Australians travelling to Bali hit a record high

... Supporters of Schapelle Corby had called for a boycott of the holiday destination to protest the 20-year prison sentence handed down to the convicted drug smuggler by a Bali court last month.

But Garuda officials said yesterday bookings remained "consistently strong" as Australians continued to holiday in Bali in record numbers...

Well I guess they all must thought that Corby is guilty, so they have no reason not to come to Bali, right mate? :)

Or maybe you'll think that they coming here to show their support for Corby? Yeah right. Think again. :p

Corby boycott calls fail to stop us visiting Bali
Steve Creedy, Aviation writer
June 17, 2005

CALLS to boycott Bali seem to have fallen on deaf ears with record Australian tourist numbers prompting Garuda Indonesia to add an additional flight from Sydney.

Supporters of Schapelle Corby had called for a boycott of the holiday destination to protest the 20-year prison sentence handed down to the convicted drug smuggler by a Bali court last month.

But Garuda officials said yesterday bookings remained "consistently strong" as Australians continued to holiday in Bali in record numbers.

Australians travelling to Bali hit a record 267,520 in 2004 and figures for the first quarter of 2005 were 7 per cent higher than last year.

Garuda said 20,690 Australians headed to Bali in April, bringing the number visiting the holiday island to more than 80,000 for the first four months of the year.

It said the consistently strong bookings showed Bali was on track for another record year and it would therefore add a fifth weekly flight, using a widebody Airbus A330.

"Australians are holidaying in Bali in record numbers and reaping the benefits of a strong Aussie dollar, which buys 7300 rupiah in Bali," said Garuda Indonesia general manager Australia-USA Suranto Yitnopawiro.

Competitor Qantas backed Garuda's claims, saying strong May bookings had followed improving figures in June.

"There has been an increase in new bookings for June and July in recent weeks and that's typical of the late booking trend we are seeing," a Qantas spokeswoman said.

"We expect bookings to continue to improve as we move towards the school holiday period in early July."

A survey of Australian travel wholesalers and airlines in the run-up to the Corby conviction suggested the outcome would not greatly affect tourism to Bali, despite strong feelings within the community about the verdict and jail sentence.

Balinese tourism operators, sensitive to the boycott threat, issued an impassioned plea for Australians to continue visiting the island after more than 120 travel agents said they would not promote the destination if Corby was found guilty.

611 Comments, Are U Guys CRAZY? :D

I don't think Schapelle Corby is big news anymore, once everybody got their money and fame [news media, weezil, you name it] then nobody will remember her.

Check out the stats from Trendwatcher below, the search for her name in Google and Yahoo is definitely declining to oblivion.

Meanwhile, she still guilty and will spend 20 years in prison [well, prolly will not 20 years..]

Other news worth mentioned is THIS BLOG HAS RECEIVED 611 COMMENTS to this day. :p

Thank you for all of the "healthy discussions" that we have together here. Makes me more convinced that she is guilty.

However, I think I came out a lot of smarter now not to called names to ALL Aussie, but only to so called vanishing CORBY CAMP. :P


Current week

Current month

Guilty? Innocent? Let The GOOGLE GOD decide!

For this sophisticated method of telling reality on Internet let us please pay attention to this site: GOOGLEFIGHT

After carefull deliberation of searching Google with the above keyword the result is:

Corby is Guilty [161,000] vs Corby is Innocent [120,00]

The GOOGLE GOD show us [and we all have to agree with him] that: CORBY IS GUILTY!

The GOOGLE GOD has spoken earthlinks.

CAME ON OUR PRIME MINESTER

! CAME ON OUR PRIME MINESTER !

"CORBY IS INOCENT

WE HAVE TO BOYCOTT
INDONESIA ALWAYS WE HELP
THEM SO IS NOT POSSIBLE
THAT NOW THEY GIVE THEM
AS THE BACK SO IF CORBY
DON'T CAME HOME WE
PREPARE TO WAR".

