2) Remote ‘paradise’ island covered in rubbish washed up from overseas
3) Freeport to Start Talks With 15 Banks to Finance Unprofitable, but Politically
4) Regional heads in Papua asked not to misuse authority for gratification
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1) Catholic hospital raises medical standards in Papua
Despite problems affecting health care in this Indonesian province, Dian Harapan Hospital sets a path for others to follow
Nurses tend to patients at Catholic-run Dian Harapan Hospital in Jayapura. (Photo by Veni Mahuze/ucanews.com
Veni Mahuze, Jayapura Indonesia May 28, 2019
A shortage of health facilities and professional health workers remains a long-standing problem in Indonesia’s Papua province despite the increasing clamor for better and more affordable services.
Amid the shortfall, church-run hospitals and clinics — such as Dian Harapan Hospital in Jayapura — have become vital for many Papuans who would otherwise slip through gaping holes in the region’s health care net.
State-run institutions have often been criticized for pandering to those with money and neglecting those without in a region where long journeys just to reach an inadequate hospital result in the deaths of many patients.
Building on a clinic originally run by Catholics, including Dutch Franciscan missionary Jan van der Horst and the German bishops’ development agency Misereor, Dian Harapan Hospital was founded by Jayapura Diocese 24 years ago.
Since then it has established a reputation for responding to the needs of the poor, particularly those living in remote areas.
From an initial 52 beds, it now has 150 and it became a referral hospital for several districts in Papua, especially Lanny Jaya, an isolated area in the central mountainous region of Papua.
Riwan Wenda, 18, who comes from Lanny Jaya district, says he was admitted to the hospital on April 29 and remained there for almost three weeks after being diagnosed with water on his brain.
He said that despite not being able to pay for his treatment, he was treated well by staff who demonstrated a genuine desire to ensure he made a full recovery. "Meals and medicines were as regular as clockwork. I was made to feel very comfortable,” he told ucanews.com.
Ekira Weya, also from Lanny Jaya, said she received good treatment for a serious bowel condition at the hospital after surviving a long journey to get there. She had to travel three hours overland before a one-hour flight to Jayapura. “Fortunately, I received good treatment here.”
Wenda and Weya consider themselves among the lucky ones.
The scarcity of health facilities and the poor quality of care where there are facilities discourages people from have their health monitored, and even ordinary diseases such as diarrhea and minor respiratory problems can be fatal.
However, Dian Harapan Hospital has looked to buck that trend and has earned the backing of local officials who put the hospital at the top of the list when people need urgent care.
Tiffany Kawengian, a Lanny Jaya district official, said patients with serious problems are sent straight to Dian Harapan Hospital.
“We have cooperated with the hospital since last year because it has decent facilities and shows real dedication to patients,” she said. “The costs are shouldered by the local government. The patients are treated well and return home healthy.”
Every day more than 50 people are treated in Dian Harapan Hospital’s ophthalmology department in Jayapura. (Photo by Veni Mahuze/ucanews.com)
Hospital director Dr. Ance M. Situmorang said that for over two decades the hospital has remained faithful to the Church’s mission to serve the poor.
“Our first priority is to help these people, but it does not mean we reject the affluent,” she said, adding that Dian Harapan is very much a community hospital.
She said its ability to provide more effective services has been enhanced by government health insurance schemes for citizens that reimburse treatment costs.
Situmorang said at least 200 patients are treated daily at the hospital, rich or poor, and plans are afoot to upgrade its facilities.
"We are well on the way to replacing outdated facilities, such as adding state-of-the-art radiology equipment,” she said.
It is also seeking to expand its ophthalmology department.
According to Situmorang, improvements in facilities have not only resulted in better treatments but also made diagnosing problems easier.
More specialized services such as treating head and neck ailments have led to more and more Papuans being diagnosed with such problems, she said.
Papuan Health Department chief Dr. Aloysius Giyai said the provincial government is trying to help Papuans by giving subsidies to hospitals, including those managed by the Church.
This effort has been inspired to a certain degree by the way Dian Harapan Hospital has gone about trying to serve communities, especially the poorest ones, he said. “It has played a significant role in helping Papuans, and the government has paid attention to it.”
