Axing of four subjects in 2021 a ‘crisis’ that will disadvantage businesses in the future, says president of Asian Studies Association of Australia
Australian universities are failing students and leaving them unprepared for the future job market by cutting courses in Asian languages, according to teachers and experts.
Four university-level Asian language subjects have been cut in 2021 as universities cope with the ongoing economic impact of the Covid pandemic.
Continue reading...Quake hit offshore near city of Malang with country already reeling from cyclone disaster
At least seven people were killed after a 6.0 magnitude quake struck off the coast of Indonesia’s main Java island on Saturday, as the country reels from a cyclone disaster.
The afternoon quake hit offshore about 45 kilometres south-west of Malang city in East Java, damaging hundreds of homes as well as schools, government offices and mosques across the region.
Continue reading...In Kupang, Indonesia, residents wait for aid after torrential rain, destructive winds and flooding forced thousands into shelters
On Sunday at midnight, Linda Tagie, 29, rested her three-year-old baby on the bed. Linda, who lives together with her husband, 79-year-old mother-in-law and only child in Sikumana, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia, was shocked by a strong wind and heavy rain. The electricity suddenly went off.
“I prayed and prayed in the dark,” she said. The wind eventually stopped on Monday morning. She walked out of the house and found the roof gone from the back part of the house. “Electricity cables, tin roofs, and trees lie on the street in front of our house,” she said.
Continue reading...At least 150 people killed in Indonesia and Timor-Leste after tropical cyclone Seroja hit region
In Tasitolu, a suburb in the west of the capital, Dili, Batista Elo balances his young daughter on his hip as he stands in flood waters that reach up his thighs.
“I saved my family first and after that just got into the belongings, but there were some things that didn’t get saved,” recalls Batista of the wild Saturday night when his home was suddenly flooded.
Continue reading...At least five people seriously injured and about 1,000 residents evacuated, as Greenpeace calls for investigation
A massive fire has broken out at one of Indonesia’s biggest oil refineries after an explosion turned the sprawling complex into a raging inferno.
Firefighters battled to contain the fire at the Balongan refinery in West Java, operated by the state oil company, Pertamina, as towering plumes of black smoke rose into the sky.
Continue reading...Biak island residents say SpaceX launchpad would devastate island’s ecology and displace people from their homes
Papuans whose island has been offered up as a potential launch site for Elon Musk’s SpaceX project have told the billionaire Tesla chief his company is not welcome on their land, and its presence would devastate their island’s ecosystem and drive people from their homes.
Musk was offered use of part of the small island of Biak in Papua by Indonesian president Joko Widodo in December.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Stuffed specimen was only proof of bird’s existence until discovery in rainforest last year
In the 1840s, a mystery bird was caught on an expedition to the East Indies. Charles Lucien Bonaparte, the nephew of Napoleon, described it to science and named it the black-browed babbler (Malacocincla perspicillata).
The species was never seen in the wild again, and a stuffed specimen featuring a bright yellow glass eye was the only proof of its existence. But now the black-browed babbler has been rediscovered in the rainforests of Borneo.
Continue reading...Increasing land grabs endangering forest communities and wildlife as governments expand mining and agriculture to combat economic impact of Covid
Indigenous communities in some of the world’s most forested tropical countries have faced a wave of human rights abuses during the Covid-19 pandemic as governments prioritise extractive industries in economic recovery plans, according to a new report.
New mines, infrastructure projects and agricultural plantations in Brazil, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Indonesia and Peru are driving land grabs and violence against indigenous peoples as governments seek to revive economies hit by the pandemic, research by the NGO Forest Peoples Programme has found.
Continue reading...Automatic throttle may have caused Sriwijaya Air jet pilots to lose control of Boeing 737-500
A malfunctioning automatic throttle may have caused the pilots of a Sriwijaya Air jet to lose control, leading to the Boeing 737-500’s plunge into the Java Sea last month, Indonesian investigators have said.
National transportation safety committee investigators said on Wednesday they were still struggling to understand why the jet nosedived into the water minutes after taking off from Jakarta on 9 January, killing all 62 people on board.
