On pedophiles in Bali

In the Aug. 29 edition of The Jakarta Post you ran an interesting section of several articles on pedophilia in Bali. This was accompanied by a photograph of a light-skinned man sitting on the beach with a dark-skinned boy. The caption, as well as the positioning of the photo, made it absolutely clear that this photo was meant to illustrate a pedophile and his toy. In Aug. 30 of the Post, you ran a cowardly disclaimer stating that it was merely meant to illustrate "Bali". What a load of rubbish!

While many of the statements made in your articles are undoubtedly, and unfortunately, true, I am extremely disappointed that the Post should fall into the trap of attributing all such evils to "foreigners" -- as if there are no pribumi (indigenous) pedophiles. We know from your previous articles on the sex industry that this is simply not true -- there would be no child prostitutes if there were no customers! Indonesia has enough "devils" of its own without you needing to conjure up "foreign devils".

I am a bule, married to an Indonesian and the stepfather of two young boys (I am also a teacher -- mainly of young children) -- thanks to the unfortunate slant of your articles, no doubt some people will now wonder if I am a pedophile when they see me with my children. Thanks a lot JP!

CHRIS LASDAUSKAS

Bekasi, West Java