Quality of life in Medan city is Low

In developed countries, public transport is one of the main crucial factors in society. This aspect is considered essential because it supports directly to the citizens’ activities. Interestingly, the public transport also affects the way the economy growth as the goods are transported to many places. On the other hand, the mobilization of people for working also gives significant impact too. Does it mean the human development index is also influenced by the public transport?

"Angkot" is the term to explain one of the main public transport in Medan
(Image is credited from http://www.medanbisnisdaily.com)

Medan is the capital city of North Sumatera province and it is used to be one of the destination for people who looked for job. It was famous with the name of “dollar city” because of the petroleum refinery located in Pangkalan Brandan. At that time, Medan had improved their transportation system either land, air and the sea. But, today the quality of transportation system can be considered as one of the worst in Indonesia. Research conducted by researchers in Medan indicated that the services which is provided by the transportation industries in Medan were low (Putra & Sitanggang, 2016).

The researchers employed six parameters of quality of services which are indicators insurance, empathy, reliability, responsiveness, tangible and comfort. As we know today, Medan is the third/ fourth largest cities in Indonesia and it currently has been expanding the area larger than previous. In this year, the local government has started construction of railway transport to prevent the traffic created by the land vehicles. This implies the lateness in transport facilities.

According to the paper, the public transportation system – the quality of the service – can be measured by looking those six aspects. 400 participants were employed to be asked about their perspective and expectations about the services.

Public transportation in Medan

Illustration of seats in "Angkot"
(Image is credited from www.eengsu.wordpress.com)

Nowadays, public transportation in the city utilized by the citizen is mainly the four-wheel car with 7 seaters which is modified into vertical seater in the both sides, located behind the driver seat. The car which has been used is similar to All Purpose Vehicle (APV) or sometimes people see it as minibus. On the other hand, this vehicle also does not have any air conditioner (AC) tools which can make unstable temperature within the car. Subsequently, the passengers could be transported are sixteen people. However, the main problem in this car is the space between the passenger which is too small.

The drivers of the public transportation in Medan is also far beyond the expectations. Mostly they are skilled drivers without concerning the aspect of services. For instance, people will find the drivers smoking during the driving from one place to another places. It can be stated that the professionalism of the drivers is far beyond that we expected in terms of safety and comfort aspects. With the insurance regulation covered by the government which explains about the responsibility of for the liability is less useful as the drivers can do smoking during the driving.

Although the quality of common public transportation is low, the local government has improved the system by allocating Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) for several areas. The new busses are called as “Trans Mebidang” which transport people with long range of kilometers. However, this new transportation meets essential issue which is the bus stations are not being constructed yet.

The Assessments of public transportation in Medan

All of the six dimensions which is used to measure the quality service of public transport in Medan resulted high gap between the expectations and perceptions of the respondents. The perception of respondents was between 1.50 (public transport using AC) to 3.37 (seating availability). Whilst the average expectation in each dimensions which insurance, empathy, reliability, responsive, tangible and comfort are 4.08; 3.80; 4.07; 3.90; 4.07; 4.11 respectively. Based on the analysis conducted by the researchers stated that if the perception of the participants is lower than expected means there are no services actually.

To be concluded that the public transportation services are beyond the low level of quality. We could say averagely that the public transportation system in Medan does not provide any kind of services. The researchers also suggested that when public transport system is not good, then the process of transporting people will influence the emotional aspect of the passengers such as happiness and comfortable. Technically speaking, the quality of life among people in Medan is low.

References

[1] Putra, K. E. & Sitanggang, J. M., 2016. The effect of public transport services on quality of life in Medan city. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Issue 234, pp. 383 - 389.
[2] Image is downloaded from https://eengsu.files.wordpress.com
[3] Image is downloaded from http://www.medanbisnisdaily.com

Climate change affect food nutrition

Farmers in Indonesia used to be thinking about cropping plants based on two seasons, they were hot and rainy seasons. This calendar system was based on the natural process of raining and hot weather. But, today’s farmers would not crop their plant based on the weather as the climate change presents. The food productions particularly from carbohydrate-producing plants, fruits and vegetables are affected by the changing of climate change. Is this the only impact resulting from the greenhouse effect?

Global warming affects the humanity in all sectors

Talking about climate change, our topics comprise increasing of Earth’s temperature, changing of climate such as rainfall and humidity. Temperature, rainfall, and humidity are the main components in life. Subsequently, these three aspects influence the human, flora and fauna. In term of productivity, the climate change alters the health condition of agricultural and farming. The next disadvantages are increasing level of carbon dioxide and breaking the ozone layers in the atmosphere. Some overall estimates the potential impacts and the groundbreaking result is the Earth will be non-habitable planets in the future.

