Office of the president deserves respect
In about 1993, I attended a graduation where President Clinton spoke. As my wife and I were walking to the stadium, his motorcade passed within arms reach of me and I was awed by how I felt at being so close to the president as he waved to us. I hadn’t voted for him and wasn’t especially fond of him. Categories: Letters to the Editor, Opinion At the end of the graduation, President Clinton walked around the crowd shaking hands with people in the stands and I took a picture of him shaking hands with my wife and daughter as he reached into the crowd. Again, I was very awed at being that close to the president of the United States.I have had similar feelings at being at the White House, not in it, and being so close to this powerful office.So when I continue to read about people who despise the president, or refuse invitations to visit the White House, I suggest that perhaps “they know not what they are doing.”Bottom line, you don’t have to like the person in the office, but you need to respect the office.GERARD F. HAVASYClifton ParkMore from The Daily Gazette:Controversial solar project goes before Clifton Park Planning BoardFoss: Should main downtown branch of the Schenectady County Public Library reopen?EDITORIAL: Find a way to get family members into nursing homesEDITORIAL: Thruway tax unfair to working motoristsGame 7: Shenendehowa grad and Braves rookie Ian Anderson gets start with World Series spot on the li…
Others had subways connected, and buses kept running until 1:45 a.m. Some offered “Midnight Movie Madness,” which drew in teens for Friday and Saturday night dates. The “disconnect” is with the town and city of Amsterdam. Let’s connect there first. Public transportation stops early and only supports the city of Amsterdam. There’s no other bus system that will take the community to the Route 30 businesses or around the town of Amsterdam. Why is that?When former Mayor Gomulka In my opinion, a train station should be incorporated where people congregate at the Amsterdam Riverfront Center Mall, which is now the “Heart of The City.”This new plan has people driving through without stopping. When we have people passing through our beautiful city, the Amsterdam Riverfront Center Mall is the one place that should shine, at the hub.Everyone has the opportunity to advertise, represent and entertain together, showing and selling their wares there, even tourism. Now we have boats.Michael SargalisDelansonMore from The Daily Gazette:EDITORIAL: Find a way to get family members into nursing homesLocal movie theater operators react to green lightFoss: Should main downtown branch of the Schenectady County Public Library reopen?Schenectady County warns of possible COVID-19 exposure at Schenectady restaurant, Rotterdam barEDITORIAL: Beware of voter intimidation Categories: Letters to the Editor, Opinion Re May 27 article, “City take steps to move train station”: Robert Moses was not all wrong. The mall idea is a good one. I have seen success in many states and countries thanks to my military career.The only difference I took note of was these other malls also incorporated local activities in them, such as ice skating, amusement parks, late-night entertainment and so forth.Can you Imagine having the Tonight Show at the Amsterdam Riverfront Center Mall? Mr. Tesero could be thinking about this. We can do, “park and ride,” since we have the garage, which makes it greener. If we added rooftop gardening, we could be higher on the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) chart. 
To access this article REGISTER NOWWould you like print copies, app and digital replica access too? SUBSCRIBE for as little as £5 per week. Would you like to read more?Register for free to finish this article.Sign up now for the following benefits:Four FREE articles of your choice per monthBreaking news, comment and analysis from industry experts as it happensChoose from our portfolio of email newsletters
To access this article REGISTER NOWWould you like print copies, app and digital replica access too? SUBSCRIBE for as little as £5 per week. Would you like to read more?Register for free to finish this article.Sign up now for the following benefits:Four FREE articles of your choice per monthBreaking news, comment and analysis from industry experts as it happensChoose from our portfolio of email newsletters
Would you like to read more?Register for free to finish this article.Sign up now for the following benefits:Four FREE articles of your choice per monthBreaking news, comment and analysis from industry experts as it happensChoose from our portfolio of email newsletters To access this article REGISTER NOWWould you like print copies, app and digital replica access too? SUBSCRIBE for as little as £5 per week.
Would you like to read more?Register for free to finish this article.Sign up now for the following benefits:Four FREE articles of your choice per monthBreaking news, comment and analysis from industry experts as it happensChoose from our portfolio of email newsletters To access this article REGISTER NOWWould you like print copies, app and digital replica access too? SUBSCRIBE for as little as £5 per week.
