Sweeping new laws about to be enacted in France will make it illegal to ‘incite anorexia or binge drinking‘ but not (thankfully) to drink your own skinny-ass to death. Finally there’s a country where it isn’t peer-pressure or fear of being considered unAustralian that encourages you to punch eleventy-one beers into your guts every weekend, in Paris you can piss away your entire payslip just because you effing-well want to. Just don’t descendre à la cave with a friend or the binge-drinking police will lock your sorry ass up.
Pay attention: I said, lock you up. There is no death penalty in France.
Here in Australia, there’s a swelling, communal wail for two drug-traffickers about to be executed in Indonesia. For the record, many of the Australians ranting against the “Bali Nine executions” appear to be the same right-wing nutjobs who are also in favour of introducing the death penalty for home-grown jihadists, child molestors, pinko leftist save-the-whale eco-terrorists, and/or anybody who questions the ANZAC myth. Putting that aside, like our Gallic mates, in ‘Straya you will not be murdered by the state, no matter what you do.
In Indonesia, on the other hand, there has been rabid public condemnation of both the Australian and French governments for their diplomatic ‘bullying’ to commute the sentence of citizens from each country for alleged drug trafficking. At the same time, Jakarta has condemned Saudi Arabia for executing two Indonesian women accused of murder. it seems Indonesia believes other countries should not kill its citizens, yet reserves the right to execute foreign nationals. Ugly fact: since coming to power, President Widodo’s regime has executed six people of which five were foreigners. Of the ten people currently sentenced to death, only one is Indonesian.
It’s enough to drive you to drink, no matter where you come from. In thirty-two minutes, two Australians will face a firing squad, and be given the choice to stand, sit or kneel.
Being Australian, I doubt they will kneel.