh, Pakistan and India.

Iqbal said that the ministry had difficulty communicating with the team in Kathmandu as a result of the destruction caused by the earthquake. He said that search and rescue efforts were being pursued by national and international humanitarian agencies on the ground in Nepal.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir added that the ministry would continue to update the list of Indonesian citizens that it had to get a hold of.

For those who need information about friends or family members in Nepal, the government has set up a hotline with Hernawan Bagaskoro Abid, a ministry official, as a contact person.

“We’ll continue to update the numbers and status of our citizens as efforts to contact those who are still missing,” said Hernawan, who can be contacted at (021) 3813186 or +6281284794696.

The government has expressed its condolences for the disaster in Nepal and has promised to

provide medical assistance and disaster relief in the form of medical staff, SAR initiatives, as well as rations, blankets, tents and medicine.

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Garuda opens Guangzhou-Denpasar route The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Business | Fri, May 22 2015, 11:25 AMBusiness News

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will introduce direct flights between Guangzhou, China, and Denpasar, to meet the increasing demand by Chinese tourists to visit Indonesia.

Garuda’s general manager in Guangzhou, Dharmawan J Hendrata, said on Friday that the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) had approved the plan.

"The license was issued on Thursday and will be processed further by the Indonesian Transportation Ministry," Darmawan said in Guangzhou as quoted by Antara news agency.

He said Garuda would start serving the new route on July 8 to coincide with the summer holidays.

He said the new route was being opened to meet the growing demand for direct flights from Guangzhou to the resort island of Bali.

Garuda recorded a high load factor of 82 percent in flights between Guanzhou and Jakarta in the first quarter of 2015, up from 70 percent in the same period last year.

Garuda introduced direct flights between Beijing and Denpasar on Jan. 13.

Currently, Garuda has four regular routes between the two countries, namely Beijing-Jakarta, Shanghai-Jakarta, Guanzghou-Jakarta and Beijing-Denpasar.

Tourism Ministry data shows that 9.4 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia in 2014. The number is expected to rise to 12 million in 2015.

Chinese visitors accounted the fourth highest in number, totaling 1 million in 2014. (++++)

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Markets inspected after synthetic rice report The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Headlines | Thu, May 21 2015, 1:19 PM

Measuring up: A rice vendor prepares bags of rice at his shop at Palmerah Market in Central Jakarta on Wednesday. Most rice vendors are worried about a drop in sales as rumors continue to circulate about the presence of harmful synthetic rice at rice shops. JP/AwoHeadlines News

The Bekasi Trade Agency deployed officials to seven traditional markets in the city on Wednesday to take rice samples following a report of alleged plastic rice being sold in a store at Mutiara Gading Market, East Bekasi, West Java.

Bekasi Trade Agency trade department head Herbert Panjaitan said over the phone on Wednesday that his office would bring the samples to the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) and state-owned survey company PT Sucofindo on Thursday.

“The test results are expected to be issued two or three days after the sample submissions,” he said.

Previously, a rice porridge seller of Mustika Jaya subdistrict in Bekasi, identified as Dewi Septiani, uploaded pictures of alleged fake rice on social media and sent an email to the BPOM after she was unable to cook the rice into porridge.

The rice, according to her, only expanded, but did not soften.

Herbert said that Dewi’s relative was reported to have suffered from nausea and dizziness after consuming the rice, but no fatalities had been reported.

The agency had taken rice samples from Dewi and sent them to the laboratories on Wednesday morning with the results expected on Thursday or Friday, he said.

The rice seller, identified as S, together with his four employees, was arrested by the Bantar Gebang Police and had been questioned since Tuesday afternoon.

Herbert said he was unaware of the status of the suspect, but confirmed that the store at Mutiara Gading Market remained closed as of Wednesday.

“We appeal to the public to stay calm but remain cautious because so far we’ve only found suspected synthetic rice in one place,” he said, adding that a Padang food seller who bought rice in the same store had told him that he had no complaints regarding the rice.

