JAKARTA: Locals in Yogyakarta, a province of Indonesia’s Java, have turned to online chat rooms on WhatsApp to cope with the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and provide solutions.
The first group was set up in March last year as the country’s first infections were reported.
Today, the movement has multiplied into 14 groups to address pandemic-related issues. One of the chat rooms helped communities set up shelters and neighborhood units to isolate coronavirus patients after hospitals in Yogyakarta’s Bantul district became overloaded following the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Another group, the Sonjo Tangguh, was formed in early January to help villages in Bantul crowdsource donations for mattresses and pillows, particularly for isolation facilities in 48 villages of the district, including Sumbermulyo, where a shelter house for 50 patients has also been set up.
“The shelter has been very useful for our village as the hospitals and district-run shelters were full, and we had villagers isolate. We were able to isolate those confirmed with infections but without any symptoms in the village-run shelters. As of today, we have 22 patients in isolation,” Ani Widayani, Sumbermulyo village chief, told Arab News on Sunday.
Rimawan Pradiptyo, who founded the Sonjo movement, said that each WhatsApp group established by Sonjo members, including the Sonjo Tangguh, was designed to help locals in the district amid the pandemic.
“Sonjo Tangguh was established when we saw that villages in Bantul needed about 446 mattresses and pillows to set up shelter facilities at a time when hospitals in the district faced a surge of patients,” Pradiptyo, who is also head of the economics department at the School of Economy and Business in Yogyakarta’s Gadjah Mada University, told Arab News.
“We connected the demand and supply, and so far, we have been able to donate 181 mattresses to be distributed in shelters throughout the district,” Pradiptyo added.
Agus Budi Raharjo, head of the Bantul health agency, said that while all three district-run shelters were funded and set up by the local government, the agency welcomes public donations and cooperation, including funds raised by Sonjo group members.
“We appreciate that Sonjo has played its part to mobilize funds from various parties to collectively donate to shelters, hospitals and other agencies working to tackle the pandemic in Bantul,” he told Arab News.
Sonjo is a Javanese word for cooperation and a moniker of Sambatan Jogja.
Sambatan, too, is a Javanese word that translates to “the spirit of togetherness” when villagers in Java develop a house or public facility.
The first Sonjo chat group, now named Sonjo HQ, is used as the coordination center to discuss issues faced by communities other chat groups.
“All 14 WhatsApp groups remain active as a forum dealing with their specific issues, although there are also some that are less active now as the members have managed to deal with problems, such as the Sonjo Rewangan,” Pradiptyo said.
Sonjo Rewangan was formed on Dec. 14 last year based on an initiative by Bantul health workers — including hospital directors and supporting staff — to respond to the failing online patient referral system between hospitals.
“We used a system similar to an auction, based on patient data to input on a document accessible by WhatsApp group members. Hospitals can choose to admit patients based on their data that matched with each hospital’s respective conditions. So far, the chat group has managed to refer 108 patients between them,” Pradiptyo said.
However, the group is much quieter now that the online referral system between hospitals has improved, following a discussion on a Sonjo chat group involving IT professionals and local health officials.
The latest WhatsApp chat group formed by the Sonjo community in January produced a video guide on handling the bodies and burials of coronavirus victims.
Villagers could not always rely on health workers to follow protocols, and many have handled bodies themselves.
“The Sonjo movement has been able to work due to local leaders and community members’ willingness to act. Many of us have never met in person, but we are actively connected in the chat groups. It is a social capital that has helped us to address problems we face during this pandemic,” Pradiptyo said.
Yogyakarta, a special region with 3.8 million people, reported 175 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, raising total case numbers to 26,456 in the area.
The province, along with five others on Indonesia’s densely populated island of Java, remains a hot spot for coronavirus infections in the country.
As of Sunday, Indonesia reported 7,300 new cases, raising the national tally to more than 1.2 million.
The pandemic has claimed more than 34,000 lives out of Indonesia’s 270 million people, making it one of the worst affected countries in Asia.
Message of hope: Indonesian WhatsApp groups helping tackle pandemic
https://arab.news/2abwa
Message of hope: Indonesian WhatsApp groups helping tackle pandemic
- Crowdfunding supplying urgent hospital beds and isolation housing
- As of Sunday, Indonesia reported 7,300 new cases, raising the national tally to more than 1.2 million
Germany brushes off Musk calling Scholz a ‘fool’
A tight-lipped Scholz simply called it “not very friendly“
BERLIN: German officials on Friday brushed off tech billionaire Elon Musk labelling Olaf Scholz a “fool” on his social media platform X after the dramatic collapse of the chancellor’s coalition government.
In a comment Thursday above a post about the implosion of Scholz’s long-troubled coalition, the world’s richest man tweeted in German: “Olaf ist ein Narr” — “Olaf is a fool.”
Asked about Musk’s comment, government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann took a playful dig at the US tycoon, saying that “on X, you have Narrenfreiheit,” which translates to the freedom to act like a fool.
The word refers to revellers during Germany’s traditional carnival season, which starts next week, having the freedom to act without inhibitions.
Historically, the term echoes the notion of the “jester’s privilege” — the right of a court jester to mock those in power without being punished by the king.
Asked later about the comment, a tight-lipped Scholz simply called it “not very friendly,” adding that Internet companies are “not organs of state so I did not even pay it any attention.”
Musk strongly supported US election winner Donald Trump, and is now positioned to take up a role in his administration as a deputy tasked with restructuring government operations.
