Indonesia News/Updates

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bigredcouch started the topic in Sunday, 24 Jan 2021 at 2:16pm

Hey guys,

Wondering what the go-to website is for Indonesian news/updates in English?

I'm mostly interested in Covid and international border related news. What's out there?

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eat-your-vegies Sunday, 4 Jul 2021 at 11:38pm

28000 cases today

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dandandan Monday, 5 Jul 2021 at 10:30am

Frustrating number of foreign surfers still travelling all over the place for waves seemingly without much concern for the rural communities they're staying in. I guess when you live in an English only surf tourism bubble it's easy to pretend ordinary Indonesians only exist as an exotic backdrop to sell your lifestyle on the internet. It's hard to imagine a more self-centered activity than travelling through poor regional communities during a pandemic that is crippling the health system simply to go surfing.

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goofyfoot Monday, 5 Jul 2021 at 11:13am

Danx3 my brain must not have woken up yet but how does someone travelling through those communities you mentioned affect the community in a negative way. Unless you had covid obviously.

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indo-dreaming Monday, 5 Jul 2021 at 11:28am

I guess it depends if they are getting tested on not, lot's of areas like say Mentawai's you need a Covid test to go on the fast ferry, and you need a Covid test to go on planes too.

I can see both sides of things.

One side, if guys are being irresponsible could bring Covid into an area that doesn't have Covid, that could devastating.

Other side of things, is that many small local owned losmen's are hurting big time and even just a couple guest staying a week or two is a big help at the moment.

I just think travellers need to be responsible and ensure they do the right thing and get tested where possible when going to an area that might not have any covid.

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dandandan Monday, 5 Jul 2021 at 11:46am

Many people don't suspect they're carrying Covid for 10-20 days after they've been carrying it. Moving from Bali to Jakarta to the Ments to Sumba to Sumbawa as crew have been doing just seems needlessly risky. People are still doing "strike missions" to remote areas just to go surfing. And I agree that taking a health risk can bring financial benefit, but I feel that argument is hard to uphold when people are jetting from one foreign owned surf resort with bargain prices to the next. I mean if false negatives and a little bit of traveling can see outbreaks here, it's only a matter of time and bad luck until a surfer brings it to rural part of the archipelago far from decent healthcare. Anyway, I'm just whinging because I see my friends in Indo suffering and bules just acting as if it's the best thing that has ever happened to them.

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Horas Monday, 5 Jul 2021 at 11:59pm

Hey Dan come on mate. You do realise that the recent spike in cases is from many locals in Java ignoring any and all advice and going back to kampung for Ramadan ? But it's a few bules fault ? Plenty of Balinese in the water everyday having a fat time and good on em but bad,bad bule.

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indo-dreaming Tuesday, 13 Jul 2021 at 8:00am

"Almost half' of Jakarta residents have antibodies against COVID-19, indicating greater spread than reported"

Results from an Indonesian health survey indicate almost half the entire population of Jakarta — 4.7 million people from a population of 10.6 million — have antibodies against COVID-19.

Supafreak wrote:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-12/covid-19-antibodies-jakarta-almos...

I came here to post the exact same article, pretty crazy read.

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Supafreak Tuesday, 13 Jul 2021 at 12:29pm

Balinese authorities getting tougher on bule’s who aren’t following the rules. https://seminyaktimes.com/three-foreigners-deported-for-not-wearing-masks/

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truebluebasher Tuesday, 13 Jul 2021 at 1:43pm

Same again...that report is vital to share...with the 44.5% infection rate, makes it a World Headline.
Thanx for emergency update crew...
Oz wishes good health & a speedy recovery to our neighbour...hang in there!

ABC TV News bookends the upfront ABC Report...details the reasons for high rate...
Dr Tiara Marthias shares an insightful, refreshingly honest account + advice...Salute!
https://hpm.fk.ugm.ac.id/the-experts/dr-tiara-marthias-mph/

BBC 4 Indonesia Hospital overflow can no longer protect the Frontline...it's all on the line!
Covid is making light work of the frontline...well beyond tragedy this is!
[ Warning ]...Confronting Vid shows the lot, including the dead...
Gotta hand it to Indonesians...they're fighting with dignity at every stage to the grave...mighty effort!

