Most local food not officially halal: MUI
Hans David Tampubolon, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta| Thu, 01/07/2010 9:15 AM| National
The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) says the majority of food products circulating on the Indonesian market have not passed official halal certification.
Such certification means food products are safe to be consumed by Muslims, MUI says.
“Of around 30,000 food products circulating in Indonesia, around 80 percent do not have an official halal certificate,” MUI Food and Drug Analysis Agency (LPPOM MUI) director Lukmanul Hakim said as quoted by detik.com at his office in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Despite the fact that officially halal products constituted only a fifth of products available in Indonesia, Lukmanul said there had also been a growing awareness among consumers about the necessity for official halal certification of their daily consumable goods.
Lukmanul also said the LPPOM MUI would face much stronger challenges in the future, as Indonesia had entered a free trade era with China and member states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
“There will be a lot of [new] products from abroad circulating in the Indonesia,” he said.
Tariffs on 7,881 goods traded between six ASEAN founding nations were lifted on Jan. 1.
Meanwhile, MUI chairman Maruf Amin said the council’s standards for issuing a halal certification were internationally recognized.
“Today, countries in Europe as well as Australia and the US use MUI procedures and regulations as a guide,” he said.
Maruf also said MUI had been requested by Australia and New Zealand to supervise and determine minimum standards required for the issuance of halal certification in those countries.
However, Indonesian Association of Halal Product Manufacturers (APPHI) chairman Paulus Y. Rusli said MUI still needed to improve its halal certification system.
“There are a lot of complaints from foreign producers. They say their products, which have already received expensive halal certification in their country, are not [automatically] recognized as halal here,” he said.
“So, I think it would be better if we all had the same standards,” he added.
Paulus also hoped the LPPOM MUI could improve its working agreements with food producers.
“In the past, [MUI] has tried to find things we are doing wrong. The council should have more faith in us, because we want to be completely open and honest with what we are producing,” he said.
“Hopefully, things will improve, and we also hope the cost of halal certification will not become more expensive,” he said.
Lack of leadership heralds a shaky start to a new decade
Debnath Guharoy, Consultant|Wed, 01/06/2010 10:12AM |Business
Four billion years after the Big Bang, the human race is still rather primitive despite all its symbols of sophistication. If evolution is leading us in a slow walk to perfection, the last decade was a big step in the wrong direction.
Other than to celebrate the end of what is easily the most depressing decade of this writer’s life so far, there is precious little to feel good about the 2000s.
Not much has happened socially. The impoverished half of the species, the suppressed half that is the fairer sex, are no better off than they were in the 1990s. Palestine, the cradle of modern civilization and the trigger that threatens peace at every corner of the globe, has a new wall meandering through people’s homes.
Technologically, not much has happened except for some flashes of progress in medicine.
Economically, the Internet bubble burst at the start of the decade and the even bigger global financial crisis brought the curtains down on it. Morally, we are approaching bankruptcy with religious leaders spreading hatred, political leaders bungling the biggest challenges of our times and business leaders selling their souls at the altar of the shareholder.
For this column, the moral bankruptcy in the Wall Streets of the world is perhaps the most noteworthy. Swept to power, even the new hope has lost much of his halo. Barack Obama must have realized, all too painfully, that Big Business has far too many powerful friends to allow meaningful regulatory changes in the financial sector.
His other big promise, healthcare, has fallen way short of his aspirations with no public option for his people. The big insurance companies and the big pharmaceutical companies will continue to rake it in. Gordon Brown’s efforts to promote a new culture in European banking have all but ground to a halt.
And finally, Copenhagen became the symbol of the decade gone by. If the world indeed faces an existential threat, not too many seem bothered enough to actually do something about it.
Inept. It is perhaps the most appropriate word that describes our leaders of today, across the different facets of life and around the globe. Their inability to decipher right from wrong remains a worrying sign for the 2010s. A lot of talk, very little action.
In Indonesia, the Bank Century saga continues to cast a long shadow, now straddling two decades.
The nexus between money and power seems stronger than ever. Eight out of 10 Indonesians believe that “if we don’t act now we’ll never be able to control our environmental problems”. If you haven’t heard of the Gaia principle, now is a good time to Google it.
Did the Indonesian delegation give voice to the people who sent them to Copenhagen? The same number believe that “the gap between rich and poor is increasing”. To give credit where it’s due, this president seems concerned enough to address the vital issue of inequality. Actions taken by this administration have not only arrested the widening gap, it has helped to reduce it.
Unemployment is not growing as it is in most countries, it is effectively heading in the right direction.
Contrary to dated BPS data and Ministry of Manpower statistics, Roy Morgan Research has evidence to believe that only 4 percent of the workforce is looking for full-time work today. That major indicator is gradually and visibly dipping but popular perception is lagging behind reality.
That kind of progress will continue to spur the consumer economy. Today, almost 45 percent of Indonesians has a cellular phone. Though the rate of growth is slowing down, market penetration continues to grow.
One in three rides a motorcycle, a number that is racing ahead with women riding the wave. If the motorcycle which is used as a family transport is a symbol of the country’s growing middle-class, then the nation is indeed motoring ahead.
The sobering reality is the price of consumer goods, with groceries constituting a major portion of the monthly domestic budget. It has had a dampening effect, with only 19 percent believing “I am better off than I was the same time last year”.
The pressure on the wallet has also led to the decline in the number of people with a bank account, down to 17 percent from 21 percent just five years ago. Higher bank fees has not helped.
While there is a growing number of people joining the fold, only 5 per- cent of Indonesians have “accessed the Internet”. The low level of usage is a symbol of contemporary Indonesia in contrast with its neighbors, held back from joining the new global economy. This is tempered with the continuing growth in the number of youth achieving diplomas and university degrees.
At 2 percent and growing, there will be more agents of change accelerating the modernization of the economy. Whether they will be encouraged by business providing opportunities and government bringing about promised changes, is to be seen.
The country is poised for growth, in much better shape than most economies around the world. The people are watching, with optimism. Will their leaders take them into the next decade with confidence, or will they be let down?
Here is your task:
1. Choose one of the texts
2. Make oral summary about the text.
3. You can make paraphrase of the text before presenting the oral summary.
Below are the steps to make a good summary
Paraphrasing is the technique through which a writer gets the work of another author and then just changes the wordings of the specific article but the main idea remains the same. Following are some of the details about how to paraphrase properly, without getting the image of plagiarism.
- First of all you have to read the paragraph very carefully so that you can analyze after that how to arrange the words.
- After that you will remove the unnecessary words from the paragraph because the unnecessary words just create the verbosity in the write up, therefore, you can reduce the verbosity by replacing the two compound words with the one strong word.
- You should also analyze that whether the writing skills match with your skills or not because the more you link it with your writing the stronger paraphrasing will be done.
- You should change the whole paragraph and even the structure of the write up as well.
- The idea in the paraphrasing is same as that of the original material but the changes are made in the grammar and also in the synonyms.
- One of the best ways of doing the paraphrasing is to just write the quotes in a proper manner and then giving the references.
- Another way is to write down the original idea with the reference of the material in your own words. In this way you can make your arguments stronger without the plagiarism.
Prepare yourself. Get ready for the presentation.
Postingan
