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Saturday, May 28, 2005

Schapelle and Indonesia and Bali

There are calls for Aussies to boycott Indonesia, and particularly Bali, as part of the Schapelle Corby case.  Do you think Indonesia cares?
I don't know the ins and outs of the Schapelle Corby case beyond what the media report here, and what we can read on the Internet.  It's about perspective.  We weren't there, so we don't know what happened, and even if we were there, our perspective may be different on what is "the truth".
What we see is a pretty lady crying in court, and pretty ladies are innocent.

What I want to know more about is Bali's relationship with the rest of Indonesia.
Is it irrelevant, or does it matter that Bali is a predominantly a Hindu island, governed by a predominantly Moslem Indonesia.  How do the Balinese view the rest of Indonesia?  How does Moslem Indonesia view Bali.  It seems more than coincidence that the bomb planted by Moslems, goes off in Bali, either because the island is Hindu, so it doesn't matter so much, or because it attracts Westerners.  And why does it attract Westerners?

From my subjective viewpoint, I have not great desire to visit Indonesia or Bali, there are lots of countries and places to visit, and I'm fickle.  I won't go to Turkey because of the way Man United and their fans were treated when they played Galatasaray in '94. 
But the greatest crime (including my own prejudices) is to persecute the Balinese for events which have very little to do with them.
Are the judges Balinese?  Does it matter?  I'm thinking about it.
I'm also trying to read up on Indonesian history, but it's seems very complex.

As an English person observing Ireland and Northern Ireland that's difficult enough, so how the hell would I know what goes on in Indonesia.  Maybe it's just a trial of a woman found with 4Kg of drugs in her bag.  From an Indonesian viewpoint that looks pretty guilty, from Schapelle Corby's viewpoint she's innocent.

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I have reluctantly deleted some of the comments being made to my post about Schapelle Corby. I don't like doing this and I have agonised over if for a few days. The trouble is, once I say I'm deleting extreme... [Read More]

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