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The Jakarta Post, Kupang | Fri, 06/18/2010 10:22 AM

KUPANG: The UN is committed to assisting East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) address poverty problems, UN Resident Coordinator for Indonesia El Mostafa Ben Lamlih has said in Kupang.

Mostafa said Tuesday the UN had a special agenda and would continue coordinating with local administrations to deal with those problems.

He was speaking at the unveiling the five-year cooperation scheme involving eight UN organizations, including the UNDP, Unicef and the UNHCR.

Apart from poverty, he added, the UN was also ready to partner with local administrations to address problems in the fields of health, education, economy, infrastructure, judicial systems and the environment.

NTT Governor Frans Leburaya hoped UN aid would ease the province’s poverty, which affects almost half of the province’s population of 4.6 million. — JP

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 06/18/2010 10:16 AM

The government has announced it plans to meet an international standard currently being developed that would outlaw the use and production of mercury, which is a highly toxic metal.

Head of the government’s team tasked with meeting the regulation, Rasio Ridho Sani, said Indonesians and the local environment were vulnerable to mercury poisoning.

“We plan to join the planned legally binding treaty on mercury issues,” Rasio told reporters Wednesday.

Indonesia imported 9 tons of mercury in 2009, primarily for use in dental clinics and small mining operations.

The first round talks for the anti-mercury convention was held in Stockholm last week, grouping

delegates from 121 countries and 61 NGOs.

During the meeting, Japan declared it would being implementing the regulation in 2013. Japan proposed the agreement be named the Minamata treaty, after the Japanese town in which more than 900 people died after consuming fish contaminated with methylmercury dumped into the bay in the 1950s. Acute mercury poisoning is referred to as Minamata disease.

“The talks on the mercury convention got huge responses as all countries look to prevent another incident like Minamata,” Rasio said.

He said Indonesia would look to implement the treaty within a select few industrial sectors at first, and would seek financial and technological support from rich nations to meet the demands of the agreement.

“We hope that implementation [of the treaty] will affect selected sectors, such as dental clinics, but the rich nations should still take the lead in combating mercury emissions,” he said.

Many Indonesian dentists still use mercury-based amalgam to fill cavities.

Data from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) showed that 1,200-2,900 tons of mercury was emitted into the atmosphere world wide every year due to human actions.

It said huge amounts of mercury were released into rivers, lakes, seas and on land.

The UNEP said most people and animals absorbed small amounts of mercury into their bodies through breathing in mercury emitted by industrial processes and coal-fired power stations, and ingesting mercury in food.

“There is increasing concern about the consequences of low-level exposure,” it said.

Experts claim fossil-fuel burning is the main contributor of mercury pollution.

Rasio said negotiations during the convention discussed how to reduce supply and demand as well as technical and financial assistance to combat mercury emissions.

Indonesia is currently a party to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions on hazardous chemical substances.

Antara News, Tuesday, June 15, 2010 17:59 WIB

Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara (ANTARA News) - The United Nations Global Fund has provided Indonesia with Rp17.31 billion for the handling of infectious diseases in three provinces, an AIDS commission official said.

"The three provinces which have received the assistance from the Global Fund are West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and Maluku," National AIDS Commission Secretary Nafsiah Mboi said here on Tuesday.

The funds will be used to handle three types of infectious diseases, namely AIDS, tuberculosis (TBC) and malaria.

She said NTB got an allocation worth Rp5.05 billion, NTT Rp7.19 billion and Maluku Rp7.07 billion.

Nafsiah Mboi said the aim of the assistance was to accelerate the efforts to prevent and handle HIV/AIDS cases in the country.

The funds come on top of those made available in state and regional budgets.

Governments around the world stockpiled antiviral drugs

Key scientists behind World Health Organization advice on stockpiling of pandemic flu drugs had financial ties with companies which stood to profit, an investigation has found.

The British Medical Journal says the scientists had openly declared these interests in other publications yet WHO made no mention of the links.

It comes as a report from the Council of Europe criticised the lack of transparency around the handling of the swine flu pandemic.

A spokesman for WHO said the drug industry did not influence its decisions on swine flu.

Guidelines recommending governments stockpile antiviral drugs were issued by WHO in 2004.

The advice prompted many countries around the world into buying up large stocks of Tamiflu, made by Roche, and Relenza manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.

