Minister proposes national nutrition body

The Jakarta Post, Fri, 11/13/2009 4:02 PM

Coordinating Minister for People’s Welfare Agung Laksono announced Friday a plan to form a state agency to deal with improvement of public nutrition.

Agung said the planned National Nutrition Body would aim to support the acceleration of health development in the country.

“We hope to resolve the nutrition problems people face from the upper to lower income groups,” he told a meeting organized by the Indonesian Nutritionists Association in Surabaya.

He added the nutrition body would resemble the National Narcotics Body in the field of anti-drug campaigning.

“Hopefully, the nutrition body will contribute to the government’s efforts to promote public awareness of nutrition and develop a healthy nation,” Agung said.

Poverty has been blamed for malnutrition cases in some parts of the country.

Commentary: Yoga controversy — being healthy is more important

Primastuti Handayani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 01/30/2009 8:00 AM  

There’s always enthusiasm when you do things for the first time. That included my first experience joining a yoga club three months ago. The reason for giving a nod to a friend’s persuasion to do yoga was because I realized I had to exercise.

Why yoga? Honestly, I’m too lazy to jog along the streets in my housing complex. Join a gym? 

A big no-no for me. Play soccer? I broke my left hand playing soccer when I was a second-grader. Martial arts? Leave that to my husband. Yoga became an alternative, because for sure it does not require me to do all those high-impact exercises à la Jane Fonda.

The first try was not easy at all. Some moves were already familiar for me but there were others that were difficult for a newbie. I tried hard to do all the movements as instructed by my yoga teacher. But after the end of the first session and a sip of bottled tea, I realized that my joints were aching. I could barely walk straight. It had been years since I had moved my body for physical exercise.

That night, I wrote in my Facebook profile, “I just had my first yoga class and… my body felt like a wreck.” A friend of mine responded, “I thought yoga should be invigorating.” Indeed… but it will invigorate later when your body is already used to the different poses that need agility and flexibility. For a 30-something person, whose annual exercise sessions can be counted on one hand, doing yoga was not as easy as I had previously thought.

For me and some other Muslim friends in the club, we do yoga for one purpose: our health. 

Because our work requires us to sit in front of the computer for nearly eight hours a day, sometimes more, our backbones definitely need some workout. We didn’t chant Hindu mantras during our practice sessions. There was a session where we were required to lie down, breathe in a certain way and feel the energy within our body. Most of the time, I fell asleep during this relaxation — even if only for a minute. 

When my enthusiasm with my new activity was high, the news from Kuala Lumpur came like a lightning strike in broad daylight. Late last year, ulema in the neighboring country said they would ban yoga because of the chanting of Hindu mantras that could corrupt Islamic values among Muslims in Malaysia.

Debates quickly popped up on Facebook, mailing lists and other interactive media. A Malaysian fellow journalist snubbed the idea, saying it was “an unnecessary thing to do” and that “Indonesians should not follow suit”.

The issue of the possible ban on yoga died down slightly after the New Year, covered by the celebration of Barack Obama’s inauguration as US president and the bleak forecast for the country’s economy.

Apparently, our ulema did not forget their agenda. Gathering in West Sumatra, they issued some edicts that deemed as haram (sinful): vote abstention, smoking in public places and for children and pregnant women, and doing yoga if there are “aspects that contain Hindu elements” — meaning chanting and meditation.

The issuance of the edicts immediately sparked criticism as they were deemed pointless. The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) had said last year they would visit yoga clubs to see if participants actually performed Hindu mantras. I don’t know if they already did that. The ulema should see how stretching our muscles to obtain flexibility tests our balance — not only our body but also our mind — and gives us better posture after frequent exercises. They must learn how breathing properly helps our respiration process work better.

I have a question about that particular edict, though. How on earth can they measure if one’s Islamic values are already corrupted from doing yoga?

The ulema’s edict on smoking is even more hilarious. Why didn’t they ban smoking at all? Is it because the ulema are all smokers, that they are not ready to give up their habits? I personally think that smoking is more harmful to others — especially for passive smokers in their surroundings.

But another friend told me that there’s always a bright side — even in pointless edicts. “In villages and rural areas, ulema are prominent figures in our country. Maybe the edict on yoga has less impact. But imagine the impact for smokers and the golput (vote abstainers). I believe they will follow the edicts and hopefully we’ll see fewer smokers in public places and higher voter turnout.”

I was amazed by my friend’s thought. I hadn’t thought that far. I believe the edicts — especially the yoga part — will not curb people’s enthusiasm to practice yoga. I believe taking care of our health — that includes measures to prevent illness through exercising — will meet all religious values, which are to respect God’s blessings of our health.

Faith groups help fight AIDS discrimination

The Jakarta Post, Sun, 12/07/2008 5:55 PM  

Interfaith groups staged a rally in Jakarta on Saturday to promote a campaign against religious discrimination of those living with HIV/AIDS, who are often judged as "immoral" people in Indonesia's predominantly Muslim society. 

The Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace (ICRP), which organized the rally at the Hotel Indonesia street circle, lamented the government's sluggish measures to address HIV/AIDS issues and its failure to keep up with the rising number of infections. 

"We support religious teachings that emphasize compassion and assistance to people with HIV/ AIDS, and we oppose any form of discrimination against them. Fight against the virus, not the patient," it said in a statement. 

The ralliers marched through Jl. Thamrin in Central Jakarta and gathered at the Hotel Indonesia street circle to declare the formation of an Interreligious Youth Concerned about HIV/AIDS to observe this year's World AIDS Day that took place on Dec. 1. 

The ICRP said religions still promote discrimination against people living with HIV/ AIDS, as they often suggest that the deadly virus is contracted via immoral behavior. 

