#dont fucking reblog it yall be a fucking adult about it unless you agree with everything here then shit son

[primordialnyx]

eyo ma lemme rant for a bit

there was this article that talked about an american woman who lived in Bali for an extended amt of time due to teh pandemic (lol its recent relax but if anyone wants the article here it is)

feel free to ignore but i have a rundown here lol

BUT ALSO if you end up reading this, I have a little thing to ask of you at the end:

you dont wanna read the article? lemme give you the rundown:

woman travels to bali for fun for 6 months. pandemic said you sure you wanna come back? *covid bitch* so the indonesian gov. allowed foreigner to extend their stay despite higher and higher cases of covid rising right? okay all good right... except american women decides to LITERALLY SELL A BOOK ON HOW TO GET THAT GOOD LIFE IN BALI.

is getting that good life controversial? whyy ? well im glad you asked! in her book/ebook, she gives ppl tips and tricks on how to bypass government visas and restrictions, quoting that its the most queer-friendly place ever for cheap and all that.

ppl BIG TIME MAD (shuu they should be ok) because the dripping privilege. but like the hilarious thing is... people are getting big mad in like 2 different ways:

 Indonesians are bigmad because being queer in any case is still punishable, encourages gentrification of an already heavy-tourism arae (Bali yall is hEAVY on tourism which is ok until it pushes out locals) and she wasn’t paying taxes in Bali and only in the US (bruhhh how you live in a different countryyyy howww -- also the US and Indonesia have a tax treaty to avoid double taxing).

The rest of the group (ie not indonesian) are mad because they thing its a race thing and this American woman is only targeted because she’s Black. Citing that everyone else is doing it but when she does it, it blows up to bigger proportions

Can I just? I just need to rant because this hits a bit personal for me (I mean.. having identifying as a first gen Indonesian-America, hell fucking yeah it hits different). But I will address said anger based on those two bullets above:

- Indonesians? Getting mad at tourism? In Bali? The most heavily touristy place in Indonesia?

Hell yeah they got every fucking right. Indonesia just made it off the thirdworld country list <10 years ago. There area still places that barely have running water. Which.. you know... US people you understand right? Remember Michigan? So when an American citizen overstays their visa and writes a damn book about it, promoting all BS, you gon feel some type of way.

That BS about the LGBT stuff? It’s so close to being fake news. Indonesia as a country is ranges from anti-gay to homophobic (this is very important because there are literally laws that punish queerness with death and then there are societal situations where its known but often ignored or shunned away-- can’t believe those are the only two options). Bali? Nah son her saying Bali is LGBT friendly is like saying only Brooklyn is LGBT friendly. It doesn’t make sense and frankly, its pretty fucking insulting to those who aren’t able to come out (!!! death !! yall remember!!) or are but are completely shunned from their friends and family.

ITS A RACE THING YALL BEING RACIST

I... oh god. If you are American and you said this than you’ve failed to consider that not everything is about America. Let me just say that racism obviously is a real thing but ask any Indonesia person about race and they, for the most part, don’t really fucking care. You want them to care though? Flaunt that BLUE passport. Hell pop out a RED if youre British. Watch them start caring. Your passport -- ie a visual representation of your privilege signified by your ability travel to a different country -- is the real mealticket here.

As an Indo-American who has gone back to her country, I can tell you for a fact that this is an unfortunate truth. Your passport carries your privilege. This woman got flaunted that-- she was literally able avoid paying Indonesian taxes. You know what white people do that’s also really fucking annoying and really shouldn’t be legal? Buy up land and push our the natives. Ahh but youre right, the natives should be fighting back. Mmm except... huh recently got off teh thirdworld list, barely enough clean water, little land to shelter .... I suppose they should definitely retaliate.

This American citizen wasn’t making “bank”. Like she’s not a billionaire, she just made enough to buy tix to Bali for 6 months. She wasn’t an entrepreneur of any sorts but a good, decent business woman right? She still broke the law and flaunted that and encouraged others to do so.

And.. That is why I don’t see it as a race thing. It doesn’t even make sense because there’s a whole different culture, environment, society, politics and government at hand. You cannot compare it to American environments  - its a whole different playing field. When its racially induced, its fucking racially induced. South east Asian as a whole has always had this issue - colorism and what not. But..like yall..... someone tried to bring up the Malaysia incident and I’m like yeah you do realize Indonesia =/= Malaysia right? like you do understand that they are two different countries right? wtf you bringing up malaysia when the issue occured in the Indonesia?

ANYWAY UM. Please don’t reblog to add your own two cents on why I was wrong or whatever. If you have additional information that I should be aware of, message me (I’ll have anon off). I’m an adult and you are too and I welcome a civil but informative discussion on views. If you believe XYZ, I will honestly be open to answering back (mark * if you want private and itll continue to be private) without malice. I truly want to understand perspective but as I said before, I am biased as an Indonesian American who’s seen firsthand the power of someone’s passport. I merely offer than rant (lol horrendous man omfg) as an alternative to an American-centric view.

tdlr: don’t be a dick if you wanna have an open discussion with me