JAKARTA -- "It's dangerous here for Americans," said my cab driver when I visited a few weeks ago. No question. A few blocks away sat the J.W. Marriott, its facade broken and blackened from the bombing in August. Scores of windows were blown out; mutilated blinds swayed in the wind. Wrecked autos sat as silent sentinels in the hotel driveway.
Westerners were almost entirely absent on Jakarta's streets. The Indonesians I visited worried about my safety. "People hate Americans," said one; "they are very much against Americans," said another. Osama bin Laden posters still sell in some Islamic neighborhoods as rumors circulate that the CIA arranged the Marriott bombing.
During the war with Iraq last spring, the owner of Jakarta's McDonald's franchises let it be known that he was a Muslim. It was one city where I did not jog, even though I've run everywhere from Pyongyang to Pristina.