The food seller added that S was a good seller who had many customers.

Also on Wednesday, the Jakarta Police’s trade and industry unit at the Special Crime Directorate made an impromptu visit to several traditional markets in the capital, including the Cipinang Wholesale Rice Market in East Jakarta, to respond to the synthetic rice report in Bekasi.

One of the unit’s members, First Insp. Anang Prabowo, said his office had deployed 110 police officers to check whether the synthetic rice was distributed at markets in the city.

“After randomly checking seven stores in Cipinang, we have yet to find any synthetic rice,” he said as quoted by tempo.co.

He said the police also planned to undertake undercover inspections to ensure that no synthetic rice was sold.

Meanwhile, Jaya Sugito Wibowo, the communication and information section head of city-owned food security company PT Food Station Tjipinang, said his team had conducted internal inspections after learning of the alleged synthetic rice case in Bekasi.

“So far, we have not found any [synthetic rice],” he said, adding that his office would report to the police if it found the rice. (prm)

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Health sense: Managing osteoporosis and bone-mineral density for men Dr. Richard Yuan-Tud Chen, Contributor, Singapore | Body and Soul | Wed, April 01 2015, 9:41 AM

Body And Soul News

Eddie, who is 70, had been suffering from constant low back pain. He took painkillers but the pain kept recurring. When he finally decided to consult his doctor, an X-ray showed a compression fracture in a vertebra in his lower spine.

This was the likely cause of his back pain. Eddie was puzzled, as he did not recall having suffered any direct injury to his spine.

His doctor sent Eddie for a bone mineral density assessment, a simple procedure, which confirmed that he has significant osteoporosis of his spine. Eddie was referred to me for further assessment.

Although osteoporosis is common in older women, this condition is unusual in men. Unlike women who begin to lose bone quite rapidly after menopause, the rate of bone loss in men as they grow older is much slower.

Apart from a healthy intake of calcium and vitamin D, adequate levels of sex hormones are also necessary to help maintain good bone quality.

On the other hand, conditions causing excessive levels of thyroid or parathyroid hormone can lead to bone loss.

Bone mineral density (BMD) may be assessed using dual X-ray bone absorptiometry, a simple inexpensive and non-invasive X-ray scan that assesses a person’s bone quality in comparison to healthy young adults.

BMD results are expressed as normal, or osteopenia (or pre-osteoporosis, in layman’s term) or osteoporosis.

However, it does not mean that a person classified as osteopenia is at low risk of sustaining a fracture. Other independent risk predictors include factors, such as frailty, small build, frequent falls, cigarette smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, a family history of fractures, the use of steroids (frequently found in traditional medicine) and diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.

Therefore, these must be considered in conjunction with a person’s BMD result and the fracture risk estimated using a risk calculator designed for specific populations or communities, such as one developed by the WHO specifically for Indonesia.

It turned out that Eddie has been a heavy smoker for many years, puffing about 20 cigarettes daily, already a strong risk factor. Blood investigations also revealed that Eddie had low levels of vitamin D as well as testosterone, the essential sex hormone for men.

Besides vitamin D, the maintenance of good bone quality is highly dependent on testosterone. As testosterone declines with age, older men are at higher risk of bone loss and fractures.

Low testosterone also predisposes men toward loss of muscular strength and frailty, poorer sexual function and quality of life (becoming easily tired, lacking in stamina), development of diabetes and higher mortality from heart disease.

Although Eddie’s bone density measurement placed him in the osteopenic category (i.e., not

quite osteoporotic, but already poorer than expected), he is clearly at risk of further fractures as he has already had a vertebra fracture.

In Eddie’s case, treatment has to be instituted from all fronts. While most people may be familiar with vitamin D3, which is dosed at 1,000 units daily, this will not be enough to overcome deficiency.

Instead, Eddie was started on high-dose vitamin D2 at 50,000 units weekly for two months. His testosterone deficiency was treated with an injection of testosterone depot that can last up to three months.

