Daily Life in Indonesia

A clip from Al-Jazeera, depicting daily life of impoverished women and their families in Java, Indonesia (1:30).

2 minutes of footage depicting daily life for families who live by train tracks in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital.

Bin Laden Coverage: Compare/Contrast

Osama Bin Laden was killed by American forces in Pakistan, drawing much media coverage around the world.  

Osama Bin Laden's death was an event covered extensively by American media.  The news was portrayed positively in the U.S. and focused on details of the operation, carried out by a highly trained Navy SEAL team, as well as the celebrations and overall feelings of Americans.  Other Western countries reacted in a similar, extensive style.

For example, The Australian Post created a page dedicated to Bin Laden in his life and death.  The page includes a timeline of what events led to Bin Laden's death, as well as other articles related to Bin Laden, the U.S. operation to end his life and the effect his death will have on the Middle East.  Like the U.S., Australian coverage of Bin Laden's death was supportive of the U.S.' actions.  Contrasting from American coverage, The Australian Post focused on a more international, South Pacific point of view, which makes sense since Australia is obviously more geographically connected to this part of the world than the U.S. is.

Canada also reported on celebration in its country after the news of Bin Laden's death broke.  A Canada.com article ran a quote by Action democratique du Quebec leader Gerard Deltell calling the U.S. action "justice," although it noted that Bin Laden was trained by the CIA "in a time when Islamic terrorism was acceptable to the military-industrial complex in the United States and largely supported by the monarchist, theocratic, fundamentalist government of Saudi Arabia." 


South Africa:  South Africa's Mail and Guardian Online published a fairly brief article: "Osama Bin Laden Killed By U.S."  The article objectively reported on President Obama's "dramatic speech" and the travel alert the U.S. State Department issued to U.S. citizens directly following the news.  There seemed to be no agenda behind the article other than reporting the news, but interestingly, a good chunk of it was devoted to celebratory reactions by Americans.  This part of the article, which described the "joyous" crowd outside the White House and included quotes from around the U.S. by "relieved" or "proud" Americans, inferred that basically all of the U.S. was out dancing in the streets after hearing of Bin Laden's death.  People filled the comments section below with their opinions, which mostly seemed sympathetic to the American cause, if not fully celebratory.

India: Similarly to the article from South Africa, The Times of India posted a fairly brief article on Bin Laden's death in a straightforward, what-appears-to-be-objective, style.  The article focused on the call Barack Obama made to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regarding Bin Laden's death and noted especially that "India has told America on many occasions that Pakistan remains a safe haven for terrorists."

The Jerusalem Post ran the above Reuters photo while comparing the U.S.' operation to many Israel has carried out in the past.

Israel: Israel promoted itself in a far more pronounced way than India did in an article entitled Security and Defense: So Targeted Killings Do Work, After All.  The article, posted on The Jerusalem Post website, did not focus so much on Bin Laden's death as it mostly reviewed targeted killings that Israel had carried out in the past.

Ethiopia: A link to an article entitled What Bin Laden's Death Mean to Ethiopia reveals a poorly-written article (editorial?) in English that spends most of its space criticizing President Obama his presidency with statements that seem to come solely from (author) Eskinder Nega's mind.  Nega even brings up the debate about Obama's "nativity" in the second paragraph, which he/she states is "questioned by a shockingly large number of Americans," even though the debate in the U.S. was silenced by the production of Obama's birth certificate at least two weeks before Bin Laden was killed.  When Nega gets to what Bin Laden's death actually means to Ethiopia he/she makes several blanket statements, including:

• There will now be "no more comparisons with Jimmy Carter" for Obama.
• "There will now be less pressure on (Obama) to sustain the war on terror as the central theme of America's foreign policy."
• "The loss of [Al Qaeda's] iconic leader will most probably weaken [Al Qaeda] considerably.
• America can move on; Policy shift "could begin in earnest." 

Although it's hard to tell whether these comments are the general consensus of Ethiopians, the inaccurate statements at the beginning of the article make the American reader question the existence of a bias directed toward news out of the U.S.  The article, at the very least, appears to have a slant towards anti-Americanism.

Nigeria: In the Nigerian Tribune, what appears to be an editorial written by Abiodun Awolaja entitled "Bin Laden, Terror and Challenges for Nigeria" discusses Bin Laden's death from a Nigerian point of view.  Awolaja details parts of Nigeria's extensively violent history and states that the U.S.' handling of the operation to kill Bin Laden "may have provided an opportunity for Nigeria to re-evaluate its war against terror."  Overall, the article suggests that Nigeria look to other countries like the U.S. in order to "attain (the U.S.') present, arguably enviable status with respect to the management of crime and terrorism."

This cartoon ran in a Pakistani newspaper, The Friday Times

Pakistan: In what can arguably be expected from a country with citizens that sympathize with Bin Laden's cause, Pakistan's Dawn.com ran an article entitled In His Death, Osama Finds Sympathy.  The article, written in a straightforward manner, serves as a commentary on the mixed emotions expressed by people mostly in Egypt.  Although the article is quite objective, author Yasser Khalil makes a point of running quotes that express the Middle East's dissatisfaction with how the U.S. handled Bin Laden's body.

In review, the majority of coverage from around the world appeared to be supportive, although many were cautiously so, of the U.S. operation that killed Osama Bin Laden.  Understandably, many countries coverage was based on how they would particularly be affected.  Most countries' coverage was to a lesser extent than that of the U.S.

Indonesia: Newslinks on the Death of Bin Laden

This link, which seems pretty straightforward and unbiased, notes the issue of terrorism in Indonesia and how certain groups are reacting to the death of Osama Bin Laden.

The Jakarta Post had an interesting "text your opinion" page, where the international community of Indonesia commented diversely on his death and  U.S.'s operation to kill him.

Antara News, Indonesia's Official News Agency, ran several stories which seemed to focus on negative aspects of the operation (Bin Laden Death Rekindles Torture Debate, White House Alters Narrative of Bin Laden Raid, Bin Laden, Two Others Didn't Fire on Seals-Sources). I think it's safe to say that this one, in which an Iranian government official states that Bin Laden was dead long before U.S. forces got to him, probably wouldn't be on any front pages here.