However, the criteria of non-habitable planets are not merely based on the temperature, CO2, rainfall or humidity or any others, but the domino effects which are the source of nutritional food. The climate change could affect the food security into low-level of nutrition, suggested by Myers et al., it is because the quantity of agricultural production depends on the availability of biophysical resources which are

1. Soil quality with micro and micro ecosystem
2. Water availability
3. Quality of sunlight
4. Carbon dioxide
5. Suitable condition and temperature
6. The presence of pollinator

Climate change affects the production of food

The global temperature has been elevating in the last ten to fifteen years. It has been estimated the elevation of temperature around 1 centigrade for every 10-15 years. By calculating it linearly, we can predict that in the next century the temperature will be 7-10 centigrade hotter than today. This calculation is not only based on the mere multiplying, but the consideration based on our activity in generating the greenhouse gases.

The scientists from Harvard University suggested that either oceans and land has been affected by CO2 and high temperature, so subsequently, followed by the acidification happened in the oceans floor, meaning the habitats of the fish are disturbed. Corals reef is the main source of food for marine life. The degradation in amount will influence the nutrition content of fish since corals are the primary producer of food in marine ecosystem. On the other words, the disturbance occurring in ocean alters the nutrition within fish.

In the meantime, the weather is also affected by the changing of temperature and the higher of temperature creates stress either for animals – such as livestock – and plants particularly for fruits and vegetables. Technically speaking, the animals will demand more water resources as the same as the plants. If the competition of consuming water is not balance, so neither animals or plant could grow optimally. In the causal conclusion, both impacts cause unstable price and productivity in food preservation and security, which economically means the price will be higher but the nutrient contents are low.

Primary resources of food will be affected by climatic change

Water availability and extreme weather are the main impacts caused by global warming. Crops that need much water for consumption will be yielded particularly rice, wheat and maize. Whilst the others crops that demand much sunlight, such as wheat, rice and soybean for their photosynthesis process will be disturbed. Since those crops are the main sources of carbohydrate, our food security is in danger.

Food sovereignty must be achieved and the way to address that is by preventing the Earth becoming warmer. The level of carbon dioxide airborne which can cause broken in the ozone layers on the atmosphere must be reduced. However, the increasing level of carbon dioxide will give positive effect as crops also demand the gas for fuel. Nevertheless, the future scenario when the alternating of climate provides agricultural issue on maize and wheat which are consumed by many people either in northern parts of America and Europe. On the contrary, the rice will be “okay” as it is less sensitive to be affected.

Conclusion

The indirect cause of global warming indicates the disturbance in food security. The preservation of food will be fluctuating while the productivity of several primary foods, such as maize and wheat are predicted to be in small number. Furthermore, the main concern is concentrated in the nutrition contents within those crops because the climate change disturbs the biological process of the crops which is the diffusion of minerals with water.

References
[1] Myers, S. S. et al., 2017. Climate change and global food systems: Potential impacts on food security and undernutrition. The Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 38.  Doi: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031816-044356

[2] Image is downloaded from www.cdc.gov

Consuming green tea could prevent oral cancer for smoker

Green tea has been considering as one of traditional herbs by many civilizations for hundreds of years. It is believed by many people it can counter the carcinogenic compound. Scientifically speaking, green tea has many antioxidants which can give benefits particularly in preventing oral cancer.

Consuming green tea in certain amount could prevent oral cancer

Green tea is produced from the same family as Oolong and black tea. This tea is different from the others because it has least oxidization level. Tea comprises many bioactive compounds which can act as anti-cancer compounds. Catechins, flavonols, lignans, and phenolic acids. The chemical composition of tea is different due to differences in processing the leaves. As mentioned previously, the low level of oxidation is indicated by the existence of polyphenols.

Tea has polyphenol which is a very strong antioxidant so it can reduce the risk of getting cancer. One of that is the oral cancer which is caused by smoking. As we know that, the cigars are consisted toxic, carcinogenic compounds when burning. These chemical compounds contribute to the triggering process of reactive oxygen species (ROS).

Smoking triggers the oral cancer

A single cigarette smoke contains free radical compounds in phase of gas and in tar (Church & Pryor, 1985). These poisonous matters are responsible to chronic illnesses such as cancer and heart attack. The free radical gases could react with the tissue within the oral and causes the reaction. The inhibitors generate the oxidative damage to DNA hence causing carcinogenesis. With the popularity of smoking among youthful in developing and under developing countries, the risk of getting cancer in young age is increasing.

Smoking has been not only becoming quite popular in developing and under developing countries but also serious worldwide issues. Among the young generation, their opinion about smoking is many including opening communication and the indicator of being adults. Nevertheless, the smokers do not care too much as the photographs of the diseases have been attaching within the cigar’s packages. Today, it can be estimated the numbers of young Indonesian are high which means the next generation potentially is in high risk of oral cancer.

