a sense of joy and then a panic

Really, though, it seems to come with surprising ease - when, of course, you can convince the Indonesian police that counter-terrorism is their top priority, seeing as how they have a lot of other security problems to deal with.  This happened in 2005 too.  Given that the Marriott was bombed again in July (after four years without a strike, and this one only killing 7), the police went back to work on the main terrorism guy and...

Maybe the U.S. should ask for some tips.  Really though.  I don't understand it myself.  Did years of brutal authoritarian training camps make counter-terrorism a breeze? 

ETA:  So maybe it's not Noordin, but apparently they did foil an assassination attempt on President Yudhoyono.  Yudhoyono's all, "I extend my highest gratitude and respect to the police for their brilliant achievement in this operation."   Ha ha ha.

It is sad, in a way, that all our critics want is a little acknowledgment of error.  But it also goes to show just how ridiculously out of proportion the American ego is, as well as how open most countries are to cooperating with the United States as long as the U.S. gets off its high horse and acts like a friggin' normal country (and treats other countries like they're friggin' normal too). 

Clinton Scores Points By Admitting Past U.S. Errors: It has become a recurring theme of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s early travels as the chief diplomat of the United States: she says that American policy on a given issue has failed, and her foreign listeners fall all over themselves in gratitude.

The contrition tour goes beyond Latin America. In China, Mrs. Clinton told audiences that the United States must accept its responsibility as a leading emitter of greenhouse gases. In Indonesia, she said the American-backed policy of sanctions against Myanmar had not been effective. And in the Middle East, she pointed out that ostracizing the Iranian government had not persuaded it to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions.

For a senior American official — someone who almost became president — to declare that the United States had erred, makes a major impact on foreign audiences.  In many countries, her statements have elicited an almost palpable sense of relief. And she suggested that the Obama administration’s drive for warmer relations with old foes was just getting started. Asked whether the United States would build bridges to hostile Latin American leaders, like Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Mrs. Clinton said, “Let’s put ideology aside; that is so yesterday.”

Meanwhile, Jackie Chan is hilarious: ''I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not.  I'm really confused now. If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic. I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want."  You may think he's being a CCP stooge here, but I think it's more of a sense of nationalistic dismay: "If I need to buy a TV, I'll definitely buy a Japanese TV. A Chinese TV might explode."

My dad ended up with that sort of dismay too.  Suharto always justified his authoritarianism by calling himself the "father of development" and the "head farmer" of Indonesia - and my dad snorted at that, but got increasingly frustrated by the self-defeating stupidity of Indonesians, which is why he resorted to calling most people "kambing," goats.  Goats that needed a farmer to tend to them, because they couldn't do anything right - couldn't drive civilly, couldn't keep appointments, couldn't do their job, etc.  Indonesia hasn't washed down the sink hole since democratization, although there were certainly some very rough patches. 

I'm still not sure why that is.  All I can guess is that Indonesians are pretty chill.  Almost too chill.  Chill like I-don't-need-to-go-to-work chill.  My lord, it took them 300 years to seriously revolt against the Dutch.  But it comes in handy when the iron lid's blown off.  Gardner's writing about the brilliant Sutan Sjahrir in 1949 here: "He deplored his people’s acceptance of their lot but recognized ‘that the cause behind our people’s weakness is also really an unusual virtue, namely its almost limitless tolerance and its extraordinary adaptability.’"

Of course, Indonesia's not going to be entering the television market anytime soon, either.