Webdiary is a culture war free zone until families, friends and lovers have found their missing and identified their dead. This is a time for our writers and artists to describe our grief and help us feel the pain together. I’d like to publish your poems and visualisations. I think finger-pointing and blame and jumping straight into anger and visions of revenge is dangerous displacement of feeling before feeling is fully felt. It also ignores the absence of facts upon which to analyse what has happened. This is our experience, and those who wish to define it for us and appropriate it to their cause can get stuffed.

These are frightening times in world affairs. An Australia split to its core, paralysed by mutual contempt, is an Australia poorly placed to withstand the terrible challenges ahead. To unite in grief, to give each other the time and space to think about how we will spend our nation’s day of mourning on Sunday, is a vital precursor to mature consideration of our national response.

Herald writer Jennifer Hewett wrote a piece from the morgue I will never forget (smh). She is shaken and was unable to sleep last night. I spoke to her this morning. To listen, click “Horror hunt” in the right hand column.

Today I publish people whose words, like those of Jennifer, can bring us together in mourning, and which help us feel safe to openly, honestly discuss our response to this terrible crime once the facts are on the table and its context explored. They are Stephen Blackwell, David Makinson, Daniel Boase-Jelinek, Noel Hadjimichael and Darren Spain.

To end, Herald journalist Juan-Carlo Tomas does the journalist’s job. He asks questions to which we must get answers before we decide our next step as a nation.

***

Stephen Blackwell

Already claim and counter claim is being aired about what the blasts in Bali mean – what we should do.

I get a sense that the dialogue has been written in advance. We don’t know – really – what to make of the tragedy so we resort to conventional scenarios: “terrorists” are “out there” and, for some reason, have struck against something or someone for some cause or some hatred indicating God only knows what has gone wrong.

The utter haziness of what we know is covered over by a staunch determination to be tough and definite in our responses. This flows on both sides – those who want to fight and those who want to understand.

It happened with September 11 – we needed bin Laden to make it all coherent. The evil genius. Just like others needed Chomsky to counter the dumb paranoia with a smarter paranoia. So long as we know where we stand!

We know so little but, with carnage on the news and our hearts on fire we stride forward anyway – wars fought in the dark, history written in ignorance – places the angels fear to tread.

***

David Makinson

This is an extract from a letter I wrote to a friend (of socio-political bent) last night. I usually try to be constructive, but I cannot find it in me at the moment. I think I am beginning to despair.

It surprises no-one I suppose, but it still defies belief, that commentators from across the political spectrum are using (yes, “using”) the Bali atrocity to score points off their rival pontificators. It is deeply sickening.

So now it’s definitively established to those of the right that the bleeding hearts have been exposed as fools, whilst it’s equally clear to those of the left that here is proof-positive that the macho, militaristic posturings of the right continue to rain catastrophe upon us.

I want to scream: Wake up, people! These horrible events prove neither faction right. Surely it’s obvious by now that we’re all wrong? Our romanticised assessments of what we define as good and evil, and our yearnings for the simplicity of black and white solutions, are delusions. The world lurches from futile rhetoric to ineffective response and still our people are dying.

Unnecessary deaths. Politicians and commentators of all persuasions will seek to portray their particular cause as noble because we have lost our friends. We must reject this cynicism. Be clear that these poor, poor people died for nothing – a tragic symbol of an abject failure of leadership.

Politicians failed to protect them. The experts of right and left have had no effect. We must not reward them by jumping on any of their various bandwagons. Just cry and cry and cry for the wasted victims and the torment of their loved ones.

The left says our government’s public support of the US makes us a target. We sense the truth in this. The right says that it is folly to think that a passive stance will protect us. We sense the truth in this.

The right says a military solution is the only solution. They may be correct. The left says violence begets violence, and they too may be correct. Neither group can recognise the merits in each other’s case, and so the true, far more complex solution eludes us.

President Bush said, in the seeming long ago, “You’re either with us, or you’re with the terrorists”. Wrong, George. We’re against both of you. We wonder if perhaps you deserve each other, but we’re certain we have done nothing at all to deserve you. We, the cannon fodder, oppose you. We are the innocent people of Australia, the US, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, the world, and we are opposed to you. It’s not as simple as us and them. It’s about all of us.

For myself, every instinct I have says we need to seek an active path of peaceful action and engagement if we are to have any chance of working through these troubles. I believe this is the test of courage we need to confront – to engage these people at the root of their grievances and hurts – both real and imagined.

I am not optimistic that we can pass this test. I fear our bravery does not run that deep. The pragmatist in me recognises that we will resort to force. We will dress this up in words of action and purpose, and imagine it a considered and effective response. We will convince ourselves it is necessary and just. It is neither – and it will not work.

It is a dark time. I fear for my children. I am conscious that I offer no solutions. Doubtless the right and the left will have many. Let us pray that somewhere amongst the dross is a kernel of constructive thought which can be built into hope.

***

Daniel Boase-Jelinek in Perth

I think I am getting a sense of the way many people in Germany might have felt during the rise of Nazism in the 1930s, a feeling of helplessness as public figures manipulate events and people’s responses to those events to lead the country ever deeper down the slippery slope into the mire of war.

I agree with David Davis (Autumn in October) that we (Australia and the world) are in deep trouble. The search for blame and vengeance is an infection that denies us the capacity to pause and make space to put things into perspective. Every action and reaction appears to be making the situation worse, adding to the fury, and edging us ever closer to the abyss. It seems like everyone is shouting. I think it is time to start listening.

***

Noel Hadjimichael, Camden

Up until now the debate over culture wars, radical Islam, the Indonesian regime, September 11 and even the Iraq situation was very academic, very distant and thankfully relatively painless. The Bali bombings have now turned the debate into one that requires a thoughtful pause, a policy rather than knee-jerk response, and a desire for appropriate action.

