Day: July 3, 2022

The younger generation’s collaboration and support are essential to preserve the wayang shadow puppet art and ensure the art’s popularity, dhalang (puppet master) Ki Bayu Aji Nugraha said.

“Wayang will not fade away because the art has survived for more than three thousand years, from our ancestors’ time and the era of animism and dynamism. Wayang (develops) according to the current developments. Cross-discipline collaboration must be attempted to preserve (the wayang),” Nugraha told ANTARA , on Sunday.

He opined the youth’s interest in wayang can be nurtured by inviting them to collaborate in artistic activities and not restricting their creativity, which will motivate them to explore, share, and develop their artistic skills more.

“That is the main strategy to stir the youth’s interest to be curious and learn (the wayang). From there, we believe that we are successful in our mission,” Nugraha stated.

The dhalang said that activities at Yogyakarta’s Bajran Gupita Art Studio, where he hailed from, are dominated by the youth actively studying puppeteer, traditional music, and traditional singing arts.

Senior practitioners are also present to guide younger generations with basic art skills, hence allowing the youth to be creative in developing their skills, he added.

“They have an outstanding spirit because they are not ceasing from making new works. They are not only developing (the art) but also conducting cross-art collaborations, sharing experiences and experimenting with new performances,” the dhalang remarked.

He recalled that he was attracted to wayang since his high school year in 2008. He then decided to follow the path of his grandfather, Ki Basirun Hadisumarta, a renowned dhalang in Yogyakarta.

The variety of wayang narratives also enticed him to learn wayang, Nugraha said, highlighting wayang characters’ dialogues as one of the most appealing aspect of the art besides the narrative visualisation and the story-telling style.

The puppet master then expressed hope residents’ sense of belonging to the wayang will be preserved in the future.

“The sense of belonging alone is enough to ensure wayang will survive and continue telling stories for us all,” Nugraha remarked.

Source: Antara News

Assistance to increase production quality must follow the distribution of smallholder business credit (KUR) from state-owned banks to entrepreneurs of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Minister of State-owned Enterprises (SOE) Erick Thohir said.

He pointed out that state-owned Bank Mandiri focusing on MSMEs in urban centres, has approached small food stalls popular among workers for lunch. Food quality sold at the food stalls must be maintained to ensure the food are healthy for the workers, the minister said.

“The majority of small food stalls, some 60 per cent of them, are flocked by informal workers who are paid on a daily attendance basis. If they are ill, what does that means? It means their family will not eat on that day,” Thohir stated at Padjadjaran University, here on Sunday.

Government-owned banks must assist MSMEs, particularly those active in the culinary sector, in obtaining quality materials for their food, he said.

“We must not let them purchase low-quality food materials because of capital shortage,” the minister noted.

Thohir then pointed out that as some 74 per cent of Indonesian residents predicted to relocate from villages to cities by 2045, assistance to MSMEs in cities must be optimised.

“Despite we direct Bank Mandiri to focus on corporations, that does not mean the bank will abandon MSMEs in favour of major corporations, no. Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) will focus on MSMEs in villages, while Bank Mandiri will focus on urban MSMEs,” he said.

He informed that Rp260 trillion (US$17.4 billion) business credit, out of the Rp338 trillion (US$22.6 billion) KUR distribution target, has been channelled to MSMEs nationwide.

“We are currently attempting to gradually increase the distribution target to 30 per cent, and we hope it continues increasing to 50 per cent, just like in neighbouring countries,” Thohir remarked.

Source: Antara News

The Indonesian province of East Kalimantan has been warned of potential wildfires as the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has detected 33 hot spots since Saturday.

The hotspots were detected in Balikpapan City and five districts, according to Carolina Meylita Sibarani, an officer at the BMKG Office of Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Sepinggan International Airport.

Speaking to ANTARA here Sunday, she said the detected hotspots had been reported to the province’s disaster mitigation agencies to enable related authorities to take necessary immediate actions.

One of the 33 hot spots was detected in Balikpapan Timur Subdistrict of Balikpapan City, while 32 others were detected in the districts of Kutai Barat, Mahakam Ulu, Paser, Kutai Timur, and Kutai Kartanegara, she said.

Twenty three of the 33 hot spots were detected in Kutai Timur District, Sibarani added.

Source: Antara News