Jayapura mayor Benhur Tomi Mano said the city is grateful to the Church for building a hospital that has offered such an outstanding service to people.
The provincial capital has 13 hospitals, but when people have serious health problems they are referred to Dian Harapan, he said.
Social mission
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(A large number of photos in article)
2) Remote ‘paradise’ island covered in rubbish washed up from overseas
Jen Mills Monday 27 May 2019 4:07 pm
Plastic marine garbage dumped on the beach in one day in Manyaifun (Picture: SWNS)
Raja Ampat is billed as a ‘secret paradise’ in travel magazines – an untouched archipelago in Indonesia’s north Papua, where you can find some of the most beautiful beaches on the planet. Its residents don’t create a lot of waste themselves, and the islands should be pristine. That’s not what conservationist Duncan Murrell, 65, found when he ventured there. The British photographer kayaked around Raja Ampa on a month-long trip, and was upset to find that one of the beaches there was struggling with plastic rubbish – washed up from the rest of the world. When he arrived at Manyaifun on Batang Pele, it had been crystal clear and free of litter, but the next morning it was choked with plastic, carried overnight from cities in Vietnam, the Philippines and beyond. He watched in horror as locals scooped up a dozen wheelbarrow’s full of rubbish from the tiny beach – a process he discovered they repeat after every windy night.
With no ways to recycle the man-made rubbish, they have no choice but to dump it in the island’s mangrove forest – now full of rubbish created hundreds of miles away. Duncan – known as The Whale Man for his famous photos and conservation work – said: ‘I woke up in the morning and it was, “Oh my god it’s crazy”. It blew me away. ‘The adults just shrugged their shoulders. It was clearly a familiar sight. ‘And it was just one day of rubbish – and it’s not even the windy season. ‘I kept thinking about how much work they have to do to clean the beach every time it happens. it must wear them down. ‘It’s coming from outside. It’s nothing to do with them. And it’s getting dumped on to their beach all the time.’
‘It’s heartbreaking. ‘I was really upset. I felt really emotional. It’s part of the coral triangle. ‘These places are being killed. These places are being left to die. Duncan, from Torbay, Devon, added: ‘I was staggered by how much plastic marine garbage was dumped on the beautiful beach there in 24 hours.
‘You think you are going to some remote location, to camp in some idyllic paradise, but you wake up to find plastic crap everywhere. ‘What was really interesting to see was how the adults were cleaning up the mess, and the kids were just loving it. ‘The kids were rummaging through and finding little things to collect and play with.’ ‘It’s everywhere. The mangroves were just choked with plastic bottles. ‘They took away a good ten whole full wheelbarrow fulls of garbage. And that’s just one day.’
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3) Freeport to Start Talks With 15 Banks to Finance Unprofitable, but Politically
Important New Smelter
BY : DION BISARA
MAY 28, 2019
Jakarta. Freeport Indonesia, the country's largest gold and copper mining company, will start discussions after Idul Fitri next month with 15 local and foreign banks interested in financing its $2.8 billion unprofitable smelter project, senior executives said.
Freeport has an obligation to build the smelter as part of its deal with the government to extend its permit for the Grasberg mine in Papua until 2041.
"To be honest, I would rather build a 1,000-megawatt power plant in Papua than build the smelter," Freeport Indonesia president director Tony Wenas said late on Monday.
"Whichever way we make it, it would be best if we can get zero [percent] as the smelter's IRR," Tony said, referring to the internal rate of return, an estimation of the profitability of an investment.
Orias Moedak, Freeport Indonesia's vice president director, said the company would talk with banks from Japan, France, Britain, the United States and several local state-owned banks to discuss the financing scheme.
"Because the project itself is unprofitable, we would likely have to opt for corporate financing instead of project financing," Orias said.
That means loan repayments would come from Freeport's operations, which would reduce the dividends paid out to shareholders, instead of being contained within the project.
Still, the smelter project is far from disastrous for Freeport Indonesia, Orias said. "It only means that our future income would be reduced by the $2.8 billion [we will put into the smelter]," he said.