Through its Twitter account, the New Zealand Health Ministry urged any passengers on Emirates flight EK450 on Feb. 26 from Dubai to Bali to Auckland to immediately contact authorities if they were concerned.“Anyone who was on the final leg of the flight, Emirates EK450 arriving Auckland on Wednesday 26 February and who is concerned should contact the COVID-19 Healthline number 0800 358 5453,” the ministry said.Work has begun to trace the patient’s other close contacts including those on the flight which originated in Tehran via Bali. The person arrived in Auckland on 26 Feb and traveled home in a private car. Their family became concerned about their condition and called Healthline.— Ministry of Health – Manatū Hauora (@minhealthnz) February 28, 2020These two cases in Malaysia and New Zealand added to a previous two reports of COVID-19 cases outside Indonesia in which the patients had visited Indonesia before being declared positive in other countries.Read also: Govt downplays reports of Chinese tourist who tested for coronavirus after Bali sojournEarlier, health authorities in Anhui province, China, reported that a Chinese national identified as Jin, who had visited Bali late last month, tested positive for the coronavirus disease.The patient flew on Lion Air from Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, to Bali on Jan. 22 and stayed on the island for about a week before flying on Garuda Indonesia from Bali to Shanghai on Jan. 28.Meanwhile, Japanese public broadcaster NHK previously reported that a Tokyo resident in his 60s tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after returning from a visit to Indonesia.Read also: Japanese man’s COVID-19 case raisers concerns about Indonesia’s detection abilityThe man, a staff member of a senior care facility, reportedly traveled to Indonesia for a family vacation on Feb. 15 and was hospitalized upon his return to Japan on Feb. 19 for severe breathing difficulties.In a recent interview with The Jakarta Post, Samsuridjal Djauzi, an immunology expert at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, said that patients who tested positive for the coronavirus after visiting Indonesia did not necessarily get infected in Indonesia.He said, however, there was a possibility they had transmitted the virus to others while in Indonesia. “On the other hand, there is a possibility they would not, as well. Infection needs a certain situation. How many virus particles are there? How strong are they? How close is the contact?” he said. “You cannot say: Oh, they visited Indonesia and they will certainly spread the virus to other people. No, it’s not always the case,” he said. “The patient had fever symptoms and had received treatment on Feb. 17. She was admitted to a private hospital on Feb. 20 and confirmed positive on Feb. 27 after taking a COVID-19 detection test. She is currently being treated in an isolation ward at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital,” the report stated.However, the exact date she traveled to Indonesia and what city she went to remain unclear.Also on Friday, New Zealand confirmed its first coronavirus case of a female citizen in her 60s who traveled from Tehran in Iran to Auckland via Bali.Read also: New Zealand confirms first coronavirus case New Zealand and Malaysian authorities reported on Friday that their latest patients infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus had been to Indonesia before getting sick in their respective countries.Malaysia confirmed its 24th coronavirus case on Friday, declaring that a 41-year-old Japanese woman working in Malaysia who had traveled to Japan in January and to Indonesia in early February had tested positive.The ministry’s directorate-general of health said in a press release on its website that the woman was one of two new cases confirmed on Friday, resulting in a total of 25 COVID-19 cases in the country to date.
Topics :
Saudi Arabia has reported 274 COVID-19 cases but no deaths so far.The Arab world’s biggest economy has shut down cinemas, malls and restaurants, halted flights and suspended the year-round umrah pilgrimage as it steps up efforts to contain the deadly virusSaudi Arabia has also suspended prayers inside all its mosques except the holiest two sites in Islam in Mecca and Medina.The world’s top crude exporter also faces plunging oil prices, the mainstay of government revenue, which slipped below $25 a barrel this week to touch 18-year lows on the back of sagging demand due to the virus and a price war with Russia. Topics : Saudi Arabia’s King Salman warned Thursday of a “more difficult” fight ahead against the new coronavirus, as the kingdom faces the double blow of virus-led shutdowns and crashing oil prices.”We are going through a difficult stage,” the king said in the first televised speech by a Gulf leader on the pandemic.”The next stage will be more difficult at the global level to confront the rapid spread of the pandemic,” he added.
Saudi Arabia will trim this year’s budget by around five percent, the finance minister said on Wednesday, in its first austerity measure.More than 1,000 cases of the virus have been recorded so far across the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
He said that in the short term it was people who would be the most affected.“Indonesian migrant workers and professionals with jobs, assets and interests in Australia may live in limbo as they are locked in or out of Australia for an indefinite period of time,” he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.The Foreign Ministry’s director for East Asia and Pacific affairs, Santo Darmosumarto, said that as of late 2019 there were approximately 77,500 Indonesians living and working in Australia.“It is indeed a concern for us, but we believe that what Australia decides is done with full responsibility. In this regard, various policies that will be taken by the government of Australia will always be communicated to us beforehand,” he told reporters on Thursday.Some 681 people in Australia have tested positive for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, with five deaths, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering. Meanwhile, the latest data from the Health Ministry recorded 369 confirmed cases in Indonesia, with 32 deaths as of Friday afternoon.Santo said that the Indonesian missions in Australia had swapped notes with their counterparts about policy directives, including the various Australian policies that would affect them.“Hopefully our citizens in Australia are aware about the Australian government’s effort to ‘flatten the curve’ in managing the spread of COVID-19,” he said.Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah said there was always going to be the potential that Indonesian citizens overseas would experience a lockdown, but he underlined the fact that travelers had a window of opportunity between Tuesday and Friday to sort out their return.De Lieto said that problems could arise especially for Indonesians holding temporary visas because the Australian government had yet to explain what would happen to those whose visas expire in the meantime and prevent them from leaving the country or returning to Indonesia.“Also, temporary migrants have only very limited access to social security benefits and so they are most vulnerable in this downturn. But the same applies to migrants from everywhere, irrespective of their origin country,” he said.The Melbourne-based researcher said that most people had already begun to feel the impact of the stock market crash caused by the coronavirus outbreak.“If the crisis lasts for longer and leads to shutting down borders for more than a few months, the damage and disruption to global supply chains and financial markets that underpin them will become structural and will likely be irreversible in the form that we know today,” he said.Topics : Indonesia’s warming relations with Australia faced new challenges this week as the COVID-19 outbreak forced Jakarta to further restrict entry and Canberra to close down its borders, putting many lucrative partnership projects on hold while the two governments scramble to ensure the safety of their citizens.Indonesia announced on Tuesday a temporary suspension of its visa-exemption facilities for all foreign visitors including Australians, which came into effect on Friday. From that point onward, foreigners who want to travel to Indonesia must provide vetted health documents when applying from an overseas mission.Various officials have insisted that the policies introduced in response to the coronavirus outbreak will be temporary. Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Thursday an unprecedented ban on entry for non-residents coming to Australia, effective from 9 p.m. on Friday, in a move aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19 infections.Indonesia and Australia have agreed on various new projects through the recently ratified Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA) and the accompanying 2020-2024 plan of action that will serve as a guideline for the economic deal.President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo visited Canberra in early January on his last trip abroad before the coronavirus outbreak began to spread in the region.International trade law lecturer at Monash Business School, Giovanni De Lieto, said that just like all other bilateral relationships, Australia’s travel ban would put on hold any medium- to long-term economic partnership projects.