As I suggested in Webdiary some time ago, we just can’t have it both ways (affluent western democracy without doing some of the hard work) and look away when substantive threats loom. Peacemongers are both right (we do not want to escalate the current conflict) and wrong (we cannot shy away from taking decisive security/military actions).

Australia is no longer so far away from this troubled world.

***

Darren Spain in London

Let’s not make the same mistakes that the Americans did after the terrorist attacks in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, New York City and Washington D.C.

I have three pleas for Australians and the Australian media:

Let’s not rally around an overtly Australian symbol as the Americans did when they flew the flag everywhere and on everything as a sign of solidarity with relatives and friends of the victims. To do so will deny non-Australians their need to share their grief, empathise with us and feel empathy in return.

As a non-American who lost a friend and acquaintances on 11 September 2001 I could not use the Stars and Stripes as a focus for my grief. As a consequence I found myself alienated and left out of the healing process going on around me. As I walked around Manhattan and my old neighbourhood in Brooklyn I should have been feeling empathy but instead I felt anger every time I saw a US flag. It was like I was being told that as a non-American my grief was of lesser importance.

If Australians choose to rally around a symbol it should be one that unites not divides. The Australian flag is not a suitable symbol.

In twelve months time let’s also not find ourselves rounding the number of casualties and implying by omission that the total number dead were all Australians. Let’s not be stating that more than 200 Australians died as a result of the bomb blasts on 12 October 2002 in the same way that the US media now generalises that nearly 3,000 Americans died as a result of the attacks on 11 September 2001. Let’s always quote exact numbers and also mention that twenty (or whatever the number turns out to be) other nations’ dead are also counted in the total number of casualties.

When we know the numbers, let’s also not forget to separately mention the dead and injured Balinese in any future description of those who died that day. Let us not be like the Americans who have long forgotten the number of dead and injured Kenyans and Tanzanians but always quote that 17 sailors were killed in the attack on the U.S.S Cole. (For the record 214 died in the Kenyan capital. Twelve of them were US nationals, and of the almost 5,000 injured nearly all were locals. In the Tanzanian capital 10 locals died and 72 were injured. There were no US nationals killed or injured.)

Margo: I’d like our symbol of unity in grief to be Uluru.

***

Juan-Carlo Tomas

Despite everything we know about the bombings in Bali on October 12, there’s one thing which has, so far, eluded all of us.

We know that the bombings have, to date, claimed the lives of 20 Australians.

We know that over 200 others are missing, and we hold grave fears for their safety.

We know about the brave and valiant efforts other Australians who went to rescue friends, colleagues and strangers caught in the inferno.

We know that the local Balinese have been just as shocked and horrified at this senseless slaughter of innocent people, cut down at the prime of their lives.

We know that the international community shares our sense of loss, our anger, and our disbelief. We are united in our stand to bring to justice those that perpetrated such a horrendous act of murder.

The one thing we don’t know is this: Who are we standing against? Who do we bring to justice? Radical Muslims? Peeved off Hindus? Local triad gangs? Indonesian military elements gone haywire? Who knows?

The US doesn’t hold much hope for the local investigation. And with hordes of people trampling through the crime scene, what chance is there of finding direct, incontrovertible proof in the first place?

As the Oklahoma bombings showed US officials, closing a crime scene and vacuuming up everything for analysis is critical to a conclusive finding. Three days on, and still nothing has been found. But everyone’s had a chance to walk through and see it.

Another interesting point to note is today’s date, October 15. Ramadan – the Muslim holy month of purification, fasting and debt-paying – starts in a month, and is the traditional ‘quiet time’ in the Middle East. Hostilities, wars, feuds and the like slow down as Muslims worldwide turn their attention to their faith and the 15th, today, marks a period moving into preparation.

Radical Islamic groups have never attacked or bombed targets during Ramadan, in the same way that Western nations at war have traditionally observed ceasefires during Christmas. But we also have to recognise that we’re not dealing with traditional, “normal” Muslims here either.

One interesting news wire report – one of the earliest to be received here – suggests the explosions were accidental. Freelance cameraman Mark Taylor claims the blasts were the result of LPG gas cylinders exploding, a fact not that unbelievable when you consider the business of the evening and uncertainty of the weather, being between wet and dry seasons. Here is the report in full:

Bali explosion not a bomb, LPG gas explosion

An Australian cameraman says a blast believed to have killed more than 50 people in a Bali nightclub overnight was caused by exploding gas cylinders, not a terrorist attack.

Freelance cameraman MARK TAYLOR has told Sky News from Bali that fears of a terrorist attack are inaccurate.

He says it definitely wasn’t a bomb.

He says it was an explosion of an LPG cylinder.

Mr TAYLOR says gas is supplied to locals in bottles because there’s no gas pipeline to the island.

He says the explosion and fire has destroyed the Sari Club and another nightclub adjoining it, as well as about 60 vehicles.

Mr TAYLOR says a second explosion near the United States consulate about the same time looks more like a car accident.

AAP RTV ld/jmt

So what if the “bombings” were accidental? What if terrorism hadn’t reared its ugly head on our doorstep? What if the events of October 12 were due to a faulty cylinder head or wayward cigarette, rather than a sophisticated multi-nation terrorist strike. What if the Sari Club had been closed that day? The mind boggles at the possibilities, but the pain, heartache, and loss is still there.

There’s one more thing we know. We need time to grieve. We need time to mourn. We need time to feel our pain, our loss, and our sorrow. We need time to celebrate their lives. We need time to build our strengths, and stand up again. And we don’t know how long that will take.