World No Tobacco Day 2010

On 31st May each year, the World Health Organization celebrates the World No Tobacco Day, highlighting the health risks associated with the use of tobacco and advocating for effective policies to reduce consumption. Tobacco use is the second cause of death globally (after Hypertension) and is currently responsible for killing one in 10 adults worldwide.  

The theme for this year's World No Tobacco Day is Gender and Tobacco, with an emphasis on marketing to women. WHO will use the day to draw particular attention to the harmful effects of tobacco marketing and smoke on women and girls.

The World Health Assembly created World No Tobacco Day in 1987 to draw global attention to the tobacco epidemic and its lethal effects. It provides an opportunity to highlight specific tobacco control messages and to promote adherence to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Tobacco use is the number one preventable epidemic that the health community faces.

Related links

- World No Tobacco Day site
- WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative
- More about tobacco abuse and control

Source:  World Health Organization (WHO)

 

Females and Cigarettes in Jakarta

The survey of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) shows that in 2004 there was a very sharp increase in the  numbers of females smoking cigarettes in Jakarta compared to the year 2001.

Perhaps that was the reason why in 2005 the provincial government of Jakarta introduced an Anti-Smoking by-law which require Smoking Area to be located separately from Non-Smoking Area. It seems that this was not effective that on 6 May 2010 the government completely banned smoking in buildings.

More details are available on the article of The Jakarta Post that I have quoted below. Happy reading.

Anti-smoking campaign targets women, girls

Ika Krismantari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 05/30/2010 9:58 AM | Headlines

Tobacco doesn’t discriminate by gender or age. People who smoke cigarettes — men or women, young or old — will suffer the negative impacts.

This view was shared during the “No Tobacco Show”, a one-day event organized by the National Commission on Tobacco Control on Saturday in Kuningan, South Jakarta. The event drew 1,500 people from 22 schools in Greater Jakarta.

The event was set up to disseminate information to young people and women on the dangers of smoking ahead of World No Tobacco Day, which falls on May 31.

Committee chairwoman Laks-miati A. Hanafiah said the commission organized the event in response to the rise in the number of women and teenage smokers in Jakarta.

The latest data from the Central Statistics Agency show the prevalence of smoking among women
in Indonesia had tripled to 4.5 percent in 2004, with the highest increase among teenage girls aged 15 to 19.

The number of teenage smokers has grown almost tenfold from 0.2 percent in 2001 to 1.9 percent in 2004.
Laksmiati said that this worrying trend was caused by ubiquitous cigarette advertising in media and public places that conveyed false information.

“All those ads are misleading. There is no safe limit for cigarettes. The only thing that is safe is to stop smoking,” Laksmiati said, referring to commercials offering cigarette products claiming to have lower amounts of nicotine.

She added the event would help people find the real message behind the advertisements.
At the event, students from different schools displayed their own anti-smoking campaigns to help get the real message across to the public.


A participants coming from state vocational high school SMKN 8 in Pejaten, South Jakarta, exhibited a ghost house to demonstrate the dangers of smoking.


Some of the students dressed up as ghosts with heavy mascara and pale makeup standing in front of a poster with information on cigarettes.


“We want to warn people that this is the result you meet when you smoke,” said 10th grader Leni Nuraini, who was dressed as an angel of death.


Laksmiati acknowledged the importance of involving the youth as well as women in the war against tobacco because they were the next target for cigarette companies.


The commission plans to hold a seminar to raise awareness among women to contribute to the war against tobacco, she added.
This commission believes personal initiatives from individuals were important for the success of the anti-tobacco movement, especially in light of the failure of the local government to enforce regulations prohibiting smoking in the capital.


The Jakarta administration introduced the first anti-smoking bylaw in 2005, but its implementation is seen as a failure. The bylaw required smoking areas to be separated from non-smoking areas.


The administration has tightened the rule since May 6 this year by banning smoking completely in buildings. 

The public, as well as authorities, have questioned the effectiveness of this policy. Indonesia is the world’s third-largest tobacco consumer.

Indonesian & Australian central banks scandal

The Coruption Eradication Commission (KPK) will start inquiry on allegation that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has given US$ 1.3 million in Bribe to senior officers of Bank Indonesia (BI) to win a note printing tender in 1999.

The Jakarta Globe (below) quoted KPK Deputy Chief M. Yassin as saying that  this inquiry is based on an undisclosed public complaint received on 25 May.

Considering that this case was disclosed by an Australian newspaper The Age 11 years after the bribery took place, I wonder whether there are any other unknown foul play between said central banks of both countries. Hmmmm .... I'll keep my fingers crossed.

KPK Begins Inquiry Into Bank Indonesia Australian Bribery Case

Armed with a public complaint, the Corruption Eradication Commission announced it would initiate an investigation into allegations that senior central bank officials had received $1.3 million in bribes over a banknote-printing tender with an Australian company in 1999.