A year after the swine flu pandemic was declared, stocks are left unused in warehouses and governments are attempting to unpick contracts.

Conflict of interest

The BMJ, in a joint investigation with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, found that three scientists involved in putting together the 2004 guidance had previously been paid by Roche or GSK for lecturing and consultancy work as well as being involved in research for the companies.

Although the scientists involved had freely declared the links in other places and said WHO asked for conflicts of interest forms prior to expert meetings, the ties were not publically declared by WHO.

It is not clear whether these conflicts were notified privately by WHO to governments around the world, the BMJ said, and a request to see conflict of interest declarations was turned down.

In addition, membership of the "emergency committee" which advised WHO's director general Margaret Chan on declaring an influenza pandemic has been kept secret.

It means the names of the 16 committee members are known only to people within WHO, and as such their possible conflicts of interest with drug companies are unknown.

On its website, WHO says: "Potential conflicts of interest are inherent in any relationship between a normative and health development agency, like WHO, and a profit-driven industry.

"Similar considerations apply when experts advising the Organization have professional links with pharmaceutical companies.

"Numerous safeguards are in place to manage possible conflicts of interest or their perception."

Antara News, Thursday, May 27, 2010 19:47 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communication and information, Kiyotaka Akasaka, said Indonesia had made an enormous progress at home upon achieving the MDGs target.

"I see that Indonesia has made progress in reducing poverty, upgrade the education sector and women role in the society as well as increasing the rate of child mortality," Akasaka said here on Thursday morning during a press conference after giving a public lecture themed "The UN, MDGs and the Role of Young People in Furthering the Global Agenda" at Atmajaya University Jakarta.

However, he said, further effort was still needed to boost the handling of several sectors namely maternal mortality, eradication of HIV/AIDS, improvement of environmental sustainability an unemployment.

"Indonesia still have five more years to go. I believe this country will be able to achieve the MDGs target and the UN is willing to assist it," he said adding that Indonesia was among countries in the world which support the UN`s program.

At noon, Akasaka is scheduled to meet with Directorate General for Multilateral Economy, Finance and Development from Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Rezlan Izhar Janie, and other high officials from the ministry. They will be discussing about further cooperation in area of public information.

"Indonesian government has already support UN`s program during the past years. We are hoping that the support will continue in th future," said Akasaka.

In the afternoon he will visit the Peacekeeping Training Facility in Cilangkap to participate in a ceremonial event to pay tribute to Indonesia`s contributions to UN Peacekeeping in anticipation of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers (May 29).

Jakarta Globe, Dessy Sagita, May 20, 2010

Public health and environmental activists on Tuesday called for lawmakers to introduce legislation regulating the use of mercury in consumer goods and small mining operations.

“Southeast Asia is probably the biggest user of mercury,” said Yuyun Ismawati, director of environmental group Bali Fokus Foundation. “We use it in electrical and medical equipment, batteries and even dental fillings.”

Increasingly, medical and scientific bodies are pushing for tighter controls on mercury to curtail the shopping list of health problems brought on by the prolonged exposure to the toxic element. And what a list it is. It includes: damage to the brain, tissue, kidney and lungs, as well as birth defects.

But in major urban areas such as Jakarta, where the treatment of general waste has been an issue for years, the dearth of safe disposal facilities is compounding the problem.

Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI) chairwoman Husna Zahir said the increasing rate of mercury poisoning found among the public is also a question of low awareness of the element’s side-effects.

“Most consumers have little knowledge of the dangers posed by substances such as mercury because they only start exhibiting symptoms once the toxin has accumulated inside the body,” she said.

Skin-whitening creams, hot sellers at glitzy urban department stores, were singled out for flying under the radar of public conciousness.

“Women should be particularly concerned about this, because of the proliferation of mercury-containing cosmetic products, some of which are actually licensed for sale,” Husna said.

Husna called on the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM), the country’s main consumer and public health watchdog, to tighten licensing requirements of products before they are brought to market.

Yuyun echoed that call, urging the government to adopt a policy of “No data, no market,” for manufacturers who fail to provide accurate product information about toxic or potentially harmful substances.

“People must be careful about consuming fish caught in polluted waters, as they could also contain high levels of accumulated mercury,” Yuyun said.

UN Industrial Development Organization Indonesia country coordinator Rini Sulaiman said mercury use in Indonesia has been driven by increasing discoveries of gold and other precious metal deposits.

