The People Next Door
Understanding Indonesia
Description:... Australia's relationship with its near neighbor, Indonesia, has been troubled by ambivalence for decades. Ministerial dictates, government travel warnings, worrying political developments, personal holiday experiences, trade and aid all shape the perceptions of ordinary Australians. How should we react to the world's most populous Muslim nation? In this book, award-winning journalist and commentator Duncan Graham crosses the cultural divide to explore the way Indonesians live, work and interact. His interviews and observations - on the world of slum dwellers, beggars, shopkeepers and beleaguered householders, of teachers, lawyers and writers, of evangelists, philanthropists and political malcontents - are funny and sad, incisively revealing, and refreshingly accessible. This book shows how Indonesians and Australians face similar fears and concerns when confronting the storm of change sweeping Australia. It is a positive and welcome contribution towards increasing our understanding of Indonesian social, cultural, religious, business and everyday life.
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