Shadrach
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Please tell us what you mean by this statement? 65% of the time, What works all the time?
INFORMATION AND COMMUNITY FOR EXPATS IN INDONESIA
Free meals for children (MBG) is it good as intended ??
- Thread starter pantaiema
- Start date
As suggested, Let’s look at the context. Does the Indonesian government serve more free school meals than India? India has over 200 million schoolchildren, while Indonesia only has about 30 million (your data). Another country comparable to Indonesia in providing free school meals is Brazil.
India has been running its free school meal program for decades, and Brazil started even much earlier. And what about Indonesia, they started running this program early this year, not even a year and there are already a few cases like this reported. Have you ever heard of food poisoning on such a large scale in either India or Brazil ?
It’s important to note that this is about food poisoning, not personal hygiene of individual children. While hygiene standards may not match those of Western countries, children in Indonesia generally cope well and often have stronger immune systems. For example, in Bali, many tourists experience “Bali Belly,” but local people eating the same food even with hands are usually fine.
Food poisoning in school meal programs usually happens due to poor-quality ingredients, not decent/expire raw materials have been used, improper storage, or expired food being served. It could also due to the contractors continue to use spoiled food because they want to avoid financial losses by throwing it away.
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You pointed it out...
Are you sure everything went smooth from day 1 over there ? I doubt it.
Of course we didn't hear about it. Social media like now didn't exist, and we didn't live there.
Here of course, as we are present and with social media amplifying everything it looks bad.
Also don't judge with US or Aussie standards...
IMHO, the situation is not dramatic. Of course there are some problems, and we can expect some corruption
In France, you are not even allowed to bring a birthday cake to school to share with other kids.
Simply by fear of legal responsabilities...
It is sad ....
No, I did not say that Indonesia has 30 million school children. I said they have been serving 30 million people on a daily basis. This includes pregnant women and maybe others. The goal is to serve 80+ million people.
No, I am not aware of food poisoning of school children around the globe from the free meals they get at their schools. However, since you brought it up, around two dozen kids died from food poisoning in Bohar, India, in 2014. Not long ago, there was a scandal in China where the meals were contaminated with lead, and the kids' hair started to fall out, and their teeth blackened.
But the point that I wanted to make in my earlier post was that the number of kids that fell ill compared to the total number of meals that were distributed (many hundreds of millions) is not a dramatically high number for Indonesian standards. It is around 1 bad meal in 150.000 meals.
Helpful Herbert
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Those are only the ones reported. Since Indonesians are generally scared of complaining or challenging authority, the figures could be 10x or 100x that, it's impossible to say.
Holly shit.
You mean when 100 kids gets fever, nobody reports? If they are so scared of challenging authority why they burned cities 2 weeks ago?
Helpful Herbert
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Yes, I very much doubt that most cases are reported. There are probably incentives to make it look like everything is working well.
Yes crowds occasionally go crazy (mengamuk), but you don't have to live here long to see how deferential Indonesians are to authority in their everyday life. Trying to even get them to say no to something is a big challenge. This is a very good podcast about it aimed at foreigners learning Indonesian:
80% of ethnic Malays are lactose intolerant, I didn't know that.
www.youtube.com
Ceplas Ceplos Ahli Gizi Semprot Terkait Menu Makan Bergizi Gratis (MBG) di DPR
Download aplikasi berita TribunX di PlayStore atau AppStore untuk mendapatkan pengalaman baru.Ahli gizi, dokter Tan Shot Yen panen pujian dari warganet karen...
www.youtube.com
Probably still significantly safer than a random dish on my mother-in-law's dining room table. God bless the sweet woman that she is.
Since you mentioned the recent lead contamination in Tianshui, China, let analyze it. How many cases have actually been confirmed? Reports indicate 251 children were affected.
But is that scale comparable with the incident in Indonesia? To put it in perspective, this very recent September incident alone has already affected 1,315 school children. Earlier in Kupang, another case of food poisoning involved several hundred school children. Another recent one early September is in Bengkulu province involving more than 400 school children. This program has just been started early this year.
