Tough Times in Indonesia

If you look at a map, it quickly jumps out that Australia's largest neighbor by far is Indonesia. So the Australian press naturally devotes quite a bit of coverage to their giant northern neighbor. And lately, that coverage has been one disaster after another.

Yesterday, an Indonesian airplane overshot the runway at Yogyakarta's airport and crashed and burned on landing, with over 20 people killed, including several Australian government officials, in what appears to be an accident. The day before, a major earthquake (hardly a rarity in quake-prone Indonesia) struck Sumatra and killed at least 70. The week before, landslides after heavy rains killed 40 people in eastern Indonesia. A few weeks ago, an Indonesian plane crashed in the jungle, over 100 killed. In January, a ferry sank in a storm, taking 400 people with her.

Nothing funny to say about this, but one serious piece of advice: don't take a ferry in any third world country. They tend to be overcrowded and poorly maintained. Just off the top of my head I can remember major ferry disasters in Indonesia, the Philippines, Senegal, Nigeria, Haiti...