Real life flyers making around in some neighbourhood in Australia. Seen here:
http://reasonsyouwillhateme.blogspot.com/2005/06/these-flyers-have-actually-no-shit_10.html

Via [Macam-macam]

Methink: no comment, the flyer speak for itself bwahahaha..

Beauty and The East

"... The question is, rather, why have so many Australians - one pre-verdict newspaper opinion poll reckoned 90% of the population believe Corby is innocent - got so WORKED UP about a case that in many respects appears little different from most of the scores of similar cases involving foreigners caught with drugs in south-east Asia? After all, the drugs were found in Corby's bag; she could give no credible alternative explanation for how they got there, and neither could any of the witnesses called in her defence.

Of course, the 27-year-old former beauty student could be innocent. But it is a HUGE LEAP from expressing SYMPATHY in questionable circumstances to committing TERRORIST ACT. What happened?"

John Aglionby wrote in Guardian. Complete article here: Beauty and the east [Via Jakartass]

A few comments from Jakarta Post readers

Boycott Bali
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20050608.F07&irec=5

I am calling on all emotional people to boycott Bali because a Bali court has carried out its duty to participate in the war against drugs and because the Australian authorities have failed to find the criminals at an Australian airport whom it is said planted the drugs in Corby's bag.

All emotional people must avoid visiting Bali, a great holiday destination with affordable prices and friendly locals who most of the time are friendlier to foreign tourists than to their fellow Indonesians.

In fact, from now on all emotional people must stay where they are forever and avoid visiting all destinations as what happened to Corby could happen in any country that is serious effort fighting drugs.

To rational people, the majority, this message is not aimed at you.

ANDOKO D, Jakarta

Admiring the Aussies
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20050608.F09&irec=7

After reading the letter of William Kamm of New South Wales, Australia (The Jakarta Post, June 3: Boycott Bali!), my previous admiration for the Australian people in general has now become boundless.

It is only people with exceptionally keen minds who can firmly conclude that the young lady from Australia is innocent of any drug trafficking.

It is only clear and impartial thinking that could point out that the Indonesian court verdict was a disgrace to justice. And this, done from across the ocean probably without the bother of leaving one's living room, once again proves what a superior race the Australians are. Yes, my admiration knows no bounds.

Since the Australian lady is obviously innocent, it is also obvious that the drug was planted in her bag by some irresponsible agency. And, since I am convinced that the Australians are upright and honest, clear thinking and law-abiding, I am almost certain that the agency in question is a non-Australian one and most likely non-white. At any rate, a race inferior to the Australians. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Again I admire Kamm for calling on all people of God throughout the world to Boycott Bali and Indonesia. What a tremendous patriot. I must admit, I am a bit confused. Isn't Bali a part of Indonesia? Then why did Kamm say Bali and Indonesia? Or (begging his pardon) had he let his imagination run loose, by too much imagining that the young Australian lady was his daughter?

S.R. DWIANTO, Depok, West Java

Similar Case in OZ

This is old, but so what. :)

The case is similar, the result were the same. The difference is the media and the ignorant people.

When justice gets lost in translation
Date: June 2 2005

Is Schapelle Corby the victim of rough justice? Ask Chika Honda, writes Sushi Das.

She was jailed for smuggling drugs into a foreign country. She claimed somebody else put them in her bag, but the judge didn't believe her. Her lawyers fought language and cultural problems to put her case, but their efforts came to nothing.

Schapelle Corby? No, her name is Chika Honda. Arrested in Melbourne, she served 10-and-a-half years in Victorian jails before being deported to Japan. Thirteen years on, she is still trying to clear her name.

Miscarriages of justice, if that is what has happened in the Corby case, can happen in any country, even one with a sophisticated legal system untainted by corruption, such as Australia's. Even one whose citizens presume to hold the moral high ground.

Those using the Corby case to slander an entire nation, accusing Indonesia of having a barbaric legal system, where the judges are "monkeys" and justice goes awry, should reflect on the details of the Honda case.

