160+ Dead - Will this be the end of tourism to the world’s largest Islamic nation? (Indonesia). Will the Megawati government regret not cracking down on the Al Quaeda network?
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Update for those who are just hearing about the incident.
I heard about it–how horrible. And stupid.
My prayers, directed to a God who would never ask for nor put up with this bullshit in his name, are with the victims. What a horrible way to die, and for what?
Indonesia so does NOT need this now. I live in NY and have seen what the drop in tourism did to our big, diverse economy; in a poor country, it’ll be even worse. And Bali is so beautiful and welcoming.
Latest News Corporation update.
No, I don’t think this will be the end of tourism in Indonesia. Yes, it will possibily affect Megawati’s chances for political survival.
The most immediate effect that his incident will have is convincing other countries in the region - such as my own - to take existing threats about terrorist actions on their own soil more seriously. We were already on alert in respect of possible attacks on our electricity, gas, and water supply (they’d need a water diviner to locate the latter) - I suspect we’ll see an immediate beef-up of security around those installations until more is known about who orchestrated the bombings in Bali.
My sympathies again. I just looked at the stats for the WTC attacks and saw that ten Australians were killed there. These are big losses for your little (population-wise) country.
And meaning this entirely sympathetically, these feelings you’re probably having right now will be a lot what we Americans felt last year. If you folks want to vent and rage against the bastards who did this, when they find out who it was, I for one will cut y’all a lot of slack.
Sympathy also to our German, Canadian, Briton, and Indonesian posters for your nation’s losses.
I just read this upon waking this morning. It has me very very sad because hub and I went to Indonesia for our honeymoon. We only spent about 4 days in Bali, but three weeks total, mostly in Lombok. Indonesians are amongst the warmest and most humble people I’ve met in my travels and I hope that they are able to maintain tourism on Bali.
I agree with reprise, that it will force nearby countries, particularly those with a large expat population (Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, etc) to rethink their responses. A place like Bali is not medically prepared for this degree of medical emergency. I’m glad at least the Australians are going to be medivaced to Australian hospitals.
My heart goes out to those who had family and friends involved in the bombings. 
Mehitabel, the list I read had nationals involved from the following countries:
Australia, Britain, France, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and Indonesia
About the only additional information which is coming in at the moment (besides this morning’s speculation by our Foreign Minister about which terrorist groups might be responsible) is information about the death toll - now standing at 180.
Perhaps because this is an attack against the West carried out on the soil of a pitifully poor nation, I feel more outraged by the likely consequences for Indonesia than anything else at this point.
Hell, anyone who wanted to target Australia specifically has plenty of largely unprotected, densely populated structures to choose from.
There is no indication at theis point as to whether the nightclub bombings are connected in any way to the bombing of the Philippines Consulate in Indonesia [url=“http://asia.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=topnews&StoryID=1568421”]Reuters report, but obviously no-one is dismissing that possibility.
Japan urges citizens to avoid Bali
“For those who are going to Indonesia and those staying in the nation, we urge that they avoid public facilities and places where many people gather, such as shopping malls, department stores, restaurants, discos, cafes and religious centres.”
http://abc.net.au/news/justin/nat/newsnat-13oct2002-97.htm
It starts…
Australian Government Advisory:
Sorry - the link is:
Has the world gone mad?
I hope noone here has any family or friends unaccounted for in Bali at the moment. AFAIK, none of my friends are there at the moment. If this had happened last week (mid-semester break at uni), or in six weeks’ time (after exams), there would almost certainly have been friends and acquaintances of mine involved.
Along with reprise, I’m worried about the impact this will have on the Balinese people, who are so reliant on Western tourism.
Accidental submit… don’t know quite how that happened.
I was just going to say that I’m also afraid for my “safe” little corner of the world, which all of a sudden doesn’t feel nearly so far away from all the terrorism and warmongering going on elsewhere.
My love and best wishes to anyone whose family or friends are involved - in these bombings, or in any of the other horrible things going on in the world at the moment.
Sorry, we had a brief thunderstorm and I didn’t have a chance to fix the link in my post before shutting down the PC.
[Reuters report on Philippines Consulate bombing](http://asia.reuters.com/ news_article.jhtml?type=topnews&StoryID=1568421)
The Indonesian Government has to put its house in order.
Quote from: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/13/1034222674616.html
"Unlike its neighbours, Indonesia has yet to demonstrate a commitment to cracking down on militancy in its borders.
“It has refused to detain suspected terrorists and is remaining obstinate in the face of continuing regional pressure,” US intelligence assessment group Stratfor said in a recent analysis.
From this report.
Megawati needed to come out much stronger, much earlier on this. I awoke this morning to our politicians making statements on the Sunday news programmes - I’ve yet to come across a single public statement from Megawati.
As I posted on G’Dope:
Yes, I know that we (Western, industrialised democracies) don’t have a perfect record, we are concerned just that little bit more when the ground is full of oil, our intelligence agencies stuff up, and our bombs kinda miss sometimes. But for all that, I think we’re still the good guys, and the terrorists are wearing the black hats.
We can sometimes allow ourselves the luxury of a black and white viewpoint : let’s get the fuckers!
Now is the time for us to act with the same strength our American cousins did last September. We will mourn our dead, stick to our guns, and hunt these cowards down.
We will carry on being Australians. We will flip the same collective bird to whoever did this, as the US did to OBL last year.
And of course, thanks to everyone for your sympathies. The SDMB always comes through in these situations.
There are absolutely no figures beyond a total death toll coming through at the moment. As our politicians are making “expect the worst” type noises, it’s probably that a substanial number of the dead will be Australian - but it’s important to remember that Bali attracts tourists from many other countires too and that there’ll be a great many parents around the world tonight hoping for a phone call or an email from their travelling children.
Former Indonesian Attorney-General comments.