Consuming green tea to reduce the risk

The amount of antioxidants during the study
(Image is credited by Azimi, et al., 2017)

As we mentioned above that one of the tea, which is the green tea, comprises antioxidants. Many research had demonstrated the benefits as anticancer. Research conducted by (Schwartz, et al., 2005) and (Hakim, et al., 2003) set up controlled experiments to human and the findings were interesting in the DNA damage. Both of the research found that the green tea can reduce the DNA damage.

Therefore, how can the green tea can reduce the risk? According to (Azimi, et al., 2017), the green tea stimulate the biological process of saliva in smokers to increase. The amount of saliva was significance compared to the non-smokers. They also found that the green tea triggered the increasing of production of salivary antioxidant status in smokers.

The study employed 20 volunteers of smokers paired with 20 healthy non-smokers. The participants then were instructed to consume two cups of green tea in a day. The consumption was conducted for 21 days and the saliva of each volunteer was collected weekly in three times. But, why it has to be saliva?

Antioxidants in Saliva

Oral comprises many things including teeth and tongue. Biologically speaking, the oral or mouth is one of the most common organ which can be attacked by cancer cells. The cancer cells or carcinoma can be developed in salivary glands, the tissue, melanocytes and lymph. As we know that carcinoma is influenced by either smoking and alcohol or the infection provided by human papilloma virus.

In mouth, the saliva is needed for eating so the food can be digested into the next process. The physical form of saliva is fluid with certain viscosity and in term of composition, 98 per cent of it is water. The others two per cent are proteins, enzymes, substances and many more. But, the true function of this saliva is in preventing action because many bacteria and even more viruses are able to enter the oral throughout eating. So, the saliva helps the mouth to “wash” the bacteria or viruses by giving antioxidants. There are natural antibacterial compounds and antioxidants, they are:

1. Thiocyanate
2. Hydrogen peroxide
3. Immunoglobulin A
4. Uric acid
5. Albumin
6. Ascorbic acid
7. Glutathione
8. Antioxidant enzymes

Conclusion

The study employed either smokers and non-smokers people found interesting result. For smoker, the study found significant increasing of antioxidants after 7 to 21 days. The total antioxidants indicate that the green tea consumption can reduce the risk of carcinoma in oral and it can prevent oral cancer.

References

[1] Azimi, S. et al., 2017. Does green tea consumption improve the salivary antioxidant status of smokers?. Archives of Oral Biology, Issue 78, pp. 1 - 5.
[2] Church, D. F. & Pryor, A. W., 1985. Free-Radical chemistry of cigarette smoke and its toxilogical implications. Environment health perspectives, Volume 64, pp. 111 - 126.
[3] Hakim, I. A. et al., 2003. Effect of increased tea consumption on oxidative DNA damage among smokers: A randomized controlled study. The Journal of Nutrition, 10(133), pp. 3303S - 3309S.
[4] Schwartz, J. L., Baker, V., Larios, E. & Chung, L. F., 2005. Molecular and cellular effects of green tea on oral cells of smokers: A pilot study. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 1(49), pp. 43 - 51.
[5] Image of the green tea is downloaded from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com

Indonesia Recycling System: Our Concentration Is Low

One of the material which has been recycling today is electronic waste. But, electronic waste occurred is not caused by expired dates, instead it is because of the improvement of the device itself. Smartphone, computer, laptop have been producing electronic waste as every semester the vendors launch new product. Some people argue, they produced hazardous waste which is dangerous. The others suggested, it must be recycled since the materials can be disposal. Therefore, do we need to organize electrical recycling center in every part of the world?

Description of Recycling System

It was in the season nine of “the big bang theory”, a sitcom serial television, Sheldon was given by his girlfriend a new laptop. The most intriguing fact is not when Sheldon did the farewell ceremony for the laptop, but on the contrary is when Amy invited him to do recycling. This indicates that the United States itself has conducted recycling center for electronic waste and one of them is computer recycling center.

With almost six billion people living in the Earth today, and we can assume only 10 to 20 per cent of them utilize a smartphone, computer laptop and tablet. Surprisingly, we have 1.8 billion electrical devices and the annual issue is the related industries have elevated significantly, which means every year people will replace their old gadgets into the newest. And it will be predicted to rocket in the next decade. With the growing of Asian market particularly in Eastern Asia and South-East Asia, we produce millions of tons of obsolete electrical which either is hazardous or not.

However, this number is extremely huge and mostly it can give big impact to the environment. Therefore, Perkins et all., which is quoted by Fauziah F. Rochman et al., stated that only a quarter and above a third from the total e-waste is recycled every year in Europe and the United States respectively. This implies to our concern about electronic waste in developing and under-developing countries, such as Indonesia. Unlike in developing or under-developing countries, this e-waste is recycled and they have converting it into new material which can be utilized as raw material in the future. It has been presenting as new income for developed countries.

