Publisher's Synopsis
Australia's relationship with its near neighbour, Indonesia, has been troubled by ambivalence for decades. Ministerial dictates, government travel warnings, worrying political developments, personal holiday experiences, trade and aid all shape the perceptions of ordinary Australians. How should we react to the world's most populous Muslim nation?;In The People Next Door, award-winning journalist and commentator Duncan Graham crosses the cultural divide to explore the way Indonesians live, work and interact. His interviews and observations - on the world of slum-dwellers, beggars, shopkeepers and beleaguered house-holders, of teachers, lawyers and writers, of evangelists, philanthropists and political malcontents - are funny and sad, incisively revealing, and refreshingly accessible. Our neighbours may be different, but The People Next Door shows how Indonesians and Australians face similar fears and concerns when confronting the storm of change sweeping our region. A positive and welcome contribution towards increasing Australia's understanding of Indonesian social, cultural, religious, business and everyday life.