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Supafreak Saturday, 17 Jul 2021 at 8:45am

Indonesia government distributing drugs and vitamins to citizens. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/indonesia-distributes-medicine...

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indo-dreaming Saturday, 17 Jul 2021 at 9:37am

This first line will probably sound crazy.

But it's amazing how decent some aspects of the Indonesia medical system is.

My mother inlay (all good now) has been in hospital for last week or so and apparently its going to be free as they pay i think Rp250,000 a month to government for that medical cover scheme that Jokowi brought in(covers whole family even my wife)

Her brother also ended up getting covid (just mild flue like symptoms) so he had to self isolate, which he couldn't do at home, so they actually have special facilities provided by government where you go and stay.

Quite surprising.

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I focus Saturday, 17 Jul 2021 at 11:38am

Great news ID nice to hear healthy out come.

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Supafreak Saturday, 17 Jul 2021 at 1:11pm

@indo Good to hear the mother in law pulled through , your wife must be relieved.

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indo-dreaming Saturday, 17 Jul 2021 at 3:16pm

Thanks yeah she is much better now, yeah wife is very happy, they are like best friends talk pretty much everyday and nothing is off limits.

Other weird thing was how long they kept her in hospital even after she could breath quite well, i would have been expecting the hospital to want to get her home so they could use the hospital bed for someone else, but wasn't the case.

Sometimes you can just never predict these things in Indo.

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Supafreak Sunday, 18 Jul 2021 at 6:54am
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indo-dreaming Friday, 30 Jul 2021 at 1:26pm

Dont mean to be a party pooper but :(

An epidemiologist from Australia’s Griffith University, Dicky Budiman, has predicted that Indonesia will be the last country to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic compared to other countries in the world.

https://indonesiaexpat.id/featured/epidemiologist-predicts-indonesia-the...

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Vic Local Friday, 30 Jul 2021 at 1:56pm

Unfortunately Dicky's prediction will probably be correct or very close to being on the money. Covid is going to be an absolute tragedy for Indonesia, and Australia should step up in terms of vaccines. If we are too snobbish for AZ, then it should be exported it in huge quantities, FOC to Indonesia. China is sending their Sino-vax, which is an effective form of soft diplomacy.
I get nervous about the democratic gains made by Indonesia in the last 23 years being reversed as a perverse side effect of Covid. Don't expect Scotty's gang to be onto this real problem. He's an absolute inward looking lightweight who only cares about his re-election chances.

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Supafreak Friday, 30 Jul 2021 at 2:03pm

@indo , it’s going to be devastating on some islands that will get little help from Jakarta. The donations that came in from around the world after the tsunami lined the pockets of government officials. Australia gave 1 billion and where did it really go ? Surf charters that ran supplies to various locations in the mentawi’s were the real hero’s. One bloke I know had a container full of clothes and things shipped to his wife’s village in sumartra. When it arrived the local chief tried to take control but my mate wouldn’t have it , he distributed it to those he could see needed it the most much to the displeasure of greedy individuals. Bali should recover quicker than most due to their vaccination rollout . The economic cost on people’s lives and their mental and physical health will be as big as the virus if not bigger .

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indo-dreaming Friday, 30 Jul 2021 at 4:16pm

Yeah i think they have managed to keep a lot of the outer islands Mentawais, telos etc covid free not sure about Simeulue or Banyaks or even status of Nias anymore.

Ive actually seen huge spending in the Mentawais & Telos in the last 20 years especially the last ten and some spending in Nias, new government run ferries or subsidies services, subsides air services, new ports, airport upgrades, mains electricity gone on in some bigger islands, that a complete game changer as can have refrigeration and pump water from wells.

Lots of new roads, paths, erosion control walls, jettys, new schools, its quite surprising really.

