What a contrast!

What a contrast!

Last Saturday (Nov. 2) evening as I sat in my Jakarta
apartment reading the newspaper and lamenting the current strain
and anger between Australia and Indonesia, I couldn't help but
look up as my young son sat with his four Muslim friends playing
their guitars, and creating songs.

"What a contrast", I thought, as whilst there is now a growing
perception of anger and distrust between our communities, here
are these young people, from totally different cultures simply
being "best of friends". The deep respect and trust that has
developed through their mutual love of music and understanding is
something that perhaps we, as adults, could learn from?

As I listened to the music I reflected on my colleagues from
Western Australia who work so passionately with their friends in
East Java in building and transforming the Karlya Mulya School
for Deaf Children in Surabaya. As a result of their joint
commitment, over 250 young Indonesian children now have some hope
of an education and a future. But we never read
about this in the newspapers.

Similarly, the Lion Eye Institute from Perth has worked
tirelessly with their colleagues from the Lions Club of Surabaya
and the various doctors and also the staff from Airlangga
University to help restore the eyesight to so many people from
the East Java region.

These are the stories that never get told as all we read about
is the "strained relations" and the "anger". Certainly our two
countries are experiencing difficulties, but we can work
through them as friends.

In my heart I gain enormous strength from the people such as
these young musicians and also the community workers who simply
go about their day doing good for others and building such strong
ties between our two nations. Naive? Yes, perhaps; but maybe it
is us that could learn from the these "quiet achievers" from our
respective countries.

ROSS TAYLOR, Jakarta