Smaller miners often use mercury amalgamation to extract gold and other precious metals. The process is no longer used by the big mining companies because of the severe environmental degradation it leaves behind.

“There are so many miners now exhibiting symptoms of mercury poisoning, including tremors, fever and nausea,” Rini said.

Antara News, Wednesday, April 14, 2010 11:03 WIB

Sukabumi, W Java (ANTARA News) - Some 37 illegal immigrants from the Middle East were nabbed by Sukabumi police early Wednesday morning.

They were arrested at Palampang beach, Ciemas subdistrict in Sukabumi, West Java, when they were about to board a boat for Christmas Island. Palampang beach is quite close to the Australian island of Christmas.

They were herded to Ciemas police office and then driven to Sukabumi immigration office for further investigation.

Chief of Sukabumi police criminal investigation unit Adjunct Commissioner Suciptono also confirmed that the 37 illegal immigrants were captured early Wednesday morning at Palampang beach.

"We have nabbed the 37 illegal immigrants from the Middle East and now they are still at Ciemas police station," Suciptono said they would be driven to Sukabumi immigration office at 9 on Wednesday morning.

But he made no mention on whether they would remain in Indonesia or be deported to their country of origin.

"We will hand over the illegal immigrants to the immigration office to decide whether they should be deported or not," Suciptono said.

Meanwhile, it was reported from Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, on Monday, April 12, 2010, that a total of 135 illegal immigrants had been caught in the province over the past few months and they were still staying at a local immigration detention center.

They came from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar, were arrested by the police and immigration authorities in Kupang, I Gusti Ngurah Rai, head of the Kupang Immigration Detention Center, said on Monday.

The detained illegals were still waiting for a clarification process to be conducted by the UNHCR and the International Organization of Migration (IOM).

The majority of the detainees were Afghans, he said, adding that they were not in possession of legal travel documents when caught.

The illegal immigrants mostly wanted to go to Australia as asylum seekers but while waiting for the UNHCR and IOM`s clarification process, the police had sent them to the detention center, he said.

Dina Indrasafitri, The Jakarta Post | Wed, 03/31/2010 9:11 PM

Curbing gender disparity and increasing awareness among Indonesian women of their reproductive rights could help save them from HIV and AIDS, Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Linda Amalia Sari Gumelar said Wednesday.

"We are aware that the number of women with HIV is increasing. Women in committed relationships are vulnerable to contracting HIV if their partners also have it," Linda said in Jakarta during the launching of the Report of HIV Transmission of Intimate Partner Relationships in Asia.

The report, published by UNAIDS, revealed that in 2006 there was a substantial increase in the number of women over 15 years old living with HIV in Indonesia as compared to the figure in 2002.

Indonesian women are among 50 million people in Asia at risk of being infected with HIV from long-term sexual partners.

"Currently it is necessary to increase programs targeting at strengthening women's reproductive rights and the bargaining power so that they can refuse high-risk sex," Linda said.

Irwanto, a professor from the Atmajaya University, said that it was only recently that the threat of long-term intimate relationships as possible HIV infection sources was realized.

He said a few years ago the focus had been on IDU (injection drug users). It was only recently realized that drug users were recognized to have girlfriends, wives and families, who are at high risk of contracting the disease.

Nafsiah Mboi,secretary for the National AIDS Commission, said that despite the successful campaigns on IDUs and drug use in relations the HIV, the efforts to prevent sexual transmission of HIV in the country had been much less successful.

Prof. Hubert Gijzen (Photo: Ms. Siti Rachmania/UNESCO Jakarta)

Every March 22 the world commemorates World Water Day and this year the theme is “Clean Water for a Healthy World”. The world is currently facing multiple problems impacting access to clean water including climate change and rapid population growth. In recognition of World Water Day, The Jakarta Post’s Evi Mariani interviewed UNESCO Regional Director and Representative Prof. Hubert Gijzen, who formerly taught as a professor at the UNESCO-IHE Institute of Water Education, in Delft, The Netherlands. Below are some excerpts from the interview.

Question: What is the meant by World Water Day, and what should people know about water?

Answer: World Water Day has been observed since 1993, following the adoption of a resolution by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, which designated March 22 of each year as World Water Day. This was done in recognition of the key importance of water for people, for the environment and for all life on this planet.

While generally our daily relation to water is focused on the uses and functions of water for our society and our economy, we must not forget that also nature, the environment and biodiversity are sustained by the vast freshwater resources on earth.

