Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Indonesia-environment-turtles,FEATURE
Hawksbill turtles fight losing pollution battle in Indonesia
by Nabiha Shahab
=(GRAPHIC+PICTURE)=
PRAMUKA ISLAND, Indonesia, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - On an island just a stone's throw from Jakarta, turtle conservationist Salim starts his day by scrubbing moss from the carapaces of his tiny charges.
Here they are safe, but soon they will fight for their lives in the increasingly polluted ocean lapping nearby.
"Not even my family can be bothered to do this," he sighs as he puts another squirming reptile back into its blue plastic tub, where it will stay until it is deemed strong enough to be set free.
For two decades, Salim has been working to protect the critically endangered hawksbill turtles found around the Thousand Islands, an archipelago of white-beached isles scattered 45 kilometres (29 miles) north of Jakarta.
The wiry, moustachioed 57-year-old has seen the waters surrounding the islands slowly become more poisoned as run-off from the teeming Indonesian capital, home to 12 million people, expands ever further from Java's shores.
A large portion of the Thousand Islands, or Kepulauan Seribu, was declared a national park in 1986 so in theory the flora and fauna here is protected. But in practice, nothing can stop the invasion of the muck.
A 2005 Indonesian study declared Jakarta Bay, which abuts the park, a "dying ecosystem". Organic and heavy metals are well above safe limits, though the most recent tests officials provide are dated from 1995. These found dangerous PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) at a level of 1,320 parts per billion -- well above the safe limit then of 0.03 parts per billion.
The hawksbill, one of the world's seven marine turtle species -- six of which are found in Indonesia -- used to be so prevalent here it was named the official mascot of the islands.
National park head Sumarto says that 20 years ago, the turtles laid eggs on almost all of the islands here. Divers spotted turtles four out of every five forays underwater.
By the 1990s, they were found on only 13 of the 110 islands. While the turtles should instinctively return to where they were born, they are repelled by the pollution and forced to seek out different places to nest.
Today eggs are laid on just three to five of the northernmost islands -- the ones furthest away from Jakarta's pollution.
"Now you would be very lucky if you were to meet them during a dive at all," says Sumarto.
The turtles lay a total of around 14,000 eggs a year here, though only about one in 1,000 makes it to adulthood, the average for all marine turtles.
-- 'We had never found anything like this before' --
The government estimates that about 40 percent of Jakartans dump their domestic garbage directly into the rivers that criss-cross the megacity. The refuse ends up in Jakarta Bay and oozes towards the islands.
Besides polluting the waters, the debris itself poses a direct threat. Some turtles mistake plastic bags for jelly fish and try to eat them, or get entangled in them and eventually starve to death.
On top of this, for the past three years oil slicks from an exploration area north of the islands have repeatedly washed back around the turtles' nesting grounds.
Salim, who was one of the national park's earlier employees and has won an environment award from the president for his work, points out one turtle with a carapace so deformed that it is convex rather than the normal concave.
"We found three young turtles like this, but only this one survived. We had never found anything like this before," he says. That was 1993, when alarm bells were starting to ring. But things have only got worse.
Humans have been direct predators of the turtles too -- hunting the eggs to eat, and selling their attractive shells as souvenirs, says the park's Sumarto.
This is why the local population -- some 21,000 people living on six islands in the park -- are included in conservation programmes here, he says. But experts are not upbeat about the prospect of turtles lasting much longer so close to Jakarta.
"The programme is fine for education but it cannot be successful," says Ismu Sutanto Suwelo, a turtle specialist with the Indonesian Wildlife Fund, a local environmental group.
"It is too close to (human) populations and from the north there are threats from oil exploration and ship waste dumping," he said, adding however that the animals would likely find other places to nest in the archipelago nation.
One of Indonesia's most experienced divers, Cipto Aji Gunawan, has visited the islands here repeatedly over the past three decades. He too dismisses efforts now as too little in the face of the onslaught of filth from Jakarta.