The company is now burning through cash as it needs billions of dollars in investment to shift its operations from open-pit to fully underground. Freeport Indonesia expects its interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to dip to $1.3 billion this year due to the shift, before returning to its usual level of around $4 billion by 2022.
The company estimates that the government, which now owns 51 percent of Freeport Indonesia, still stands to pocket about $40 billion over the next 21 years from dividends taxes and royalties.
Not Economics, It's Political
Indonesia passed a law in 2009 that requires all mining resources to be processed in the country before export. This later became a highly contested point in the Freeport contract extension.
Tony said the smelter only adds 5 percent value to Freeport Indonesia's copper concentrate before export, and that many smelters abroad can do it at a much lower cost. Illustrating his point, Tony said Freeport Indonesia's existing copper smelter arm, known as Smelting, which processes about 1 million tons of concentrate per year in Gresik, East Java, has only paid a dividend once since starting operations in 1997.
But since the company had agreed to the government's terms on building a smelter, Orias and Tony both acknowledged that the project was no longer about the economics.
"This smelter is not a profitable project, but it has become our commitment and obligation under the law. Until now, we have spent $122 million on smelters, so there is no reason to step back," Tony said, adding that it also politically important for Indonesia to see the realization of the smelter.
Freeport Indonesia commissioned Japan's Chiyoda Corporation to construct the smelter. The company has so used some of the money to acquire and prepare 100 hectares of land in the JIIPE industrial complex in Gresik.
The new smelter will process 2 million tons of concentrate per year, Tony said. It will produce copper cathode and several byproducts, including sulfuric acid for fertilizers.
The company has set a target for the new smelter to be operational by 2023 – just in time for its underground mining activities to hit full throttle.
The smelter will require 2,000 workers during the construction phase, but only 500 once it is operational.
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4) Regional heads in Papua asked not to misuse authority for gratification
Jayapura, Jubi – Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) asked the regional heads in Papua to not misuse their positions for their benefits.
The Coordinator of KPK Regional VIII Adlinsyah Malik Nasution said people are encouraged to report to KPK if they know a regional head commits it. “I got information about a regional head misuses his authority, but his regional secretary denied it. So what did exactly his regional secretary do? So, to whom did it, I warn him to get ready,” said Adliansyah during the coordination and evaluation meeting on the integration corruption eradication program attended by regents, mayor, regional secretary and department heads of Papua Provincial Government in Jayapura on Tuesday 21/5/2019).
Moreover, he gave an example of the corruption case by the regents of Nganjuk, Cirebon and Klaten. They were proven to misuse their potions and accept gratification. “They can get 60 billion rupiahs in one turn. Their collectors could be their children, relatives, in-laws and others. So please do not do it,” he said.
According to him, the ‘position bargaining’ is only a term, whether you take gratification in advance or later on, it still accounts as gratification. “So no matter if you are asking for or not, once you take it, it still means gratification. So, I ask the government to take this as a reference,” he said.
In this occasion, Adlinsyah also asked the provincial, regional and municipal governments to immediately respond to the Joint Decree (SKB) of three ministers regarding the dismissal of civil servants who proved to be corrupt.
Moreover, he said until now only 12 regencies have responded by reporting the cases, namely Keerom (9), Paniai (4), Mappi (2), Intan Jaya (0) or there is possibly no civil servants involved, Jayawijaya (1), Supiori (10) , Boven Digoel (4), Waropen (14), Sarmi (4), Nabire (6), Biak Numfor (17), and Yapen Islands (3).
“I saw that Biak Regency had the most corruption case. So, I ask the provincial, regional and municipal to respond this SKB immediately,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Governor of Papua Klemen Tinal said the provincial government had been very responsive and fully supported the implementation of the action plan for the corruption eradication program that is reflected from a number of actions that have been implemented, including the launch of e-Government policies with the integration of e-planning, e-budgeting, e-samsat, e-licensing and e-taxation systems.
“These actions aim to minimize the potential corruption, and the more important is it will give an impact on the better governance,” said Tinal. For this reason, he invited every regional head in Papua to commit and consistently implement the corruption eradication program which designed to build a good, clean, transparent and accountable governance. (*)
Reporter: Alexander Loen
Editor: Pipit Maizer
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