This form of treatment ensures that none of the testosterone is wasted through poor absorption. Improvement in BMD can be seen six months after the start of testosterone therapy and continues to be well-sustained for as long as testosterone therapy is continued.

Eddie also experienced a dramatic improvement in his quality of life once his testosterone level has been restored. His stamina was better, he no longer felt sleepy in the afternoon, his back pain disappeared and his sexual interest returned. He also noticed that his waist line decreased.

Standard treatment for osteoporosis, such as bisphosphonates, must also be administered.

While bisphosphonates are commonly taken orally on a weekly basis, its efficacy in older persons may not be as good due to poorer absorption.

Zoledronate, one of several bisphosphonates, is available as a once-yearly intravenous infusion that can easily be administered in the clinic. Eddie, being a busy person who is fairly absent-minded as well, much preferred this convenient and cost-effective treatment.

As its effects are long-lasting, zoledronate could be stopped after 3-5 years of treatment, while testosterone therapy and maintenance vitamin D were continued to ensure that Eddie’s restored BMD continues to be well-maintained. _________________

The writer is a consultant physician and endocrinologist at Glen Arden Endocrinology Specialist Clinic at the Gleneagles Medical Centre in Singapore and a previous president of the Endocrine & Metabolic Society of Singapore. For more information, visit klinikdiabetessingapura.com.

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Indonesia’s political development has never been simple and easy, but instead complicated and full of surprises. So is the case again at this juncture, six months after President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo became the country’s leader.

The worry is that a malaise may take hold caused by misunderstanding and an inexperienced new president, a new team of presidential staff and a new Cabinet. They lack experience in bureaucratic infighting or in problems of political diversity that can withstand the remainder of Jokowi’s term of four-and-a-half years.

If these trends continue, they may drive Indonesians to despair because the economy will also be impacted. The last term of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was considered a letdown by the people due to inaction.

Former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, Yudhoyono’s predecessor, was very generous and statesperson-like when she decided on Jokowi being a presidential candidate, as she herself had waited 10 years to be president again. She knew that Puan Maharani, her daughter and heir apparent, was not ready to be a presidential candidate.

She thought that Jokowi was a popular member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) as shown by his successful two terms as mayor of Surakarta and later winning the governorship of Jakarta. He was also recognized by Ibu Megawati to be the candidate for the future, especially for the young generation. This also put the PDI-P in a favorable position in the presidential and legislative elections. The decision taken by Megawati was too close to the two elections and was then followed by flurries of technical and management activities regarding the elections, amid all sorts of political dealings and juggling.

In this snap process, one fundamental thing was missing: an agreement or at least a gentlemen’s agreement between the chair or central board of the PDI-P and the presidential candidate to create a common platform that was much needed in “adopting” Jokowi into the mainstream of the PDI-P.

The broad vision was clear: the Trisakti vision of founding father Sukarno on political sovereignty, economic independence and a dignified civilization that was to become the basis of the Jokowi-Jusuf Kalla Nawacita program.

These are the broad lines that bound Jokowi to the PDI-P, but it is seemingly insufficient to guarantee a solid collaboration in national politics without good communication and coordination.

To form a Cabinet, the Jokowi-Kalla coalition parties proposed their respective candidates to the President and Vice President to choose from. Many of them turned out to be not up to expectations.

In addition, involving the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in the selection of ministers was considered inappropriate since it was basically a political decision, not a legal one. What the KPK proposed may not be considered valid since the principle of presumption of

innocence has to be upheld before a court decision on whether someone is corrupt or not.

As the current situation stands, there is a dire need for a Cabinet reshuffle in the near future; otherwise the President’s program cannot be implemented fully and in accordance with the public’s high expectations.

A case in point that caused a rupture between Megawati and Jokowi was the nomination of Budi Gunawan as the candidate for chief of the National Police. The absence of the afore-mentioned agreement caused a lack of a clear division of power between Megawati and President Jokowi, and on top of that, a close and trusting personal relationship is of utmost importance. Both have to keep trying to mend their differences.