"Unless Jakarta gets it act together and starts managing its waste responsibly, there will be no hope for Kepulauan Seribu," he tells AFP.
nsh/sb/lod
Hawksbill turtles fight losing pollution battle in Indonesia
by Nabiha Shahab
=(GRAPHIC+PICTURE)=
PRAMUKA ISLAND, Indonesia, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - On an island just a stone's throw from Jakarta, turtle conservationist Salim starts his day by scrubbing moss from the carapaces of his tiny charges.
Here they are safe, but soon they will fight for their lives in the increasingly polluted ocean lapping nearby.
"Not even my family can be bothered to do this," he sighs as he puts another squirming reptile back into its blue plastic tub, where it will stay until it is deemed strong enough to be set free.
For two decades, Salim has been working to protect the critically endangered hawksbill turtles found around the Thousand Islands, an archipelago of white-beached isles scattered 45 kilometres (29 miles) north of Jakarta.
The wiry, moustachioed 57-year-old has seen the waters surrounding the islands slowly become more poisoned as run-off from the teeming Indonesian capital, home to 12 million people, expands ever further from Java's shores.
A large portion of the Thousand Islands, or Kepulauan Seribu, was declared a national park in 1986 so in theory the flora and fauna here is protected. But in practice, nothing can stop the invasion of the muck.
A 2005 Indonesian study declared Jakarta Bay, which abuts the park, a "dying ecosystem". Organic and heavy metals are well above safe limits, though the most recent tests officials provide are dated from 1995. These found dangerous PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) at a level of 1,320 parts per billion -- well above the safe limit then of 0.03 parts per billion.
The hawksbill, one of the world's seven marine turtle species -- six of which are found in Indonesia -- used to be so prevalent here it was named the official mascot of the islands.
National park head Sumarto says that 20 years ago, the turtles laid eggs on almost all of the islands here. Divers spotted turtles four out of every five forays underwater.
By the 1990s, they were found on only 13 of the 110 islands. While the turtles should instinctively return to where they were born, they are repelled by the pollution and forced to seek out different places to nest.
Today eggs are laid on just three to five of the northernmost islands -- the ones furthest away from Jakarta's pollution.
"Now you would be very lucky if you were to meet them during a dive at all," says Sumarto.
The turtles lay a total of around 14,000 eggs a year here, though only about one in 1,000 makes it to adulthood, the average for all marine turtles.
-- 'We had never found anything like this before' --
The government estimates that about 40 percent of Jakartans dump their domestic garbage directly into the rivers that criss-cross the megacity. The refuse ends up in Jakarta Bay and oozes towards the islands.
Besides polluting the waters, the debris itself poses a direct threat. Some turtles mistake plastic bags for jelly fish and try to eat them, or get entangled in them and eventually starve to death.
On top of this, for the past three years oil slicks from an exploration area north of the islands have repeatedly washed back around the turtles' nesting grounds.
Salim, who was one of the national park's earlier employees and has won an environment award from the president for his work, points out one turtle with a carapace so deformed that it is convex rather than the normal concave.
"We found three young turtles like this, but only this one survived. We had never found anything like this before," he says. That was 1993, when alarm bells were starting to ring. But things have only got worse.
Humans have been direct predators of the turtles too -- hunting the eggs to eat, and selling their attractive shells as souvenirs, says the park's Sumarto.
This is why the local population -- some 21,000 people living on six islands in the park -- are included in conservation programmes here, he says. But experts are not upbeat about the prospect of turtles lasting much longer so close to Jakarta.
"The programme is fine for education but it cannot be successful," says Ismu Sutanto Suwelo, a turtle specialist with the Indonesian Wildlife Fund, a local environmental group.
"It is too close to (human) populations and from the north there are threats from oil exploration and ship waste dumping," he said, adding however that the animals would likely find other places to nest in the archipelago nation.
One of Indonesia's most experienced divers, Cipto Aji Gunawan, has visited the islands here repeatedly over the past three decades. He too dismisses efforts now as too little in the face of the onslaught of filth from Jakarta.
