Another crap postI have been promoting the
National Clean Toilets Movement for nigh on three years.
Most of us when out and about have to get to a shopping mall, bus terminal or hotel
* in order to spend a penny, or Rp.500+, and the experience is variable. So it's good to know that the government is taking some interest in our movements, albeit minimal and on behalf of the 7.5 million tourists expected this year.
The country's airports have been surveyed for the Cleanest Toilets Award 2007 ~ someone's got to do it ~ and Bali's Ngurah Rai is the winner. Three days ago, the 'coveted' award was handed over at the Department of Tourism office in Jakarta by the minister, Jero Wacik.
(Why this presentation couldn't have waited a day or so is another question. Pak Wacik has been in Bali for two major events - the international
PATA Travel Mart which finished two days ago and the
Ubud Writers & Readers Festival which finishes today.)
Out of the eleven airports surveyed, the busiest, Soekarno-Hatta here in Jakarta, came fourth and the soon-to-be-replaced Polonia airport in Medan came eleventh and last.
El-Tari airport in Kupang, NTT, was also surveyed and won a special encouragement award because it had made great efforts towards cleanliness despite not having easy access to running water.I'm not sure what the criteria for cleanliness were. Obviously running water is one factor. Hopefully hand washing and drying also featured because as most guys know, there is a knack to knowing when enough water has been shaken off before using ones trousers as towels. And as for choosing airports when the majority of the population doesn't fly is another Indonesian
non sequiter. After all, air passengers have further opportunities to ‘go’ whilst they’re going somewhere aloft.
Still, it's a start, and if you're not pissed off with this topic, you can read more about it
here, with the bonus of several comments.
*Or river.Foot-ball-
noteAt the start of the English football (EPL) season
I bemoaned the fact that TV coverage had been hijacked by a Malaysian media conglomerate, Astro TV, which had/has just 100,000 subscribers (in a country with a population of c.230 million).
Bear in mind that I became a subscriber to Indovision, a satellite broadcaster, mainly so I could enjoy the sublime skills of some of the greatest footballers currently kicking the round ball around. (Obviously I'm not referring to the range of egg-shaped ball kicking thugs.)
So, imagine my joy this week on discovering that a local terrestial TV, LaTV, have negotiated with ESPN/Star, the holders of the EPL broadcasting rights for the region, and, in a sealed bid, bought broadcasting rights for this season and the next two.
LaTV is
now reportedly owned by ANTV which is partly owned by Rupert Murdoch - coincidentally (really?) owner of ESPN/Star - and controlled by the Bakrie family (Lapindo/Sidoarjo mudflow anyone?)
LaTV was formerly owned by by Abdul Latief, former minister of Manpower and latterly Tourism under Soeharto. Latief introduced the monthly 'development tax' of $100 per month on expatriate workers who are sponsored for a work permit. That the accrued funds, payable upfront for a year ahead have yet to be publicly accounted for is immaterial. That the funds are supposedly intended to help the 'transfer of technology' and for training purposes yet are still levied on trainers and teachers is also immaterial.
I only make these points to let you know that not that much has changed since the KKKN (
Korrupsi, Kollusi, Kronyisme, Nepotisme) days of Suharto.
And my point in this post is that of all the Indonesian terrestrial TV channels that my Indonesian satellite TV channel provider provides, LaTV is seemingly the only one they don't !!
How typical and ho-bloody-hum indeed.
Whatever, apparently
the match wasn't worth watching anyway as
Chelsea were crap. But Charlton remain in an
automatic promotion spot.
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