Deputy Chairman Muhammad Jasin said on Friday that the complaint officially enabled the antigraft agency, also known as the KPK, to conduct the probe.

“Regarding allegations of bribery at Bank Indonesia, the KPK received a report that was registered at the KPK Directorate of Public Complaints on May 25,” Jasin said. “The report is now being examined by the public complaints team as we gather additional information.”

Jasin added that the commission would not disclose who filed the complaint or the contents of the report.

“We are also discussing the possibilities of collaborating with our Australian counterparts on the matter,” Jasin said.

The case surfaced after Melbourne-based newspaper The Age reported on Tuesday that two senior BI officials, identified only as Mr. S and Mr. M, had allegedly received bribes from Indonesian businessman Radius Christanto.

Radius reportedly paid $1.3 million in bribes to award the $50 million contracts to print 500 million Rp 100,000 banknotes to two Australian firms he was representing — Securency International and Note Printing Australia.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said that the case was under the agency’s jurisdiction. “As long as it involves public officials and there had been a misappropriation of state funds, the KPK will investigate.”

Muhammad Assegaf, lawyer of former Bank Indonesia Governor Syahril Sabirin, confirmed that the alleged bribery occurred during his client’s tenure. “However Syahril was not aware of the bribery because he was not involved in the technical aspect of the procurement or tender process,” Assegaf said.

The central bank also pledged to conduct an internal investigation into the matter. Deputy Governor Budi Rochadi said four former BI officials directly linked to the tender had been questioned but refused to disclose names.

“The officials involved in the procurement had mostly retired but some are still active. We will question everyone from the staffers to the directorial levels,” he said, as quoted by state-run Antara news agency.

The Age reported that a confidential fax, sent from Christanto to the two firms on July 1, 1999, explicitly referred to large bribes to Bank Indonesia.

The paper added that Christanto’s correspondencewith the Australian firms also revealed collusion among BI officials, Chris­tanto and the firms’ executives to mark up the bids for the rupiah contract.

The Reserve Bank of Australia, the holding company of both firms said it took the matter “very seriously” and condemned corrupt behavior of any kind, but could not comment further given the ongoing Australian Federal Police investigation.

In a separate statement, Securency said it had referred the bribery allegations to Australian police after it became aware of them a year ago.

Lapindo Mudflow Tragedy

Four years ago, PT. Lapindo Brantas failed to follow standard procedure for pumping natural gas in Sidoarjo, East Java, causing a never ending hot mud flow that inundated many buildings and commercial lands in the neigbouring area.

Now, the tragedy  has been regarded as a mere natural disaster and responsibility of PT. Lapindo Brantas and its owner have been transfered to the government.

According to Kompas (below) the government of East Java is planning to turn Mudflow site into a Tourist site, for which purpose the amount of 273 Billion Rupiah in fund has been allocated.

Rp273 Billion for Lapindo Tourist Site Allocated

Sabtu, 29 Mei 2010 | 06:01 WIB

 SURABAYA, KOMPAS.com - The government has set aside  Rp273 billion in funds to develop a geological tourist object near the Lapindo mudflow site in Sidoarjo district, East Java, an official said. 
 
"The government through the maritime affairs and fisheries ministry has set aside Rp273 billion in funds to develop Lapindo geological tourist site," East Java Governor Soekarwo said here on Friday.
  
The 83-hectare geological tourist object would be located north of the mudflow site, he said adding: "President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited the location some time ago."
  
"The DED (detailed engineering design) of the project will be available in 2011. The project is likely to be started this year," he said.
  
Asked to comment on the land subsidence around the mudflow site, he said there was nothing to worry about it.
  
"The land subsidence can be handled if new embankments are not built. The emergence of new mudflow spots and land subsidence results from the construction of new embankments which add to another burden," he said quoting geologists of the Surabaya-based Sepuluh November Institute of Technology (ITS) and Airlangga University (Unair).
 
To date, there were 180 thousand mudflow spots, including 30 thousand to 50 thousand new ones, he said. The mudflow first began from a crack near an exploratory gas well owned by PT Lapindo Brantas on May 29, 2006. It soon expanded into a mud lake, swallowing houses, factories and schools, leaving more than 15,000 people homeless.

Young Cigarette Addict

tSo many strange and shocking stories about what's happening in Indonesia have been reported by the mass media in the last few months.

One of them is about a 2-years old boy who has been addicted to cigarettes, which is so disgusting for me that I have been trying to avoid writing about it. I never thought that any parents could ever let their very young son (a baby?) become cigarette addict.

Please find below a blog post about this matter that I have quoted from my friend Anastasia F-B (anatheimp@blogspot.com) in London.

