Also the whole "here's how to dodge local COVID restrictions come on down the waters fine" during a deadly global pandemic.
American woman sparks furious backlash for ‘tone-deaf’ viral thread about moving to Bali
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I think that making it so that any time someone Googles your name that they'll see a bunch of articles written about you highlighting bad things you've done, is a pretty big punishment to anyone who wants to make a living online. That's pretty bad. Not to mention the 48 hours of intense harassment and likely months of lighter harassment if you choose to come back at some point.
but for the people that should know better, how does lampshading "she's a black queer woman" move the discussion forward at all? At what point do her identities take priority over the locals involved? Does it preclude her from being piled on? Does the pile on need to be less scathing because of her identities? What's the appropriate amount of vitriol does she deserve?
Twitter will move on, she'll move on, I just want to know what the defense here is.
and are we saying she doesn't deserve to have this stick to her? Why? If it was a white woman would we be saying the same thing?
That shit happens in the states, I happily live in Washington State, but I can drive 30 minutes to Idaho and do almost whatever the hell I want without wearing a mask with the rest of the idiots there. Now, that said, Idaho and its politics suck ass, but it doesn't change the fact that I can do the same thing on a micro level.
I don't condone the behavior, or the twitter post, but I am not outraged by it. If we are going to get hot and bothered about this, then maybe we should view all ex-pats under the same lens.
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It doesn't change that it can be done here.
But if you were trying to get people to go to Idaho and party with you, you'd deserve scorn too!
Thank you, these are absolutely sensitive issues but we've blamed and dunked on foolish white Americans getting in trouble due to their idiocy abroad all the time. The white woman imprisoned in Cayman Islands for violating Covid restrictions being a recent example.
Who's letting people get off scot free?
This is becoming infighting and completely ignoring the actual victim(s). As for tax evasion, the biggest companies and wealthiest people in the world do that every single day, and of course we care. But the GOP does not.
Why anyone would want to move to that bogan-infested party island is beyond me. It's like saying you want to move to Cancun or something. Like okay, it's cheap and tropical, but you'd be dealing with the most godawful shitty tourists all year round.
My wife (who's from Indonesia) told me about this yesterday, and the heat is warranted. If you're going to move to a poor country and not pay any taxes as well as try to (badly) skirt around the immigration laws, how to you expect people to react? Especially when you're encouraging others to break the law too. I saw that someone had already reported her to immigration, who replied that they're looking into it. So she probably won't be there long. It's unfortunate for her, because it's not difficult for westerners to move to Indonesia so long as they follow the rules.
My wife (who's from Indonesia) told me about this yesterday, and the heat is warranted. If you're going to move to a poor country and not pay any taxes as well as try to (badly) skirt around the immigration laws, how to you expect people to react? Especially when you're encouraging others to break the law too. I saw that someone had already reported her to immigration, who replied that they're looking into it. So she probably won't be there long. It's unfortunate for her, because it's not difficult for westerners to move to Indonesia so long as they follow the rules.
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Do we know the specifics of what she was saying regarding getting around COVID rules? Or is it just based on the 3 words in that other person's tweet?
what a bunch of bullshit
like I mentioned earlier, her blackness was not an issue until she started pulling the race cards and black US twitter double downs
She's touting her lifestyle to sell you a product where you, too, can dodge taxes and COVID restrictions.
So you can sell it for $30 a pop. I do hope anyone abusing and taking advantage of local communities are dealt with by the police. I'm extremely angered by her promotion of ignoring covid rules. Opportunistic, selfish idiot.
Oh now we must be concerned about her because apparently she's the victim here instead of the locals even though she flaunted her tax-evading, COVID-19-don't-give-a-damn attitude for wealthy foreigners to do and exploit.
Right, of course.
Right, of course.
Generalizing hundreds of millions of people, aren't you? We dislike what this is lady is doing purely because she's black and/or we're envious that a 'black person is doing better than the rest of us', meanwhile she is evading taxes, and give fuck all about COVID situation and invites others to do the same, enjoying the high life while the locals are getting destroyed by the cratered economy because of COVID.
Man, fuck out of here. "Oh bohooo those envious racist and poor 3rd world country people." You're being extremely condescending to us Indonesians right now.
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Digital nomads, as I understand it, don't settle in one place and just stay a month or two before moving on. I don't think they are quite gentrification since they barely stay in the place for any period of time so I don't think they'd have much of an effect on the area, especially since they don't usually pick the same locations - if I'm wrong about what a digital nomad is though, my bad.
edit: never mind five minutes of googling later and I can see how it applies lol
In a way, privilege and treating Asia like some fantasy playground crossing race barriers is a form of progress? lol
I'm kind of more annoyed at the fact that people tweet a 20+ threads tweet. At some point I wonder why y'all tweeting like that if there is much to say about something. It's the worst platform for writing something long form unless you tweet a picture of your full statement instead.