Recycling System in Indonesia

Today, the number of Indonesian is estimated for two hundred millions of people. Based on understanding mentioned above, it is assumed that sixty millions of devices have been used. With the growing market of Asia itself, it is predicted that every person will change their electronic devices for every two to three years. Subsequently, Indonesia itself will generate 200 to 300 million of devices in the next five years. But, how the government of Indonesia consider about this?

According to ministry of environment in Indonesia, the regulations which are related to reduce, reuse and recycle have been published since 2012. Based on this, every person, institution and even more small, medium, and big enterprises must organize their waste. Environmentally speaking, the government of Indonesia has regulated that in every provinces which are consisted into districts and sub-districts must conduct an institution in managing and organizing the reducing, reusing and recycling of waste. This regulation stated clearly there must be a Bank of Waste or in Bahasa it is called Bank Sampah.

Based on the survey conducted Fauziah F. Rochman, Weslynne S. Asthon and Mochammad G.M. Wiharjo, the establishment of recycling facilities and infrastructure for electronic waste were not constructed in Yogyakarta. This result of study also reported that the recycling procedure was not established even though the landfill – for instance the Piyungan Landfill, Yogyakarta – is organized by the officials because the private organizations which are responsible to manage are located in Bekasi, West Java.

Action Needed in Recycling System in Indonesia

As the aim of the government regulation is not only for the institution but also for society itself, another study conducted in city of Pekanbaru is written by Restia Hendry of University of Riau in 2015 suggested different perspective. The Bank Sampah is not operated effectively because of six factors which two of them are communication and coordination with the society, and people’s perspectives in organizing the waste itself. Therefore, the socialization of reduce, reuse and recycle in Indonesia must be conducted broadly.

Although the government has acted directly through the recent regulation which is reducing the plastic from supermarket and minimarket, it had been considered by the society as ineffective and inefficient because they must pay it. Technically speaking, the demands of people in using the plastic as their shopping equipment are high. It means, the pre and post managing and organizing must be considered as our main focus in Indonesia.

In conclusion, facilities and infrastructures are important to do recycling procedure and the location of inventory of the waste is essential too. However, the government must conduct training and socialization to improve human resources for the facilities. Moreover, the extended procedure responsibility must be introduced either for the society and related institutions since the pre and post waste recycling are the major challenge in Indonesia.

Acknowledgement
[1] http://www.menlh.go.id/
[2] Fauziah F. Rochman, Weslynne S. Ashton and Mochamad G.M. Wiharjo, E-waste, money and power: Mapping electronic waste flows in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Environmental Development, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2017.02.002
[3] Restia Hendri, Implementasi Peraturan Menteri Negara Lingkungan Hidup No. 13 Tahun 2012 Tentang Pedoman Pelaksanaan Reduce, Reuse dan Recycle Melalui Bank Sampah di Kota Pekan Baru, Riau, Indonesia, JOM FISIP Vol. 2 No. 2 Oktober 2015

Material Erupted from Volcanoes Could Affect the Climate Change

Eruption is natural activities conducted by volcanoes in frequent of time. The results of volcanic activities are various and they are including the dust, high-temperature of cloud which can rise into atmosphere. One of the recent volcanic activities happened lots in Indonesia is Sinabung Mountain. Although the end of the activities produces rich-nutrients inside the soil, they generated the greenhouse gasses including methane which can give big impact to the global warming. Consequently, climate change is mainly impacted.

Global warming is one of the event happened in the world today because of the increasing level of temperature annually. The main factor of elevating heat is the greenhouse gasses which have been produced from fossil fuels. Mainly is occurred because of carbon dioxide which is generated from machinery for electricity and transportation. However, the production of greenhouse gases is not only resulted from the human activities but also natural events including methane and Sulphur dioxide which is produced from the eruptions of volcanoes.

Mount Sinabung, North Sumatera Indonesia After First Eruption in 2010s 

One of the greenhouse gases is Sulphur dioxide which is erupted from volcanic activities. The study conducted by Didier Swingedouw et al., suggested that the releasing gas from volcanoes to the part of atmosphere triggers the aerosol matter which can reflection solar storm from the space. This reflection events disturb the system in atmosphere which leads into unstable. As a result, the balancing system of energy in our climate is distorted and causes the climatic change.

The study surveyed the regional climate impact happened in Atlantic. They separated the area into three groups which are considered as the impacted-area. Those areas are North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), and The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Geologically speaking, these three areas have the most volcanoes around the world. Based on the networking of the earth plates, there are subduction zones in these regionals and they are related to each other. So, we can assume if a volcano erupted and it would trigger the others volcanoes even though it will be happening in a very long time in the future.

