media - Carolyn is ready for Jakarta
Carolyn's first stop: the Atlet Century Park Hotel

Tomorrow noon Carolyn Liu of the Oriental Morning Post will leave Shanghai for Jakarta and later Aceh to report about the Tsunami-conference and later about the situation in Aceh. It is her first assignment abroad, and very nervous, but committed to do her job. "Do they have internet in Aceh?" she wondered yesterday.
That might not be the case, but we found the mobile phone number of one of my Dutch friends, who is currently in Meulaboh in Aceh, one of the hardest hit areas. Also in Jakarta we have found some contacts, like the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club.
One of the weirder problems, one I did not know before, was that she cannot cover the visit of her premier Wen Jiabao, although he will be attending the meeting there too. Since the government only wants to speak with one voice, only the official news agency Xinhua can report about the official viewpoints of the Chinese government. Watch my predictions, that is one of the limitation that is so unpractical, my non-Xinhua colleagues will find ways to go around this. Just imagine you have to wait until Xinhua in Beijing has put out their dispatches!