Andra Wisnu , The Jakarta Post , Denpasar | Wed, 02/11/2009 12:23 PM | The Archipelago
A local man suspected of having bird flu rested in his home in Jagapati village, Badung, a place well-known for cockfighting, while officials continued to cull fowls in the area.
Putu Pranayoga, 20, was resting in his bedroom when The Jakarta Post visited. Dwi Tresna Ningsih, a field doctor who has been treating and observing Putu, said he began showing symptoms of influenza Monday, just a few days after the report of a possible bird flu outbreak in the area.
"We've given him Tamiflu *the medicine required to treat bird flu suspects* and we'll continue to observe him every five hours," Tresna said Tuesday.
She said Putu seemed to be getting better but declined to rule out the possibility of bird flu, saying that she was still waiting for results of Putu's blood test, which was sent to Jakarta on Monday.
"We can't know for sure until we've received the results of his blood tests, which we will get in two weeks," she said.
It is the latest resurgence of the much-dreaded avian flu in Bali since the death of a 29-year-old woman, who allegedly died after being infected by the H5N1 virus on August 2007.
The virus was first detected on Wednesday last week, when a villager reported the sudden and nearly simultaneous death of 15 fowls in the area to the Badung Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Agency.
The dead fowl tested positive of bird flu.
The agency has since culled as many as 133 fowls in the district, with further culling to continue in the days to come until all the villages' estimated 180-fowl population has been eliminated.
"We have culled 133 fowls so far, including the 40 we aim to finish off today. We'll continue the elimination for as long as it takes," said I Made Badra, head of the Badung Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Agency, in Jagapati on Tuesday.
According to Badra, the resurgence of the virus was related to the wet season, which may have weakened a certain fowl's immune system enough to catch bird flu, quickly spreading to others.
Another possibility, he said, was the transportation of an infected chicken from Java to Jagapati to use for cockfighting.
The Bali government has banned unlicensed live animal transportation into Bali and cockfighting, but the latter remains a staple in the island due to the religious and traditional nature of the so-called sport.
On the other hand, the ban on animal transportation seems to have been fully implemented since the detection of rabies virus late last year. However, Badra said there was a good chance that infected fowls escaped detection because they might have been transported before the rabies scare.
"For now we'll continue to urge the public to not transport live animals into Bali," he said.
"We should all really learn from what happens to people who come in contact with sick animals," he said, referring to the alleged death of the 29-year-old woman from bird flu and the recent alleged deaths from rabies.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Why Insurance Is Important ??
If you were to die could your family or dependants, pay for your funeral, organize the financial affairs, service pre-existing debt and continue their current standard of living without you? This is why life insurance is important.
If you were to be seriously injured could you pay for your hospital costs, ongoing treatment, time off work, pay the living costs for you and your family until you are fully recovered, if you are fully recovered?. This is why Total Permanent Disability insurance is important.
If you are injured and are unable to continue working are you able to service your debtors and maintain any standard of living? This is why you need income protection insurance.
If you were to be in a car accident with two other cars and it was determined that the accident was your fault, could you go to a car showroom and buy yourself a new car, pay for repair or replacement of the other two cars and pay for the medical bills of the other drivers and their passengers? This is why motor insurance is important.
Why Insurance Is Important
If you were to die could your family or dependants, pay for your funeral, organize the financial affairs, service pre-existing debt and continue their current standard of living without you? This is why life insurance is important.
If you were to be seriously injured could you pay for your hospital costs, ongoing treatment, time off work, pay the living costs for you and your family until you are fully recovered, if you are fully recovered?. This is why Total Permanent Disability insurance is important.
If you are injured and are unable to continue working are you able to service your debtors and maintain any standard of living? This is why you need income protection insurance.
If you were to be in a car accident with two other cars and it was determined that the accident was your fault, could you go to a car showroom and buy yourself a new car, pay for repair or replacement of the other two cars and pay for the medical bills of the other drivers and their passengers? This is why motor insurance is important.
If you are ill and need immediate treatment at a hospital but the wait is massive as the public health system is suffering lengthy delays and you deteriorate to the point that treatment is very costly. This is why health insurance is important.
If your home is broken into and your possessions are stolen, can you replace all the items taken and pay for all the damage to the property caused by the burglars? This is why home and contents insurance is important.
If you are running a business and someone is injured on your premises by falling over a step or is injured during a robbery, can you cover the cost of their medical treatment and any impending court costs and rulings? This is why public liability insurance is important.
If your business fails to meet a loan payment due to a cashflow problem can you afford to pay the default fees, or find money to pay for other leasing contracts, staff, utility payments and rent? This is why business expense insurance is important.
Insurance is generally low cost and the cost to cover all the above scenarios with insurance is far, far lower than trying to service them if they arise. Just one situation not going your way can far outweigh the cost of insurance. Are you willing to bet a 100% record?
At some point you will probably need to call upon some kind of insurance. The law of averages means at some point you may well get ill, or you will get burgled or your flight will lose your luggage or your car will crash, and you definitely will die at some point in the future.
Insurance is not just important it is necessary. Unless you are independently wealthy or have strong consistent income streams you cannot meet the level of expenditure expected if you are sacrificing insurance.
Recommendations
This is a common question we get asked - Who should I choose? You can see who Insurance Compared recommends
If you were to be seriously injured could you pay for your hospital costs, ongoing treatment, time off work, pay the living costs for you and your family until you are fully recovered, if you are fully recovered?. This is why Total Permanent Disability insurance is important.
If you are injured and are unable to continue working are you able to service your debtors and maintain any standard of living? This is why you need income protection insurance.
