Indonesians like both kinds of music

Country ...... and western

I was channel surfing after dinner one night last week and came across one of those "train wreck" programs - one that is so gruesome that you keep looking at it for longer than you should, in case you miss something.

It turns out that TVRI has a weekly country music program called "Country Road", which features line dancing, lots of Indonesians sitting around wearing cowboy hats and checked shirts drinking iced tea, and a house band whose frontman was dressed like a cross between Elvis and Neil Diamond, with Bono sunglasses thrown in for added effect. As the camera panned around the audience I also spotted the rather unusual sight of a Muslim woman wearing a stetson perched on top of her hijab (headscarf). Authenticity is maintained by the band's songs being performed with the original English lyrics.