indi + rani = noe | kei

Rani and Noe took off at 7:50am this morning to Aceh via Medan. Rani will be attending the First International Conference of Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies led by Prof Anthony Reid and friends.

It would be interesting to hear what Rani personally has to say about Aceh.

The three-day conference will contain the following panels:
1. Seismology, geology and environmental impact
2. History of Aceh and the Indian Ocean world
3. Language, culture and society
4. Post-tsunami relief, reconstruction and disaster mitigation
5. Conflict resolution, peace-making and democratisation issues
6. Islam, law and society

They are all very interesting issues to talk about. Surprisingly, those discussion topics will be led mostly by non-Indonesians (folks from Iran, Japan, Finland, France, Netherlands, US, et al). Is it fair to conclude that foreign scholars seem to have more in depth knowledge and understanding about Aceh than her fellow countrymen do? I think so.