However, as this study mentioned actually the eruptions of materials except lava and magma are three gasses. They are Sulphur dioxide, water vapor and carbon dioxide as far as the main gasses are concerned. The Sulphur and carbon dioxide are classified as greenhouse gases which can prevent the temperature inside the Earth radiated to the space. Interestingly, air pollutant in the atmosphere caused by the ash resulting from the eruptions depends on the amount of eruptions of the volcanoes. Therefore, the scale of eruptions and materials erupted are important to measure due to impact to the Earth.

Robock and Timmreck, which is written in Swingedouw’s paper, stated that the airborne gas could commence the oxidation reaction which leads to alternation of atmospheric layer. It is sulphate aerosols which is sulphatic acid and it influences the optical properties of atmosphere which can alter the intensity of sunlight goes to the Earth. As a result, the surface of the Earth will experience low temperature while the atmosphere traps the sunlight which can increase the temperature because of the preventive properties of the aerosol. And if the eruptions have high scale, the event will be experienced for long duration. Consequently, this natural mechanism alters the climate system.

Based on Swingedouw’s study, the eruption from volcanoes’ activities affected the environmental systems which are unstable system. Even though, it only triggered the alternation in environment in a small condition. For example, Robock which is referred by this study, stated that the aerosols formation from sulphate are recycled through the rainfall mechanisms. On the other hand, the carbon dioxide emitted during the eruptions collectively with water vapor can be absorbed by the plants as the raw material in synthesizing energy throughout photosynthesis. Nevertheless, the results are weak in term of scale-effect, but the big damage could be happened if the eruptions conducted by several volcanoes.

Surprisingly, as we provided above from the journals, the big effect can be experienced today through the increasing level of temperature globally. This leads into the climatic change in several areas and they are NAO, ENSO, AMO and AMOC. According to observational experiments conducted by this study, all alternation happened to those areas particularly in elevating temperature were mainly caused by the eruptions in several times. For example, mount Samalas in Indonesia which was erupted in thirteenth century and it was followed by Mount Tambora and Krakatoa which are in Indonesia too erupted six hundred years later.

Overall, there are predictions related to the increasing heat in the Earth will be happened in the future. All those areas are mainly affected by the eruptions as far as the temperature of the ocean. The positive impact can be observed today by the melting of ice-berg in those areas and furthermore the temperature of seas and oceans on these areas are warmer than before.

Preventive Action to Stop Children Bullying

Talking about bullying, either developing or developed countries, the abusing has been spreading not only in domestic but also in international news. Violence occurred on children actually influenced the characters of a human and led to behavioral disorders. This is happened because of many resources including parents-children anger management, parenting styles, and neighborhood where the children grow and develop.

Violence happened to children have awakened our awareness to pay attention on children development. For bullying, many countries have been experiencing this issue not only from the primary school but also it could be happened on our tertiary education. One of the example of this case happened in Indonesia, which forced the government in regulating the new act about bullying. In 2016 itself, Indonesia government has decided to remove any kinds of orientation events which has been conducting for years in every educational institution.

This issue has affected the children development in school and it directly leads the students to misbehave which causes so many problems including criminality. Bullying is believed as one of the main factors that causes child abuse, violence to women, and creating teenager juvenile. However, we must understand that bullying act is influenced by many factors because the children are under supervision of their parents. Therefore, in terms of emotional aspect, this is happened because of uncontrollable emotional and anger.

As a result, some experts suggest that parenting styles is one of the main issue. Children are more likely to copy their parents’ characteristics because they wanted to become as exactly as their parents. They observe how the father and mother talk, walk, and even more in selecting their fashion. Technically speaking, the environment aspect of children development is started from their habitual activities with older people.

According to the study conducted in Brazil by Elisa Altafim of University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, parenting programs are important in children development. They implemented the Adults and Children Together program for 82 Brazilian mothers. The involvement of adults and children in doing their activities are effectively proven in preventing children behavioral problems including emotional management and difficulties in having relationship with each other. This study conducted two methods of observation to three-to-eight years of children by implementing participation of their relatives and legal guardian in their education. Interestingly, this study included the caregiver as one of the person who mostly employed by many parents in developing countries so it could have a valid research.

Hence, the children’s relatives and legal guardian participated in pre-intervention of behavior while the caregiver were instructed to participate in post-intervention. Shonkoff in 2010, which is written on this journal, suggested that violence will become post syndrome of stress and it could significantly threat children’s mind and body healthy if it experienced during early ages. Therefore, mental problems in children which can cause bullying, misbehaving, teenager juvenile, emotional abuse influence the personality of children.