If you were to be in a car accident with two other cars and it was determined that the accident was your fault, could you go to a car showroom and buy yourself a new car, pay for repair or replacement of the other two cars and pay for the medical bills of the other drivers and their passengers? This is why motor insurance is important.
Why Insurance Is Important
If you were to die could your family or dependants, pay for your funeral, organize the financial affairs, service pre-existing debt and continue their current standard of living without you? This is why life insurance is important.
If you were to be seriously injured could you pay for your hospital costs, ongoing treatment, time off work, pay the living costs for you and your family until you are fully recovered, if you are fully recovered?. This is why Total Permanent Disability insurance is important.
If you are injured and are unable to continue working are you able to service your debtors and maintain any standard of living? This is why you need income protection insurance.
If you were to be in a car accident with two other cars and it was determined that the accident was your fault, could you go to a car showroom and buy yourself a new car, pay for repair or replacement of the other two cars and pay for the medical bills of the other drivers and their passengers? This is why motor insurance is important.
If you are ill and need immediate treatment at a hospital but the wait is massive as the public health system is suffering lengthy delays and you deteriorate to the point that treatment is very costly. This is why health insurance is important.
If your home is broken into and your possessions are stolen, can you replace all the items taken and pay for all the damage to the property caused by the burglars? This is why home and contents insurance is important.
If you are running a business and someone is injured on your premises by falling over a step or is injured during a robbery, can you cover the cost of their medical treatment and any impending court costs and rulings? This is why public liability insurance is important.
If your business fails to meet a loan payment due to a cashflow problem can you afford to pay the default fees, or find money to pay for other leasing contracts, staff, utility payments and rent? This is why business expense insurance is important.
Insurance is generally low cost and the cost to cover all the above scenarios with insurance is far, far lower than trying to service them if they arise. Just one situation not going your way can far outweigh the cost of insurance. Are you willing to bet a 100% record?
At some point you will probably need to call upon some kind of insurance. The law of averages means at some point you may well get ill, or you will get burgled or your flight will lose your luggage or your car will crash, and you definitely will die at some point in the future.
Insurance is not just important it is necessary. Unless you are independently wealthy or have strong consistent income streams you cannot meet the level of expenditure expected if you are sacrificing insurance.
Recommendations
This is a common question we get asked - Who should I choose? You can see who Insurance Compared recommends
Monday, February 23, 2009
Lumpur Lapindo (Lapindo Mud)
After being in Surabaya on business trip for the "I-don't-know-how-many"-th time, I decided to stop by the Lapindo Mud area on my way back to the airport. This is a newly famous "tourist object" in the subdistrict of Porong, Sidoarjo (just a few kilometres outside of Surabaya) which is a mud volcano that has been overflowing since mid-2006 until today (2 years of non-stop mud flow!!).
You can see from the pictures below (courtesy of CRISP - National University of Singapore) that the mud has now covered a huge area of what used to be villages.
2005
October 2008
The cause of this tragedy is still uncertain, but a recent Geologists' conference in Cape Town voted in favor of the view that the mudflow was induced by PT Lapindo Brantas' drilling in the area. The Indonesian government has concluded that PT Lapindo Brantas (which is owned by Bakrie Group) must compensate hundreds of people affected by the mud (these people have lost their homes & occupations). However until now, the company still hasn't paid the full compensation fee.
When arriving near the site, you can smell a bad odour apparently coming from the gases that accompany the mudflow. Dams and barriers have been build to prevent the mud from overflowing an even larger area.
To see the mud area, you must go on top of the dams. The local people have made steps from bamboo in order to get to the top. The "entrance fee" is Rp. 3000. If you are not content at looking from a distance, you can also get an ojek (motorcycle transport) that will take you nearer to the source. But of course, they will charge you more.
Since I had little time & also I had heard of news that there had been sudden eruptions that killed a few people, I was satified with the view from the top. Unluckily, I realized that my cell phone's battery was dead so I couldn't take any photographs. The following photos are from a few blogs I found :
(left: The dam/barrier, source : Ajnatz's blog; right : Steps made of bamboo, source : Denmas Rul's blog)
Lapindo mud (source: Denmas Rul's blog)
You can see from the pictures below (courtesy of CRISP - National University of Singapore) that the mud has now covered a huge area of what used to be villages.
2005
October 2008
The cause of this tragedy is still uncertain, but a recent Geologists' conference in Cape Town voted in favor of the view that the mudflow was induced by PT Lapindo Brantas' drilling in the area. The Indonesian government has concluded that PT Lapindo Brantas (which is owned by Bakrie Group) must compensate hundreds of people affected by the mud (these people have lost their homes & occupations). However until now, the company still hasn't paid the full compensation fee.
When arriving near the site, you can smell a bad odour apparently coming from the gases that accompany the mudflow. Dams and barriers have been build to prevent the mud from overflowing an even larger area.
To see the mud area, you must go on top of the dams. The local people have made steps from bamboo in order to get to the top. The "entrance fee" is Rp. 3000. If you are not content at looking from a distance, you can also get an ojek (motorcycle transport) that will take you nearer to the source. But of course, they will charge you more.
Since I had little time & also I had heard of news that there had been sudden eruptions that killed a few people, I was satified with the view from the top. Unluckily, I realized that my cell phone's battery was dead so I couldn't take any photographs. The following photos are from a few blogs I found :
(left: The dam/barrier, source : Ajnatz's blog; right : Steps made of bamboo, source : Denmas Rul's blog)
Lapindo mud (source: Denmas Rul's blog)
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