https://www.scmp.com/rss/510445/feed Abdallah Naem is a freelance journalist based in East Kalimantan. His work focuses primarily on environmental and cultural issues in the Indonesian province and has been published in both English and Indonesian media. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Indonesia’s cooking oil shortage has turned deadly following the deaths of two residents who died after queuing for the liquid gold in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. The tragedies occurred despite the area being one of the largest producers of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and fresh palm oil fruit in Indonesia. On Saturday, a housewife Sandra, 41, fainted while queuing for over an hour in the hot sun waiting for her local minimarket to open. She died in an ambulance on the way to the local... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/3171031/indonesia-simple-act-buying-cooking-oil-has-turned-deadly?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/3171031/indonesia-simple-act-buying-cooking-oil-has-turned-deadly?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Mar 2022 03:00:14 +0000 When Edy Mulyadi, a journalist and small-time politician, hit the headlines in Indonesia last month for calling the location of its planned new capital city “a place where genies dump kids”, he sparked a backlash from community groups in Kalimantan. But the resulting debate also revealed the extent to which tales of the supernatural pervade modern-day thinking across the archipelago nation of 274 million people, and the rest of Southeast Asia. Mulyadi’s comments – made in a YouTube video shortly... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3166789/indonesian-debate-over-new-capital-nusantara-reflects?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3166789/indonesian-debate-over-new-capital-nusantara-reflects?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Feb 2022 04:00:20 +0000 As the Delta variant sweeps through Indonesia, causing a record 2,069 deaths on Tuesday, regions outside the worst-hit areas of Jakarta, surrounding Java island and tourist hotspot Bali are now reporting worrying coronavirus spikes. The province of East Kalimantan alone had reported more than 111,000 infections and over 3,000 deaths as of Wednesday, with surges reported elsewhere in Indonesian Borneo – the island the country shares with Malaysia and Brunei – as well as other regions such as... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3142953/communing-coronavirus-indonesias-indigenous-shamans?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3142953/communing-coronavirus-indonesias-indigenous-shamans?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Jul 2021 04:00:09 +0000