Then, how about the children who are only a single parent? Could be this becomes one of the main factors? The answer is absolutely on the involvement of the adults. By reading this journal, I believe that children need their older relatives so they can share everything happened to them. Children relatives which are not only their father and mother are the closest figures to them because they can create strong, stable and safe environment.

In conclusion, this study suggested that adults’ involvement in children development can be effectively prevented the behavioral disorders in Brazil. This study also stated that the adults and children together program can assist the parenting styles in improving the practices which has been applied. Furthermore, the government of developing countries must provide this service in addition to prevent the children criminality.

Indonesia Demands Deforestation Indirectly

Deforestation in Indonesia has been occurring for years and it has affected many ecological systems in rain forests. Many people believe this was caused by the presence of plantations which is of one them is crude palm oil plantation. Therefore, the effects of deforestation have caused many issues including the global warming.

Deforestation is an act which cuts the trees in many forests for certain purposes including agriculture. However, as we knew in opening the plantations, we need permission from the authorized officials since it can cause many effects for living things either for flora and fauna or humanity itself. Recent study shows plantations which area opened in many areas in Indonesia have been influenced by the government policy. Nonetheless, the land allocation happening in Indonesia must be supervised thoroughly.

Based on the study conducted by Fumi Harahap et al, In Indonesia, the expansion of palm oil plantations has led to non-sustainable land use practices in past years, particularly deforestation which has caused many international issues including climatic change. As we know, Indonesia has been considered as one of the world’s lungs since it has so many rain forests. It is happened because the society needs for cooking oil, bathing products and even for energy today. But, the main question is how can this plantation could affect the environmental damage?

This study suggested that one of the causes affected by the opening of crude palm oil plantations is the deforestation. Indonesia is considered as one of the largest producer in crude palm oil products. Either for supporting the economic aspects or energy, this situation invites the government to provide land allocation. An illustration which is suggested by this study is the government of Indonesia has to fulfill the demands on bio diesel and it is fulfilled by taking advantage from palm oil industry. Hence, the numbers of crude palm oil plantations it is predicted to be increasing in the future which was 11 MHa in 2015.

The island of Sumatra and Borneo are the main producer. They also have many protected forests which have impacted the world’s climate. Surprisingly, those two islands have been considering as national’s strategic resources since the colonization era. This is a dilemma for the government because it significantly affects the economical agriculture, climate change, energy, and workplaces. The land allocation for plantations must follow the sustainable features and the policies created by the government must be in rigid system. Therefore, the balancing system in preventing deforestation can be achieved in this context.

Another illustration of the land allocation issue is the social conflict which is mentioned by the study itself. The commitment which is regulated by the government has met the officials to not act recklessly only for following the regulation. Although the legal which is occurred in Indonesia has clearly stated that protected forests are not allowed to be cultivated. However, based on the discussion we conducted with a person who is originated from Berastagi, North Sumatra shows different point of view about this social conflict.

Mostly of the citizens cultivated the land in protected forest for planting long-aged plants. For example, crude palm oil, natural rubber, and cassava. Actually, these trees are very economical which can increase the welfare of the society. But, the effect is it can damage the ecosystem particularly for on the soil nutrients. Therefore, there must be a better solution to prevent the needs of society with the environment impact.

Racing Extinction: Humans or Orangutans Are Endangered

It has been a privilege for me to teach and train one of the best student in Medan, and his name is Nykhlas. I have becoming his English trainer for the past two months. Thus, today’s article is not about his but it is about his homework that we did yesterday afternoon.

It was a very interesting homework about answering questions based on the article. The topic was simply and surprising which could explain us about current wildlife condition. Orangutan was the topic we read last afternoon on my private class. Based on the topic, there are two details that make orangutan as an unique mammal. But, before we discuss about them, we should know about the animal itself firstly.

Orangutan is one of the largest primate in the world. There are four types of mammal which has bigger size compare another primate. They are baboons, gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans. Some studies have found the evidence about orangutans had lived in Asia particularly their habitats were spread in China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. However, until today it is hardly to find them anywhere but in Malaysian and Indonesia. Orangutans are originated from the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. According to the taxonomy of biological aspect, both of them have different Latin names.

One of the most interesting facts which makes them as unique mammals is orangutans are more likely to live in a sleeping nests regularly then moving to another place. It looks like, they have a neighborhood which is in it their house was built. It looks like they have a social structure which indicates they have their own society. That is why, past people in Sumatra and Borneo did not attempt to kill them because they saw orangutans just like a people who live in tree. This is also making them as the first ape which spent their time in tree not in the ground like the others ape such as gorillas and baboons.

Another interesting fact is the brain of orangutans have. Technically speaking, many studies have shown that orangutans can act reasonably. This discovery implies orangutans are simply our relatives in spite of the DNA we shared. However, today they are in endangered. Their habitats are eradicated by humans for converting forest for crude palm oil and natural rubber trees.