Continue reading...Indonesian men, women and children are risking their health wearing metallic paint to earn money as the economic impact of coronavirus worsens
It was 8pm on one of the busiest intersections in western Jakarta. Three men in metallic paint from head to toe stood on the footpath. Each was holding a silver can.
Alfan, 25, was one. When the light turned red, he walked in silence, barefoot, and stood in front of the stopped traffic. He bowed deeply for a few seconds and then struck a pose like a statue: standing straight, he raised his right hand to his temple and gave a salute in silence for about a minute without blinking.
Continue reading...Men in Aceh province were detained by vigilantes before being caned in public
Two gay men in Indonesia’s Aceh province have been publicly caned 77 times each after they were reported to police by vigilantes who raided their apartment.
Human rights groups have condemned the spectacle, which was watched by dozens of people in the capital Banda Aceh, as brutal and medieval.
Continue reading...The country’s most active volcano has unleashed a river of lava, searing gas and ash down its 3,000m slopes on Java island, threatening vulnerable villages
Continue reading...Biggest ever survey finds two-thirds of people think climate change is a global emergency
The biggest ever opinion poll on climate change has found two-thirds of people think it is a “global emergency”.
The survey shows people across the world support climate action and gives politicians a clear mandate to take the major action needed, according to the UN organisation that carried out the poll.
Continue reading...One man died after rejection from 10 hospitals as country nears one million cases of coronavirus
Health experts in Indonesia have warned that hospitals in some areas are on the brink of collapse as the nation approached one million cases of coronavirus.
In one case, a man died after he was turned away from 10 hospitals, including three in Jakarta, with doctors under greater strain that an any time in the pandemic.
Continue reading...Volcanoes in Java continue to show worrying signs, with authorities closely monitoring seismic activity as they spew lava and ash many kilometres into the atmosphere.
At 3,676 metres (12,060 feet), Mount Semeru in East Java is one of the highest volcanoes in Indonesia. Mount Merapi in central Java is a 2,929-metre (9,610-foot) active volcano with a hiking trail to its summit and a surrounding national park. Both continue to trouble authorities.
On 16 January 2021, the Semeru volcano observatory issued a notice for aviation warning of an ash cloud moving to the north-east with an ash cloud top at around 5,676 metres (18,163 feet) above sea level, but it may be higher than what can be observed clearly.
Here’s a look at this month’s eruptions
At least 49 dead after magnitude 6.2 shock on Sulawesi island, which destroyed roads, bridges and houses
Damaged roads and bridges, power blackouts and lack of heavy equipment on Saturday hampered rescuers after a strong earthquake left at least 49 people dead and hundreds injured on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island.
Operations were focused on about eight locations in the hardest-hit city of Mamuju, where people were still believed trapped following the magnitude 6.2 quake that struck early on Friday, said Saidar Rahmanjaya, who heads the local search and rescue agency.
Continue reading...Thousands flee for safety and higher ground after island’s second quake in 24 hours
At least 37 people have been killed and hundreds injured following a strong earthquake that shook the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia early on Friday morning, prompting landslides and destroying houses.
Thousands of people fled their homes to seek safety when the 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit just after 1am local time on Friday morning. The epicentre was 6km north-east of Majene city in West Sulawesi.
Continue reading...WARNING: This video contains scenes some viewers may find distressing.
A 6.2-magnitude earthquake on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island has killed dozens of people, injured hundreds and damaged many buildings, the country’s disaster mitigation agency said. The epicentre of the quake was six kilometres north-east of Majene city at a depth of 10 kilometres and hit at 1am local time. Rescuers are still probing the rubble
Continue reading...Study finds macaques go for tourists’ electronics and wallets over empty bags and then maximise their profit
At the Uluwatu temple in Bali, monkeys mean business. The long-tailed macaques who roam the ancient site are infamous for brazenly robbing unsuspecting tourists and clinging on to their possessions until food is offered as ransom payment.
Researchers have found they are also skilled at judging which items their victims value the most and using this information to maximise their profit.
Continue reading...Picture of wild pig made at least 45,500 years ago provides earliest evidence of human settlement
Archaeologists have discovered the world’s oldest known cave painting: a life-sized picture of a wild pig that was made at least 45,500 years ago in Indonesia.
The finding, described in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday, provides the earliest evidence of human settlement of the region.
Continue reading...