Keeping a low profile

[roballanson]

Keep your head down mark.

if you run into a left handed Scottish guitarist called Steve Malloch say hello for me.
He is in Jakata and/or East Timor.

Keep safe.

 

[Bill]

Take care, Mark.

 

[Aussie Mark]

With the bombings on Bali over the weekend, things are on high alert in Jakarta, and our security advisers have suggested we stay out of restaurants, bars, shopping malls, and other places that might be targets because westerners hang there. And I won't be setting up a picnic table on the US embassy lawn any time in the forseeable future.

The fuel price rises on Saturday, which averaged 126%, were relatively trouble free other than some over-caffeinated students who like to throw things and provoke armed policemen. Either that or the students love the smell of tear gas in the morning.

Some guys torched a car around the corner from our house on Friday night, but that's as bad as it's got so far. The month-long Ramadan fast starts tomorrow night, so if anything else big is going to happen it's likely to happen before then.

 

[JB1]

Stay safe out there bro.

Not that you need ME to tell you that.

 

[Urwordsbreakmed]

OK im lost Rioting why ive heard nothing about this... i must lead a sheltered life would someone like to inform me?

 

[Aussie Mark]

OK im lost Rioting why ive heard nothing about this... i must lead a sheltered life would someone like to inform me?

I realise that rioting in Jakarta is not likely to make the front page of USA Today, but I'm surprised that the US media is still so US-centric. I remember when I was in the US in '97 and Pol Pot was captured, the story made a few lines somewhere around page 20 in the US newspapers. In Asia that news was the equivalent of Hitler being captured.

Indonesian fuel price rises and riots -

http://news.google.com.au/news?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=DVXA,DVXA:2004-46,DVXA:en&ncl=http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/10/02/jakarta_increases_fuel_prices&hl=en

As for Saturday's other big news in my part of the world ....

http://news.google.com.au/news?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=DVXA,DVXA:2004-46,DVXA:en&ncl=http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news%3Fpid%3D10000087%26sid%3Dapn6pzVjX4l4%26refer%3Dtop_world_news&hl=en

 

[maddog]

I realise that rioting in Jakarta is not likely to make the front page of USA Today, but I'm surprised that the US media is still so US-centric.

MSNBC.com ran a couple of articles about the rioting on their main page. Was quickly overshadowed by the bombings tho'.

I'm surprised by your surprise. I guess I'm more pessimistic about the US changing its view of the world.

 

[bovinehost]

I'm surprised that the US media is still so US-centric.

Well, you have to figure that Canadian news has a sort of Canadian slant to it; in Iceland, I'm figuring they do a lot of thinking about what stuff around the world means to Iceland.

With your lifelong proximity to Indonesia, you were almost certainly more well-informed (even before the move) than your average....Ukranian? About Indonesia, I mean.

The blasts in Bali did make waves on all the news outlets, though. Not the same kind of waves had they happened in New Jersey, but again - it makes sense.

On the other hand, much of my adult life has been spent in latin america and the Caribbean, so I may not have a clue what I'm talking about.

 

[MingusBASS]

I don't think this is a case of the news here being US-centric but the fact that if you don't read the news or watch news channels you can't be informed. On CNN/Fox news and in the 2 Twin Cities papers the coverage has been pretty thorough in my opinion. Does it bother me that so many Americans are clueless about what's going on in the rest of the world? I find it troubling, but I'd gather that it's not much better in a good part of the "civilized" world.

Andrew

 

[Aussie Mark]

Does it bother me that so many Americans are clueless about what's going on in the rest of the world? I find it troubling, but I'd gather that it's not much better in a good part of the "civilized" world.

I guess I can only speak for Australia, but kids downunder are taught at high school about US history, as well as Europe and Asia, plus the fact that most movies and TV shows are from the US means that Aussies grow up knowing quite a bit about the rest of the world. On the other hand, I'm always amazed when an American asks me, in all seriousness, whether Australia has electricity or roads or if we have kangaroos as household pets. I mean that's ridiculous - we keep kangaroos as sexual playthings, not pets. There is a difference.

 

[JB1]

The killer one here is people (not just/always Americans) standing AT the Tower of London, but asking where it is, because they're expecting a sky scraper.

I think we have to remember that the US is VAST and as such, there's probably a whole heap of domestic news to get through, perhaps hence the relatively minor worldwide coverage.

Dunno for sure, just my 0.02

 

[pattiejay]

I guess I can only speak for Australia, but kids downunder are taught at high school about US history, as well as Europe and Asia, plus the fact that most movies and TV shows are from the US means that Aussies grow up knowing quite a bit about the rest of the world. On the other hand, I'm always amazed when an American asks me, in all seriousness, whether Australia has electricity or roads or if we have kangaroos as household pets. I mean that's ridiculous - we keep kangaroos as sexual playthings, not pets. There is a difference.

my kangaroo is named Dave LaRoo

he plays with me

 

[pattiejay]

hope you're safe my the way Mark...

my brother who lives in Newcastle told me his workmate is in Singapore for treatment after being injured in one of the blasts...worrying stuff

 

[Psycho Ward]

Mark be careful there!

As for the news in your area I depend on you, your on site, first hand reports are way more interesting to me than some TV news dick with a mic in his face.


Stay Safe!!!

 

[SteveB]

It's not that Americans aren't interested in world news. It's just that our media folks have their own agenda and they cram it down our throats. It is probably true that most of us don't care enough to do anything about that, though.

We're sort of like sheep these days, in that we take what is given to us.. radio broadcasts that are 90% commercials, spotty world news coverage, F@nder musical instruments...

What the rest of the world doesn't necessarily realize is this: it is not arrogance that makes US citizens oblivious to a lot of things. It just that we're busy working. Americans live to work. They largely identify who they are by what they do for a living. We tend to think about what we can do for our immediate families and situations and there's little time left for anything else. I have sometimes gone for weeks without seeing a news broadcast or reading a newspaper. Not that I'm uninterested-- I'm just too busy!

You figure, my wife and I get up early.. go to work... come home and have just a few hours with the kids, and in that time we need to make dinner, eat dinner, wash dishes, vacuum, bathe the kids, put them to bed, pay bills. By that time we're so worn out that we fall asleep shortly thereafter.. and start the whole process the next day! Somehow in between, I manage to be active in several social organizations, play in a band, pursue my genealogy hobby..

...none of which is any concern to the good people of Indonesia.

 

[mike not fat]

We tend to think about what we can do for our immediate families and situations and there's little time left for anything else. I have sometimes gone for weeks without seeing a news broadcast or reading a newspaper. Not that I'm uninterested-- I'm just too busy!

You figure, my wife and I get up early.. go to work... come home and have just a few hours with the kids, and in that time we need to make dinner, eat dinner, wash dishes, vacuum, bathe the kids, put them to bed, pay bills. By that time we're so worn out that we fall asleep shortly thereafter.. and start the whole process the next day!

That's the same for many of us. The thing is not to be concerned by anything happening through the world, it's impossible. I choosed some things I do to help other people out and to favor that, i refuse to have a TV (it's so easy just to push the "on" button and then watch anything that's on one of the many chanels they offer).

MNF