idiots and arseholes

This is going to be an angry post because I have been extremely pissed off since last night.

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First up, Aussie girl found guilty of drug trafficking and sentenced to 20 years.
Bali court sentences Australia's Corby to 20 years jail

Now if you key her name into any of the search engines, you will find tons of websites rallying for her release and advocating her innocence.
Well I don't know anything about that.
There is only one report I read which presents the other side of the argument.
I will summarize it below and you can make up your own mind on the verdict.
Me? I think this report makes sense.

Unfair dinkum? NOT
Why would anyone smuggle marijuana into Bali when it's supposed to be cheaper there? And why would a pretty girl with good prospects do such a stupid thing anyway?....
...But swamped by the chorus of calls of tourism boycotts, diplomatic protests, court appeals and even the return of tsunami donations, were the voices of Aussie legal experts who believe the Bali judges made the right decision.
Separate the emotion form the evidence, they argue, and the case against the former beauty school student would have had her convicted in any country...
...A 4.1 kg bag of marijuana was found in her bodyboard cover at Bali airport on 8 Oct last year.
She admitted she owned the long, flat bag and lifted it off the baggage carousel herself, apparently without noticing it weighed more than twice 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...
...These facts gave the prosecutor a "substantial case", the director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne, Professor Tim Lindsey, told the Australian..
"This is her bag, in the bag was found the cannabis," he said. "In any legal system in the world, that would establish a prima-facie case."
Other legal experts told the paper that an Australian judge would find a person guilty on that evidence...
..."The verdict is not surprising bearing in mind that all the defence could rely on was poor police practice and hearsay about lax airport security," Dr Mark Findlay, from the Institute of Criminology at the University of Sydney, told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"Even in Australia, if (she) was found in possession of the bag, and the bag is hers and she says it is her bag, and if there's no other evidence to challenge that, then that could be enough to convict her," he said...
...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...
...One Caucasian, jailed in Bali for drug possession, claimed he knew several Australians who smuggled marijuana because it was more expensive than local varieties and more potent...
...Her family has repeatedly denied rumours that some of its members are involved with drugs.
But the Australian unearthed court documents that showed her half-brother had an extensive criminal history.
Six weeks before she was arrested, he was jailed for 18 months in Brisbane on 62 counts ranging from burglary to fraud. He also has two convictions for drug possession. She had visited in jail before her own arrest.
Her father admitted to The Courier Mail that he had been find A$400 for possessing two grams of marijuana when he was about his daughter's age.
Like his daughter, he maintains to this day that the drug were not his...

- The New Paper on Sunday, 29 May 2005

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Drug dealers aside.

You know, when you fall in love with someone, you want to believe in the goodness of the relationship and all the good things about the person.
But some people just disappoint you again and again.
Insensitivity, over-confidence, self-importance, self-centredness, irresponsibility, making empty promises.
These get in the way all the time.
I would be the last person in this world to object to the adage "love thyself first". But when you do that at the detriment of your loved ones, especially the people who love you, then you should live your life alone.
None of my ex-boyfriends leave remnants of ex-girlfriends stuff lying around.
None of them think that their existences in this world are more important than mine.
None of them make empty promises like you do.
Compared to the old me, the new me is more patient and less critical. Not perfect, no. That much I know.
I just want to be nice to you. I just want to make you happy.
But guess what? In the end, the old you does not deserve the new me.
I have spent a lot of time reflecting on myself.
I think your time for reflection has come.

I have never ranted about you this way before, but perhaps the time has come too.
Let this be recorded for posterity.
I have shed enough tears.