Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Indonesia has been in the news almost constantly since the Schapelle Corby case. And now that the Bali 9 have been arrested the words heroin, marijuana and Indonesia have been intimately connected.

I have recently completed an email interview with ?Simon? who had a terrible experience while holidaying in Bali. What Simon has to say is important for all people thinking of visiting an Asian destination. It should be viewed as a warning of what can go wrong while holidaying in this part of the world.

If strong views are not your thing, turn away now. If not, let me introduce you to Simon. This interview is a long one, so it?s going to be posted over the next 3 days. Hopefully throughout Simon will give some quality feedback in the comments.

Chris: Could you please tell me of your Bali adventure?

Simon: I’m not sure how much detail you want me to go into, so I’ll tell you all about it and you can decide which bits are relevant. I’ll try not to waffle too much.

I just checked the computer calendar and worked out that it was back in 1995. I won a trip for two to Bali for a week as part of a Valentine’s Day competition in the Herald Sun. Part of this prize involved a free tour.

We stayed in Sanur, about 20km from Kuta.

The day that we took the tour our guide informed us that drug laws were pretty strict over there – apparently for every gram of marijuana that a person was caught with it was one year in prison.

We made some friends on the tour who were staying in Kuta and as a result we would get up each day and catch a taxi to Kuta to spend the day with them. On one particular day, time got away from us and when it came time to travel back to our resort all the taxi services had stopped.

Not to worry though, there were always cars parked on the side of the roads with drivers standing next to them only too happy to offer tourists a lift and negotiate a price. We found one, agreed on a set price for the fare and jumped in.

The driver had a friend who sat in the front passenger seat, and we sat in the back. His friend was quite chatty and asked us all sorts of questions from where we were from to how much we were enjoying our holiday. At one stage he offered me an Indonesian cigarette – a Gudang Garam, which is packed with cloves and very strong. I accepted and thanked him. He then asked us if we ever, ‘smoked anything else?’

We said no. He explained that the reason he had asked was that he had some marijuana for sale and could fix us up if we wanted. Again we politely said no and joked that we would just stick to alcohol.

At that point the driver took a turn off the freeway that we were unfamiliar with and started driving through a poorly lit village. After about three turns we came up on a police roadblock. There were at least three police cars all facing us with their headlights on and completely blocking the road, and armed officers on foot standing next to them. They motioned for the driver and his companion to get out.

The driver and his mate approached the main officer and had a short conversation. The officer then walked up to the car and looked at us, before walking back and signalling the roadblock to disperse. The driver and his mate returned to the car and we were on our way again.

I asked the driver what that was all about, and he said one of his headlights wasn’t working. When we got back to the resort I looked at the front of the car we had been in and both headlights were working perfectly.

With all the excitement at the time it didn’t occur to us for a little while just how close we had come to being involved in a ‘sting’ operation. Basically a few minutes after being offered drugs we were suddenly stopped by a pretty big roadblock, supposedly for something simple like a broken headlight? It stank of corruption.

The next day we told our friends in Kuta what had happened and warned them to be careful in case something similar happened to them.

Well, Chris, that’s about it. The rest of the holiday went without incident. We enjoyed scuba diving and para sailing, and made a point of catching designated taxis from then on.

–That?s it for today–

Stay tuned for the answer to the next question?

Chris: I know this is hypothetical, but what do you think would have happened if you had accepted the marijuana?

Now that I’ve got your attention, some feedback on me organising Melbourne Grogblogging would be greatly appreciated. I’m happy to organise this event, but I need to know if bloggers are interested in coming before I bother.

I’m not offended by the lack of response, although 5 years ago I would have curled up in a corner and sobbed myself to sleep. (I know that humans don’t mean to be cruel and heartless.)

So now I’m using the tactics of lying and emotional blackmail to try to get people excited about Grogblogging, after all it worked for Bush and Howard!

If you are a Melbourne Blogger and you drink alcohol, or even if you don’t, please, oh please leave a comment or vote on my online poll.

P.S, thankyou M!key and Nic for responding (and Nic lives in Perth!)

* In the spirit of John Howard’s election promises, this is a complete and utter lie (the free beer, not the Grogblogging).

I got a pleasant surprise in my e-mail this morning. Along with my usual 100 Asian Spam e-mails and 5 viruses was this little gem.