The state budget revision now targets Rp 1.76 quadrillion in revenue, lower than the Rp 2.23 quadrillion previously set out in the 2020 budget. Expenditure, meanwhile, jumps to Rp 2.61 quadrillion from the Rp 2.54 quadrillion targeted previously. The government has widened its state budget deficit beyond the previous 3-percent-of-GDP cap to around 5 percent this year, in line with a new government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) to lift the legal limit.On Thursday, Indonesia raised $4.3 billion, including from the longest-dated US dollar bond ever issued by an Asian nation with a 50-year tenure, to support government funding. The deal was finalized in the United States on Monday and sold in maturities of 10.5 years and 30.5 years, worth $1.65 billion each, with a 50-year tranche worth $1 billion, Reuters reported.“It is likely that, during this period, the ownership structure of government securities will change to some extent with foreign investors’ lowering their holdings considerably and BI [Bank Indonesia] seen to expand its balance sheet,” according to a research note by Fitch Solutions’ country risk and industry research team on Tuesday.Read also: Indonesia’s COVID-19 stimulus playbook explainedPerppu No. 1/2020, issued last week, allows the central bank to buy government bonds at auction to anticipate a situation in which the market is unable to fulfil the government’s financing target. The regulation revokes a 1999 law on the central bank, which only allowed BI to buy government bonds in the secondary market.Demand for Indonesian debt papers declined sharply in March, according to official documents. At a Feb. 18 auction, the government saw Rp 127 trillion in bids and absorbed Rp 19 trillion, while on March 31, it only saw Rp 34 trillion in bids and absorbed Rp 22 trillion.Foreign investors have dumped Rp 148.76 trillion in Indonesian assets, including Rp 135.08 trillion in government bonds and Rp 9.71 trillion in Indonesian shares, BI data show.Fitch Solutions was of the view that, if the rupiah continued to depreciate rapidly as BI extends its government bond holdings, the Indonesian economy could enter a sovereign debt crisis, as the central bank bled foreign reserves.Read also: BI to dominate ownership of ‘pandemic bonds’ as debt burden grows“For now, this is not our core view, as we expect the recovery off the back of the COVID-19 outbreak to be robust,” Fitch wrote. “Moreover, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani has a good track record of fiscal discipline, and it is likely that, once the worst is over, she will ramp up efforts to bring government spending back in line and broaden the revenue base.”Fitch Solutions now expects the country’s public debt to average 45.3 percent of GDP during the period of 2020-2023 versus 33.1 percent in the last five years.Topics : Indonesia’s new debt is expected to triple this year as the government struggles to fund its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.According to the newly enacted Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 54/2020 on the 2020 state budget revision issued on April 3, the government has increased deficit spending to Rp 1 quadrillion (US$61.5 billion) this year, a jump of 286 percent from the initial target of Rp 351.9 billion.The government plans to offer sovereign debt papers worth Rp 549.6 trillion, an increase from the initial Rp 389.3 trillion, while also planning to raise Rp 450 trillion in “pandemic bonds”, given that demand for government bonds has significantly declined. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Monday that the government would look for safe financing sources, including the option to use the endowment fund for education (LPDP) as well as accumulated cash surplus (SAL), but said that “would not be enough”.Read also: Indonesia’s COVID-19 stimulus worth 2.5% of GDP, lower than Singapore, Malaysia“Therefore, we need to issue government debt papers to look for the best financing sources. We will be extra careful in navigating these uncharted waters,” she told House of Representatives Commission XI, which oversees financial affairs, on Monday.President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has announced additional state spending worth Rp 405.1 trillion to finance Indonesia’s battle against the novel coronavirus pandemic. The new allocation will be used specifically for healthcare, social safety net and business recovery programs.