Official Website of Lebong Municipality

The government of Lebong yesterday (28/09/11) officially launched its municipal website, http://www.lebong-kab.go.id. Bengkulu Ekspress, the provincial newspaper, reported that the Bupati (Mayor) expected that this site will be extensively used to promote the economic development of this municipality by promoting this municipality to the people around the world.  

Fireworks for iedul fitri's eve?

Change? it's probably yes!. I still hard to believe to find the fact that many of young people,  of course teenagers, of Bengkulu spend their iedul fitri's eve by having firework party along the beach, especially around the port of Malborough. The fireworks were personally managed, they take it from home or the store and play it with a small group. Other group will do the same things, and the fireworks then start to continuously take place.  So many people watching the fireworks, hang around in groups in the tent's cafe, enjoying the soft drinks and snacks. They seem really to have a wonderful time, enjoying the party.  But, I personally find a little bit weird, or more precisely i notice that there has been a change in term of the way teenagers of Bengkulu to celebrate their iedul fitri's eve. 

Although I still caught in sight many teenagers celebrating the iedul fitri's eve in front of the mosque and doing other religious activities, the fireworks along the beach still somehow bothers me.  I need to accept this change.  The point that I want to underline that there has been a shifting way of teenagers of Bengkulu's town to wrap up their ramadhan, from religious activities to less religious, from the mosque to the beach. My neighbors said that more people and more fireworks involve this year compared to the previous years. Time  goes, people change, but belief and the way to practice it should not change!. I will see how this thing will take place in the next coming years.

Recommended references to know more about Bengkulu

The use of bamboo tube for pepper establishment

zie, 2011

This technique might not be sophisticated, it is a local wisdom indeed. It does help farmers to have successful pepper transplanting in the mulched soil bed.  Farmers practice this method as they always find that their peppers often suffer from transplanting shocks.  I would presumed that  pepper seedlings successfully have field establishment as the bamboo tube protects the young  plant from heat stress, or from the air borne pathogen, or from the wind stress. Anyway, this local wisdom is practiced by many farmers. They also said that the tube could also serve as ‘canal’ to provide supplementary fertilizers. However, further research should be established to determine the benefits of bamboo tube during the pepper establishment after transplanting.  

Animal worker in Palm-oil Plantation

Here is another local wisdom in agricultural practices. The use of cow as animal workers is increasingly introduced in several palm-oil plantations in Bengkulu to reduce the harvesting costs and manage the hilly topographic. The use of cow is very smart indeed, as it could contribute to the efforts of palm-oil industry to develop a zero waste policy in the plantation areas. (Picture taken by Dwatmaji, 2005).