Australian tourists who complained about being stranded on tropical Bali when volcanic ash closed its airport have been roasted online as being out of touch with the hardships faced by Indonesians forced to flee their homes.
Bali’s airport reopened on Wednesday after being closed for two-and-a-half days and thousands of tourists are now leaving the island famous for its lush green interior, surf beaches and relaxed vibe.
About 40,000 residents from Mount Agung’s danger zone are staying in shelters such as sport halls, temples and tent camps. Ash could drift back and force the airport to close again.
Photo: AP
A producer for an Australian TV network temporarily locked her Twitter account after being assailed for an article in which she complained of having to pay for a taxi to the airport after not getting through to airlines by telephone.
“People are being forced to measure risk, cost and desperation to make it home to their families on Christmas,” producer Mary Jordan said.
The article on the TV network’s Web site was later updated to show Jordan had managed to get a flight out on Thursday evening, but not before it was sarcastically dissected by an online travel guide.
One man was lampooned for telling Australian TV that the government should have sent boats to rescue Australians and complaining that he spent three “cold, wet” nights at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport.
“It’s been hell,” the man, identified as Phil Wickham by Australian media, said on arrival at Perth in Western Australia.
Others were more stoic, commenting that it was not too bad and the beer had not run out.
Bali attracts about 5 million visitors per year, making tourism vital to the livelihoods of many on the island. It is a top destination for Australians.
Airport spokesman Arie Ahsanurrohim said that about 17,000 people on Thursday flew out of Bali on domestic and international flights.
The alert level for Mount Agung, which has been gushing huge columns of black ash since Saturday last week and glowing red at night, remains at its highest. Explosions within the crater can be heard kilometers away and tremors occasionally shake the surrounding region.
Agung’s last major eruption, in 1963, killed about 1,100 people.
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
RSS