World Water Day is therefore meant to serve as a reminder to governments, to the private sector and to the general public of the importance to achieve access to safe and clean water for all people, and of all other important functions of water, while also managing water to ensure the long-term sustainable use of water for both people and the environment.

It also reminds us of the long way we still have to go to achieve this. Today, many of the world water resources are highly polluted, and/or becoming depleted. At the same time there are almost 1 billion people that lack access to safe water, while the number of people without access to appropriate sanitation services amounts to a daunting 2.4 billion.

This year’s theme is “Clean water for a healthy world”. What does water have to do with health?

Water is life, but on the other hand I should add that water is also a major killer. Every year several million people die from water-borne diseases, and these are mostly children under five years of age. The main culprits are pathogens, bacteria and parasites, which have been brought into the water from fecal contamination, causing diarrhea, which if not treated in a timely manner may lead to death due to dehydration.

So, indeed, there is a direct relationship between water and health, but access to safe water is not enough. It needs to be accompanied by education and awareness-raising on hygiene and health issues.

There is a growing notion among people that fresh water is getting scarcer. Is this true?

The total amount of water on earth remains basically the same. Water, however, moves in a hydrological cycle, in total about 40,000 km3 per year, and this determines when and where there will be water and in what amounts. This has been the case for many millions of years, but over more recent time spans, say in the past 50 years, the impact of people on water has become visible in two distinct ways. First, the combination of rapid population growth, urbanization, industrialization and higher standards of living has lead to more consumption in general, and of water in particular.

I estimate that world wide, less than 20 percent of all domestic and industrial wastewater receives some kind of treatment before its disposal into surface waters. This means that every day, more than 2 million tons of sewage and other effluents are dumped into the world’s waters.

The problem is much worse in developing countries where more than 90 percent of raw sewage and 70 percent of untreated industrial wastes are discharged into surface waters, and the results can be seen. Take a look at the water resources in and around Jakarta for instance. There is indeed no clean freshwater resource available anymore.

The emerging water crisis is not merely one of insufficient water quantity, but it is further aggravated by severe water quality destruction.

Second, there is the much-debated phenomenon of climate change. It is generally accepted that climate change is the main trigger behind the increase in extreme weather events, leading to a sharp increases in floods and draughts.

In developing countries, including Indonesia access to clean water is directly related to poverty. How can we ensure to make clean water accessible to all?

Indeed, water is directly related to poverty, and in that sense to the general wellbeing of people. Poor people generally pay much more for safe drinking water than the middle class living in cities and having access to municipal water supply services; this means that a disproportional share of the family income goes to the purchase of drinking water, but it also explains why poor people easily revert back to unsafe sources of water for potable use.

On top of this comes the effect of ever-increasing water quality deterioration, which jeopardizes food security and livelihoods, again with the poor being most affected. This is in fact what is meant by the term “poverty trap”. This is also why water needs specific attention when we talk about the achievement

of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Water relates not only to poverty (MDG 1), but also poor water and sanitation services (MDG 7) lead to students dropping out of school (MDG 2), especially among girls (MDG 3), and it also leads to increased under-5 mortality and other major diseases (MDGs 4 and 6).

In order to address these challenges and to break the poverty trap, 24 different UN agencies joined forces to form UN Water, which brings together a wide range of expertise and capacities in all fields of water, related to food production, hygiene and health, education, the environment and many other dimensions of water.

In my view the key challenge for UN Water in cooperation with governments all over the world will be to revisit the way we have been managing our water resources. This is a challenge of developed and developing countries alike. It seems we need to rethink the way we deal with water, both in developing and developed countries.

Related Articles:

A woman cleaning her child in a North Jakarta slum. According to the city’s Public Works Office data, 70 percent of the country is forced to wash in contaminated water. (Photo: Afriadi Hikmal, JG)

Manila. Seventeen million Asians have fallen into extreme poverty due to the global financial crisis, the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations said on Wednesday.

And another 4 million could this year slip into the same situation due to the effects of the slump, officials from the two organizations said launching a joint report on poverty alleviation here.

This is on top of the 900 million people in Asia who are already living in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.25 a day.

Asia had shown great progress in bringing people out of poverty in recent years, ADB vice president Ursula Schaefer-Preuss said. “But gains are being reversed due to the economic crisis,” she said.

