Missed out on the Sanur Weekly for a time. Things are operating less than smoothly here during the continued lockdown. Speaking of which, lockdown has again been extended, this time through September 6th. Basically, nothing has changed, although they are now claiming some small successes against COVID. Not enough to tip the island back into normal status. We are probably just going to have to get used to the idea that this is the new normal. No doubt, once restrictions are lifted, cases will rise again. And of course all around the world, vaccinated or not, people are having to face the likelihood that COVID will become endemic rather than pandemic at best.
On the shady side of it all, more high ranking Indonesian officials have been busted for COVID-19 scandals, from jumping the vaccination or booster shot queue to embezzling public funds allocated for the handling of the pandemic. A number of high ranking officials in East Nusa Tenggara, including the governor and regional heads, have been caught on videotape at a beach party involving hundreds of guests, mask-less and avoiding any kind of social distancing. In Jember Regency, East Java, a local official granted a fee of 100.000 Rupiah for every COVID death in the region to himself and to a number of other officials in the region. This fee was, of course, paid using government funds. Former Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Juliari Peter Batubara, has been sentenced to 12 years behind bars for accepting bribes from more than one hundred companies which had applied for contracts to supply COVID-19 relief in the form of basic food supplies in the Greater Jakarta Area. Batubara pocketed 10.000 Rupiah for each food package supplied by these more than 100 companies. It adds up. The total damage estimated to the nation is about 32.5 billion Rupiah.
And so on.
The Indonesian Tourism Minister is pleading with Bali hotel owners not to sell their hotels. Some of the largest and most well established hotels in Bali have shown up on various real estate websites. Bali hotels have around 140,000 rooms but are receiving only a handful of domestic tourists. Most of the island's hotels are actually closed and have sent their employees on unpaid leave or dismissed them completely.
Two Indonesian men are facing possible life sentences for trafficking a large quantity of marijuana in Bali. I repeat: life sentences. On the other hand, in the well known case of the "Bali Suitcase Murderer" -- wherein an American woman and her boyfriend murdered the woman's mother, stuffed her in a suitcase, and abandoned her in a taxi--the American is being released from prison, having served a sentence of 10 years (time off for good behavior). The boyfriend, who wielded the actual murder weapon, a glass bowl, was sentenced to 18 years. So, uh, life for marijuana, 10-18 years for murder. All righty then.
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