BOOM.......BOOM

A device is activated, people run out onto the street where two minutes later a second device ignites.

Baghdad it is not. The Jakarta Post headline screams

Approximately fifty people injured and nine dead….. In the name of what?

To the outside world, Indonesia with its predominately Muslim population is just another country where terrorist attacks are commonplace and a deep rooted hostility to the western world constantly bubbles under the thin veneer of smiles seen on the people’s faces.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

In the 4-1/2 years I have been here, despite my occasional cynical views, I have discovered how truly sincere these smiles can be. From the children flying homemade kites, the people on the side streets playing badminton on a makeshift court, the cash register girl at the supermarket, the parkir stopping the traffic so one can ease their car out to join the traffic melee, the Kembali Kasih (you’re welcome) from the restaurant staff at the Marriot for last Sundays brunch, all of these smiles are genuine and give one a warm feeling upon receipt.

With so many people struggling to get by and still finding time to smile while doing so, the nation and its population demonstrate a resilience which I am sure you will not find in many more developed countries.

In attacking Indonesia’s economy through five star hotels the terrorists also attacked a nation and its people. As always, the number of foreigners involved was small compared to the number of their own countrymen and women.

Yesterdays blasts also made me aware of the relatively close knit expat community here when I realised that I knew two of the injured personally and that two of my best friends here had lost work associates with the deaths of Tim McKay and Nathan Verity.

I don’t know how many degrees of separation that amounts to but watching the reactions of my two friends I realised that in the city and villages throughout the nation many more Indonesians were feeling the same way.

Not much more I can add here, I’m still a bit overwhelmed by the events and feel more Indonesian than Scottish. A strange empathy with all of the community and the victims of this latest outrage sits heavy on my chest at the moment.

For those who wish to know, here is the CCTV footage which for many was their last minute on earth.