Naked tourists blamed for earthquake
R E GI NA • Two Saskatchewan siblings barred from leaving Malaysia for allegedly posing naked atop the country’s highest mountain are “doing OK,” their father said Monday.
Canadian diplomats are trying to get Lindsey and Danielle Petersen out of Malaysia, while also lowering the temperature in what has become a social media firestorm around the world.
Local people consider Mount Kinabalu sacred. In fact, its official web page contains a warning: “Believe it or not, do not shout, scream or curse the mountain at any point of time.”
At 4,095 metres, Mount Kinabalu is the highest mountain between the Himalayas and New Guinea. It’s the biggest attraction in Kinabalu Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site established in 1964.
Photos of a group of people naked atop Mount Kinabalu spread widely on social media.
“Mount Kinabalu. Time of my life,” Emil Kaminski of Hong Kong wrote on his Facebook page, along with a photo of several men standing in their underwear and women without tops.
Kaminski said he did not mean to insult the country by posing naked.
Some local politicians blamed the foreigners’ actions for a deadly earthquake that took place last week, and local reports say the two Canadians and others could be charged.
A magnitude-5.9 earthquake on Friday killed at least 18 people.
Local officials blamed the tragedy on a group of 10 who “showed disrespect to the sacred mountain” by posing naked and urinating at the peak last week.
A special ritual is apparently being planned to “appease the mountain spirit.”
Kaminski later posted a YouTube video ranting about “stupid” Malaysian politicians blaming him for the earthquake and said he had received hate mail and death threats.
He also sent a tweet to Masidi Manjun, the head of the tourism department for the state of Sabah: “You are an idiot, not a minister of tourism.”
Manjun replied on Twitter that “it takes a monkey to call another person a monkey.” He received several responses from people encouraging harsh penalties for the foreigners who had desecrated the sacred mountain, including those “sick Canadians.”
Floyd Petersen, reached at his home in Wood Mountain, Sask., said he had been in contact with Lindsey and Danielle, adding only that “they’re doing OK.” Petersen said his children are not in jail but did not specify where they are staying.
David Andersen, the parliamentary secretary to the minister of Foreign Affairs and the MP for Wood Mountain, said: “Canadian consulate officials in Malaysia are in contact with local authorities.”
Lindsey recently graduated from the University of Regina with an engineering degree and has been travelling around Asia since October. According to Facebook posts, he met up with his sister, Danielle, in Bali two months ago.
When news of the two not being allowed to leave the country first broke on Saturday, their father said he had not heard about it.
“Would you tell your parents you did this?” he said Saturday, adding that the pair called him only periodically from their trip.