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From Teguh, a former colleague now studying for his masters in Bandung.
What do you think of this article about an Australian apparently confessing he had known about the bomb detonators 2 days before the bombing took place?
I don't give much credence to
this story. I rather think it was someone seeking a bit of limelight in other's tragic circumstances. Of course, I could be wrong but ......
This from
a mate who was thinking of returning with his Indonesian (half Balinese) wife and their son.
As someone who's been saving/planning hard to relocate to Bali, I'm now thinking "f**k that" - how unwelcome does a place have to be?
A couple of years from now, it'll be a bomb at Sanur International school ...
And could I really live somewhere that has a policy of random urine tests on foreigners? (and then throws away the key)... hmmmm....
It wasn't like that in my day... was it? Not this direct focussed hatred of foreigners... (and non-muslims - we all know deep down Java secretly likes seeing Bali getting bombed ...)
I reckon you probably should have gone on the radio though ...
Ah, but I am ....
7am Tuesday: Um, no I'm not.
Hi Jakartass, We finally made contact with Nick from the bali blog who can do an interview after all .It's being recorded tom... today. As this is a Balinese tragedy in the sense that the bombings werre aimed at the 'soft' targets of tourists, who are few and far between here in Jakarta, interviewing a blogger closer to the scene seems eminently sensible.
I hope it won't be necessary for me to comment on a similar outrage here.
We do a lot of indonesian stories on the programme as a whole (not just in the pods and blogs segment) and it would be very good to have another voice to turn to.
Jakartass, media pundit? We'll see.
I must say also I really thought you'd lost the plot in your rant at Indcoup ... till I saw the link below .... Do I know this Indcoup bloke???? Maybe a little after your time, Del.
And from Indcoup himself, who has
an excellent post today.
Thanks for the plugs etc.Who knows - with a few more bombings the Indonesian blogosphere may be even more popular than Iraq's !!!A bit cynical ~ I'd prefer to be read for my wit and wisdom ~ but it's certainly raised my readership with mentions in
Simon's World,
Global Voices Online and
Metafilter, plus the hits from those sites who've given Jakartass a permanent link.
Some of my visitors prefer to remain anonymous.
The government (fuel price rises) and certain generals (Munir murder) were in trouble. A distraction may have been required. Alternatively, a faction of the army may want to weaken the president. Mobile phones were apparently used.Given that it is recognised that some factions of the army still hanker after the 'good old days' of the Suharto regime, I'd give the latter hypothesis some credence.
Just because you're paranoid ......
Which leads me to the flip side of "paradise" -
Fugly Bali. (N.B. it lists Jimbaran beach as being particularly vulnerable to terrorist attack)
About Us
Please understand this. We are not able to tell you who we are / who runs the Fugly Bali web site. The reason being is that we name and shame powerful Balinese businessmen, the Soharto family's business interests and Bali's far from ethical police officers. If anyone could find out and prove who we are. We, our families, and friends in Bali would all be at risk. Murder and other human / civil rights abuse is an under reported event in Bali. We have no wish to become part of those unknown statistics thank you. To this end, we have taken proper legal precautions to conceal our identities.
Fugly Bali's objectives
Quite simply, to help put right the wrongs and make Bali a better and safer place. This means having corrupt police officers jailed, making amends to the Balinese families who were robbed or had their loved ones killed by the Suharto regime, having hotels that violated Bali's building regulations pulled down and the area they were on restored, having businesses who committed fraud and / or other crimes closed down, paying back-dated compensation to employees / suppliers who have been cheated, having an open forum on where all the tax money goes with a view to making sure the Balinese get their fair share. A bit optimistic / ambitious? Oh sure, but that is what it would take to remove Fugly Bali from the Internet. If justice can not prevail in Bali, Fugly Bali will let the world know until that changes.
This is a site well worth reading. It's full of detail and, for those of us with long memories, entirely credible. Jakartass awards Fugly Ugly the link of the week.
Postscript.
Having read the
comment from
Man In A Suit, maybe, just maybe, Fugly Ugly has been put together by
a man with a grudge. Judge for yourselves.
As I've occasionally commented before, Bali is another country. I've always enjoyed my visits there, but what do I know about the expat undercurrents?
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