Study conducted by Doni Prabowo et al showed that oil palm plantations have been the main issue of deforestation in Indonesia. And the fact, that Sumatra and Borneo are the main islands for those plant’s plantations which are not only bigger but also alienated. One of the main cause was converting the forest into timber plantation supported by the actors from related ministry. These actors have used their power illegally to enhance the timber companies by giving local community or tribes and incentives or promised.

This is a very big issue since the deforestation does not affect only for orangutan itself but also for us. The illegal logging, deforestation, forest converting has given environmentally impact to human lives for example what was happened to Bahorok several years ago. Flooding had taken not only orangutans’ but also humans’ life. This is something we need to prevent in the future.

Energy Applied Technology: The Issue in Indonesia

The future earth compromises so many social and energy issues which will be happening in Indonesia. With highly subsidy and consumption, it has been affecting the social and economic activities and energy becomes the major concern in the future. Therefore, energy created from renewable resources must be achieved in five years from now.

The most common sector used by people is in transportation either in land, air and sea. The increasing of transporting people from one place to another place has affected the environment and damaging the ecosystem. It is caused by the residual product from burning the fossil in addition to light up the engine on the vehicle. Consequently, the issue has increased into preventing the environment from damage created by the carbon dioxide. In Indonesia, with high number of vehicles and the needs of those in transporting in every island caused mainly.

As a result, the needs of energy sustainability is not the best solution. It must be solved in comprehensive system and can affect the environment into a positive trend. But, actually the existence of carbon dioxide or monoxide is the raw material for plants to start their natural industry. They need that for producing the oxygen and maintaining their own energy. Thus, this issue becomes more complex and it towards to the increasing of temperature and causes the global warming. Now, we have the comprehensive issue which are global warming.

Many studies suggested in addition to prevent the environmental impact caused by the fossil fuels, we must do research to find the green fuels. It does not mean green literally, but it can be recycled, reused and renewed. But, the pollution issues not about the recycling or related to so It must be something which cannot produce by waste product. Then, mixing energy in several applied machinery and engines could be the win-win solution for many countries today including Indonesia which has hundreds of millions of people.

Energy is something that people can utilized either for electricity or not. Therefore, in general the energy usage must be in the dimension of easy to afford and to access, and also the availability and accessibility can be felt by many Indonesian including who live in the outermost of the country. However, the participation of government in preserving the energy is low. From the study conducted by *Erahman et al. in measuring the index of energy security (ESI) from 2008 to 2013 indicated that the government is not always included in energy security assessment except for oil and gas.

This phenomenon has shown us about the implementing renewable energy in Indonesia is still low. The national electrical company (PT PLN) is only focused for accessing the fossil fuels reservations and coal. The development of renewable energy such as solar cell, wind power, hydro power is not the main topic of the company. And even more the ministry which in charge of researching and developing the energy are limited only for technology and science, and energy and mineral resources. Actually, the related ministry for instance the ministry of finance, social welfare, economic affairs are responsible of the renewable energy.

In conclusion, the participation of Indonesia governance in accessing and providing the renewable energy including the electrical energy is low. It is proven by the related ministries which has responsible to make it real are less. Furthermore, in addition to prevent the use of fossils fuel must be followed by developing the new power plant.

*Erahman QF, Purwanto WW, Subandriyo M, Hidayatno A. An assessment of Indonesia's energy security index and comparison with seventy countries.

Believing of The Word of Leadership

After reading some articles which talk about the leader, I came out with an idea about leadership. President, governor, chairman, chief, or any words related to leadership are different to a leader. Those are only a person who gets paid in several field of work is employed by people. They get money from the tax that people paid and get reward or achievement. So what it is a leader?

Based on my understanding about the leader, it is a person who can mobilize many people without getting paid. He or she knows what the people feel and understands what people need. A leader is a person who exactly knows what is happening on many people and this person realizes the atmosphere nearby created by people’s emotion. In short words, it is exactly the same like Masashi Kisimoto said in his comic Naruto i.e. A hokage – the leader of ninja hidden village – is a person who has been acknowledged by his friends and people.

So, if currently you do not acknowledge your leader even he won the election, then he is not a leader. He is only a person you pay for doing something.

However, there is a question based on those understanding. If the leader must be acknowledged, it would be so hard to find close to that aspect. Well, the main understanding is not about the acknowledgement created by the friends or the people. But, what kind of aspect or reasons that made many people admitted someone has a good capability of leadership. So, it means a leader must have certain requirements in case he or she is chosen as a leader.

