Crown Capital Management Jakarta Indonesia

Mittwoch, 20. Februar 2013

Flixya: Indonesia Beef Imports Rife with Corruption on Crown Capital Eco

http://www.flixya.com/blog/5178701/Indonesia-Beef-Imports-Rife-with-Corruption-on-Crown-Capital-Eco

When Indonesia slashed quotas on beef imports in 2011, the goal was to boost domestic production. But the ensuing shortage has pushed prices skyward, and fed a corrupt system where quotas go to the highest bidder.

Description: Australian cows being loaded onto a truck after arriving at the Tanjong Priok port in Jakarta in May 2011. Critics say the quotas should be reconsidered as local production is a long way off from meeting rising consumption. (Reuters Photo).

Several unscrupulous meatball producers were even caught secretly mixing pork with beef to keep costs low.

An ongoing investigation by the anti-corruption commission (KPK) has toppled the president of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), who resigned after being accused of receiving kickbacks from executives of a major meat importer, Indoguna.

Industry players said that endemic graft worsened after the government slashed import quotas in 2011 from 100,000 tones a year in 2011 to 40,000 tones last year and 32,000 tones this year. Some beef importers began bribing officials to get a share of the pie, and smuggled beef into the country.

Indonesian Meat Importers Association executive director Thomas Sembiring told The Straits Times that so long as meat import quotas are imposed and enforcement is "not transparent", graft will remain a problem.

"Bribery, corruption — it's already in their bone marrow. You have to cut down maybe two generations to get rid [of it]."

The big problem, said Franky Sibarani, deputy secretary-general of the Indonesian employers association Apindo, is that there are no good numbers on demand and supply "and therefore, lack of enforcement of the quota."

Late last month, PKS president Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq resigned and was detained after his aide Ahmad Fathanah was caught with one billion rupiah ($103,000). The money was allegedly a bribe from Indoguna directors to Luthfi, who has influence with officials at the Agriculture Ministry led by fellow PKS member Suswono.

Days after his arrest, Customs officers found 1.7 tones of undeclared wagyu beef in a raid at Jakarta's Tanjong Priok port, brought in by Indoguna.

Importers said the process of securing a share of these quotas is opaque and open to abuse at various levels of government.

Investigative magazine Tempo, which broke the story on corrupt practices in beef imports in 2011, reported last week that a businessman had been offered a slice of the quota if he was willing to pay 10,000 rupiah a kilo in bribes.

Since quotas were slashed two years ago, the price of beef for the public has more than doubled, on average, to hit some 100,000 rupiah a kilo.

In December, consumers were outraged when police and agriculture officials, acting on a tip-off, raided a factory in South Jakarta and found workers had mixed beef with pork, which is much cheaper, to make meatballs.

Ultimately, critics said, the quotas should be reconsidered as local production is a long way off from meeting rising consumption.

"Indonesia cannot produce live cattle in time to cater to rising consumption from a growing middle-income group, foreign workers and tourists," Siswono Yudhohusodo, who is in the parliamentary committee on agriculture, told reporters.

"The government needs to rethink its agrarian policy."

Dienstag, 12. Februar 2013

Indonesia Fraud Watch Crown Capital Eco Management - So when did Environmentalism lose its soul?

http://forum.sofeminine.co.uk/forum/carriere1/__f374_carriere1-Indonesia-fraud-watch-crown-capital-eco-management-so-when-did-environmentalism-lose-its-soul.html

The Vermont Times Argus published a spot-on review of a new book by Bill McKibben -one of the many who has made a career out of jetting between conferences about tyhe environment and speaking opportunities.
Its written by Suzanna Jones, described as “an off-the-grid farmer living in Walden.She does not object to local power – but disagrees with McKibben about the trend towards industrial scale renewables. It is, she says, part of the mainstreaming of the environmental movement.

In his 2008 book “Deep Economy,” Bill McKibben concludes that economic growth is the source of the ecological crises we face today. He explains that when the economy grows larger than necessary to meet our basic needs – when it grows for the sake of growth, automatically striving for “more” – its social and environmental costs greatly outweigh any benefits it may provide.