The pent-up disappointment of Megawati in Jokowi was expressed in her speech at the recent PDI-P congress that re-installed her as the party’s chairperson.

She felt that the President did not consult her enough on policy matters. The Megawati barrage reaped a strong public reaction, but Jokowi’s own response was cool headed. In that light, we may have to understand Megawati’s outburst during that occasion. Following this, from now on relations between the two will not only be restored but improved because Megawati knows how important both of them are for Indonesia.

That is her credo that she cannot compromise. Yes, she has been disappointed, even bewildered, as to why she was left so much out of the loop by the President and those close to him. While her outburst can be understood, however, there should be no encore. The expectation of Ibu Mega being a statesperson is real, and moreover, is needed by Indonesians. - See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/05/06/insight-complex-developments-indonesia-s-politics.html#sthash.el9p9i4T.dpuf

Tak Hanya RI, Negara-negara Ini Jadi Korban Beras PlastikLiputan6.com, Shanghai - Belakangan ini, masyarakat Indonesia dibuat gundah dengan temuan beras plastik di pasaran yang membahayakan kesehatan.

Ternyata, keberadaan beras plastik yang dijual China ini tak hanya masuk ke Indonesia. Negara lain di kawasan Asia ikut menjadi sasaran pasar beras plastik seperti India dan Vietnam.

Melansir laman Shanghaiist, Jumat (22/5/2015), sejumlah perusahaan China diduga memproduksi beras palsu dengan mencampurkannya dalam plastik. Beras plastik itu secara besar-besaran dijual di pasar China.

Sejauh ini, beras plastik yang dijual di Taiyuan, Shaanxi dibuat dari campuran kentang, kentang manis dan bahan plastik.

Sementara hasil uji lab beras palsu yang beredar di kota Bekasi menunjukkan beras tersebut mengandung tiga bahan kimia berbahaya.

Hasilnya ada suspect, kandungan yang biasa digunakan untuk membuat bahan plastik menjadi pembuat beras plastik. Senyawa plasticizer penyusun plastik yang ditemukan dalam beras tersebut atara lain benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), bisphthalate atau DEHP, dan diisononyl phthalate (DIN). Senyawa plasticizer itu biasa digunakan untuk melenturkan kabel atau pipa plastik.

Sejauh ini, pemerintah China telah melarang warganya mengkonsumsi beras plastik yang sudah pasti berbahaya untuk kesehatan manusia. Tapi para pedagang masih menjual beras tersebut dalam jumlah besar karena dianggap sangat menguntungkan.

China memang memiliki sejarah pembuatan bahan pangan palsu. Pada 2010, perusahaan di Xi'an, Shaanxi membuat versi palsu beras Wuchang yang sangat mahal dengan mencampurkan beras biasa ke dalamnya. Pada 2008, skandal penipuan susu merebak di China.

Sejumlah perusahaan mencampur susu formula dengan melamin dan menyebabkan 6 balita meninggal dunia dan berdampak pada 300 ribu penduduk lain.(Sis/Nrm)

http://bisnis.liputan6.com/read/2237346/tak-hanya-ri-negara-negara-ini-jadi-korban-beras-plastik

Gaji PNS Naik Sedot Uang NegaraLiputan6.com, Jakarta - Pemerintah dalam hal ini Kementerian Keuangan mengumumkan pendapatan negara sampai dengan periode 20 Mei 2015 sebesar Rp 502,7 triliun atau 28,5 persen dari target Anggaran Pendapatan dan Belanja Negara Perubahan (APBN-P) 2015 sebesar Rp 1.761,6 triliun. Sementara belanja negara Rp 548,7 triliun atau 27,7 persen.

Menteri Keuangan (Menkeu), Bambang Brodjonegoro menyebut, realisasi pendapatan itu naik dari pencapaian 15 Mei tahun ini sebesar Rp 476,3 triliun, sedangkan belanja negara sebesar Rp 540,5 triliun.

