Editor1's blog

Indonesia's measure of pollution recorded air in Palangkarya at more than 10 times the level regarded as dangerous on Tuesday. Schools in the Central Kalimantan capital were closed again on Tuesday.
Politicians in the provincial parliament sat in silence wearing face masks after smoke entered the building.

Further respiratory fatalities around Indonesia looked certain on Tuesday as toxic pollution from hinterland fires and underground hotspots again sent breathable air far beyond levels deemed dangerous to health.

NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES

AIR QUALITY AND EARLY-LIFE MORTALITY: EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA'S WILDFIRES
Seema Jayachandran
Working Paper 14011 http://www.nber.org/papers/w14011

NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
May 2008

In the greatest environmental disaster of the 21st Century (so far), Indonesia has been blotted out by smoke. And the media.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 30th October 2015

By Brittany Patterson and ClimateWire | October 26, 2015

NASA images of fires and links

Half a century ago in Indonesia, following the events of October 1 1965, 500,000 to one million people accused of being members or supporters of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) were murdered, and many hundreds of thousands of people were detained without trial, perished or exiled. The impunity surrounding these mass killings has been encircled in social and political amnesia. There has been no official attempt to find out who was behind the killings, who the victims were exactly, and where they are buried.

Mythen und Moderne, Ayu Utami und Laksmi Pamuntjak enthüllen in ihren Romanen Indonesiens tabuisierte Vergangenheit.

Channel news asia

Merdeka< reports: A local environmental advocacy NGO has been monitoring the involvement of foreign companies in forest and land burning in Indonesia, but admits it has been difficult to pinpoint where these companies are from.

A law that makes gay sex punishable by public caning took effect Friday in a conservative Indonesian province.

The law in Aceh province stipulates that anyone caught having homosexual sex can face up to 100 strokes of a cane, a fine of up to 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of gold (about $37,400) and imprisonment of up to 100 months. Adulterers are also subject to 100 lashes of a cane, but not to the fine or imprisonment.

Aceh is considered more devout than other areas of Muslim-majority Indonesia and is the only province allowed to observe a version of Islamic Shariah law.