 Dear Readers,
December is the last month of year that we should spend with caring for each other, especially in last one or two months when the world economy is again in crisis, although we have worked hard the whole year, many have succeeded yet some have failed.
The crisis in our country began when the oil price soared so high that people had to start using gas for their domestic needs. It is not easy for them to change their life style from using kerosene stoves that is much easier for them to use gas stoves. The government facilitated them with gas stoves to start using gas in their daily needs. New problems appeared. When they started using their gas stove, several accidents happened due to the bad quality of the stove or gas tube and difficulty in using it, and gas became hard to find most likely due to the government being not ready to supply the needed gas. It seemed that their misery was not enough. The economic crisis that started with the financial crisis in America produced inflation that made their savings seem to dwindle rapidly.
December should be a month of giving respect to our moms – we celebrate mother’s day on December 22nd – and strengthening our solidarity, but it has been smeared by bad headache problems. We like to help and reduce our friends’ miseries, yet our condition is almost the same due to the hard crisis. Yet, as a religious and a Pancasila philosophy based nation we may not complain about what we are facing. Instead we have to be very optimistic in December by being thankful all the time since God will help those who are always being grateful and faithful.
Thank God, we still have Partners in the Population and Development Organization that we planned in 1993-1994 in Jakarta and in last November we threw a meeting in Kampala, Uganda, Africa to realize it. There we discussed population and family based development. Indonesia proudly presented new ideas on developing Family Empowerment Posts in villages as social gathering forums and solidarity forums by working shoulder to shoulder, which we call gotong royong, a system that unites our nation, to solve our problems. Thank God, they appreciated our ideas and they would like to visit Indonesia and learn about the ideas together.
We really are grateful that we are still getting respect from the delegations for our village people, in this crisis; still have brilliant ideas and steps that attract the world.
Sincerely,
Haryono Suyono
The Chief General |