There is a much more reliable market for entrepreneurship books than there is for entrepreneurship IMO. Entrepreneurship carries big risks sometimes, selling books, not so big, except in those cases where you get blown up on social media.
I don't know if it's ethical or whatever to move there, as they are already invaded by tourists, but damn Bali is a nice place. When I visited back in 2011 I didn't feel like coming back.
Her tweets were deleted by the time I clicked on the trending topic "Bali". I didn't know she made a book and was a Covid rule breaker.
I left breathing room in my post by saying it could be racism (as opposed to absolutes) and that ultimately this was an Indonesian matter.
I wasn't aware of her Covid rule breaking either, so my final position is to withdraw support. Sorry about that.
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Yeah indeed. it took me a while to fully grasp the issue and it's not just this one but many issues on twitter in the past too. It's the equivalent to putting together a large jigsaw puzzle in order to see what the big picture is.
Back to topic, highly irresponsible behaviour of hers but not really surprising as it is very common for westerners abroad to boast about how living abroad is more luxurious than back home. For her, I feel disgruntled because she is putting the lives of local Indonesians in danger by encouraging Westerners on social media to escape covid and live care-free in Bali during a worldwide pandemic. That's not her call to make. Be respectful and grateful to your hosts. Bali isn't 100% immune to the virus.
Also, much like many other countries in Asia. Comfort, hospitality and greetings is dependant on not just wealth but also nationality so she may be under the belief that "life is good and everything is care-free" but that's mostly because of her US nationality and the priviledge/status it carries with the locals in Bali.
I'm understanding of the backlash this is getting but people need to be aware that this is going to continue happening at a growing rate, more rapidly than before. Americans and other Westerners taking their earning potential abroad because covid-19 has made working remotely much easier and more normalized.
Not only does it allow, no, damn near promote this kind of behavior in people (take their money and go where they can live much higher lifestyle), but it removes job opportunities from people who are still living in those pricier areas who need that higher income to survive.
We as a world really are going to have to recon with this in the coming years.
Not only does it allow, no, damn near promote this kind of behavior in people (take their money and go where they can live much higher lifestyle), but it removes job opportunities from people who are still living in those pricier areas who need that higher income to survive.
We as a world really are going to have to recon with this in the coming years.
Well she's being deported now. The thing about this matter is she's spread misinformation and break some Indonesia law while bragging about it on social media.
Good. Fuck westerners who exploit less wealthy countries in the global south, no matter their ethnicity. The posts in this thread excusing this imperialist bullshit are disgusting.
Why why why would you think promoting it would be smart. She could've lived there and been fine, did she need the extra money and needed to sell a ebook?
It sucks her life could be ruined but you gotta be better than that. Can't be telling ppl to come live like kings and queens off the backs of its struggling people during COVID and think it's a good idea.
so it sounds like she could have definitely stayed if she didn't sell the book. So stupid and greedy.
You're already taking advantage of a poor area so just shut up and live your life .
Edit: I don't think it's just a slap on the wrist. That's pretty much how this would work in most countries .
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I don't think she had any idea whe was doing anything wrong.
The posts trying to shoo aside that and trying to paint her as the victim cause she is a woman of colour and LGBT were worse. As if that is carte blanche for her to be a shitty human. Coming from a poor country myself, Westerners of any colour that want to exploit those countries and want to live the high life down there can go fuck off
And writing an ebook about how to safely break the law, COVID and how to avoid taxes thing.
I mean she got deported, not sure I'd call that a slap on the wrist.
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This story made me think of the gated communities in many South East Asian countries made up of mostly expats, often ex-military personnel from places like the US or the UK, who treat the locals solely as cleaners, maids and trophy wives. They live the high life exploiting these countries with their retirement money that wouldn't get them anywhere in their home countries. I've seen this with my own eyes. Most of them are white but some of them are POC, and all of them are equally shitty people. Western POC can be just as imperialist as Western white people. Some people on this forum have a very naive view of the world.
Are we not allowed to question whether or not laws make sense?
If it's so important to keep visitors out that you would punish individuals for inviting visitors, then why are the borders open? It doesn't make sense to me.
I'm aware her visa overstay is another reason she is being deported, that seems legitimate.
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Inviting visitors during pandemic?
Borders are open? Indonesian's border is closed.
Are we seriously gonna talk about a country's laws?