Immigration officials who were accused of skimming visa fees at the international airport in Bali have been acquitted of all charges, according to Tempo Interaktive.

They have received “administrative sanctions” rather than facing criminal charges. Corruption is one of the biggest problems facing Indonesia and it is good to see that some progress is being made in combating corruption, but if clear cases of theft can be proven, the perpetrators need to be dealt with harshly to act as a deterrent.

The total amount involved in the case was 3 billion rupiah or around US$300,000.

I have been using an agent to get my visa extensions and for the second extension, I had to actually visit the immigration office near the airport in Kuta to get photographed and finger printed. They had a scanner to take all of my finger prints, so no ink involved. I remember having to get finger printed in Japan for a visa many years ago for a visa. So many foreigners complained about being treated like criminals that eventually they did away with the practice.

With the bombings and terrorists in Indonesia, immigration is taking care who they allow to stay in the country. I saw a wanted pictures for alleged bomber and terrorist Nordon Top, posted at the airport. The process at immigration however went smoothly and I pick up my passport next week.

While waiting my turn, a young girl walked in and started randomly asking people where she could get a number. An immigration guy behind the counter asked what she wanted, and she said she wanted to extend her tourist visa. Tourist visas are generally unextendable but it is possible if you go through an agent and pay a small “fee”.

Anyway, the immigration official said she couldn’t extend it and then the girl started yelling “this is bullshit”. “My embassy told me I could extend it”. It was funny to watch and I am not sure how she thought that telling the official that the laws were “bullshit” would help her case.

Dari informasi detikfinance di beritakan bahwa Badan Pengatur Jalan Tol ( BPJT ) sedang mempersiapkan kenaikan tarif tol di beberapa ruas di Indonesia. Di pastikan kenaikan paling lambat akhir agustus 2009.
Kepala BPJT, Nurdin Manurung menyatakan sedang melakukan persiapan dan evaluasi SPM ( Standar Pelayanan Minimum ) dan pihaknya juga memastikan bahwa belum di tetapkan tanggal untuk kenaikan tarif tol tersebut. Sayangnya Nurdin tidak merinci ruas mana saja yang akan naik tarif tolnya dan berapa tarif tol yang akan naik.

“Schoolies week” is an Australian tradition of high-school graduates having week-long holidays following the end of their final exams in late November and early December.

Fueled by alcohol and drugs, the celebrations sometimes turn ugly. Schools in Australia have been quick to act to try and create safe venues for students, sometimes banning alcohol.

A travel agency “Unleashed Travel” is now adding Bali as a destination for schoolies tours, basing them in the Bounty Hotel, Kuta. Kuta is already pretty famous for drunken Australians on holidays, walking around shirtless carrying open bottles of Bintang beer.

I hope that the travel company warns their customers of Indonesia’s strict drug laws, where sentences of 10 years for carrying the smallest amount of drugs, is not uncommon.

I finally have the internet connected at my place in Lovina, Bali. Our first attempt was trying to get Speedy connected, where you need to have a telephone line. We had a technician come out who said there weren’t any free ports available, taken mostly by foreigners living in the area. It seems local people here are happy with just using mobile phones.

The next attempt was using a GPRS service. Unfortunately it was just too slow and unreliable to get any real work done.

I heard about the ISP Spicelink which is popular here and getting a connection involved setting up an antennae on the house to get access. I was getting sick of trying to get anything done in an internet cafe, so I was prepared to try anything.

About 5 or 6 workers came to our house today and installed the antenna and it now seems to be working fine. The technician first mentioned that he was going to fix the antenna to a neighbor’s coconut tree. I must have given him a strange look, as he tried to assure me that he would rent the coconut tree from our neighbor.

Jason Scott McIntyre, from Humpty Doo has been jailed for 8 months for carrying about five grams of hashish.

He was lucky to escape the maximum sentence of 10 years.

“(But) the defendant regrets what he did and has promised not to do it again,” Chief judge Sigit Sutanto said.

“He has a right to recover from his narcotics addiction.”

He joins a growing number of foreigners and Australians having an extended stay in Bali’s Kerobokan prison.

Tourism officials in Bali are confident the damage done to the industry from the recent bombings in Jakarta will only be minor.

“Until August 31, we have insignificant tourist arrival cancellation ranged 0-30 percent,” Ben Sukma, chairman the Association of Indonesia Tours and Travel told reporters.

“We also suffer cancellation of a cruise from Japan to Bali province, consisting of 1,800 people,” said Ben.

A martial arts tournament organized by the World Federation of Karate-Do Organizations has cancelled the tournament in Bali which was to be held from Saturday to Sunday this week.

The Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik estimated the tourism sector would take 6 months to recover.

“Indonesia has a lot of experience dealing with crises,” he said Wednesday at a press conference in the capital.

“We’ve been hit by bombs, tsunami, bird flu and financial crises, but we’ve survived. We always survive.

“We needed just one year to recover from the second Bali bombing. I have a gut feeling this time we’ll need only six months to recover.”

The Jakarta Post is reporting that Bali is facing power cuts in Bali between September 23 and November 23 as repairs are undertaken on the gas-fired Gilimanuk power plant PLTG) in Jembrana regency.

“We expect the governor and regents to spread the news to village and district heads, and finally to residents,” PLN Bali spokesman Agung Mastika said Tuesday.

Flu Babi kini telah merambat hingga Asia, seperti Singapura. Sejahu ini informasi dari detik.com, ada 34 kasus H1N1 atau Flu Babi di singapura. Itu adalah hasil positif dari penderita Flu BAbi, sedangan 31 kasus lainnya ada di luar singapura. Sementara untuk wilayah bali, di nyatakan bahwa seorang warga Jimbaran, Bali juga telah meninggal dunia akibat Flu Babi. Sedangakan informasi dari BAli News menyatakan bahwa warga negara asing yang datang ke indonesia tidak merasa takut dengan menyebarnya virus H1N1 ini. Menurut mereka, jika sudah ajal, maka apa saja penyebabnya dan dimana saja akan meninggal. Semua itu telah di atur dan menjadi takdir yang harus di jalani.

Majelis Ulama Indonesia & Pengurus Besar Nahdlatul Ulama ( PBNU ) turut prihatin dan mengutuk peledakan di kedua hotel Mega Kuningan, Jakarta. Menurut harianbangsa.com, Hasyim Muzadi sebagai ketua PBNU dan ki”ai Ma’Aruf sebagai ketua MUI menyatakan peledakan di kedua hotel tersebut adalah suatu keteledoran pemerintah setelah peledakan beberapa tahun lalu yang juga terjadi di Indonesia. MUI juga menyatakan bahwa pelaku peledakan ini jelas tindakan teroris dan tidak ada sangkut paut dengan agama atau jihat. Karena teror dan bom bukan jihat, dan di setiap agama tidak ada yang mengajarkan kekerasan.