The complete details here: When justice gets lost in translation (The Age)

SCHAPADLOCK

I see that we got busy weekend. Hope you guys out there realized now that CORBY IS GUILTY. :)

Schapadlock found at [info from an anonymous comment] : http://www.livejournal.com/users/escalfapolles/6463.html

THE FLAWED LOGIC

Why would anyone smuggle drugs into Indonesia, which upholds the death penalty for such a crime?

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, for Westerners who live in Bali, buying marijuana locally is extremely risky, as the seller could be an undercover cop or police informer.

So, they will pay a premium to buy it off another Westerner.


YOU WANT MORE? Hammer this to your skull.

• Verdict was just, sentence mild: experts

• Demand for Aussie marijuana was there

• Brother is in jail for drug possession

• Dad was fined for having marijuana

THE EVIDENCE

For those of you who still *on* the "What evidence?" "Show me the evidence" DENIAL.

I suggest to just OPEN YOUR EYES, FACE THE FACTS AND GET A LIFE.

And also read this (contributed from an informed comment on this blog) from Unfair dinkum? NOT

• A 4.1kg bag of marijuana was found in Corby's bodyboard cover at Bali airport on 8 Oct last year.

• Corby admitted she owned the long, flat bag and lifted it off the baggage carousel herself, apparently without noticing it weighed more than twice what a bodyboard should and had a pillow-sized lump in it.

• Four Balinese customs officers and policemen testified that she tried to prevent an official from opening the bag. She had been under surveillance since an x-ray of the bag detected drugs before it was loaded onto the carousel.

According to the director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne, Professor Tim Lindsey:

"... These facts gave the prosecutor a 'SUBTANSIAL CASE', that they found the cannabis in HER BAG.

In ANY LEGAL SYSTEM IN THE WORLD, that would establish a prima-facie case...."

And now it's time for the JOKES! :D

Erased from Corby's Wikipedia page, showing up here :p

Bad taste [hahah] yet undeniably funny jokes have a habit of emerging after a tragedy, and the Schapelle Corby case is no exception. Some of the jokes currently doing the rounds:

• I went past Schapelle's beauty clinic in Queensland and there's a sign up saying "Back in 20".

*insert laugh tracks bwahahahaha*

• Hear about the new lawnmower, the Victa Corby? Holds 4kg of grass and guaranteed to run for 20 years.

*insert laugh tracks bwahahahaha*

• There's a new beauty treatment called the Schapelle. It's a herbal treatment guaranteed to take 20 years off your life.

*insert laugh tracks bwahahahaha*

A FAIR TRIAL, BUT NOT IN OUR MEDIA

OUR as in AUSTRALIAN MEDIA.

From: "A fair trial, but not in our media" (The Australian)

The problem begins with the popular media's assumption of Corby's innocence. For many of the shock jocks this is a given. It is the key to the campaign because once you assume a defendant is innocent, then Indonesia's legal system is guilty of an outrageous injustice.

The point, of course, is that the media doesn't know that Corby is innocent. It has NO JUSTIFICATION WHATSOEVER for this assumption. It is natural to be moved and feel sorry at Corby's tragic plight. But it is irresponsible to decide that she is innocent and mount a vast media campaign to this end.

Tim Lindsey, University of Melbourne's Asian Law Centre Director warned:

"... Corby's defence was weak on the evidence, despite the absolute denial of the popular media.

The Indonesian Customs officers said she was reluctant to open the bag and that when it was opened and she was confronted she acknowledged the drugs were hers.

Now it may be the Customs officers are lying. But the defence case was always based on denial and the judge had to make a call on the 'they said, she said' issue.

It was entirely within the bounds of the court to find the Customs officers were more convincing than the evidence by Schapelle's friends and family.

This is a perfectly understandable conclusion for the court to draw. The claim that this is demonstrably an injustice is just FOOLISH

This is not a situation of right and wrong. It is about evidence in a court. If we abandon the test of evidence, then we go back to burning witches. For people to say Indonesia's system has failed because they have a feeling Corby is innocent is Lindy Chamberlain in reverse ..."

