Superthread LXXII - Honouring The White, Off White, Cream & Beige. :-(

[MKEB...]

What I cant work out is how drug traffickers can get executed (sure they know the risks and punishment) yet the great majority of the Bali bombers got life imprisonment, only a couple got executed and a couple are now freed. What is the greater evil?

 

[Bulldog Force]

Backwards mentality. Mass murderers, terrorists and rapists walk free, yet executing drug traffickers.

Indonesia, have never been, will never go.

 

[Red Bear]

Im just against the death penalty in principle and think it's a horrible event to have occured. At least the philipino woman was given a last minute reprieve.

 

[Bazal]

Tbh the death penalty is only ever appropriate in the worst of cases. Eg Anders Brejvik. But anyone who is dumb enough to try and get drugs into a country where the death penalty so openly applies is on their own. They didn't deserve it, but at the end of the day it's a very public law in that particular country.

On the plus side I think the media have, in a way, done a great job....in that by covering this so much they're hopefully going to put people off being stupid enough to traffick into places like Bali. Hell maybe people will stop going to Bali all together....it's a shit hole anyway

 

[Red Bear]

On the plus side I think the media have, in a way, done a great job....in that by covering this so much they're hopefully going to put people off being stupid enough to traffick into places like Bali. Hell maybe people will stop going to Bali all together....it's a shit hole anyway

I've heard areas outside the tourist strip are pretty unbelievably nice, but kuta sounds like a cesspit

[youtube]96NrIz_khQM[/youtube]

 

[soc123_au]

I have sympathy for their families, but ultimately 2 shitbag drug smugglers are dead so hip hip hooray. If they weren't caught & had been shot by another druggie in a deal gone bad no one would give a shit. I don't see a difference. Comparisons with the Bali Bombers just muddies the waters, that is a completely different issue.

 

[t-ba]

I've heard areas outside the tourist strip are pretty unbelievably nice, but kuta sounds like a cesspit

It's ok. Still overrun with tourists however and everyone is out to make a buck off of the foreigners. Tanah Lot was simply put one of the worst tourist experiences I've ever had. It's definitely very lush and pretty and all that. Rural Java is easily one of the most magical places on the planet. I'm trying to see as much of it as I can before the Saudi and Qatari governments radicalize everyone there.

I won a 3 night stay here http://www.tuguhotels.com/hotels/bali/ last year which was pretty amazing.

These two deserve sympathy but they did commit a crime that carries a well publicized capital punishment. They also intimidated and cajoled seven other people to commit this crime with them and did attempt to throw them under the bus. They've shown how powerful reform can be and how pointless the death penalty is.

However, they're not being killed because they committed these crimes. They are being killed for political capital. And that's where there is a problem. And more disturbingly for the people of Indonesia is what does this government do when they run out of foreigners to execute and people start paying attention to the monumentally shit job they are doing running the country.

Cutting aid achieves nothing except hurting those most in need (Who Wahhabi clerics are more than happy to help, at the price of brainwashing their children) and giving the current government more 'anti-foreigner' ammunition.

 

[Apey]

If they weren't caught & had been shot by another druggie in a deal gone bad no one would give a shit. I don't see a difference.

That's true... but they weren't. I think it's the whole let's put them in a miserable prison for 10 years then kill them that leaves a sour taste in people's mouths. Why bother. After that long you may as well just leave them in prison for the rest of their lives. Nobody was seeking for them to be set free and roam through the meadows.

 

[soc123_au]

That's true... but they weren't. I think it's the whole let's put them in a miserable prison for 10 years then kill them that leaves a sour taste in people's mouths. Why bother. After that long you may as well just leave them in prison for the rest of their lives. Nobody was seeking for them to be set free and roam through the meadows.

I agree it dragged on too long. I am sure the 2 blokes that died last night were vastly different to their 2005 selves. Still they gambled & lost, they really should have been executed in 2006. If it stops one more dickhead from trying it & that translates to one more kid not ending up a junkie then its a good result.

 

[whall15]

I'm pretty sure we've gone over this before but I strongly disagree with the death penalty. However, I do find it remarkably but unsurprisingly hypocritical that Australia is to criticise Indonesia for its use of the death penalty and have no problem with the United States, China and Saudi Arabia.

As an aside I do find it a bit ridiculous that they try and use converting to Christianity as evidence of rehabilitation.

 

[Apey]

Realistically though is anyone who is thinking of smuggling drugs in Indonesia going to find the prospect of being killed any more of a deterrent than spending life in prison.

I find it hard to believe so much as one potential smuggler, who is already willing to risk a life in prison, is going to care about the higher stakes. These criminals aren't rational people weighing up the risk vs benefit thinking 'oh well if I get caught I only have to be in prison for the rest of my life'. They never think they will be caught to begin with.

I just struggle to see the point in killing them tbh. What good does it do really. But yes if you're going to do it you may as well do it asap instead of dragging it out. That's where the cruel and senseless murder angle is coming from.

 

[Apey]

As an aside I do find it a bit ridiculous that they try and use converting to Christianity as evidence of rehabilitation.

Yes, throwing water on your fellow inmates demonstrates you have reformed, didn't you know. "He's a good Christian boy..."

 

[t-ba]

As an aside I do find it a bit ridiculous that they try and use converting to Christianity as evidence of rehabilitation.

Finding god is the number one sign of rehabilitation in Indonesia. The amount of times a celebrity here is caught being a bad boy/girl only for the press to report that a trip to his local Imam has magically reformed him is disgusting.

 

[t-ba]

I just struggle to see the point in killing them tbh. What good does it do really. But yes if you're going to do it you may as well do it asap instead of dragging it out. That's where the cruel and senseless murder angle is coming from.

They're not being killed because they smuggled drugs. They're being killed because the President needs to look like he is a hard man, and it just so happens they have a bunch of drug smugglers with death sentences over their heads.

 

[whall15]

Yes, throwing water on your fellow inmates demonstrates you have reformed, didn't you know. "He's a good Christian boy..."

I also thought it was a bit of a dumb move. Surely in Indonesia a smarter move would be pretending to a Muslim.

 

[Red Bear]

Worked for michelle leslie

 

[whall15]

Worked for michelle leslie

There you go.

 

[Skinner]

I like Bali, including Kuta. It's a party town for sure, but it makes me feel young again. It probably helps that we were there with a terrific bunch of people and we just went for it.

 

[Misanthrope]

I'm keen to visit Indonesia someday, but Bali is low on my list of my priorities. The only nationality that I find more irritating when traveling than Australians is the Chinese.

 

[Scott Gourley's Lovechild]

I agree the Chinese are shocking tourists, they just become ruder than normal and a law unto themselves. South Africans are horrible too, and the English have been 50/50 as tourists as well.