http://nypost.com/news/worldnews/62179.htm
Bali’s National Police Chief was apparently amused by this muderer aswell!
I hope that no more Aussies ever set foot in Bali, destroying their tourist economy, then I’d like to see these assholes smile.
:mad:
As much as this story confused and dismayed me, I have to take issue with this. There are 3 million people in Bali, a great number of whom directly or indirectly depend on the tourist industry to put food on the plate and a roof over their heads. The tourist industry (which used to accomodate 2.5 million visitors a year) there is already suffering greatly, one of my friends was there a few days ago and said it was a ghost town.
Now, I don’t know this for sure but I don’t think all 3 million inhabitants of Bali were implicated in the bombings and surely not all 3 million were chuckling while Amrozy was making his obscene jokes. So as much as I understand your anger and as much as I appreciate that your comment was just a comment, I do think that your anger is somewhat misplaced.
And Islam is a religion of peace, don’t forget to trot that one out too.
I would love to be able to agree with you, but when you have the National Police Officer, a key security figure, grinning like a hyaena at this murderer - I tell you what, you take your family on a vacation there, m’kay?
Here is an article in the Sydney Morning Herald that goes some way to explaining the behaviour of participants in the police interview.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/11/14/1037080851468.html
Now, I don’t condone the actions in that interview but I do concede that differing cultures have a great divergence in behaviour for various situations. (Having committed many a faux pas all over the world).
Just to clear one more minor thing up, D’ai Bachtiar is Indonesia’s National Police chief not Bali’s since Bali would have no such thing. I point this out because he is very likely not Balinese nor an inhabitant of Bali.
I don’t know what this is supposed to mean but 95% of the population on Bali are Hindu.
http://www.worldinfozone.com/country.php?country=Bali#religion
Well I am planning on going there (and thus dashing your hopes that no more Aussies set foot there) but my point still stands, does the grinning of a one or few people mean that the whole island or should suffer economic death?
Remember I am not taking issue with your anger at the situation, I simply questioning whom your anger is directed at.
Regardless, the island’s tourism industry is presently moribund and neither my visiting there nor your wish that nobody visits there is going to do much to change the situation.
Just to explain a bit of the back story on this one.
Indonesian “justice” is notorious for being rough and ready.
There is enormous international pressure on the Indonesian authorities to bring the perpetrators of the Bali bombings to justice. At the same time, there was a great deal of concern that in order to appease international calls for justice, the Indonesians would simply summarily try and execute some scapegoat and declare the Bali bombings “solved” and the perpetrators “dealt with”.
The press conference was an attempt to prove to the Western world that the prisoner has been well-treated and was not co-erced into making a confession - thus his statement being made in front of international media.
Unfortunately, the Indonesian authorities have little concept of how Western justice systems really operate, and in trying to deliver what they believe the Western world required of them, they badly miscalculated.
FWIW, the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police made a statement this morning saying that the AFP has independently corroborated the involvement of Amrozi in the bombings.
Oh goody, the “cultural differences” excuse for repugnant behavior.
This guy is accused of being responsible for 180+ deaths in the worst terrorist attack since 9/11 and these “police and reporters” are guffawing and grinning for the cameras?
What a bunch of asshats.
Reminds me of the skateboarding kids I saw mugging and cavorting during a live shoot news shoot last night, while the reporter was talking about a child being molested by a repeat sex offender in a local neighborhood. Goold old American news… asshats, indeed. :rolleyes:
Repugnant behavior knows no cultural differences or geographical borders… it’s everywhere. Rather than blaming it on the culture, I prefer to call it like it is and say the individuals participating are being idiots.
The OP is wrong in suggesting that Australians can avenge the bombing by boycotting Bali, a mainly Hindu community that depended heavily on tourism. Here in HK, airlines and travel companies have donated tickets/hotel accommodation in Bali for an auction, with the proceeds going to Balinese victims of the bombing.
The display of criminals in front of the media like this is quite common in SE Asia. They do it in Thailand sometimes, and it’s extremely popular in the Philippines, where the last national president, no less, loved to be photographed with captured crooks, as if he had played a personal part in their capture. It’s a way for police chiefs to look good.
The US does it to some extent - remember Timothy McVeigh being escorted by representatives of half a dozen police agencies, all determined for their bit of the limelight? That seems odd to people in HK, where suspects in serious cases are given a black hood to wear when being taken from police van to court, etc, on the principle that this helps them remain innocent until proved guilty.
Well, the lull in tourism should give them plenty of time to root out other Al-Queda operatives from their hiding places then. In killing a couple of hundred innocent tourists, they killed their economy aswell.
Agreed, 100%.
But Mr. Goode didn’t call repugnant behavior repugnant, he tried to explain/excuse/whatever that the repugnant behavior was due to “cultural differences.”
Bullfeathers.
The skateboarding kids you describe are certainly beneath contempt, but what about the ADULT, presumably responsonsible, police officials and journalists all smiling about?
The skateboarding kids you describe are certainly beneath contempt, but what are the ADULT, presumably responsible, police officials and journalists all smiling about?
How about “in killing a couple hundred innocent tourists, the criminals responsible for this outrage killed the Balinese tourism-based economy as well”?
Using “they” followed by the possessive “their” indicates a supposition that the Balinese are responsible for this atrocity. That’s unfair.
One could argue that a country which wishes to rely so heavily on tourism as the mainstay of its economy ought to now think really hard about their efforts to protect said tourists. And on how the actions of officials in that country must act to provide a sense of safety and security to those who might choose to travel there.
Especially given the fact that we (in the form of the US gov’t) were repeatedly trying to warn the Indonesian government on terrorism and pressing them to crack down on organizations like Jemaah Islamiah, and they kept blowing us off.
In the weeks immediately prior to the Bali bombings, that is.
Perhaps they were grinning for the camera that they had caught the bomber.
But of course, It wouldnt be a Trademark Lolacocacola utterance without the obligatory assumption that she is 100% correct and there is no other possible explination.
but no. She wants an Entire NATION has to suffer because she saw one snippet and chose to make her mind up RIGHT THEN AND THERE.