UN Under-Secretary General Noeleen Heyzer said that people in the export and tourism sectors in Asia had lost and were still losing their jobs due to the crisis, which swept across the globe in late 2008.

Less foreign investment, aid and remittances from overseas workers were further hurting Asia’s poor, Heyzer said.

The report said more women, who form the majority of Asia’s low-skilled and temporary workforce, than men had been forced back into extreme poverty due to the crisis.

UN Assistant Secretary General Ajay Chhibber said the Asia-Pacific was doing quite well in areas such as infrastructure in achieving the UN’s Millennium Development Goals that are aimed at bringing people out of poverty.

“But it lags woefully behind in social issues,” he said.

Even Latin America and Eastern Europe had better “social protections” than Asia such as pensions and unemployment insurance, Chhibber said.

Only 2 percent to 3 percent of gross domestic product in Asia goes to such social protections, he said, adding that this figure should ideally be 4 percent to 6 percent.

This meant large numbers of Asians could fall back into poverty during the crisis or even during natural disasters, he said.

The report said the could protect itself from future crises though regional cooperation. “Regional cooperation would also be particularly valuable for the trade in food, and could include grain banks that are maintained in each country but readily accessible to others.”

Expanding Asian “monetary and financial coordination would be particularly useful to reduce external shocks such as with the global financial crisis.

Asian nations could consider diversifying their export markets to become less dependent on demand from the West, the joint report advised.

“By lowering trade barriers and creating more opportunity for the Asia-Pacific region to invest within itself, there can be a greater insulation against such crisis in the future.”

JG, AFP

Asian Development Bank

ESCAP, ADB and UNDP joint Report calls for strengthening social protection

MANILA (UN ESCAP Information Services) – A joint report by the United Nations and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) warns that the global economic crisis could trap an additional 21 million people in the Asia-Pacific region in extreme poverty, living on less than $1.25 a day.

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals in an Era of Global Uncertainty: Asia-Pacific Regional Report 2009/10, launched today in Manila, examines the toll that the global economic crisis has taken on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Asia-Pacific region. Produced by United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), ADB and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the report identifies opportunities for action – showing how countries of Asia and the Pacific can better protect themselves from this and future crises.

“This report shows that, while we are at a moment of crisis for the MDGs we also have an opportunity,” says Noeleen Heyzer, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP at the report launch. “As this crisis has exposed many vulnerabilities in the region – we can now address them and direct this recovery towards a stronger sustainable development path for the Asia-Pacific region.”

"Most stimulus measures have focused on areas other than social expenditures," says Ursula Schaefer-Preuss, ADB Vice President. "If we are to address the human impacts of the economic slowdown and achieve the MDGs, then social spending needs to be stepped up substantially."

"Asia has much weaker social protection compared to other regions such as Latin America and Eastern Europe,” says Ajay Chhibber, UNDP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific and UN Assistant Secretary-General. “Without better protection people fall back into poverty with economic crisis, health pandemics and natural disasters and cannot recover easily, making the achievement of MDGs more difficult."

The report notes that long-term social protection can actually strengthen Asia’s resilience against future shocks. Yet the report finds that across the region, only 20 per cent of the unemployed and underemployed have access to labour market programmes such as unemployment benefits, and only 30 per cent of older people receive pensions.

If fiscal stimulus packages have a strong component of social expenditures, notes the report, this is likely to produce a double dividend – not only boosting growth more rapidly but also accelerating progress towards the MDGs.

Prior to the economic crisis, the region as a whole had been making notable gains, including being on track to achieve three important targets: gender parity in secondary education, ensuring universal access of children to primary school, and halving the proportion of people living below the $1.25-a-day poverty line. However, the economic crisis undermined the momentum.

Asia and the Pacific is still the home to the largest number – more than 50 per cent – of people, both rural and urban, without basic sanitation, of under-5 children who are underweight, of people infected with TB, of people living on less than $1.25 a day, and of rural people without access to clean water, according to the report.

It notes that in 2009 the crisis trapped up to an additional 17 million people in extreme poverty, and in 2010, another 4 million, giving a total of 21 million or roughly the equivalent to the population of Australia.

The most adversely affected segment of the population is women, who constitute the majority of Asia’s low-skilled, low-salaried, and temporary workforce that can easily be laid off during economic downturns. Moreover the crisis has reduced the demand for migrant labour – and women form nearly two-thirds of the total Asian migrant population.

