feck, but not feck

As it turns out, I don't know much about Indonesia. What I do know can be summed up as follows:

- The Dutch were thrown out in the 1940's (this I know because I dated a Dutch guy whose family was thrown out of Indonesia in the 1940's ... he was older than I was, yes)
- Krakatoa is east of Java

That's it.

So I worry when this tops the headlines:

Thousands Flee Rumbling Indonesia Volcano

For the benefit of those who are as unknown to the territory as I am, I've provided a map of Indonesia.




The light green piece on the end is where the brother is going. If you follow that island chain all the way down to the wee blocks at the other end you'll find Java. That's where the volcano (and political unrest and so on) is. Granted, for all I know this map is scaled 1" to 20 miles, and going from Java to Aceh is like driving from LA to Orange County (Portland to Eugene, Philadelphia to DC, San Francisco to Sonoma), but I'm going to look deep into the sand and believe that this is not so.

There was also this hopeful note in the Wikipedia (for what it's Wiki-worth):

This (the earthquake in 2004) led to a peace agreement between the government of Indonesia and GAM, mediated by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, with the signing of a MoU on August 15, 2005. As of February 2006, the peace has held.

whew. and a good thing too.