Expatriates hanging in despite fears after Marriott bombing

Expatriates hanging in despite fears after Marriott bombing

Megan James, Contributor, Jakarta

Ambulances were still rushing away from the JW Marriott Hotel in
Central Jakarta when the first wave of e-mails and phone calls
arrived.

"Surely, after this one in Jakarta, you're coming home."

"It's just too dangerous there. Even if you're not worried for
yourself, what about the children?"

"Alexander Downer says there's going to be more, get out while
you can!"

These were some that our Australian family got; other expats
got the same. Most of the 12,000 Australians living in this
country are used to it now -- they are those that chose to stay
after the Bali bombings, after last year's bomb threats to
international schools and who look like staying despite this
latest evidence terrorists are more active than ever in
Indonesia.

While the impression back home may be that expats here dodge
bombs every time they go to the supermarket, for the moment at
least, life is going on much as normal.

It's true that there have been about 20 separate Australian
Embassy bulletins issued since March this year, delivering terror
warnings of one kind or another. But it's also true that
Australian and U.S. embassy staff and their families are also
staying put following the Aug. 5 attack.

There's a sense, too, that after the controversy in Australia
over the lack of foreign affairs warnings prior to the Bali
bombings, the Australian government is determined to ensure it
cannot be accused of not giving sufficient warning to Australians
who might be hurt in a future attack.

Nevertheless, most expatriates here are well aware of the
risks. A friend and her one-year-old son were offered evacuation
by their employer, but instead they have moved out of their
upmarket inner city apartment block and are staying in a house
for now.

Apartments like theirs, full of Westerners, could easily be
the next targets.

Of course, expats think more carefully about moving around the
town. But people are still going out to dinner, the international
schools are back on schedule and children's birthday parties are
still held, although not at McDonald's.

Most expatriates believe the risk of dying in a terrorist
attack here is still low; they have quickly got used to other
dangers that come with a city that has no sewerage system, where
dengue fever is as common as colds and taxis remove seat belts to
improve passenger comfort.

On the most basic level, it seems that like many other
communities around the world, people can get used to living with
a certain degree of terror.

The positive side of this is that people become more aware in
the details of security.

"I try to avoid public places that front directly onto main
roads. Without boom gates, there's nothing to stop suicide
bombers from getting to the lobby," said one long-term Australian
resident here.

"On the other hand, I feel the international schools have done
everything they possibly can to tighten security, including three
or four-meter 'blast walls' on some campuses. I'd be a fool to
say they weren't still targets, but they're much less attractive
now."

But for partners and families of professionals, who either
cannot or do not want to leave, there is an additional factor
that sways judgment, perhaps dangerously.

As another expat mother-of-two put it: "If I go home and
settle the kids back into Australian schools, I don't know when
it'll be really any safer to come back to Jakarta. Sooner or
later, my husband will have to give up his work here if he wants
to be with his family.

"But if I stay for my husband's professional life, is that at
the expense of the kids' safety?"

With such personal factors confusing the scene, and embassy
warnings considered poor guides, many expat families admit good
risk assessment is difficult.

"I worry I might be like the frog in the cooking pot," said
another expat mother.

"I came to live here when the water was cool, but then came
September 11, Bali, Jamaah Islamiyah and now the Marriott. I feel
quite calm about staying here, but maybe I'm being boiled without
realizing it."