FUCKING GUTLESS BASTARDS THAT AGAIN DID THIS! One Australian is among 19 people killed in terrorist bombings that have rocked the Indonesian resort island of Bali, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says. Mr Downer has told the ABC at least one Australian perished in the attacks, and three others were injured. However, The Associated Press is reporting eight Australians have been injured. The bombs exploded almost simultaneously on Saturday in two tourist areas of Bali, with at least 51 people wounded, police and hospital officials said. The blasts at Jimbaran beach and a bustling outdoor shopping centre in downtown Kuta "were clearly the work of terrorists", Police Major General Ansyaad Mbai, a top Indonesian anti-terrorism official, told The Associated Press. Al-Qaeda-linked militants were suspected, a Jakarta-based security analyst said. Putu Putra Wisada, spokesman at the Sangla Hospital in Denpasar, said 11 dead were taken to the hospital and 38 others were admitted with injuries - eight Australians, two Americans and 28 Indonesians. A receptionist at the Graha Asih Hospital close to Jimbaran Bay said at least eight bodies were in the morgue, and doctors were treating at least 13 other people. Relatives have been urged to try to make direct contact with loved ones in Bali, before calling the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's hotline on 1800 002 214. Early last month, the Australian government warned it was continuing "to receive a stream of credible reporting suggesting that terrorists are in the advanced stages of planning attacks against Western interests in Indonesia". "Attacks could occur at any time..." the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) warned in its updated September 2 warning to Australians intending to travel to Indonesia. The government urged Australians to defer non-essential travel to the country, adding: "Australians in Indonesia who are concerned for their safety should consider departing." In May the United States also strengthened its warning to US citizens planning to travel there, adding the terrorist threat in Indonesia remained high. And in August, the British government updated its travel warning for the country, carrying essentially the same messages as the Australian and US advice. Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Australia & NZ Pty Limited. All rights reserved.
I just heard it on the radio...I feel sorry for Bali, as well as all of the perished, and their families. So much for their main industry.
It is awful. Why do they do this? They are just destroying their own country at the same time as they are killing innocents. I guess they think if the last lot got such insanely lenient sentences, the same thing will happen to them. I have never been to Bali - I would have liked to one day - but not now.
i saw it on the cover of the papers just now when i went to the garage.... i didnt want to read further.... this world is so fucked up....
i think that the government issued an alert about the high possibility of a terrorist attack in bali about a month ago. the problem is people still want to go to bali to have a good time, and others talk about showing the terrorists that they aren't afraid of them. the problem is terrorists don't care if people aren't afraid of them, do you think suicide bombers care if people aren't afraid of them. in this highly polarised third world war started by the americans (invading, bombing and toppling governments (etc) of other countries for the last 50 years (think vietnam, iraq, sudan, korea, east timor, chile, argetina, panama, mexico, iran and many more) australia is becoming ensnared in american foreign policy. the best thing to do? step back, evaluate and pullout troops and try diplomacy and pretty soon suddenly the bombings will stop and everyone can get on with their life. yesterday i was walking along bondi beach promenade in the morning and i came across the spraypaint memorial to the girl from the area who was killed in the last bali bombings and i stopped to look at it again. what struck me was that the whole experience had just slipped back into the background again. memorials serve two purposes, one to remember and two to educate and question.
it gets worse,,,,,,,, two brothers i know both their parents were killed, a friend was hit in the leg with shrapnel, while her mum was hit in the bum also with shrapnel. The bomb was under their table.
I don't trust any government. Howard and Bush are both 'antichrists' as far as I am concerned. Yes...let's get the fuck out of Iraq, and let's get the fuck out of space (the next war zone)...and let's start looking after the poor, cancelling third world debt, curing cancer and other diseases, cleaning up the mess we have made of the environment, creating real (and free) education, creating equality and dignity and human rights for all people. Our governments are diseased and corrupt and fatally flawed.
