RI is "environmental superpower": US envoy

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - In observance of Earth Day, US Ambassador to Indonesia Cameron R. Hume has written an article titled "Indonesia: Environmental Superpower". Following is his article sent to ANTARA on Tuesday:

Anyone who happened to go by the U.S. Embassy over the past few days might have noticed changes. On Saturday, a group of Indonesian children helped put the finishing touches on seven different murals depicting some of the flora and fauna of Indonesia. I am proud to have their paintings displayed outside the Embassy, and glad to see that they are thinking of the environment at a young age. Today is Earth Day, and it is important to take stock of what we are doing to protect these children`s future environment.

Indonesia was a fitting host for the recent UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, in part because its rich biodiversity and natural resources are unsurpassed. Indonesia possesses the highest marine biodiversity on the planet, and one of the largest and most biodiverse tropical forests in the world.

Indonesia is an environmental "superpower," and a natural leader in global efforts to protect the environment. Yet the country faces tremendous challenges to ensure that the next generation will inherit these vast environmental riches. Indonesia is the world`s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, due mainly to large-scale deforestation. Illegal logging is widespread. Energy needs and emissions from power generation and transportation are rising fast. The destruction of coral reefs, overfishing, and other unsustainable practices threaten the livelihoods and welfare of tens of millions of Indonesians who depend on the ocean`s resources, as well as irreparable damage to Indonesia`s unique ecosystems.

Indonesia is taking steps to face these challenges. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Government of Indonesia are cracking down on illegal logging and taking action to improve forest governance. They are in the process of implementing a new timber legality standard that will constrict trade in illegally harvested timber.

They have launched a National Climate Change Action Plan and a National Action Plan for the Orangutan Protection. Recognizing the importance of coral reefs and threats to their sustainability due to climate change and unsustainable exploitation, President Yudhoyono also launched the regional Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) during the Bali conference. Fittingly, 2008 is the International Year of the Reef.

Much work remains. Protecting our planet is a long-term, cooperative endeavor. The United States can be Indonesia`s "super-partner", and President Yudhoyono has invited increased U.S. environmental partnership. We already collaborate on anti-illegal logging activities, and support the Heart of Borneo Initiative to protect the forest habitat in Kalimantan. We work together to protect endangered orangutans. Our two governments are negotiating a large fund to conserve tropical forests, under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act. We already fund marine programs in Indonesia and the region, and have pledged initial support of over $4 million to the Coral Triangle Initiative.

Indonesia needs electricity to grow, but it should use clean-coal and renewable energy technologies to meet its rapidly increasing energy needs. Indonesia can retrofit existing "dirty" electricity-generating coal plants, build new, cleaner ones, and harness Indonesia`s potential 27,000 megawatt geothermal capacity. The Clean Technology Fund that President Bush announced last year, and which the United States is developing in cooperation with the World Bank, Japan, the United Kingdom, and other partners, has the potential to be an important tool in dealing with the clean energy challenge.

Working together, we can protect rainforests, conserve biodiversity, avoid the collapse of global fisheries, and combat climate change. The challenges are great, but our cooperation shows great promise for the future

On this Earth Day, let us remind ourselves that we are all connected. How Indonesia and the U.S. treat their forests and oceans will affect the rest of the world, and all of our children`s futures

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Carter outlines Hamas' terms for peace deal

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that Hamas is prepared to accept peace with Israel if the Palestinians approve any agreement negotiated with Israel.

Former President Jimmy Carter, above, held meetings with exiled militant Hamas leader Khalid Meshaal.

Carter's comments came after controversial meetings Friday and Saturday in Damascus, Syria, with exiled militant Hamas leader Khalid Meshaal.

"If President (Mahmoud) Abbas of the Palestinians and Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert reach an agreement for peace, and if it is submitted to the Palestinians and the Palestinians approve it... Hamas will accept it," Carter said in a Monday interview with CNN.

Carter's series of meetings with top Hamas officials this past week have drawn condemnation from the U.S. and Israeli governments for engaging in diplomacy with a group they consider a terrorist organization.

Carter's tour of the Middle East has also included a meeting in Cairo with two senior Hamas politicians before his meetings with Meshaal.