"In fact, people infected with HIV are not always those committing actions considered immoral, such as unprotected or casual sex. Some of them contract the virus by other means, such as through blood transfusions. So we cannot just put the blame on them," said ICRP secretary Johannes Hariyanto, who attended the rally. 

"It would be dangerous if religious communities judge the patients as if they were God." 

Noted pluralism campaigner Siti Musdah Mulia, also from the ICRP, said many religious leaders still considered people living with HIV/ AIDS to be "immoral", despite the fact that housewives had contracted the virus from their husbands. 

She denied such a stigma only came from Muslim leaders, although said Islam as a religion posed the strictest opposition to casual sex. 

"We cannot blame them (religious leaders). They hold their views because they lack information about HIV/AIDS," she told The Jakarta Post from Mecca, Saudi Arabia. 

HIV has reportedly infected around 33 million people globally, including two million children under the age of 15. There were an estimated two million HIV-related deaths last year. 

The number of Indonesians with the virus has more than doubled from 120,000 in 2002 to 270,000 this year, according to the Association of Indonesian Physicians Concerned about HIV/ AIDS. 

These figures are much higher than those reported by the Health Ministry, which put the number of cases at 18,000 as of September, with the death rate at 20 percent.

Anti-drug message taken to the streets

Warief Djajanto Basorie, Contributor The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Kapanlagi.com Anti Narkoba (Kapanlagi.com is against drugs) reads a sticker on the dashboard of a yellow angkot (public minibus) in Bandung, 160 kilometers southeast of Jakarta.

Kapanlagi.com (Kapan lagi, if not now, when?) is a website that aims to prevent youth drug abuse.

With support from websites, businesses and civil society groups, Bandung, the capital of West Java, has taken its drug awareness campaign to the streets.

Karaoke clubs in the city's semi-red light district on Jl. Braga also place banners at their entranceways: No drugs. Another banner on the perimeter of the fence of the mayor's office encourages passersby to act against drug abuse and stop the spread of HIV.

There has been a clear connection between the use of injecting drugs -- like heroin -- and HIV/AIDS.

Health Ministry figures up to September 2007 show that 49.5 percent of all AIDS cases in Indonesia are caused by injecting drug use with contaminated needles.

A needle may have been used before or shared within a circle of common users.

Nationally, injecting drug use is now the primary cause of HIV infection, the virus that causes AIDS. Second is unprotected sex among heterosexuals with 42 percent of all cases.

In West Java, 81.2 percent of AIDS cases stem from injecting drug use. This is the highest percentage by province.

Also by province, West Java ranks second in the country after Jakarta in terms of the number of AIDS cases.

Yayasan Masyarakat Sehat (Community Health Foundation, YMS), has a two-story office next to a slaughterhouse on the main road of Banjaran in Bale Endah, an area just outside Bandung's southern limits.

The YMS has an HIV/AIDS prevention program that focuses on behavioral change communication among injecting drug users (IDUs) in the districts of Bandung and Subang.

It has reached out to 450 IDUs in Bandung district and 320 in Subang. The majority of IDUs are in the 20-35 years age group.

"Generally they are not aware of the behavioral hazards of sharing needles," YMS manager Dedi Junaedi Jusuf said.

The YMS, with support from the U.S.-based Family Health International, aims to wean users off their drug habit from two to three injections a day to a full stop in six to seven months. IDUs get free packets of sterile needles to help in the weaning process.

This sterile needles service also concerns harm reduction -- measures taken to address drug problems that are open to outcomes other than cessation of use. Harm reduction is government approved. In a statement last Dec. 7 to mark World AIDS Day, National AIDS Commission chairman Aburizal Bakrie, concurrently the coordinating minister for people's welfare, said Indonesia has 120 sterile needles programs nationwide.

Dedi, 42, however, underscores that sterile needles receivers must adhere to a standard operating procedure. First they must comprehend the YMS' program of behavioral change. Used needles must be handed in for eventual incineration.

"Behavior starts to change after we give information. Counseling, particularly VCT (voluntary counseling and testing of HIV infection) reduces their risk level," Dedi added.

It helps that many of the case managers and the outreach workers YMS employs are former IDUs. Such peer support in weekly meetings strengthens the IDUs' resolve to quit.

Field coordinator Iwan Ahmad Anwari admits relapse is a problem. "Long term users ache to stop. Creative joint activities like designing and printing T-shirts helps to keep their mind off drugs," he continued.

Meanwhile, SMP Negeri 1 Bale Endah -- a local state-run junior high school, a 10-minute drive away -- has introduced drug abuse and HIV/AIDS prevention education. Herdy Luthfiady, 46, the deputy school head, explained the purpose of the awareness activity was to "prevent pupils from falling into it" (into behavior that leads to drug abuse and HIV infection).

Herdy relates a case five years ago when a 13-year-old boy was caught with marijuana in school. His parents pulled him out before the school could expel him. From that incident, the school regularly consults with parents on drug awareness, Herdy said.

Preventive education is also promoted by Gerakan Nasional Anti-Narkotika, (Granat, the National Movement against Narcotics).

Djoni Widjaja Aluwi, 62, the chairman of Granat's West Java chapter, said the primary aim of the community-based organization is prevention. It gives talks on drugs in schools, as well as faith-based and community groups. If you see a negative change in your children's behavior, you should inspect their bedroom for any hidden drugs, Djoni, a practicing lawyer, advises parents.

Drug abuse and AIDS are problems that will not go away soon. The National Narcotics Agency (BNN) estimates Indonesia has four million IDUs. Whatever the number of IDUs, more conscientious former users, more dedicated teachers, more caring parents, and more selfless members of civil society must emerge to curb the drugs scourge.

If not now, when?

Warief Djajanto Basorie is a freelance writer and can be reached at wariefdj@yahoo.com