Unfortunately, McKibben seems to have forgotten what he so passionately argued just five years ago. Today he is an advocate of industrial wind turbines on our ridgelines: He wants to industrialize our last wild spaces to feed the very economy he fingered as the source of our environmental problems.

His key assumption is that industrial wind power displaces the use of coal and oil, and therefore helps limit climate change. But since 2000, wind facilities with a total capacity equivalent to 350 coal-fired power plants have been installed worldwide, and today there are more – not fewer – coal-fired power plants operating.

(In Vermont, the sale of renewable energy credits to out-of-state utilities enables them to avoid mandates to reduce their fossil fuel dependency, meaning that there is no net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.)

At best, industrial wind simply adds more energy to the global supply. And what for? More! More energy than the grid can carry, more idiotic water parks, more snowmaking, more electronic gadgets, more money for corporations.

Why should we spend millions of dollars to destroy wildlife habitat, kill bats and eagles, pollute our headwaters, fill valuable wetlands, polarize our communities, make people sick, mine rare-earth metals – just to ensure that we can consume as much or more next year than we did this year?

The costs of industrial wind far outweigh the benefits – unless you are a wind developer. Federal production tax credits and other subsidies have fostered a gold rush mentality among wind developers, who have been abetted by political and environmental leaders who want to appear “green” without challenging the underlying causes of our crises.

Meanwhile, average Vermonters find themselves without any ability to protect their communities or the ecosystems of which they are a part. The goal of an industrial wind moratorium is to stop the gold rush so we can have an honest discussion on these issues.

Why does this frighten proponents of big wind? Because once carefully examined, industrial wind will be exposed for the scam that it is.

McKibben’s current attitude toward the environment has been adopted by politicians, corporations, and the big environmental organizations. Environmentalism has been successfully mainstreamed, at the cost of its soul.

This co-opted version isn’t about protecting the land base from the ever-expanding empire of humans. It’s about sustaining the comfort levels we feel entitled to without exhausting the resources required. It is entirely human-centered and hollow, and it serves corporate capitalism well.

In “Deep Economy,” McKibben points out that the additional “stuff” provided by an ever-growing economy doesn’t leave people happier; instead, the source of authentic happiness is a healthy connection to nature and community. As Vermonters have already discovered, industrial wind destroys both.

What industrial wind represents should be obvious to everyone: This is business as usual disguised as concern for the Earth. Far from genuine “environmentalism,” it is the same profit- and growth-driven destruction that is at the root of every ecological crisis we face.

Dienstag, 9. Oktober 2012

Nature News - Crown Capital Management Jakarta Indonesia

Protein to combat reef-destroying starfish

A group of scientists in Australia has announced this week an potentially effective way to eliminate the destructive starfish, crown of thorns, that are feasting on coral reefs in the Pacific ocean.

The crown of thorns is already prominent in the Pacific and Indian Ocean where they feed mainly on coral polyps. Outbreaks of the large and poisonous starfish are blamed for the massive destruction of corals.

The Great Barrier Reef is located in the northeastern coast of Australia and composed of thousands of reef formations. The report by Australian Institute of Marine Science showed that almost half of the coral reef is gone compared to its size 30 years ago.

Clearly, the first phase would be to remove the voracious eaters, starfish, and convince farming operations to reduce their chemical-laden runoffs that victimize coral, and in some cases even support the starfish growth.

James Cook University in Queensland announced their discovery of a bacteria culture that could help in preserving the Great Barrier Reef by killing the culprit, starfish. The protein mixture where the bacteria is cultured was discovered to be capable of destroying starfish within 24 hours.

According to researchers of the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at the university, the next phase will deal with determining how safe the protein is when it comes to other marine life.

“In developing a biological control you have to be very careful to target only the species you are aiming at, and be certain that it can cause no harm to other species or to the wider environment. This compound looks very promising from that standpoint — though there is a lot of tank testing still to do before we would ever consider trialing it in the sea,” said Professor Morgan Pratchett of the ARC center.

