There's nothing like comparing opposites. Leiter links to this post on tsunami-relief in Aceh with the comment, "Another side of the tsunami disaster in Indonesia...that you won't see mentioned in either the mainstream media or the mainstream (i.e., right-wing) blogosphere." And he's right, because the article he links to is pretty much the familiar parade of horribles regarding the political situation in Aceh, not the tsunami as such:

Well, the coastal areas of Aceh have been crushed by the earthquake and the tsunami. Large parts of Banda Aceh are under water; they�ve become part of the sea. The west coast is hardest hit and whole villages are leveled. But this is not the first catastrophe to hit Aceh. Previously, it was devastated by unnecessary and preventable poverty. Aceh is rich in resources; it�s one of the world�s main natural gas producers. It supplies much of the natural gas for South Korea and Japan, and yet the revenues have gone to Exxon Mobil and the central government in Jakarta, with almost nothing left for the poor of Aceh. And as a result, we�ve seen malnutrition and undernourishment levels among the children of Aceh running as high as 40 percent.

True enough, the article talks about the Indonesian government's interference in distributing aid to victims, but it's as much a diatribe against the opportunism and repression of a government getting in the way of aid as anything else.

I don't know about the mainstream media, and if the blogosphere has a mainstream, I've no idea where it is. (I would have assumed Kos and Instapundit were both on it.) But in the interests of checking the right-wing blogosphere, I wandered over to The Corner, and sure enough, that bit of it wasn't talking about the Indonesian military. Instead, Ms. Lopez gives this excerpt from Aljazeera.net:

Not everyone was so enthusiastic.

"The Americans have to understand our culture here," said Hilmy Bakar Almascaty, vice-chairman of the Jakarta-based Islamic Defenders Front, which is mobilising relief efforts of its own.

"If they are not sensitive to local issues then there will be problems. If American women come to Aceh, they must wear dilbab for example. There is Sharia law in Aceh and that is what is dictated."

USAid's Bok said it was unlikely US service personnel would adhere to a Muslim dresscode.

"I don't think the practice of Islam in Aceh is such that it forces all people to wear dilbab," said Weiss. "This is not Saudi Arabia."

In addition to the helicopters, American forces have committed six C-130 transport planes to the relief effort. Four Australian aircraft have been flying supplies between Banda Aceh since Tuesday. Both nations are flying C-130 transport planes on a regular run between Medan and Band Aceh.

In other words, although the Al Jazeera article is actually a pretty interesting story about Aceh taken as a whole, The Corner's excerpt is posted as much a diatribe against the hard-headedness of Islamic fundamentalists getting in the way of aid as anything else.

At the end of a long day in which contrary to my expectations I actually got quite a lot done, I have to look at that and laugh. It reminds me of what Neil Gaiman's words about Dream in The Kindly Ones:

Each facet catches the light in its own way. It glints and sparkles and flashes uniquely. It would almost be possible to believe that the facet was the jewel; not just a tiny part of it. But then, as we move the jewel another facet catches the light ... We see an aspect of the whole. But the facet is not the jewel.

So true.