Hotel Indonesia 41 years young

Hotel Indonesia 41 years young

JAKARTA: Hotel Indonesia will celebrate its 41st anniversary
on Tuesday by staging a modest ceremony in the evening.

The hotel's public relations manager, Meriam Roy, said on
Monday that the ceremony would kick off at 4 p.m. and all guests
would be invited to participate.

"Our guests will have the chance to enjoy traditional cuisine
including kerak telor (pancake made of glutinous rice with fried
coconut) and mie tek tek (noodles cooked with vegetables)," she
said.

Besides the special menu, Hotel Indonesia would also present a
tumpeng (cone-shaped steamed rice with various dishes) and a
documentary on Betawi Tempo Doeloe (Old Jakarta), which would
also highlight the history of the hotel.

Hotel Indonesia was inaugurated on Aug. 5, 1962 by then
president Sukarno. The hotel was built to host the athletes
participating in the fourth Asian Games. Initially, the hotel
only had 421 rooms in two wings, the Ramayana and Ganesha wings.

In 1974, then president Soeharto inaugurated an additional
wing, the Bali wing, which increased the number of rooms to 570.

Meriam said that for Tuesday's event, the hotel management
would present awards to loyal clients and put on an entertainment
program featuring local artists. -- JP

;JP;
ANPAj..r..
Greater-aid-fire
Central Jakarta prepares for fires
JP/8/fire

Central Jakarta prepares for fires

JAKARTA: The social welfare office in the Central Jakarta
mayoralty has stocked up on seven tons of rice and 100 boxes of
instant noodles to help future fire victims in the area.

Office head Suroto Purnomo told beritajakarta.com on Monday
anticipatory steps were being taken because of the prolonged dry
season.

"Nobody expects a fire but they happen quite often during the
dry season. Therefore our office needs to prepare food. Should
there be a fire, we will already have the food to help the
victims," he said.

Suroto said his office has also prepared cooking equipment and
would cooperate with the Indonesian Red Cross to provide tents
for victims.

The office will distribute the items to fire victims through a
coordinator appointed by locals. Officials from the district
office will only supervise the distribution.

"We hope by having such a system we can monitor the
distribution," Purnomo said. -- JP

;JP;JUN;
ANPAj..r..
Greater-education
Rp 54b to be used to restore schools
JP/8/fund

Rp 54b to be used to restore schools

BEKASI: The City Council urged on Monday that the Rp 54
billion (US$6.3 million) fund allocated in the 2003 city budget
for schools should be used to repair decrepit schools.

"The fund should be used to restore those schools that are at
a point of collapse," chairman of Council Commission E for
education and social welfare Saaduddin said. He did not name
those schools in dire need of repair.

He said many state-run elementary, junior- and senior high
schools were ready to collapse and needed a complete overhaul.

Data from the Bekasi Education Agency for this year shows that
76,233 children have not had basic education and 277,900 children
had dropped out from elementary school. Bekasi has a population
of 1.7 million.

The data, however, did not provide the same information for
last year. -- Antara