Indonesian court in Bali is the same court, the same judge and the same procedure that convicted a few dozen of the Bali bombers and brought down DEATH SENTENCES against three of them. Yet most of popular media not only ignores this but focuses on the light sentence given to extremist cleric Abu Bakar Bashir as a device to manipulate public outrage.

HAH! Whoever said Indonesia doesn't punished BALI BOMBER is a proven ignorants.

Tim Lindsey, again said:

"...After the bombers were sentenced there were people in this country saying they would like to pull the trigger. So we are now being totally hypocritical. Australians can't have it both ways. We like the Indonesian courts when they convict our enemies who are Asian but we won't accept it when they convict a white Australian woman. We're either INCONSISTENT or RACIST and the Indonesians see this. We love the court for the terrorists and we hate the court for Schapelle Corby. This will do Australia a lot of harm...

As a nation Australia has badly mishandled the Corby case and it has a long way to run. Corby has been let down by her legal team and a reckless popular media...."

Schapelle Corby's Jail-Bird Journal

Get a hold of this journal: Schapelle Corby's Jail-Bird Journal

VERY FUNNY! :)

The Schapelle Experience	Jun. 1st, 2005 @ 06:01 pm

This week has been remarkably relaxed, I spent most of it in my cell smoking joints and plucking my eyebrows. One really interesting thing happened, I was approached by a representative from an Australian international airline with a business proposal. I've accepted their proposal, but it's still in early stages of development but I can give you a general idea of what it's about. "The Schapelle Experience Holiday Package" Would you like to know what it's is like to be Schapelle Corby? To experience what she has experienced? Well now you can with The Schapelle Experience Holiday Package!. Arrive at any Australian international airport with your luggage and body board bag. If you don't own a body board bag, one can be rented. When you check in you will be presented with a "Schapelle Pack" which contains: Several pre-rolled joints, 4.1 grams of marijuana, rolling papers, a lighter, a photo of Schapelle in prison, a photo of Schapelle in court (both can be signed later), a drinks card for two complimentary magic mushroom milkshakes and a pair of tweezers.

Complete version of the journal go here: Schapelle Corby's Jail-Bird Journal

Jakarta condemns terror threat: COWARDLY ACT



The Embassy is another country territory. Attack on Indonesian Embassy is an Attack on Indonesia's Soil (CNN.com)

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- The Indonesian Government has vowed it will not be intimidated by threats following the discovery of a suspected biological agent mailed to the Indonesian embassy in Australia.

Indonesian Foreign Ministery spokesman Marty Natalegawa described the attack as a "COWARDLY ACT".

I SAW THAT YOU GUYS HAVE BRANCHED OUT, FIRST DRUGS DEALERSHIP, NOW TERRORISM. VERY CIVILIZED INDEED.

It was AUSSIE GOLD alright

Australian marijuana made up of large flowers or buds, while the marijuana Aceh in north Sumatra or from Malang in East Java has much smaller buds and a lot of leaf mixed in.

... Despite requests from Corby's lawyers, Indonesian police did not test the marijuana in her bag to find out where it was grown or its strength, and it is not certain it was grown hydroponically, a cultivation method that increases its potency. But when the bag of marijuana was displayed in the court, it was clear it was made up of buds the size of bananas, which emitted a powerful smell whenever the plastic bag was opened....

The above quotes are from: Why Australian marijuana is a big hit in Bali

More interesting quote:

... While drugs might seem freely available on the streets, the foreigners who live in Bali, including those serving time in Kerobokan jail, say that buying them is a very risky business because you never know if the seller is an undercover police officer or a police informer.

For that reason, westerners in Bali are prepared to pay premium prices for marijuana if they can get it from other Westerners, as that's the best way to ensure they are not going to be trapped and arrested....

Corby is GUILTY nuff said.