Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Bomb blast in Bali
Like all other Australians I am saddened and distressed by the bombing in Bali. It brought the whole issue of terrorism far closer to home. As you might expect, too many people who want to lash out and seek revenge as soon as possible have decided that the way to do this is to support the US war against Iraq. I wonder why they think a war against Iraq will make Islamic fundamentalists in Indonesia or Australia less likely to use terrorism? For a start, the government of Iraq is as far from fundamentalist Islam as Australia is. Iraq is said to be the most secular country in the Middle East (including Israel). Even if a link is found between Al Quaeda and the bombing in Iraq, there has never been any proven link between Iraq and Al Quaeda.
I was struck by the comments in the media about how primitive the conditions were in the hospitals in Bali. How ironic! Australians have been staying in 5 star hotels and living a life of luxury with golf courses and night clubs and no-one really noticed that the hospitals (probably the schools as well) are substandard. How is it that with so many years of 'development' through tourism, the standard of health isn't better than this.
I wonder if this isn't the beginnings of a movement around the world to bring home to us in the West who have so much, that we can't continue to enjoy our riches and ignore the rest of the world? Up till now it has been easy to close our eyes to the suffering of most of the world. Will we continue to do this?
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Like all other Australians I am saddened and distressed by the bombing in Bali. It brought the whole issue of terrorism far closer to home. As you might expect, too many people who want to lash out and seek revenge as soon as possible have decided that the way to do this is to support the US war against Iraq. I wonder why they think a war against Iraq will make Islamic fundamentalists in Indonesia or Australia less likely to use terrorism? For a start, the government of Iraq is as far from fundamentalist Islam as Australia is. Iraq is said to be the most secular country in the Middle East (including Israel). Even if a link is found between Al Quaeda and the bombing in Iraq, there has never been any proven link between Iraq and Al Quaeda.
I was struck by the comments in the media about how primitive the conditions were in the hospitals in Bali. How ironic! Australians have been staying in 5 star hotels and living a life of luxury with golf courses and night clubs and no-one really noticed that the hospitals (probably the schools as well) are substandard. How is it that with so many years of 'development' through tourism, the standard of health isn't better than this.
I wonder if this isn't the beginnings of a movement around the world to bring home to us in the West who have so much, that we can't continue to enjoy our riches and ignore the rest of the world? Up till now it has been easy to close our eyes to the suffering of most of the world. Will we continue to do this?