Norton AntiVirus deleted the following email message because it was infected with a virus:

From: bolta(at)heraldsun.com.au
To: chris(at)constitutioncomputing.com.au
Subject: Mail Delivery (failure chris(at)constitutioncomputing.com.au)

This is no joke, It’s from, “bolta(at)heraldsun.com.au” Of course Andrew Bolt isn’t quite stupid enough to not have basic anti-virus software installed. These bloody viruses scan the temporary Internet files of infected computers and harvest the addresses. They then spoof these addresses to make it look like the virus came from Andrew Bolt.

As most bloggers know, the problem can be solved by not displaying your e-mail address on a web page.

On other news, I am working on a bit of investigative journalism for my blog. It’s an interesting story and very appropriate considering the nine Australians detained for drug smuggling, and the Chappelle Corby case. This is definitely a new thing for my blog that will make my other posts pale in comparison.

I think it is about time for Melbourne Grogblogging. I’ve done a quick google search and there doesn’t seem to be anyone organising a Grogblogging event. The only references I saw were to the Melbourne Grogblogging event that I went to in January.

So, I thought it is time for me to test my organisation skills and organise Melbourne Grogblogging. I hope nobody else is already organising it.

If anyone knows if it’s already being done please let me know. It would be a bloggers worst nightmare to have two competing Melbourne Grogbloggings. I’d be happy to combine efforts.

My first step in organising Melbourne Grogblogging would be to create a Melbourne Grogblogging blog. This will assist greatly in finding a night in which the greatest number of bloggers can attend. It would also be a central place to link to and a great way to advertise the event.

If anyone thinks this is a great idea (or bad idea) please tell me in the comments.

I was thinking around June or July would be a good time at a Lygon Street cafe. The cosmopolitan flavour of Lygon Street really says Melbourne to me.

I’m sure with the input of Melbourne Bloggers we can make this Grogblogging the best ever.

The number one problem with capitalism is human stupidity.

This is a bold statement, but consider the example of Joe Creditcard. Every month Joe hits the $3000 limit on his card. He also pays the minimum amount of the card; his goal is to pay off the entire $3000 in a few months. Of course he never gets there and hits the $3000 limit again the next month. There are millions of Joes all over Australia with the average Aussie now in a record amount of debt.

Joe would have been much better off not having a credit card at all. So why don’t we ban them? The average human is obviously too stupid to have a credit card, and if you are smart enough you don’t even need one in the first place. The answer is that they can’t be banned because they make to much profit for the banks.

There is a moral to this story, buy bank shares.

Examples of human stupidity impacting capitalism can be seen everywhere. Just have a look at the latest small car that is under 20 grand, $19,999.00. Wow I save an entire dollar!

Then there is disease mongering. This is literally the marketing of diseases, everything from impotence to baldness to cellulite. The goal of course is to get people to self diagnose in front of the T.V. They then go to their doctor and demand treatment. What they don’t know is that the doctor has already been prepped by cleaver marketing by drug companies, ever seen the neat pens and desk gimmicks in your family doctor?s office?

What did men do before they had Viagra? Easy they did nothing, because it is natural for a man?s libido to go down as they age. This is a natural thing it is not a disease. But some men who see impotence ads on television convince themselves they have a problem.

This is why I get worried when people talk about relaxing government controls on big business. (This is an incredibly complicated area as some controls actually make the problems worse. And I am not saying there should be more controls either.) Some of my friends on the right should remember some of the above examples.

Unfortunately, capitalism is the best of a bad bunch. Some of the problems that other systems have make capitalism?s problems pale into insignificance.

Evil Pundit?s recent post “On the politics of hate” got me thinking about the issue of hatred and how pointless it is.

Evil Pundit isn?t really as nasty as his name would suggest. (I think he should change the name of his site to Evil Pundit of Love.) His feelings about hatred are similar to mine.

But what is so bad about hatred? The answer is simple hatred destroys the person doing the hating. Haters might answer with: if you stop hating you will let scum bags get away with murder. They say if you don?t hate Muslim extremists you will let them commit more atrocities.