Worst food poisoning case, 400 children rushed to hospital in Indonesia after eating free school meal - Times Kuwait
Nearly 400 children in Bengkulu province, western Indonesia, have fallen ill after consuming free school meals, marking the worst mass food poisoning incident linked to President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship nutrition program. The free meal initiative, launched in January for children and...
timeskuwait.com
It’s important to highlight that the lead contamination in Tianshui stemmed from the use of industrial colorants containing lead sold on the market, added to food solely to enhance its appearance. It is quite similar to fish are plunge into formalin, to preserve it, meat ball (Bakso) is mixed with borax and then plunged into formalin which many cases are found in Indonesia.
Although the scandal was exposed through school meals, the same practice could just as easily impact adults. The risk is especially severe for children, whose smaller body mass makes them far more susceptible to lead poisoning. In other words, this is not merely a “school meal issue.” Even if you cancel/eliminate the school meal program, you can not stop similar incidents to occur anywhere if food safety authorities fail to enforce proper oversight.
Could you apply the same kind of simple math or probability analysis to China, India, and Brazil? Specifically, how many school meals have been served when factoring in the number of schoolchildren and the length of time these programs have been running? You might also include pregnant women if you want.
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24 hours is the rule isn't it ? That is the way my brain work and I prefer to edit it directly, from the post when something comes in mind.
Meal assembly on the floor, no packing station at all.
Imagine how they wash the food trays, it may be more hygienic to eat at a gerobak bakso where they wash/dip their bowls on a pail of water.
There are also reports that the food trays are not food-grade stainless steel, they used type 201 instead of 304.
So many problems, hopefully it’s not going to get worse than nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea because food poisoning can kill too.
Perhaps the government consider building kitchens in each and every public schools so that it will be run and supervised by the school, and the students get their meals fresh and hot.
The issue was uncovered by the public as someone is secretly recording it, not by the authorities responsible for overseeing the program, and it only gained attention after going viral. This is just what has been revealed so far, but what about the other schools? Is freeloader, people receiving salary for doing nothing not uncommon in Indonesia ? Is the SPPG appointment in such short period not vulnerable for mega corruption ? Hopefully not, but time will tell.
The program is meant to provide nutritious meals to prevent stunting in children, but if the practice such as trays are mixed with water contaminated with waste (might also contain heavy metal, used battery), the results may be the opposite. The impact wouldn’t just be immediate, but could also affect children’s long-term development.
Keep in mind in Indonesia people do not have the habit to separate used battery with other waste. Moreover the government do not normally provide a proper facility for people to dispose the used battery.
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The educational budget was already one of the largest (if not the largest) in the state. After this new budget increase, a rough estimation suggests the MBG will consume about 79% of the total education budget. What funding will be left over for crucial areas like higher education, vocational training, improving teaching facility and laboratory, scholarships for talented, low-income students and many others ?
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Shadrach
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I Really Do Hope, that this problem gets figured out! The Outcome for the Nation, is The Children having a good Education. They will be the Future Leaders, Scientists, Heads of State, Teachers, Governors, Etc! I remember when I was a Child, and Vocational training was the second best option for Many that couldn't afford expensive Universities! In small towns, and Cities, they became the Crucial backbone that kept the Economy Alive! By keeping everyone's cars running, houses in good shape, The Electricity flowing, Teaching the Lower income kids in Poor neighborhoods, The Nurses, On and On! You're so right, about Lower income Students, that are really Smart, and should be given Scholarships, because some of them are Really intelligent, but Poor!
Getting angry by Salad and Spaghetti That we believe is Stale, MBG Turned the Menu into Chicken Meal
This is yet another example: school children are still being served stale food. And as usual, this is not exposed by BGN the agency founded by the government who supposed to supervise this program, but this is exposed by the public. It’s not hard to guess that the same issue happens everywhere as the root of the problem is 'money'.
When food spoils due to problem in delivery or storage, are the SPPGs willing to cover the losses by replacing it? Well it might be when they have been exposed by media. Keep in mind these SPPGs might have spent numerous amount of money to bribe everyone to get license delivering this MBG program. They have to recover their money in some way in the future.