Some big road projects in Mentawais too like on Sipora i think the road goes pretty much all the way north to south, big wide road too, sucks in a way, but it links villages and makes it easier to bring in food, fuel etc

Also after the Mentawais tsunami they moved quite a few villages from low areas near the coast to higher ground, like at Green bush or Roxys, im pretty sure the government funded the move and much of the rebuild.

Was also up Aceh the other year and hung with two guys one a kepala desa and one worked designing infrastructure projects and they seemed to love showing me where lots of money had been spent that was provided by USA and Aust or Indo government, lots of housing as built for the people and the new road that goes along the coast is easily the best road ive seen in indo and barely a car on it.

Im sure heaps of money went missing though, i remember at the time outboard motors were being offered brand new dirt cheap on the black market, outboards that were suppose to go to local fisherman, no idea who paid for them.

I think there is some very basic job keeper type scheme too (well not job keeper) but people can get money, not sure if ongoing and obviously not much, but still its kind of surprising sometimes.

You just never know with Indo.

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Supafreak Friday, 30 Jul 2021 at 4:42pm

I met a french girl who was with a ngo and they rebuilt in a area where 2 villages existed and they had been fighting for decades. Once the new accommodation village was built both village’s refused to move in as it meant living side by side. Don’t know what became of it . She also said she questioned what they were doing as in past earthquakes and tsunamis the locals had united , rebuilt and got on with life . With someone doing it for them and not really asking what they needed , just going ahead and doing it for them , she felt maybe wasn’t the best plan .

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indo-dreaming Friday, 30 Jul 2021 at 5:01pm

Yeah okay, yeah would be interesting to hear from the people how they felt about relocating the villages, ive got a feeling most would have been into the idea.

I went to Silabu village a few Kilometres up river from Macaronis in 2008 and a lot of the village had decided to move up on the hill and live in a makeshift type of tent village, as were to scared to live near the water because of quakes and tsunamis in other areas of Sumatra.(Aceh & Nias)

2010 was the year the Tsunami hit Macaronis so if they were still living up on the hill i sure they felt they had made a good choice.

There was also the one in 2009 in Padang that would have freaked a lot of people out in the region.

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Supafreak Friday, 30 Jul 2021 at 6:48pm
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sypkan Sunday, 1 Aug 2021 at 3:01pm

canggu

potential bule leper colony...

(is already for some of us)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2021/7/31/could-...

be funny if it came to locking them all in

kinda was like that the last few weeks

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indo-dreaming Saturday, 7 Aug 2021 at 8:06am

Jut saw this, so must be up to date.

BTW. My friends in the Telos got vaccinated during the week, saw photos and had a big open air clinic.

Also saw in Medan vaccine rally/clinic went a bit haywire as people waited hours and hours got impatient and basically thousands barged in and over took the place.

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Supafreak Tuesday, 17 Aug 2021 at 6:30pm
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groundswell Tuesday, 17 Aug 2021 at 6:41pm

Merdeka = freedom, also the name of my mates mansion in Balas beach (supersuck).
Hes over there now been scoring lately with hardly anyone around

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lucky-al Wednesday, 18 Aug 2021 at 9:53pm

Wouldn't mind hanging at Supersuck right now!

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indo-dreaming Thursday, 26 Aug 2021 at 8:19am

Indo Covid update:

Amazing how fast things can change, Indonesia Covid rates have now dropped quite substantially (see graph below), they have had lockdowns etc.

Inlaws in typical Indo fashion are saying there is no Covid in there city now, obviously extremely unlikely but apparently the hospitals are now pretty much empty of Covid patients.

Indo current full vax rate of pop is 12% and at least one jab 21%

Bali is doing pretty good 37% full vax, 72% of pop at least one Jab

They have had large outbreaks in Bali this month now dropping fast, but still these high vax rates provide more chance of Bali opening which is the first step to the whole of Indo opening....not sure how they could/would control movement to anywhere else in Indo though?

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Supafreak Friday, 3 Sep 2021 at 7:08am

18 years later, Bali bomber’s trial begins in Guantánamo bay https://coconuts.co/bali/news/18-years-later-bali-bombers-trial-begins-i...