It is not the first time the Tesla boss has had run-ins with German officials online.
Last year he said Berlin-funded migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean could be seen as an “invasion” of Italy, sparking a terse response from the German foreign ministry.
He has also expressed sympathy for some of the positions of Germany’s far-right AfD party, which has notched up a string of recent electoral successes and is riding high in the opinion polls.
First flight with Israelis evacuated from Amsterdam lands in Tel Aviv
- The plane that arrived in Tel Aviv had passengers evacuated from Amsterdam
TEL AVIV: The first flight carrying Israelis evacuated from Amsterdam after violent clashes following a football match there landed on Friday at Ben Gurion International Airport, the Israel Airports Authority said.
“The plane that arrived in Tel Aviv now has passengers evacuated from Amsterdam,” Liza Dvir, spokeswoman for the airport authority told AFP.
India’s Modi rejects calls to restore Kashmir’s partial autonomy
- Modi revoked partial autonomy in 2019 and split the state into the two federally administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh
- Jammu and Kashmir held its first local election in a decade this year, newly-elected lawmakers passed resolution this week seeking restoration
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly backed his government’s contentious 2019 decision to revoke the partial autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, days after the territory’s newly elected lawmakers sought its restoration.
“Only the constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar will operate in Kashmir... No power in the world can restore Article 370 (partial autonomy) in Kashmir,” Modi said, referring to one of the founding fathers of the Indian constitution.
Modi was speaking at a state election rally in the western state of Maharashtra, where Ambedkar was from.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government revoked partial autonomy in 2019 and split the state into the two federally administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh — a move that was opposed by many political groups in the Himalayan region.
Jammu and Kashmir held its first local election in a decade in September and October and the newly-elected lawmakers passed a resolution this week seeking the restoration.
Jammu and Kashmir’s ruling National Conference party had promised in its election manifesto that it would restore the partial autonomy, although the power to do so lies with Modi’s federal government.
Jammu and Kashmir’s new lawmakers can legislate on local issues like other Indian states, except matters regarding public order and policing. They will also need the approval of the federally-appointed administrator on all policy decisions that have financial implications.
Under the system of partial autonomy, Kashmir had its own constitution and the freedom to make laws on all issues except foreign affairs, defense and communications.
The troubled region, where separatist militants have fought security forces since 1989, is India’s only Muslim-majority territory.
It has been at the center of a territorial dispute with Pakistan since the neighbors gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Kashmir is claimed in full but ruled in part by both India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars over the region.
Kyiv says Russia has returned bodies of 563 soldiers
- The exchange of prisoners and bodies of killed military personnel remains one of the few areas of cooperation
- The announcement represents one of the largest repatriations of killed Ukrainian servicemen
KYIV: Ukraine said on Friday it had received the bodies of 563 soldiers from Russian authorities, mainly troops that had died in combat in the eastern Donetsk region.
The exchange of prisoners and bodies of killed military personnel remains one of the few areas of cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv since Russia invaded in 2022.
“The bodies of 563 fallen Ukrainian defenders were returned to Ukraine,” the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement on social media.
The announcement represents one of the largest repatriations of killed Ukrainian servicemen since the beginning of the war.
The statement said that 320 of the remains were returned from the Donetsk region and that 89 of the soldiers had been killed near Bakhmut, a town captured by Russia in May last year after a costly battle.
Another 154 of the bodies were returned from morgues inside Russia, the statement added.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine publicly disclose how many military personnel have been killed fighting.
Russia sentences soldiers who massacred Ukraine family to life in prison
- The court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced the two men to life in prison for mass murder “motivated by political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred“
- The incident triggered uproar in Ukraine
MOSCOW: A Russian court sentenced two soldiers to life in prison for the massacre of a family of nine people in their home in occupied Ukraine, state media reported on Friday.
Russian prosecutors said in October 2023, the two Russian soldiers, Anton Sopov and Stanislav Rau, entered the home of the Kapkanets family in the city of Volnovakha with guns equipped with silencers.
They then shot all nine family members who lived there, including two children aged five and nine.
The southern district military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced the two men to life in prison for mass murder “motivated by political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred,” the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing an unnamed law enforcement source.
The incident triggered uproar in Ukraine.
Kyiv alleged at the time that the Russian soldiers had murdered the family in their sleep after they refused to move out of their home to allow Russian soldiers to live there.
“The occupiers killed the Kapkanets family, who were celebrating a birthday and refused to give up their home,” Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said a day after the murder.
Russian forces seized the city of Volnovakha in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region at the start of their full-scale military offensive.
It was virtually destroyed by Russian artillery strikes.
Russian soldiers have been accused of multiple instances of killing civilians in Ukrainian towns and cities they have occupied since February 2022.
Moscow has always denied targeting civilians and tried to claim reports of atrocities at places like Bucha were fake, despite widespread evidence from multiple independent sources.
The arrest and sentencing in this case is a rare example of Russia admitting to a crime committed by its troops in Ukraine.
State media did not say what prosecutors determined the reason for the attack was.
TASS suggested it could have been a “domestic dispute,” while both the independent Radio Free Europe and Kommersant business outlets said it could have been linked to a dispute over obtaining vodka.
The trial was held in secret.
The independent Radio Free Europe outlet reported the Rau, 28, and Sopov, 21 were mercenaries for the Wagner paramilitary before joining Russia’s official army.
They had both received state awards a few months before the mass murder, it said.