Tobacco Boy

I read a truly shocking story today in the Daily Mail about a two-year old boy in Indonesia who has a forty-a-day cigarette habit. Yes, that's right, forty a day! Ardi Razal's health has been ruined and he now struggles to move himself, according to the report. His mother, Diana, says that he is totally addicted. All of her attempts to stop his puffing have been abandoned in the face of his tantrums;

If he doesn't get cigarettes, he gets angry and screams and batters his head against the wall. He tells me he feels dizzy and sick.

His father, Mohammed Razal, a fishmonger living in Musi Banyuasin in South Sumatra, does not seem to see a problem, believing his son looks perfectly healthy. All I can say is that he needs to look just a little harder. More than that, he needs to ask himself how healthy his son is likely to be by the age of ten, assuming he ever makes it that far.

Although this would appear to be an extreme example, Indonesian authorities are worried by the number of young children taking to smoking in a culture where tobacco is king. According to official statistics, 25% of children between three and fifteen have tried cigarettes, and there has been a sharp increase in smoking among those aged between five and nine.

The usual panaceas are being offered as solutions; that there needs to be a ban on tobacco advertising and a campaign illustrating the effects of passive smoking. This does not, it seem to me, to go anywhere near understanding why, and by what means, children as young as two have become hardened smokers.

We all have choices to make in life, risks we freely chose to take with our eyes open. Ardi Razal clearly did not acquire his habit by free choice or overnight. Admittedly without knowing all of the facts -the report does not make the precise circumstances of his addiction to tobacco clear- I can only conclude that his parents are feckless, irresponsible or uncaring, perhaps a combination of all three.

Have a Wonderful Waisak

To all my Buddhist Friends in Indonesia and other parts of the world, I wish you all a Happy Waisak 2554.

Photo: Courtesy of Google

Bribery in Bank Indonesia

Since Indonesia became a democratic country in 1998, almost everything that ever happened here are freely reported by the media.

So many corruption cases and foul play in the management of the country have been exposed, the latest being the mysterious flow of 6.7 Trillion Rupiah to bailout of Bank Century, and the Trillion Rupiah Tax fraud.

While the above cases are still being investigated by the law enforcement agencies, yesterday The Jakarta Post (below) reported that officials of the central bank i.e. Bank Indonesia, have received US$ 1.3 million bribes from a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia for helping the latter in winning a contract in 1999.

Considering that this is a very serious allegations, I hope that the law enforcement agencies in both countries would check whether or not the news report is true.

Former BI officials took bribes from RBA: Reports
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 05/26/2010 10:13 AM | National

Former Bank Indonesia officials received US$1.3 million in bribes from Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) subsidiaries to help the latter win a contract and manipulate future tenders in 1999, a newspaper reported.

Melbourne’s The Age cited confidential faxes from a Jakarta businessman to executives at Securency International and Note Printing  Australia (NPA) referring to “our friends” and “unofficial payments" and “commissions”. One fax, dated July 1, 1999, specifically stipulates the paying of S1.3 million to two Bank Indonesia officials.

According to The Age, Radius Christianto, who represented the RBA firms Securency and NPA in Indonesia between 1999 and 2006, was to be paid US3.65 million for his services.
In his faxes, Christianto refers to “Mr. S” and “Mr. M”, which the newspaper believes were senior Bank Indonesia officials who played key roles in awarding the RBA firms the contract for printing 500 million Rp 100,000 banknotes.

The revelation of this possible corruption came when a former Securency employee said recently that he was asked to pay bribes and procure prostitutes for foreign central bank officials.

Currently, the Australian Federal Police are investigating Securency for paying more than $A20 million in bribes through middlemen to win currency printing contracts in Vietnam, Nigeria and Malaysia between 2003 and 2006.

Christanto’s correspondence also revealed collusion between Bank Indonesia officials, Christanto and RBA banknote executives to mark up the Securency and NPA bid for the rupiah banknote contract by 20 percent with an agreement that it would then be reduced to a 10 per cent mark-up.

Bank Indonesia said it would allow the law enforcers to investigate the alleged bribery. “Let the KPK [Corruption Eradication Commission] and the Attorney General’s Office conduct an investigation,” he was quoted as saying by Antara news agency.

“The KPK has not received any official report on the case,” KPK spokesman Johan Budi said Tuesday. He added that the commission had only just learned of the allegation from Jakarta journalists, so had not had the opportunity to discuss a possible investigation.

“We will process any information on possible corruption as long as it involves state officials,” Johan said.

“The KPK does not work retroactively, therefore we can’t process any case that occurred before August 1999,” Johan said, adding that the KPK was regulated by the 1999 Corruption Eradication Law, which came into effect in August that year.
The law defines corruption as well as the process for its eradication.

“The KPK also refers to the Criminal Code, which stipulates that a person cannot be charged or tried for any crime occurring before the issuance of any law covering such crimes,” Johan said.

“However, we can investigate these allegations if the case has consequences occurring after 1999.”
 It is possible that someone might come forward with information on the case because of the media coverage,” he said, emphasizing that ”we except anonymous reports”. (ipa)