However, this discovery alone is not enough to curb the massive outbreaks of starfish being seen today.

Read Full Story at http://charltoncrown.edublogs.org

A solution for Asian carp infestation

Crown Capital Management Jakarta Indonesia – Brought from the East to aid in managing aquatic plants in aquaculture industries, Asian carp has been unwittingly introduced to freshwater sources of the US. Today, they are seen as a big problem in the fishing industry for their big appetite and fast breeding, overshadowing other fish for space and food in lakes.

Asian carp presence has been recorded in around 18 states and is already established in the areas of Missouri and Illinois. The fish threatening to mess with the USD 7 billion sport and commercial fishing industry of the Great Lakes can grow up to 100 pounds and measure over 4 feet.

Some are saying that the easy solution for this is closing the canal systems and any other point of entry of asian carps. However, such a step will certainly cost billions, not only in construction but also in lost profit from boat traffic that uses the canal system.

Last resort options to prevent upsetting the marine biodiversity in the Great Lakes are harmful to other industries and would also worsen the road traffic, ergo an increase in carbon emissions.

The Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework of the government is set to allocate USD 51.5 billion to protect the Great Lakes from the asian carp infestation. This program apparently involves methods to kill or drive them away, from poison pellets to soundwave-shooting underwater guns.

A more permanent and beneficial solution seems to be to catch the asian carps and turn them into foodstuffs like what Schafer Fisheries in Illinois is doing. Schafer has been selling 10 million lbs of asian carp across the world, satisfying a demand for them in other parts of the world while helping their locality get rid of a major headache. Asian carps can be processed into food products like sausage, jerk, hotdogs and can also be included in fertilizers. Even if this one industry will not be enough to totally stop the proliferation of Asian carp, it can at least be a major step in finding a solution.

Asian carp is a collective term for several species of carp: grass carp, black carp, silver carp and bighead carp. Read Full Story at http://marionyusef.edublogs.org/

Crown Capital Management Jakarta Indonesia - The Company

Crown Capital Management Jakarta Indonesia

Crown Capital Eco Management works with government bodies, international entities, private sectors and other non-governmental organizations in providing extensive information to the public, media and policymakers that are involved in addressing environmental issues and sustainable initiatives in a worldwide scale. Though our group does not personally conduct research, we analyze and review both recent and old data on technical and socio-economic sectors that are relevant to our field, which is environment preservation.

We are composed of volunteer professionals in the scientific sector, supported by various agencies around the world. Our group is an independent organization supporting programs involving climate change, biodiversity, organic pollutants and greenhouse gases, to name a few.

Guiding Principles

Independence

Although Crown cooperates with various organizations, we maintain our being an independent body, free from control of any particular government, state or institution and unimpaired by their own respective interests.

Sustainability

A long-term responsibility of preserving resources for future generations that cover economic and environmental factors. Sustainability enables the environment to be productive and diverse enough to host humanity along with other living organism through effectively managing human impact on the ecosystem based on information provided experts.

Taking steps towards sustainability is a difficult challenge as it entails international and local law, individual lifestyles and urban planning. Measures should be implemented on re-evaluating work practices, altering general living conditions and making new technologies in order for a sustainability goal to be accomplished.

Accountability

Crown Capital Eco Management also aims to raise awareness of our society getting trapped in progress with only the short-term concerns in mind for failure to protect and conserve our natural resources could lead to irreversible consequences not only in the future civilization but to the whole ecosystem itself.

Along with the recognition that the environment is needed for us to survive is the realization that we must answer for its sustainability and be responsible for managing the great resources we are entrusted with.

Independence

Our group strives to make every sector of our society, especially the public, recognize the need for transparency in what is and will be happening to our natural resources in the future. Every individual leaves his mark in the environment and unfortunately, not all of us leave a beneficial one. Therefore, we must be consistent and united in our efforts as a civilization to preserve our nature.