Indonesian presidential address

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, smh.com.au, Stereotypes do our peoples an injustice, 11 Mar 2010, "I was taken aback when I learnt that in a recent Lowy Institute survey, 54 per cent of Australian respondents doubted that Indonesia would act responsibly in its international relations. Indeed, the most persistent problem in our relations is the persistence of age-old stereotypes - misleading, simplistic mental caricatures that depict the other side in a bad light. Even in the age of the internet, there are Australians who still see Indonesia as an authoritarian country, or as a military dictatorship, or as a hotbed of Islamic extremism, or even as an expansionist power."

"Pilgrim Non Grata in Mecca"

Maureen Dowd, NYT, Op-ed, Pilgrim Non Grata in Mecca, 9 Mar 2010, "I was tempted to turn my abaya into a black masquerade cloak and sneak into Mecca, just hop over the Tropic of Cancer to the Red Sea and crash the ultimate heaven’s gate."