How about we just boycott Bali. At the end of the day, Aussie lives and the potential harm to us is more important than the Bali economy. It's a shame that in a sense Bali might die because of this terrorism but that's the way it is. We are more important, we have to look after our own.
obvious question: have australians learned nothing? between the bali bombings and the whole chapelle thing are people just not getting the idea that bali is not the place to go anymore? we could be (maybe)falsely locked up, blown up, for fucks sake, just go to somewhere else! and to take the edge off with a joke: Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed." "OH NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!" His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands. Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?"
this is such freaky shit i saw it on the news thismorning and i thought that was really sad but i didnt realise it was so close to home so weird because i just got back from canberra like 10 mins ago and talked to my mum and theres like 15 people that were killed or injured there that were friends with my mum but they didnt know each other so small world wow wow wow wow wow eek
I've posted a similar thread to this before that ruffled some feathers, but im real passionate about this subject. In the article, why were the Australian casualties highlighted in red? Does the fact that they were from Austrailia mean their deaths were more significant? If no Australians were hurt or injured would the media, and therefore the public, give half a flying fuck? We are all humans for fucks sake!! What happened on saturday night was diabolical, grotesque, and an absolute faliure of the human spirit. Those poor people who died, not to mention their families, who must be going through hell. And also the beautiful people of Bali, they must be at the end of their fucking teather. What a fucking fiasco. In a sweeping generalisation, we should as a whole, grieve equally for these people, not only focus on the Australians. Does this style of reporting bother you? Please share.
We're not heartless for feeling the loss and injury of Aussies in a different way and even to a larger extent, than other nationalities. It's sad that any person is caught up in this but it's a basic instinct to feel a deeper pain when it's one of your countrymen/women. While we don't necessarily know them, there's an infinity. It's not something you learn it's just there. At time like this, Aussies come together and would do anything for each other. If you don't get this, i can't explain it to you. It's just something that exists.
I second most of Goddess Om's quote here, apart from the anti-christ thing, which I don't take literally. I like to think that one day people's empathy will have no borders and everyone gets treated the way one Aussie would treat another. Or one Scottish person would help another out in times of trouble. There are people dying much worse deaths every single day and there is never any news about it. I think on a very long-term scale in both time and spirituality, humans are incredibly juvenile and baby-like at the moment, like kids playing with matches. One day either we don't exist anymore, or else spiritual understanding will make responsible use of technology a reality, make money something of the past, and make politics and formalised religion unnecessary and also perhaps even the countries that they create and control and go to war defending. For the current time we live in right now, Trickster is right about the way Australians would help another fellow Oz-ite out of course and the bombings are horrible etc.. Australians generally seem to be on a good balance between humanism in general and a sort of Patriotism that doesn't get extremist. It is a fine line though sometimes, luckily we're not TOO bad compared to other places at the moment. (except for our detention centres which are just a modern concentration camp really) But it's no surprise these bombings. I think the media are loving these bombings, they are even if it's unconsciously, just WAITING for more incidents around the world as they get to be in the spotlight giving you the 'exclusive eyewitness footage'. I don't believe an average news reporter here on TV actually enjoys this bombing, sadistically. But I also have a hard time swallowing their contrived looks of concern and the almost feigned-shock on their faces. They are jaded like most other people and it comes off as them milking 101% out of any incident like this, just to be the first on the scene, or to make the most money out of it.
eiko, you make a very good point. i notice that trend, too. trickster, i disagree that it is "basic instinct" to feel deeper pain when it comes to country. basic instinct is to feel compassion for all humans, not just those living under your flag. flag-flying is something we pick up from our daddies when we're young. i think you mean, there's an "affinity" with these people, though they are strangers. we ought to feel an affinity with all strangers, then, regardless of what part of the earth they popped out of their mother's womb on. i'm a canadian living in australia, and i look around and see humans just as they are in canada or any other part of the world. vegemite and more sunshine don't make them any different. love,
