Thank you for reporting even such awful things as the hatred in Indonesia.
To me, it doesn’t matter if a country is Islamic, Catholic, Christian, Buddhist, or nonreligious, but if any of these countries are harming their own people or visitors then they ought to be denounced, shamed, in the strongest terms.
In my view, Indonesia is a rogue country as much as Libya, Iran, Iraq or Nazi Germany has been considered to be though for different reasons and to different degrees.
If a person commits a clearly recognizable and largely accepted criminal law such as vandalism then they should be punished within reasonable limits.
To ostracize, intimidate or prosecute people criminally for largely moral laws or beliefs is the unjust use of law, or at least for democracies.
Criminalizing sexual behaviour, with exceptions of that involving minors, is idiotic and probably does more to victimize than protect.
Prostitution is one example of where criminalizing does more harm to potential victims than it does to protect them.
I wish prostitution didn’t exist but it has for centuries. Why not protect to the utmost the vulnerable, some of which includes customers who may be targeted for robbery by pimps or the prostitutes themselves!?
A red light district, with good design, with any such establishments fairly taxed and regulated with fair police protection and supervision, could be a way of protecting the vulnerable.
Patrick Longworth
Penticton