"I'm not a negotiator, I'm just trying to understand different opinions and communicate, provide communications between people that won't communicate with each other," Carter said Tuesday at the beginning of his trip.

Most Israeli officials have refused to meet Carter during his trip, angry over his insistence that Israel should talk to Hamas. Many Israelis dislike Carter's observations about Israeli policies toward Palestinians in his recent book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."

U.S. and Israeli officials believe Carter's meetings with Hamas will achieve little, and could actually harm the Middle East peace process.

"Regrettably, Hamas will try to take political advantage of this," Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch told CNN on Friday. However, he added, "I think President Carter's sincere, this man worked hard on peace."

Later Friday, at a State Department briefing in Washington, spokesman Sean McCormack said, "I don't think people are going to confuse the efforts of a private citizen ... with the very clear policies of the United States government."

"We think it is not useful for people to be running to Hamas at this point and having meetings with Hamas," said U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

For the Israelis, a military solution is an elusive one -- but reaching out to Hamas, Israel insists, will not bring peace.

"Hamas is conducting war against the citizens of Israel," said Ron Prosor, Israel's ambassador to Britain. "What do you say to people who say: 'Why don't you talk, try and talk, and not to shoot'? It sounds very good but the question is, at what stage do you do that?"

And McCormack said Friday: "We find it very odd that one would encourage to have a conversation between the Israeli government and Hamas, which doesn't even recognize the right of the Israeli government to exist. So how can you have -- is that really the basis of a conversation?"

Carter, the man who helped broker the historic peace agreement between Egypt and Israel in the late 1970s, has said he's simply on a "study mission" to support peace, democracy, and human rights in the region.

"It's my dream and my hope, that someday in my lifetime, hopefully this year, we'll see a major breakthrough," Carter said.

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Longer queues for free food in wealthy Singapore: charities

Singapore (ANTARA News) - Rising food prices are driving more people in Singapore, the wealthiest economy in Southeast Asia, to join the queue for free meals, charities said Monday.

Thirty percent more people are turning up daily to fill their stomachs at the Singapore Buddhist Lodge, which serves free vegetarian meals, the temple's president Lee Bock Guan said.

During weekends the figures are even higher, when about 5,000 people arrive for the free food compared to 3,000 three months ago, he told AFP.

"Food prices have gone up and for them, their wages have not gone up as much," he said, adding the needy are coming from all walks of life.

"Their income is not enough to cope with the higher food prices."

Lee said donations from some of the temple's wealthiest members are still strong, allowing it to handle the rising demand.

The Care Corner Seniors Activity Centre, which serves free breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea, said inflation has led 10 percent more elderly citizens to turn up for meals, compared with two months ago.

Some of them have started to take more food at lunch and bring the extra home for their dinner, said a centre worker who declined to be named.

The Young Women's Christian Association, which cooks meals and delivers them to the needy, said it is operating at peak capacity serving 200 people each day -- despite a drop in rice donations.

 

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'The best job I have ever had in my life'

KAOLACK, Senegal (CNN) -- After the sudden death of her 26-year-old daughter left five grandchildren in her care, Viola Vaughn searched for peace.

More than 1,500 girls are involved in Viola Vaughn's program in six locations; about 1,000 are waiting to join. 

More than 1,500 girls are involved in Viola Vaughn's program in six locations; about 1,000 are waiting to join.

Though she was a native of Detroit, Michigan, Vaughn had worked in Africa for most of her life and considered it home. So she and her husband returned there to raise their new brood and "watch the coconut trees grow." 

"But the universe had other things in mind for me," says Vaughn. 

She couldn't have imagined those plans would include both further tragedy and the motivation to provide educational opportunities to hundreds of failing schoolchildren. 

Soon after their move to rural Kaolack, Senegal, in 2000, Vaughn's husband -- jazz musician Sam Sanders -- died of black lung. Amid her grief, she found comfort in her grandchildren, ages 4 to 12, and filled her days home-schooling them. Her success soon garnered attention from the locals. 

"There was a little girl that my granddaughter played with. This little girl kept coming around and wanting to be taught with my grandchildren," recalls Vaughn. 

