Trauma in paradise

It is, I think, part of the human condition to imagine a perfect place, a paradise, warm, beautiful, friendly, relaxed, accepting. A place where you can swim, sleep and sip and where your conscience can be as sleepy and seduced as you are yourself. Bali is such a place. Or rather, Bali was such a place.

Anyone who ever visited it came away besotted. It is all these things and it has great surf too. It is the quintessential South Sea island, the one we all dream about, the one we all imagine.

It’s still a paradise. It’s also, of course, an anomaly, part of Indonesia, and yet different, a largely Hindu and animist enclave in the midst of the world’s most populous Muslim state.

Did the bombers who detonated car bombs there understand that it’s a paradise? Or did they, in slaughtering hundreds of innocent tourists and locals believe they were themselves earning their place in another paradise?

And by what demonic sense of irony did they come to plant the biggest bomb outside Paddy’s Bar? Yes, an Irish bar, though largely peopled by Australians. But of course, we still have among us people who did the same thing, planted bombs inside and outside bars here and in the United Kingdom. What’s more, they rationalised their monstrous acts by a perverse logic and sophistry that is remarkably close to that of Al-Qaeda.

I often wonder how they feel, these Irish terrorist mass murderers, when they hear of terrorist attacks in far off places, ones that kill people with remarkably Irish names, like so many of the Australians.

There is a long way to go in this. Iraq is a side-show. There is a real enemy out there, and this is one of those situations in which it’s very hard to be neutral. In the Nice referendum campaign a great deal was made of Irish neutrality. I doubt if many of those using the neutrality argument really understood what was and is going on out there in the world.

Just about every hotpress reader knows people who are travelling or living somewhere between here and Australia. They are our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters, our aunts and uncles, our nephews and nieces. They set out to see the world, to find paradises and hells alike, and to return wiser. None of them set out to harm anyone else, yet every single one of them is at risk. How the fuck can you be neutral in a situation like that?

And while Islam has much to answer for in all this, of course most Muslims harbour no ill-will towards those who are not Muslim. In this they are no different from Christians or Jews or Hindus.

Meanwhile, in this world that is so overwhelmed by terror, we have a place that knows more about terror and horror than most, and they still can’t get their arses in gear to exercise the functions of Government, to behave as if they actually believe in peace and prosperity.

In the end it came down to arrests and allegations of spying by Sinn Féin. That let others off the hook. In truth, the assembly was treading water for months thanks more to foot-dragging by the Ulster Unionists than anyone else. They in turn, of course, were motivated by fear of what would happen to them in the next election and so strove to compete with the DUP.

Whatever, the Northern Assembly is suspended now, and every time I hear a complaining Northern politician on the radio or TV I feel impelled to turn the effing thing off. It’s bad, I know, and I shouldn’t do it. But I can’t help it.

Another voice I turn off is that of No To Nice campaigner Justin Barrett. Now, I’m a democrat, and I accept his right to hold his beliefs and values and to argue for what he believes in.

But one has to wonder at his reported presence at a series of far-right events in Germany and Italy. He’s not stupid, that’s clear from his many campaigns to date. Far from it. So, how does he explain his presence in the company of a group regarded by the German Government as having Nazi characteristics?

He is quoted as saying that he attended to speak on an anti-abortion theme, that he doesn’t speak German or Italian, and didn’t know what was being said or whether it was offensive.

I suppose that leaves naivety as the explanation, which isn’t very satisfactory. Whatever, I’m sure he’ll be more careful about the invitations he accepts in the future, both in Europe and America. After all, there are people in the USA who think it’s okay to put bombs outside abortion clinics, or to shoot doctors and nurses from the clinics. Which brings us back to the consideration of evil with which we began.

We can see where extremes can lead us, and how righteousness is the path to slaughter. That’s what made Bali a hell. So, it behoves us all to find a way to live and let live, to accept otherness and difference, to welcome and relax. After all, that’s what made Bali a paradise on earth...

The Hog