The head of the hard-line group Islamic Reform Movement (Garis) Chep Hermawan made a revelatory statement last week. He claimed that he’s the financiers behind Indonesians joining the State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The Indonesian National Police (POLRI), however, believe that Chep was lying and that he had simply sought to create a media sensation. POLRI said that they had investigated Chep and found no proof supporting his claim. [Continue reading]
Month: March 2015
Indonesian Football Fans vs the Fans of One Direction
Newsroomt seems there is no way that Indonesian netizens can pass a week without having a controversial trending topic on Twitter. This week, fans of a boy band and the football enthusiasts suddenly end up mocking one another, on Ttwitter, over the usage of Gelora Bung Karno football stadium. It’s a choice between under-23 football match and a concert by the English-Irish boy band One Direction. [Continue reading]
The New Visa-Free List
NewsroomThe Government of Indonesia is planning to add 30 countries into the list of visa-free countries. Citizens whose country is in Indonesia’s visa-free list would be granted entry for 30 days without the need of an immigration visa. The Government hopes to attract 10 million foreign visitors by 2015 and 20 million foreign visitors by 2019 with this new immigration policy. [Continue reading]
Indonesian Akik Fever
NewsroomThere’s today a newfound excitement over akik stones in Indonesia. In general akiks are stone of the agate variety. Most of them are so cheap and readily available they’re sold by many street vendors over the years. But not all akiks are equal, with some considered as gemstones—stones with rare mineral qualities—and others invaluable because of their perceived mystical qualities. [Continue reading]
Environmental Group Filed A Pretrial Request Against West Java Police
NewsroomThe West Java branch of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and the Bandung Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Bandung) filed a pretrial request against the West Java Police at the Bandung District Court on Friday (March 13). The pretrial request addresses the termination of investigation onto the galena illegal mining practice in Bogor reserved forest area. [Continue reading]
Fitness Center Business, Part II: Celebrity Fitness & Jatomi
NewsroomIn relation to the growth of healthy lifestyle trend in Jakarta, we dove into the business of fitness centers and talked briefly about two, well-known fitness centers in Indonesia, namely, the American brand Gold’s Gym and the United Kingdom brand Fitness First. Today, we are going to review two more international fitness center chains, and they are, the Poland based Pure Jatomi Fitness and the Indonesia based Celebrity Fitness. [Continue reading]
Indonesians Arrested in Turkey
NewsroomMore surprising news came from Turkey. Turkish authorities reportedly arrested 16 Indonesian citizens in the city of Gaziantep while the latter were trying to cross the border between Turkey and Syria. According to the jawapos.com, the Turkish authorities communicated this matter after the disappearance of 16 Indonesian citizens at the Ataturk International airport earlier this month. [Continue reading]
Customers of Fitness Centers
NewsroomMaintaining one’s well-being have increasingly grown to become the priority of urban dwellers. Executives are signing up for gym memberships so they can exercise before or after work. Some even do so to pass the rush hour. We spoke to some members of Jakarta’s fitness centers to understand this developing urban lifestyle. [Continue reading]
Fitness Center Business
NewsroomBusinesses are being built around the healthy lifestyle. There are new organic food and beverage shops/restaurants, yoga centers, fitness events, and fitness centers. Fitness centers are nothing novel. But more and more of them are popping up at shopping centers in big cities in Indonesia. Most of them are part of national or international fitness center chains.This phenomenon picked our interest. Some of the well-known fitness center brands in Indonesia Gold’s Gym, Fitness First, Jatomi Fitness and also Celebrity Fitness. Today’s we’ll look into the first two. [Continue reading]
Thanks To Haji Lulung
NewsroomThe 2015 Jakarta city budget dispute between Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama and the Jakarta city councilors have captivated Indonesian netizens for the past few weeks. Topics such as racial slurs made against the Governor, and the mysterious appropriation for the procurement of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) flooded online discussion forums. But the one topic that went viral and dominated the Indonesian social media universe had to do with the controversial United Development Party politician Abraham “Lulung” Lunggana in the conflict. [Continue reading]
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