The report points to opportunities for the region to protect itself and the MDG progress from future crisis though regional cooperation. Regional cooperation would also be particularly valuable for the trade in food, and could include grain banks that are maintained in each country but readily accessible to others, notes the report.

Expanding Asian monetary and financial coordination would be particularly useful to reduce external shocks such as with the global financial crisis. While fiscal stimulus is the most practical way of filling the gap left by declining exports, in the medium and long term, countries will need to generate domestic demand in a more sustainable way.

Countries can consider diversifying their export markets to become less dependent on demand in the West, suggests the report. They can boost trade within the region by liberalizing trade regimes and improving transport links, simplifying customs and inspection procedures.

By lowering trade barriers and creating more opportunity for the Asia-Pacific region to invest within itself, there can be a greater insulation against such crisis in the future.

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals in an Era of Global Uncertainty: Asia-Pacific Regional Report 2009/10 is the fourth regional MDG report for Asia and the Pacific produced by the three agencies.

For more information please go to: http://www.mdgasiapacific.org/.

Antara News, Monday, January 25, 2010 13:28 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - US Ambassador to Indonesia Cameron R. Hume has praised the Indonesian government for sending aid to earthquake-devastated Haiti.

"Yet this week Indonesia is making generous contributions to the people of Haiti in their greatest need. Indonesia`s extended hand is not a mere gesture. It is a significant act of leadership," Ambassador Cameron said in his statement published on the official website of the US embassy in Jakarta, Monday.

The aid for Haiti, in many ways, was similar to Indonesia`s pledge to fight climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a pledge that triggered positive promises from other governments, he said.

"Indonesia is playing a key role in creating a world community ready to respond to the challenges of the 21st century," he said.

Fate and geography make Indonesia uniquely vulnerable to natural disasters. The Aceh tsunami of five years ago made an indelible impression on the entire world, but other events as recent as last year`s earthquakes in western Java and Padang reminded the people of Indonesia`s vulnerability, Hume said.

"First, why is Haiti important? Despite its favorable location in the Caribbean, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest countries in the world," Hume said.

Its people suffer from disease, malnutrition, wretched public services, and lack of economic opportunity. But they also have a proud history of being the second country to fight for and win their independence from colonialism, and they have a rich artistic culture. But for the past century development has passed Haiti by. There must be a way to turn around that decline, according to the US ambassador.

"Second, what does Indonesia have to offer? Quite a lot that is in greatest need, especially skill and experience: 30 doctors with a field hospital and medicine, 25 communication workers, 10 electricians, plus supplies and food. Indonesia knows how to respond to a natural disaster, and it knows that human solidarity counts. Anyone who has watched the extensive television reports from Haiti would know that Indonesia will be helping to meet Haiti`s most urgent needs," he stated.

"Third, why can`t others meet these needs? My own country, like others, has been quick to dispatch rescue workers, medical teams, and supplies - but we know that acting alone cannot be adequate. Isn`t it likely that the resourceful Indonesian who brought emergency cell phone service back to Padang might have just the skills most needed?," he said

The US ambassador said that Haiti lacked basic infrastructure even before the earthquake.

The roads, port, electricity grid, water and sanitation service, and communications are broken or destroyed by the earthquake.

"Little wonder that delivering assistance the last meter to a victim is so hard," he said.

The United Nations, including its Brazilian-led peace-keeping force, is at the center of international efforts to help Haiti. The organization has its own reasons to grieve the loss of so many able and dedicated staff.

Hedi Annabi, the Secretary-General`s special representative, died in the rubble of the UN headquarters last week.

"He was a remarkable man -- calm in crises, straightforward in discussions, dedicated to doing the good he could, able to appreciate irony, but never cynical. Others now need to step forward," Hume said.

According to the envoy, Indonesians should be proud of their government`s actions to help Haiti.

"Although Haiti is a small, poor country on the other side of the world, our future depends on leadership that brings together global responses to what might appear as local needs. Indonesia is playing its part to provide that kind of leadership, both on the ground in Haiti and at the conference tables of the climate change talks, the G-20, and elsewhere. Indonesia`s leadership makes it an important partner for the United States," he said.

`Men anpil, chay pa lou` is a Haitian proverb which means, with many hands, the burden is light. "Indonesia is lending an impressive hand to the Haitian relief effort," he added.