Once the media gets a hold of this sort of thing that stir the pot and generate as much interest in it as they can. Why? As far as the media is concerned it "story." To be milked and bilked to death. Keep those eyeballs on the TV watching what they put on between the commercials. Advertising revenue is afterall why they are in business.

Sadly, people seem to miss that essential truth of the media and get caught up in what ever the pundits are saying. They let the media dictate their perception and conscious focus. l suspect that these are the same people who get angry at an actor who plays a villian when that actor is seen in public. Or the same people who lay reaths at the gate upon the death of someone with whom they have never had a relationship and whom they only know through their media personalities.

Its entertainment and its sad.

A bit of Indonesia bashing, thinly veiled racism, has a pretty long history in this country and a certain segment of the population enjoy doing it. Gives them a way to legitemise their prejudice and something to be angry about. Some folks are happiest when they got a villian against whom they can direct their perpetual anger.

l'm all corbied out and frankly l care more about the plight of a 5 yr old Phillipino dump scavanger than her. Yeah, l know it COULD happen to me. Could, being the opperative word. Will worry about that highly unlikely possibility IF it happens to me. Otherwise, lm not worried about the countless bad stuff that could afflict me in this life. Waste of mental energy.

Corby supporters minds are made up... l doubt they want to be confused by ALL the facts, the double standards and logical fallacies that permeate their angry and heart felt lamentations.

So Bashir got 2 years for conspiring in a terrorist act that killed almost 100 australians. Schapelle gets 10 times that, without fingerprints on the drugs bag to prove she handled it, and their grubby prosecutors and police are appealing it as inadequate.

Why didn't bashir get more? Because its a country of islamic fanatics and no-one wanted to stir up their great unwashed fanatical masses. Or is it payback because we're with america in afghanistan and iraq? The hatred of america by indonesians [suharto was supported by the us] and by muslims generally is well known and has been on the record for years. Go figure.

Now I hear that some of the people who had donated to the Tsunami victems are threatning to get their money back.

It chills me to find justification this way for feeling of unease I had during the Tsunami Appeal 'hype'. It is just despairing to reinforce my idea that how unreasonable people are generally.

The tsunami.....I didn't have much money to give then.....there's no way I'm handing over a dime now.

I have never been pro or agin Corby. I was not privy to any of the legal facts. On the contrary, as a no name member of the community, I was bombarded by media and family hype and related bulldust.

A couple of examples of bulldust are:

* People keep refering to her as a "girl" or "young girl". I am a baby boomer. Even so, fortunately I have been gifted with a number of useful neurones - which I try to keep exercising. When I was reared there were two main uses of the term girl(s). People referred to a girl or young girl when they were talking about a child until 12 years of age. Thence on, the person was reffered to as a "teenager" or an adolescent - or indeed, a young woman. The notion of the term girl implied that the person had not reached a mature level of thinking (even though it could be argued that some of us never do!). Added to this notion and chronological age, the assumption was that the person could not make an informed decision. Then, after we had passed the test with regard to adulthood and maturing age - it was Ok to say that we were "going out with the girls" (permission to be child like and hold no responsibility for one's actions).

* Corby is not a "girl". She is a mature woman. Maturity suggests some wisdom.

* The media keep referring to Schappelle - as if we all know her very well. Usually people who are before the courts are referred to by their surname.

I have no idea about her circumstances. But I do know that her mother should stay away from TV cameras, radio interviews, and magazine articles - if she wants intelligent people to lend support to future legal challenges by the Corby legal team.

Cheers Kay.

Hmmm, a lot of emotive forums coming out, which is always good. I don't think that it is racist to call a country's laws primitive. It's not against the people, it's against the law. Indonesia is hardly a democracy and I would think that any of us that have been lucky enough to grow up in a country that has a proper democracy (regardless of Amanda Vanstone being a minister) can rightly call upon a country's draconian "death penalty" laws as being primitive. When Germany changed the laws to make being a Jew a criminal, that was primitive. But nobody said anything. That didn't make the law right. Laws should always be questioned and tested. And there is no one on this planet that would make me believe that a govt death sentence on drug trafficking is nothing but primitive.