Many people will consider those requirements are having lots of experiences, or can manage many people. Or even more, a leader must have a good communications skill so that he or she can mobilize many people. Some people also might say that a leader is a person who has good knowledge such as a professor. But, the truth is all of that is incorrect in aspect of a leader.

Shiddiq. Honesty and Truth. In Arabian language, shiddiq means truth. What he says and what he did is truth. So, a leader never tells lies for many people. This characteristic will lead a leader to act with full responsibility. Another characteristics of a leader is Amanah which has strong ethical and moral principle which leads us to have a responsibility. He can be trusted throughout any kind of thing. The next characteristic is Fathanah. Smart and have widespread of knowledge. A leader must study and learn from anything, anywhere, and anytime. It leads a leader to have critical thought which help him to solve many issues. With many experiences from studying and learning, he will able to decide which one is better or not. A leader must be a wise person in deciding anything. And the last one is tabligh which means giving the truth. It is similar to shiddiq but tabligh is close to the actions. When a leader is given an information about something important, he will inform many people without hesitation and nothing to hide. He will tell the truth about the all information.

Overall, a leader is a person that can be trusted by his people so that a leader must have honesty and wise. He is also smart and have big responsibility so he could make decisions wisely. Actually, those characteristics are obtained by the behavior of Mohammed SAW, the last prophet of Islamic people. 

Stairs

I would say that my article is inspired by watching the big bang theory. But, yeah that is a good thing to talk because on the same episode, I heard that Sheldon said that the stairs has a unique system. If every steps differs more than two millimeters, most people who walk through it will fall because they strip.

But, speaking of stairs, why most stairs are made in steps shape? I mean why we did not construct or design the stairs in a diagonal line without any steps just like a ladder?

Well, it does have reasons why most building designed the stairs with steps. Actually, all of the reason talks about the safety when we use it. In most cases, the stairs without steps which is just like inclining plane are more dangerous than the stairs with steps. The straight flight of stairs, is the name we put on it, creates nothing in difference either the landing or the winders. On the other hand, the straight plane makes us to see no challenge there so we can just run or walk without hesitation about the dangerous will happen.

But, I think many people do not construct it because the straight flights need more space than stairs with steps. Imagine, in addition to make a second floor in the height of 4 meters, the straight flight need must consider about the degree and the length of the floor. Based on the Pythagoras principle, in certain degree, the length of it is definitely calculated by the floor length and the height. Basically, the 30 degree is the maximum gradient people used the straight flight so the length of the flight will be around 8 meters. Unfortunately, 30 degrees is similar to people who go to hike in a mountain.

Overall, the stairs are made with certain circumstances which are not only based on the design of the stairs but also the safety.

Pilot, The Sperm Bank Talks Ethical Consideration

Yesterday night, I watched the first episode on the first season of the big bang theory sit-com. Yes, it is a serial program show which has been popular until now. Surprisingly, the title of the first episode is pilot which I do not know what is that mean.

All that pilot thing is started by two men which are Cooper and Hofstadter went to the sperm bank. Even though I do not understand about what is the specific meaning of the title, but I have something interesting about Sheldon who was disagree about the filling the form in case they can give their sperm. Well, according to his perception that the bank sperm which will result the offspring of many people is more likely to inherit a genetic fraud. What kind of fraud? Well, this article is neither talking the big bang theory first episode nor Sheldon but I am interested in discussing about the sperm bank occurred in many developed countries today.

Something has crossed my mind when I wrote this article, why humanity did construct a sperm bank. A building containing of many genetic compounds from many people around the world is constructed to prevent us from extinction, do we did that? Well, actually I do not know then I tried to search on the Internet what is the objective of this idea. After googling, I found that the sperm bank is used for women who needed sperm so they can achieve pregnancy. The sperm is given by a donor which stores in the bank. Actually, yes, it helps humanity to maintain their generation.

But there is a problem even though through the medical perspectives, this kind of pregnancy is not different from normal pregnancy. The experts coin this process with the name of artificial insemination. Instead of using a sexual intercourse, scientist injects the sperm through the women’ ovulation organ. So, what is the problem about that?

Scientifically speaking, the woman which has received the sperm is responsible to raise the child. Even more, she must take care the baby whether his biological father cares or not. It means, this poor (I could say she is a poor woman) woman put a big hope from the genetic aspect provided by the donor. The best scenario is the children from this artificial insemination have good characteristics both physical and emotional aspect otherwise the woman must face it whether she likes or not. Basically, this is like a gamble for a woman and having children in my tradition is sacred things. My society consider children as a gift from the God.

On the other hand, the practices of sperm bank will inherit a good genetics aspect. The donor who has good physical characteristics, for instance, he which does not have carrier disease will become the best donor. And the bank put high price on his sperm and leads the related people consider it as something commercial. So, sperm trading is something normal and it is not against the ethical and moral principles.