000 Emergency

Triple Zero (000) is the primary national emergency number in Australia. The Emergency Call Service is operated by Telstra as a condition of its telecommunications licence, and is intended only for use in life-threatening or time-critical emergencies. Other emergency numbers in Australia are 112 for GSM mobile and satellite phones, which is answered by a Triple Zero (000) operator and 106 for TDD textphones. Triple Zero (000) was also the emergency number in Denmark and Finland until the introduction of the 112 number in 1993 and in Norway until 1986, when the emergency numbers diverted to 001 for fire brigade, 002 for police and 003 for ambulance. Those numbers changed in 1994 to 110, 112 and 113 respectively.

For calls to the State Emergency Service the Australia wide number 132 500 can be used (except for in the Northern Territory). This number should only be used for non–life-threatening situations.

History

Prior to 1969, Australia did not have a national number for emergency services; the police, fire and ambulance services possessed many phone numbers, one for each local unit. In 1961, the office of the Postmaster General (PMG) introduced the Triple Zero (000) number in major population centres and near the end of the 1980s extended its coverage to nationwide. The number Triple Zero (000) was chosen for several reasons: technically, it suited the dialling system for the most remote automatic exchanges, particularly outback Queensland. These communities used the digit 0 to select an automatic trunk line to a centre. In the most remote communities, two 0s had to be used to reach a main centre; thus dialling 0+0, plus another 0 would call (at least) an operator. Zero is closest to the finger stall on Australian rotary dial phones, so it was easy to dial in darkness.

Merah Putih

Merah Putih ("Red [and] White") is a movie, directed by Yadi Sugandi (director of photography for Laskar Pelangi and the Photograph), brought out in Indonesia in 2009.

Genre

After a silence of almost two decades, Indonesian war-themed movies made a return with the release of Merah Putih. Janur Kuning (Young Yellow Coconut Leaves), Enam Jam di Yogya (Six Hours in Yogya), Serangan Fajar (The Dawn Attack) and Cut Nyak Dien are just few of many war movies screened in cinemas years ago, portraying the spirit, struggles and courage of Indonesians in fighting the Dutch and Japanese colonialists to gain independence and freedom.

Story

Set against a historically authentic backdrop of Indonesia's struggle for independence in 1947, during the Van Mook offensive into the heart of republican territory in Central Java, Merah Putih is a story about young Indonesian cadets who bond together despite their differences in religion, ethnicity, class and culture, to become guerrilla fighters for Indonesia's independence. The film was inspired by the real-life experiences of the brave cadets massacred in Lengkong, and all the men and women who fought for a free and united Indonesia between 1945 and 1948. The movie depicts the diversity of Indonesians through its unique and different characters. There is Amir, a quiet and devout Muslim, (played by prominent actor Lukman Sardi) who gives up his job as a teacher and even leaves his beloved wife to become a cadet, while hot-headed Tomas (Donny Alamsyah) comes all the way from Sulawesi to be a soldier in a bid to get revenge against the Dutch soldiers who slaughtered his family. There is also a cocky and elitist playboy Marius (Darius Sinathrya) and his best friend Soerono, who is a priyayi (Javanese aristocrat), as well as the Hindu street youth Dayan (T. Rifnu Wikana).