"Unless Jakarta gets it act together and starts managing its waste responsibly, there will be no hope for Kepulauan Seribu," he tells AFP.
nsh/sb/lod
Lifestyle-Indonesia-books-comic,FEATURE
Islamic superheroes invade Indonesia
by Nabiha Shahab
=(PICTURE)=
JAKARTA, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - An apparent explosion has levelled high-rise buildings in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, triggering a security alert. It's the work of an Islamic superhero, a giant, confused teenager who sneezed.
Jabbar the Powerful, the alter-ego of teenager Nawaf Al-Bilali, is the first of 99 superhero characters in an Islamic culture-based comic book series called "The 99" just launched in Indonesia.
The comic seeks to act as a metaphor for what's happening in the Islamic world, its creator, Kuwaiti-born Naif Al-Mutawa, told AFP during a recent visit to Jakarta to launch the colourful, action-packed comic.
"Islam or the Koran can be used for good or for bad," Al-Mutawa said, adding that when either are misused, people blame the Koran, "when in fact they should be blaming the person interpreting the Koran".
Each of the superheroes personifies one of the 99 attributes of God in Islam, with their individual powers derived from mystical gemstones originating from 13th-century Baghdad, and infused with lost ancient knowledge.
Jabbar, for instance, has extraordinary strength that gives him "near-invulnerability and durability". Indonesia's own character, Fatah the Opener, can create a portal dimension used to travel anywhere on Earth.
The main struggle in the story happens between two characters representing the classic good-evil dichotomy, with each competing for the allegiance of "The 99". Even the superheroes themselves are sometimes deceived into crossing to the side of evil, Al-Mutawa explained.
But while the comic is based on Islamic archetypes and culture, there's nothing overtly Islamic in them, he said.
"They are as religious as Spiderman," Al-Mutawa quipped. "There's no mention of prayers or prophets, none of that."
The characters, who work in threes, do not carry weapons and are evenly split between males and females.
In a bid to represent Islam's spread around the world, characters frequently hail from two nations, which also helps to "make sense of the Islamic diaspora".
"For example, Bari is from Sudan but grew up in France, Hadya is from Pakistan but grew up in the UK," he said.
Al-Mutawa worked as a clinical psychologist for more than a decade before he started his own media company. He had treated former prisoners of war in Kuwait and worked with survivors of political torture in New York.
"The Iraqis that I treated were tortured by Saddam or his people. These are people who grew up with Saddam as their hero and yet they were tortured by (his people)," he said.
"What kind of message are we sending our children? Is this what heroes do?"
This disillusionment drove him to write several successful children's books and then to create and co-write "The 99," with former Marvel and DC comic artists helping out, hoping to fill a gap in the global market.
The comic, co-written with Fabian Nicieza, who has worked on hit Marvel titles such as X-Men, is now published across the Middle East in Arabic.
"'The 99' is selling as well in Kuwait and the Emirates as Spiderman is. I know because I sell Spiderman," he said.
The comic will debut in the United States in October, followed by Malaysia next year, while Al-Mutawa is in talks with publishers in Turkey and France.
Yudha Kartohadiprodjo, general manager of "The 99's" Indonesian license holder Femina Group, said he believed the comics would find a receptive audience in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
"In the market today there are no contemporary comics based on Islamic values," he said. "The creator understands Islamic history, and that's important for this Islamic-based story."
Indonesian Muslims can be sensitive when it comes to religious-based stories, with any criticism from Islamic groups potentially risking a nationwide boycott.
A poem recently published in a newspaper in West Java, for instance, sparked outrage from a local religious group for its "un-Islamic" depiction of angels, forcing the writer and the newspaper to print a public apology.
Kartohadiprodjo said he was confident in Al-Mutawa's Islamic credentials.
The 68-page, full-colour first issue of "The 99" had a print run of 25,000 copies and is selling at bookstores for 18,000 rupiah (two dollars). A few national newspapers are considering printing extracts, Kartohadiprodjo said.