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indo-dreaming Friday, 3 Sep 2021 at 7:14am
Supafreak wrote:

18 years later, Bali bomber’s trial begins in Guantánamo bay https://coconuts.co/bali/news/18-years-later-bali-bombers-trial-begins-i...

Wow despite the fact the dude should rot in jail, taking 18 years to get a trial is pretty fucked up,.

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indo-dreaming Friday, 3 Sep 2021 at 7:16am

BTW. Just had a look at Covid cases in Indo and that graphs line has continued on the same line down, its now lower than the spike in Jan

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Distracted Friday, 3 Sep 2021 at 8:02am

Why is it that the case numbers drop so dramatically in places like Indo and India if they are not full lockdown? Must be some natural immunity developing?

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indo-dreaming Friday, 3 Sep 2021 at 8:15am
Distracted wrote:

Why is it that the case numbers drop so dramatically in places like Indo and India if they are not full lockdown? Must be some natural immunity developing?

I think you might be correct a study done in March this year already showed 44% of people in Jakarta had Covid antibodies, if this is accurate you can assume that number is now way way higher.

They did have lockdowns though but yeah i dont think real strict like Australia.

Maybe Indonesia will go through waves/spikes and each time people will build up more immunity also helped along by the vaccine.

For instance in Indo my wife's mother and brother got Covid after 1st jab, but still got their second just with a bigger gap, id expect they now would have pretty good immunity which you would expect would only get better as get more exposure to Covid, so perhaps we might not need to get regular booster shots as we will naturally get a kind of booster shot???

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Blowin Friday, 3 Sep 2021 at 9:58am

Why would you bother with the jab after you’ve had Covid?

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indo-dreaming Friday, 3 Sep 2021 at 10:23am
Blowin wrote:

Why would you bother with the jab after you’ve had Covid?

In my wife brothers case who had one jab got covid but didnt get very sick other than a mild flue type thing, yeah i guess he could skip the second shot, but i think he just felt he might as well get it to ensure next time he doesn't even get flue like symptoms.

But in my mother inlays case where she had one shot then got Covid and got real sick to the point she was in hospital and needed help breathing at times, i think it would be silly not to get the second shot and ensure next time when she is exposed to Covid her body is as prepared as possible to fight it and hopefully she gets nothing more than like a mild flue next time.

But i guess they and I are coming from a view point without any fear of the vaccine and view it only as a positive thing.

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Blowin Friday, 3 Sep 2021 at 10:29am

Fair enough. My brother had first AZ yesterday ….fingers crossed he dodges any reaction. Fella has enough on his plate.

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indo-dreaming Thursday, 16 Sep 2021 at 6:55pm

Indo has opened borders back up to certain non tourist visas again, need to be double vaxed, test for Covid, still 8 days quarantine.

Quite a few rumours going around at the moment, take them with a grain of salt.

Supposably Bali is going to open up in a few weeks as should be about 90% full vaccinated by then, claims are you will have to spend 14 days in Bali before going elsewhere.

Was also an article this week claiming Indonesia will open up November, claiming they will hit 70% vax rate by then, total crock of shit, Indo is currently only 17% full vaxed, maybe Nov 2022 might be 70%, but the article says 2021

Heres the article https://kfgo.com/2021/09/14/exclusive-indonesia-aims-to-reopen-to-foreig...

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sypkan Thursday, 16 Sep 2021 at 7:39pm

"Why is it that the case numbers drop so dramatically in places like Indo and India if they are not full lockdown? Must be some natural immunity developing?"

geez it makes you wonder hey...

about a lot of things we do...

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bonza Thursday, 16 Sep 2021 at 7:40pm

Yeah but at what cost?

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Supafreak Thursday, 16 Sep 2021 at 7:50pm
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Supafreak Thursday, 16 Sep 2021 at 7:54pm

Booked my ticket today for late May 2022 Fingers crossed , tickets were reasonably cheap.

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sypkan Thursday, 16 Sep 2021 at 8:18pm

good question bonza...

financial, and otherwise...