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Anudha
Mittal
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CURRENT
SITUATIONS
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Indonesia has a negligible film industry. Pirated films are so
easily available on the streets, a film maker wouldn't earn anything by
releasing a movie in the country. However, foreign movies are very
popular in daily life, including American movies. Harry Potter
was sold in the streets in cheap cassettes, with parts of the movie
missing, and disturbances through the part that were there. People
who sell these illicit copies are not interested in making quality.
They make large quantities and at fast speed so they can sell their copies
before the legal version is releases.
Since,
these pirated copies are so popular, legal businesses renting/selling
videos or film makers don't make much money. Thus, there aren't many
of them. Not only does this have a bad economic effect, there's also
a cultural disadvantage. Too much obscenity is found in the black
market and its products. Apparently, the government is not effective
enough to control this. So, according to Vishnu Mahmud, a columnist
in Jakarta Post, people need to
help themselves by not buying pirated copies.
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| Deforestation
is a problem along with sewage, air pollution in urban areas, water
pollution due to industrial waste products, and smoke from forest
fires. Currently, 62% of the land is forests or woods. |
| OPEC
decided on Friday, 28 December, to cut down oil production by 1.5 million
bpd (barrels per day). This cuts down Indonesia's limit 78,000
bpd. The Indonesian has government agreed to this. Also,
Indonesia's Mineral Resource and Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said
that Indonesia has always remained lower than its previous quota,
anyway. The previous quota was 1.203 million bpd, and now it's 1.125
million bpd. |
| About
6 months ago, a minister said that Indonesia's dull economy depends on
foreign companies investment in the country. Now that the world
economy isn't so bright either, Indonesian economy depends on the public
demand for goods and the nation's own businesses. |
| Sipadan
and Ligitan Islands are in controversy with Malaysia. |
| President
Megawati Sukarnoputri is accused of planning to pardon Suharto* for his
crimes. She is also facing opposition for making her husband the
leader of a government delegation going to China. Arbi Sanit, a
lecturer at University of Indonesia, said,
"[her husband] is not a
government official. He should not be acting like one."
*Suharto
is an ex-dictator of Indonesia who lost power in 1998. He ruled for
32 years and is accused of having stolen $583 million from public money
during his reign. |
| There
are more than 250 dialects spoken throughout the nation. The
main language is Bahasa Indonesian. |
| The
country's main exports include bauxite, coal, lumber, coffee,
rubber, and most importantly, petroleum. It is also one of
world's largest suppliers of tin. Mineral resources are very
abundant here. Gas, lumber, nickel, silver, and gold are
mined. |
| Most
families farm and live in small villages. Java and the
surrounding islands are the only ones with good fertile land.
This is because tropical rainforest regions have their nutrition in
their vegetation, not soil. Java and surroundings have
frequent volcanic eruptions that replenish the soil. Thus 60%
of the nation's population lives on Java.
Because most
people live on Java, most of the industry has formed their as
well. Manufacturing plants are mostly on Java; about 25% are
on Sumatra and the other islands have very few.
Clearly, the
nation is very centralized. Forty percent of all the
physicians in the country live in Jakarta, the capital, a city on
Java. |
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