Hi, I received your latest Inside Indonesia today and it looks extremely interesting. The article on ‘My Pesantren’ is well written and describes an amazing experience for an Australian student. I noticed the letter suggesting an issue on religion. I did a series of interviews with a Muslim writer in Yogyakarta in January and if you were running such an issue, I would be pleased to offer these interviews for your consideration. They are basically about the 5 Pillars of Islam and how my interviewee practises them.

Thank you for what looks like much fascinating reading.

Irene Ritchie
31 March 2003

As a VCE Indonesian language teacher I find Inside Indonesia a valuable resource for current issues. The section Learning About Indonesia is particularly useful with the articles written in Indonesian providing VCE students with comprehensible reading material.

The two issues of Inside Indonesia for 2003 that I have received don’t include the ‘Learning About Indonesia’ section — would you please let me know if this section has been discontinued or whether it was just an omission.

Cheryl Blacker
Mitchell Secondary College, Wodonga
9 May 2003

I wish to thank you for the articles: ‘Sex in the city’, by Yatun Sastramidjaja, and ‘Sulawesi’s fifth gender’, by Sharyn Graham. It points out the high degree of development that the so called ‘primitive’ societies have achieved in their pursuit of the meaning of life. In fact, it points out just how primitive most so-called ‘modern’ societies are. Instead of persecuting those who aren’t what we would call ‘normal’, it treats everyone as normal and vital to a fully functional society where every member is considered important to the overall picture of life. It sounds like a much healthier attitude than what I was raised with here in the US. I spent a lot of my life wasted in trying to figure out where the truth was. Again, thanks for the excellent articles. I will treasure them.

John Chalinder
USA
23 June 2003