This is simply not true, take this example from my own life. When someone says something incredibly intolerant or offensive to me. I tell them off to such an extent that they are scared to ever do it again. But, I don’t hate them, I don?t turn them into a life long enemy and get angry when I see them ten years later in my local shopping centre.

After I have an argument with someone I apologise even if they are in the wrong. 99% of the time they will apologise back. It?s even possible that I could become friends with them in the future.

In the case where they don?t apologise back and they begin to hate me. I don?t change I am still polite to them (at least to their face). The fact is that unsatisfied hatred is far more damaging to them than if I were to fight and hate back.

In the case where they stalk me and plan to kill me, I do what any other sane person would do call the cops. Not hating is not pacifism. If they broke into my house and tried to kill my family I would kill them if it were the only way to stop them. Even if they did all this I would still not hate them.

What is so bad about hating? The answer to this is also simple; hating is bad for you health. Hating can lead to depression and more serious medical problems. Hating is a form of stress and this can increase your blood pressure and heart rate. All these can reduce your life span significantly.

Time spent hating is time that could have been used loving (or making love).

The United States continues to support dictator Islam Karimov, the brutal ruler of former soviet republic Uzbekistan, even though the official line of the Bush Administration is to promote democracy. Uzbekistan is an ally in the US war on terror, but its citizens continue to suffer under the heel of Soviet style authoritarian dictator, Islam Karimov.

Uzbekistan is a former Soviet Republic, which borders Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. It is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world. Under Soviet rule the Islamic religion was not banned but controlled by the Soviet rulers. Mosques and Mullahs had to be registered with the Muslim Board of Central Asia, the Soviet controlled governing agency of the Islamic faith. Of course, Muslims who worked for this organisation were screened for their political suitablility. This was the perfect way for the Soviets to control potential Islamic extremism.

At the end of the Soviet era, the first secretary of the communist party, Islam Karimov became President. A year later in 1991, Islam Karimov declared Uzbekistan?s independence. Elections were held the same year, Karimov won with 86% of the vote. A political crackdown followed and opposition party leaders were forced to leave the country. It was soon apparent that Islam Karimov would continue the status quo economically, politically and religiously.

Over the past few years Karimov has held referendums to extend his term in office twice, he now rules until 2007. Opposition parties have been unable to participate in any elections since Karimov came to power. In the latest poll Karimov?s hand picked opposition candidate admitted to voting for Karimov. Karimov?s rule has been riddled with allegations of torture and intimidation.

Uzbekistan, has the worst record of human rights violations in central Asia, and that is really saying something. It has been described as a Police state, with torture being standard practise to extract confessions. Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray has claimed that intelligence being shared with western nations has been extracted under torture.

Uzbek officials claim that tough measures are needed to combat Islamic terrorism. This sort of rhetoric is music to the ears of the Bush Administration and has prompted continued support for this regime.

This rather pleasant place is on the list of Americas firm allies in the war on terror. Uzbekistan, was the pariah of the international community. After the September 11 attacks the US expressed its will to invade Afghanistan. Uzbekistan was one of the few Islamic nations to sign on. Uzbekistan allowed the US to build military bases on their territory and to use an airfield, to provide aid. The US continues to have strategic interests in Uzbekistan.

On a recent story on channel two?s Foreign Correspondent, reporter Evan Williams interviewed Uzbek victims of torture. Horrific pictures were also shown of bodies of people that have been tortured to death. Things are so bad in Uzbekistan that Surat Ikramov, an Uzbek human rights worker, made this extraordinary statement.

“I tell you honestly when America invaded Iraq I thought to myself it would be good if America invaded our country too and removed our dictator. I thought to myself we would be free, we could breathe easily. I didn?t know it would turn out this way.”

Invasion probably would be a tall order at the moment, but as Obi-wan once said, “There are alternatives to fighting.” Continued American support of the opposition in countries such as the Ukraine, Serbia and Lebanon has enabled fairly peaceful democratic transformations in all three. Why can?t the same be done in Uzbekistan?

The continued support by the US of dictators such as Islam Karimov might help militarily, but it greatly angers the population who just want to see the bastard removed from power. This creates more terrorists as people feel they have to take on the entire support network of the regime, unfortunately this network includes the US and Australia.

Hopefully, if the US applies pressure in the right way Uzbekistan will undergo a peaceful transition to democracy.