"I went to see this child's mother, and her mother said she had already failed school once, that she couldn't pass because she wasn't smart enough. Well she was smart enough to come find me. And I said, 'OK, I'll help you.' " 

Within two weeks, Vaughn had 20 girls in her house who were failing school and asking her to teach them. 

Vaughn learned that the regional pass rate for girls was low because it was rooted in the economic need of young girls to work at home. They begin missing classes, then failing exams, often ultimately failing or dropping out of school. 

Video - Vaughn tell the story of how one little girl sparked 10,000 » 

So in 2001, Vaughn turned her grandchildren's bedrooms into classrooms and began supplementing girls' education. 

"I found every one a girl younger than she and said, 'You're responsible to make sure she learns.' I taught them how to teach each other." 

It worked. In two years, the group of girls had grown to 80 -- and they were succeeding in school. With a grant, Vaughn was able to hire teachers, and the program continued to expand despite her attempt to set a limit of 100 girls. 

"The girls wanted to take it to 10,000," says Vaughn. 

To keep their "10,000 Girls" education program going, the girls asked Vaughn to teach them to bake. They began selling cookies and juice and were able to buy books and supplies. 

Soon after, they got their older sisters, aunts and cousins -- who had already failed out of the school system -- involved in baking and selling goods. The entrepreneurial element of the program was born. 

Video - Vaughn describe her "10,000 Girls" program » 

"They were supporting their cause," says Vaughn. "It was something remarkable." 

Today, in addition to a pastry shop and catering business, "10,000 Girls" runs a sewing workshop and the girls export their handmade dolls and household linens overseas. 

Half of the funds from these projects go back to the girls; the remainder supports the education program, no longer in Vaughn's house. 

Video - Vaughn explain how the unique dolls are sewn in the workshop » 

More than 1,500 girls are involved in Vaughn's program in six locations; about 1,000 are waiting to join. 

"We have girls who were told they'd never get through high school who are at university now," beams Vaughn. "We hope that if we get 10,000 girls out there, 1,000 girls will come back to Kaolack and work. It would revolutionize the whole region. 

"Here I am, retired, and this is the best job I have ever had in my life."

Gates: Businesses need to embrace the poor

Cnet News.com, Ina Fried

MIAMI--In two separate speeches on Friday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates made the case that businesses need to see serving the poor as part of their mission and that governments need to see private businesses as potential partners.

One of the big topics for both audiences was the notion of microfinance--improving the access to credit and banking to the poor.

"The idea of how they create loans for the poorest is part of it," he said at the Government Leaders Forum. But although today microfinance has focused on loans, there is more to it. "We need to get savings and even some insurance products."

Gates talked about how technology can play a role, noting that when payment is tied to the cell phone, it offers the potential for lower interest rates.

In every industry, Gates said, businesses need to start thinking about how they can use some of their energy and resources, say 6 percent, to expand their reach to poorer segments either in their own country, or globally. Food companies need to focus on micronutrients, while drug companies should devote some energy to diseases that affect largely the poor, such as malaria and tuberculosis.

Already, he said, there are examples of companies in each industry doing this.

"Cell phone companies, banks, energy companies, technology companies, food companies, we have a lot of good examples in each of those industries," he said at the Inter-American Development Bank meeting.

But while there are a few leaders who are onboard, Gates acknowledged that his notion of creative capitalism has not been uniformly embraced. "Many of the companies are skeptical," he noted. "As we have examples of success we can overcome that."

Education was another key topic, with one questioner at the Government Leaders Forum asking Gates about whether computer labs or one-to-one computing projects are the way to go.

"The costs of moving to a one computer per child are fairly high and yet in the long term that's what we recommend," Gates said. With computer labs, Gates said, the most enthusiastic students tend to gravitate to the machines, monopolizing their use, while students who need the practice the most fall behind and never catch up.

He noted that many countries have already set up pilot programs, with one region in Spain providing laptops to 10,000 students. At the same time, he said such projects require years of planning

He also talked up the potential of one of his favorite technologies--the Tablet PC.

"Today that machine is something like a $1,000 machine," he said. "Over the next three or four years that will become a $400 machine."

He noted that his daughter uses one instead of textbooks at her school, and can forward her homework to her dad.

"I can help her out on anything where she's confused," he said. Assignments are turned in electronically and returned by e-mail. "It's just so natural for her."