Realisasi belanja negara pada pertengahan bulan kelima ini, terdiri dari belanja pemerintah Rp 302,8 triliun dan transfer ke daerah serta dana desa yang terdorong naik menjadi Rp 237,8 triliun.

Dalam catatan Bambang, belanja Kementerian/Lembaga mencapai Rp 129,5 triliun atau 16,3 persen dari target APBN-P 2015 sebesar 795,5 triliun.

"Realisasi belanja pegawai dan bantuan sosial (bansos) 2015 lebih tinggi dari pencapaian 15 Mei 2014. Bansos ini bukan hanya memberi uang, tapi mekanisme anggarannya ke Kementerian Pendidikan dan lainnya," ucap dia saat Konferensi Pers Realisasi APBN-P Periode 15 Mei di kantornya, Jakarta, Kamis (21/5/2015).

Dijelaskannya, belanja pegawai pada 15 Mei 2015 senilai Rp 57,4 triliun, atau naik dari periode yang sama tahun lalu sebesar 49,7 triliun. Sementara belanja bansos sebesar Rp 32,8 triliun di pertengahan Mei 2015 atau naik dari tahun sebelumnya Rp 23,8 triliun.

Bambang menambahkan, realisasi belanja modal di periode ini lebih rendah. Namun optimistis akan akan terserap dengan selesainya dokumen DIPA APBN-P 2015, proses restrukturisasi organisasi atau nomenklatur dan pelelangan.

"Lebih dari 40 persen anggaran belanja modal Kementerian Pekerjaan Umum dan Perumahan Rakyat saat ini sudah terkontrak dan lebih dari 37 persen dalam proses pelelangan," terangnya.

Lanjut dia, proyek-proyek di Kementerian/Lembaga lain juga sudah tahap pelelangan dan penyerapan anggaran infrastruktur disesuaikan dengan kemajuan. (Fik/Ndw)

http://bisnis.liputan6.com/read/2236741/gaji-pns-naik-sedot-uang-negara

Kapolri: Kasus UPS dan Kebocoran Soal UN Tak Jalan di TempatLiputan6.com, Jakarta - Bareskrim Polri saat ini tengah menggarap berbagai kasus tindak pidana. Di antaranya kasus dugaan korupsi pengadaan uninterruptible power supply (UPS) di sejumlah sekolah pada APBD Perubahan 2014 dan kasus dugaan kebocoran soal Ujian Nasional tahun ajaran 2014-2015.

Namun hingga kini dua kasus yang sempat menyedot perhatian masyarakat itu belum ada kelanjutannya. Polisi juga masih bungkam terkait perkembangan 2 kasus tersebut.

Tetapi, Kapolri Jenderal Badrodin Haiti menyangkalnya. Menurut dia, proses hukum atas kedua kasus itu tetap berjalan dilakukan penyidik Bareskrim Polri.

"Sebetulnya tidak jalan di tempat itu proses masih berjalan, tentu ini kan sedang menyelesaikan seperti kasus UPS itu, menyelesaikan berkasnya yang menjadi tersangka itu," kata Badrodin di Mabes Polri, Jakarta, Jumat (22/5/2015).

Ia pun memberi sinyal akan ada tersangka baru atas kasus UPS dan kebocoran UN yang saat ini tengah digarap anak buahnya.

"Tapi kan juga nanti setelah itu ada langkah lanjut yang mungkin ada pihak-pihak lain yang akan ditetapkan tersangka atau yang terlibat di situ tentu akan disidik lebih lanjut. Jadi menurut saya tidak jalan di tempat," tegas Badrodin.

Untuk kasus kebocoran UN, hingga kini pihaknya masih berkoordinasi dengan Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan terkait penanganan kasusnya.

"Itu nanti saya cek perkembangannya (kasus UN). Apakah itu nanti ditangani sendiri oleh Diknas atau di serahkan ke kami," tukas Badrodin. (Mut)

http://news.liputan6.com/read/2237521/kapolri-kasus-ups-dan-kebocoran-soal-un-tak-jalan-di-tempat