schapelle corby, page-138

Well said Epiphany... I am one of a few here who has also spent most of my life living and working in Asia. The last 9 years in Indonesia and the last 4 in Bali - but grew up there.

What has concerned me about following this thread is the absence of acceptance of the broader impacts of this case and an acceptance of context.

I have often been to that jail for work and have also worked in drugs and health industry in Indo.. irrespective if you agree or not agree with the sentence or the way that justice is carried out, the reality is that laws and policy exist in a localised context, and are informed by all sorts of national pressures and priorities. If you could see the devastation of what is happening in Indonesia in drugs and hiv and community health more broadly and mix that with the capacity of services to deliver the scale of programmes and services to address the issue from all levels, it becomes easier to understand how and why they exist - again, irrespective of if you agree with them (for the record I think the penalty is far too harsh but I don't govern the context!)

Guess my point is - laws and policies exist in localised socio/political/cultural contexts and we cannot be so naive to expect that the way we see the word is the way it is!

As for compassion, yes, it is human to have compassion for anyone going through such personal trauma and pain.