Two Aussie’s are heros?

I’ve stayed away from talking about the death of the two men executed in Indonesia. Two men who were drug traffickers. Two men who took drugs into a country that they knew had a death penalty if caught.

These two men, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, are convicted drug dealers. They never claimed to be innocent, and were executed, with the possibility of being innocent. They knew what they were doing. They moved drugs. Drugs that kill people. People seem to forget, while mourning the death of these two, that these two may have caused the death of other people as well.

I know I’m prejudiced. I spent three years working on the Mexican border, in an intel office monitoring illegal activity. Human trafficking, money laundering and narcotics. I think people in Australia, who are the largest consumers of illegal drugs, have no idea what goes on to get those drugs to them. People just live in a happy bubble, and think their coke and heroin just magically appear on their local dealers door, where he gives them a little bit to party with. What people don’t see, is the thousands of people who are killed each year. Not even from taking drugs. Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the drug war. Cartels in Mexico have killed over 60,000 people in 6 years. They kill each other over turf. Over trafficking routes. Over exportation lines. It’s insane what people just in Mexico do to keep the flow of drugs going, and it’s not just Mexico. It’s happening all over the world. So if just Mexico has 60k dead in 6 years, you can imagine how large the number of dead in the  global drug trade.

I’ve seen the executions. I’ve seen the torture. I’ve seen what people are capable of doing to each other in the name of drugs. Things a person should never, ever see. Things that will give you nightmares. So when I see these two drug dealers being elevated to martyrdom status, it just makes me angry. These two dealt in death. These two contributed to the war.  If they hadn’t been caught, they may have ended up executed not by the government of Indonesia, but by another drug trafficker.

I understand that people think these two have reformed. That they repented, and were no longer bad boys. However, I’m betting anyone will say that they’ve reformed when faced with an execution. The calls on the Australian government, and Tony Abbott in particular to “grow a pair” and “go save our boys” was ridiculous. First off, the Australian government went above and beyond to try to have these two pardoned. Second, Indonesia is a massive country, with a population that far exceeds that of Australia. Diplomatic relations means you can’t just send in a Seal Team to rescue them. Third, they’re not “boys”. They were grown men, who knew what they were doing was wrong. Fourth, could you imagine the anger if another government jumped on a jet to Australia and demanded that their countries prisoners should be handed over and set free?

I understand that Australian’s don’t agree with the death penalty. I agree that it doesn’t work. It’s not a true deterrent. However, people know that Indonesia has a death penalty, and if you’re stupid enough to take drugs in anyway, then you’re going to be given the death penalty if you’re caught.

Instead of creating scholarships in their name, as the Catholic University is doing, making these two out to be Saints, maybe the government could do more to teach people about the effects of drugs, and stop the trade in drugs. Maybe Australians should educate themselves, and see that when they do a little coke on friday night, and they think they’re not really harming anyone, they should take a look around the world and see where that coke came from, and how many people died to get it to them.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/ has some interesting articles in English that show the effects of the drug trade in Mexico.  If you can read Spanish, or use the Google translation tool, have a look at http://www.blogdelnarco.com/ Don’t watch the videos unless you have a strong stomach… I haven’t included any graphics here, because they are too graphic for most people, but all you need to do is an image on search Mexico drug deaths, and you’ll see a bullet to the heart was a quick death compared to most.