Trial by Ignorance

Yeah, alright. I know what you're thinking. "Why the hell has Bodie jumped straight on to the Casbah's neat assortment of couches and upset the balance? Why doesn't he stick to his own blog?" Well, you see, it's because I'd like to introduce you all to this young lady: Now, unless you're a mole who lives a mile underground and does not associate with any form of media, you should know that this is Schapelle Corby. She's just been found guilty by the Indonesian courts of smuggling some 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali. I'm not going to enter into the debate about whether she's innocent or guilty, because hell, that's not for me to decide. The legal system of Indonesia says she's guilty. Therefore, let us work on the premise that she is. So, why am I writing about Schapelle if I'm not going to run the Save Schapelle ensign up the Bodie Mansion flagpole? The response to the verdict of the Indonesian courts by some Australians is, quite frankly, bloody disgraceful. Let's look at some of these reactions: "After all we've done for Indonesia, with the tsunami aid and everything, you'd think they'd have the decency to let her go." "If only Schapelle had taken a bomb into Indonesia instead of drugs, she would have got [sic.] three years instead of twenty." "Australia needs to show we're angry with this by boycotting Bali and suspending our tsunami aid support." ...and then some bright spark sent a biological agent to the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra. First off, what the hell does our support of Indonesia after the Boxing Day tsunami disaster have to do with the smuggling of drugs? Evidently, everything, according to these halfwits. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/tsunami/indonesia.cfm "Damage includes: 1.3 million homes and buildings; 8 ports and 4 fuel depots; 85% of the water and 92% of the sanitation system; and 120 km of roads and 18 bridges. Aceh is closed to tourism and permits are needed for anyone entering the area. The World Food Program estimated that it fed 500,000 displaced or affected people in Indonesia in February - up from the January figure of 330,000. Health risks are high..." We're talking about thousands upon thousands of people killed, and at the very least half a million people surviving solely on aid. Over a million people have lost close to everything. Australia provides over $1 billion in aid to assist Indonesia alone in the rectification of this... ...and some correspondants would have us believe it is not only morally justified, but correct, to suspend this, conceivably signing the death warrants of another few thousand people, because one convicted drug smuggler will have to spend 20 years in prison. Come... ...off... ...it. As for the whole bomb thing, Abu Bakr Bashir was imprisoned not for masterminding the Bali Bombings, as that great bastion of the free press, The Advertiser, reported on Saturday, but for association with an outlawed organisation. Two very different things, people... How, incidently, is sending something deadly to the Indonesian Consulate going to help Ms Corby's appeal in any way? Dickheads, all of you who think that was clever... The question is, would the media and the general public actually care about Ms Corby if she wasn't an attractive young girl with big boobs? Whatever happened to the so-called Bali Nine? Sure, the media poured out its heart for that 18 year old idiot among the group, who claimed "We didn't know the risks!", but none of the nine were 19 year old Gold Coast beauty students (and what the heck is that, anyway? How do you study beauty scholastically?) with a nice smile and pleasing cleavage. They haven't been in the pages of the local rag, nor on the television screens, for some weeks now. Finally, as for this entire uproar, regardless of whether Ms Corby truly is guilty or not, the fact remains that she has been found guilty according to Indonesian law. She has been sentenced according to Indonesian law, as well she should be. I can hear the protests already, but this basically boils down to the indignation of Australians wishing to be more like our American (inbred) cousins. After all, how dare the Indonesians impose their laws on us while we're in their country! Well, that's it from me for now. Till next time, couch fans!