There is already previous mega case like BTSs (Base Transceiver Stations) for 4G discussed in here.
www.expatindo.org
A comparable program from the Suharto era was the 'SD Inpres' initiative, which aimed to increase the number of elementary school buildings. That effort also failed because many of the schools ended up being substandard, as contractors want to make profit as many as they can. After just a few years, the building will need to be heavily updated or knocked down.
It is very easy to see that In most cases like this stale food, they might take their chances, assuming the children can consume it without falling ill, and relying on the fact that the children usually won’t complain. Also it might be naive to think that this is an isolated case.
Only those who ignore past lessons would believe this problem can be fixed easily, particularly given the number of parties involved and the track record of delivering similar programs that have faced the same challenges. This time, the situation is even more complex, as the massive program was launched in full scale without a trial phase and with inadequate allocation in the state budget. Not to mention, there is a prevailing culture of treating public funds allocated by the state for delivering program like this as if they were personal money.
This is yet another example: school children are still being served stale food. And as usual, this is not exposed by BGN the agency founded by the government who supposed to supervise this program, but this is exposed by the public. It’s not hard to guess that the same issue happens everywhere as the root of the problem is 'money'.
When food spoils due to problem in delivery or storage, are the SPPGs willing to cover the losses by replacing it? Well it might be when they have been exposed by media. Keep in mind these SPPGs might have spent numerous amount of money to bribe everyone to get license delivering this MBG program. They have to recover their money in some way in the future.
There is already previous mega case like BTSs (Base Transceiver Stations) for 4G discussed in here.
Indonesia & Corruption: a few articles in the past few weeks
Indonesian Communication minister arrested in connection with huge corruption scandal "...causing a huge hole in the public treasury." o_O
www.expatindo.org
A comparable program from the Suharto era was the 'SD Inpres' initiative, which aimed to increase the number of elementary school buildings. That effort also failed because many of the schools ended up being substandard, as contractors want to make profit as many as they can. After just a few years, the building will need to be heavily updated or knocked down.
It is very easy to see that In most cases like this stale food, they might take their chances, assuming the children can consume it without falling ill, and relying on the fact that the children usually won’t complain. Also it might be naive to think that this is an isolated case.
Only those who ignore past lessons would believe this problem can be fixed easily, particularly given the number of parties involved and the track record of delivering similar programs that have faced the same challenges. This time, the situation is even more complex, as the massive program was launched in full scale without a trial phase and with inadequate allocation in the state budget. Not to mention, there is a prevailing culture of treating public funds allocated by the state for delivering program like this as if they were personal money.
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Recent news. This MBG (Makan Beracun Gratis, Free poisonous Meal) has been suspended officially.
Prabowo Temporarily Halts MBG
President Prabowo Decides to Evaluate and Temporarily Suspend the Free Nutritional Meal Program
Also glad to hear the suspension of this MBG happened in time. Otherwise, it could have descended into anarchy and took victim.
Prabowo Temporarily Halts MBG
President Prabowo Decides to Evaluate and Temporarily Suspend the Free Nutritional Meal Program
Also glad to hear the suspension of this MBG happened in time. Otherwise, it could have descended into anarchy and took victim.
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Those interested in learning about the quality of "SD Inpres" building during the Suharto era can find many good articles discussing the quality of the school buildings. The article is one of many examples. It is in Indonesian, but you can use Google Translate if you need it in English.
Like this MBG programs, the SD Inpres program itself was noble. The challenge arose once money became involved, which inevitably affected the outcomes. Still, what other realistic alternative existed at the time, except you bite the bullet.
The direct citation from the article above.
"Soeharto kicked the wall of the SD Inpres building using only his shoe. The result was that the wall immediately collapsed."
In the reformation era, the former Indonesian President, Jokowi himself have criticized the quality of 'SD Inpres' building and he does not want to see the quality of school building with this standard again.
Like this MBG programs, the SD Inpres program itself was noble. The challenge arose once money became involved, which inevitably affected the outcomes. Still, what other realistic alternative existed at the time, except you bite the bullet.
The direct citation from the article above.
"Soeharto kicked the wall of the SD Inpres building using only his shoe. The result was that the wall immediately collapsed."
In the reformation era, the former Indonesian President, Jokowi himself have criticized the quality of 'SD Inpres' building and he does not want to see the quality of school building with this standard again.
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