OPINION

Public transportation subsidies are, ideally, provided for people taking public transportation to work. They can be differentiated – or not– depending on the Government’s political will and the readiness of the existing budget. 

Sometime back I wrote in a column here that the recession in the US Economy will be mild when there was still concern regarding EU economies. But lately, even in EU there seems more hope that economic recession in EU countries will also be mild. Unemployment may still be relatively high, but inflation rate is also dissipating. 

Ever since the 1980s the conventional wisdom about economic policymaking has been, until recently, that neoliberalism is the best path towards achieving growth and prosperity. For many countries, especially in the West and also large emerging markets such as Indonesia, it was taken for granted that by deregulating capital markets, lowering trade barriers and privatizing state-owned enterprises the economic benefits would far outweigh the costs. 

Across many cities in China, including Beijing and Shanghai, hundreds of thousands of young people have recently been marching in protest against President Xi Jinping’s policy of “zero Covid”. Broadening the protest, the occasion has been also optimized to stand against a controlled press, symbolized by waving a white sheet of paper everywhere. In a city in central China ten people reportedly died when a building was on fire: rescuers could not reach the victims, partly because of the rigid rules characterizing the “zero-Covid” policy. 

The world is panicking over the new variants of COVID-19 Omicrons XBB from China. Countries in America and Europe remain alert, implementing strict fight protocols from China. 

The G20 Summit meetings in Bali ended, not with a “bang”, but it certainly should be applauded for having come up with a communique sufficiently strong in its condemnation of Russia’s Ukraine invasion. China and Saudi Arabia, tending to lean toward Russia, did in the end sign the declaration, making it solid. The Financial Times, in its report, commended the tireless efforts by Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo and India’s PM Modi, who successfully argued that the economic impacts of the war, such as an impaired export of grain from Ukraine, due to Russian blockage of Mariupol, which resulted in a food crisis, turned out to be a strong weapon in the matter. This, along with smooth management of the Conference, are commendable indeed. Of course, one should not forget the side-line meetings of Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, clarifying their respective stands on important issues like Taiwan, South China Sea and trade, as well as meetings between President’s Xi and Emmanuel Macron and others, are also aspects demonstrating the success of the Bali G20 Summit. Indonesia’s transfer of the G20 Presidency to India was carried out promptly. 

This author once read Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) General Chairman Prabowo Subianto’s presentation on “A Masterplan for Indonesian Economic Rescue and Awakening: A Big-Push Strategy”. He presented this idea before Indonesian President Joko Widodo and ten leaders of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR). 

Recent trends evident in world economies have not been encouraging. The World Bank President has publicly warned that high mortgage rates in the US and other developed economies may have the effect of triggering a recession in 2023. 

On October 1 the world recoiled in horror when hearing news of the clash between soccer fans and security forces during a soccer match at Malang’s Kanjuruhan Stadium. In a serious breach of FIFA regulations on crowd control, police fired tear gas to disperse a rowdy group of fans fighting on the field and inexplicably started firing towards tens of thousands of spectators in the stands, as well. With the entire stadium in a state of panic, suddenly a stampede towards the exits occurred. Once again, security forces had failed to follow league regulations that all exit doors must be unlocked during matches--with the stampede leading to a crush, over 130 people needlessly died, including 32 children, and scores more were seriously injured. In the end, it turned out to be the second worst disaster in the history of soccer. 

According to Bearak (2020), the incidence of unintended pregnancies from 2015 to 2019 reached 121 million per year. This figure shows that 64 unsaved pregnancies are occurring in every 1,000 women aged 15-49. In general, when compared to the data from previous periods, the pregnancy rate has not declined since 1990-1994. We can interpret this data to reveal that there are 73.3 million abortions annually, equivalent to 39 abortions per 1,000 women in the 15-49 age group (Bearak: 2020). From this figure, it can also be calculated that three out of ten pregnancies will be terminated by an abortion. (WHO:2021) 

Jakarta, IO - Malang Police District had proposed moving the match to the afternoon. To start at 3:30 P.M., not at 8:00 in the evening.