And of course, merchandising is to follow soon, with the Islamic superheroes preparing to infiltrate homes via notebooks, T-shirts and mobile phone paraphernalia.
nsh/sb/lod
Islamic superheroes invade Indonesia
by Nabiha Shahab
=(PICTURE)=
JAKARTA, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - An apparent explosion has levelled high-rise buildings in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, triggering a security alert. It's the work of an Islamic superhero, a giant, confused teenager who sneezed.
Jabbar the Powerful, the alter-ego of teenager Nawaf Al-Bilali, is the first of 99 superhero characters in an Islamic culture-based comic book series called "The 99" just launched in Indonesia.
The comic seeks to act as a metaphor for what's happening in the Islamic world, its creator, Kuwaiti-born Naif Al-Mutawa, told AFP during a recent visit to Jakarta to launch the colourful, action-packed comic.
"Islam or the Koran can be used for good or for bad," Al-Mutawa said, adding that when either are misused, people blame the Koran, "when in fact they should be blaming the person interpreting the Koran".
Each of the superheroes personifies one of the 99 attributes of God in Islam, with their individual powers derived from mystical gemstones originating from 13th-century Baghdad, and infused with lost ancient knowledge.
Jabbar, for instance, has extraordinary strength that gives him "near-invulnerability and durability". Indonesia's own character, Fatah the Opener, can create a portal dimension used to travel anywhere on Earth.
The main struggle in the story happens between two characters representing the classic good-evil dichotomy, with each competing for the allegiance of "The 99". Even the superheroes themselves are sometimes deceived into crossing to the side of evil, Al-Mutawa explained.
But while the comic is based on Islamic archetypes and culture, there's nothing overtly Islamic in them, he said.
"They are as religious as Spiderman," Al-Mutawa quipped. "There's no mention of prayers or prophets, none of that."
The characters, who work in threes, do not carry weapons and are evenly split between males and females.
In a bid to represent Islam's spread around the world, characters frequently hail from two nations, which also helps to "make sense of the Islamic diaspora".
"For example, Bari is from Sudan but grew up in France, Hadya is from Pakistan but grew up in the UK," he said.
Al-Mutawa worked as a clinical psychologist for more than a decade before he started his own media company. He had treated former prisoners of war in Kuwait and worked with survivors of political torture in New York.
"The Iraqis that I treated were tortured by Saddam or his people. These are people who grew up with Saddam as their hero and yet they were tortured by (his people)," he said.
"What kind of message are we sending our children? Is this what heroes do?"
This disillusionment drove him to write several successful children's books and then to create and co-write "The 99," with former Marvel and DC comic artists helping out, hoping to fill a gap in the global market.
The comic, co-written with Fabian Nicieza, who has worked on hit Marvel titles such as X-Men, is now published across the Middle East in Arabic.
"'The 99' is selling as well in Kuwait and the Emirates as Spiderman is. I know because I sell Spiderman," he said.
The comic will debut in the United States in October, followed by Malaysia next year, while Al-Mutawa is in talks with publishers in Turkey and France.
Yudha Kartohadiprodjo, general manager of "The 99's" Indonesian license holder Femina Group, said he believed the comics would find a receptive audience in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
"In the market today there are no contemporary comics based on Islamic values," he said. "The creator understands Islamic history, and that's important for this Islamic-based story."
Indonesian Muslims can be sensitive when it comes to religious-based stories, with any criticism from Islamic groups potentially risking a nationwide boycott.
A poem recently published in a newspaper in West Java, for instance, sparked outrage from a local religious group for its "un-Islamic" depiction of angels, forcing the writer and the newspaper to print a public apology.
Kartohadiprodjo said he was confident in Al-Mutawa's Islamic credentials.
The 68-page, full-colour first issue of "The 99" had a print run of 25,000 copies and is selling at bookstores for 18,000 rupiah (two dollars). A few national newspapers are considering printing extracts, Kartohadiprodjo said.
And of course, merchandising is to follow soon, with the Islamic superheroes preparing to infiltrate homes via notebooks, T-shirts and mobile phone paraphernalia.
nsh/sb/lod
