Bishop so misguided
I REFER to your Thursday front page and the plea of Bishop Tim Harris to bring home the Bali 9 ( TB, 22/ 11).
As regular church going Catholics, we attend both St Patrick’s, South Townsville, and St Francis Xavier in Railway Estate.
We were brought up to obey our church on matters of faith and morals, but in this case the Bishop seems to be indulging in some type of woolly- headed and sanctimonious virtue signalling tosh, that while popular with the public gallery, is quite unable to stand up to the scrutiny of rational analysis.
Whatever the reasons for our Bishop’s outburst, it certainly ain’t about matters of faith and morals!
The facts are, that here in Townsville the Correctional Centre is full, break and enters are out of control, despite the sterling efforts of our police force, much of this put down to the ready availability of hard drugs in the marketplace, and the need for some people to break into Townsville property to satisfy their addiction.
Meanwhile in Indonesia, a poor country with limited resources, they are trying their best to halt the tide of drugs washing into Oz, thereby providing us with a significant community benefit; the only way that the Bali authorities can stop this inflow is by meting out stiff sentences to such people as the Bali 9, in the hope of deterring them from repeating their actions.
As to the cheap shot about atrocious conditions, everybody in jail there, Indonesians, Australians and others, are subject to the same conditions.
That’s what poor countries must do Bishop, they have to work within their budget and hopefully survive for another year within the limited resources provided by Jakarta.
Without falling into the same trap as Bishop Harris, I would suggest that he think globally and act locally, instead of seeking a banner headline which will do absolutely nothing to address the problems of hard drugs in Australian society, or the plight of locked up Aussies in Bali, who if undetected, would have become inordinately well rewarded from selling their contraband on the Australian street.