The Video For Tony Abbott

I don't know if the executions have happened yet.

I haven't looked.

I guess I'm being avoidant.

But last night I thought more about the celebrity video message to Tony Abbott. The more I thought about it, the more it bothered me.

In some ways, it feels like SOME of the celebrities were using the tragic impending death of two Australian men to publicly show their general disgust of Tony Abbott.

If I didn't know any better and watched the video...from what some people were saying, I'd get the idea that Tony Abbott supported the death penalty for drug offenses; that he believed the two men should die; and that he's made no effort to stop the execution.

None of that is true. I looked at Google, just to be sure, and there are various articles from the past few months that say Abbott expressed his anti-death penalty feelings with Indonesia.

Besides insulting Tony Abbott and inferring that he could save these men if he truly wanted to; what was the purpose of the video? What do these celebrities expect? Do they really believe that there was a simple solution to all of this—that if Tony Abbott got on a plane and showed his face in Indonesia, the executions would be halted?  Do they imagine the threat of execution was just a ploy to get Tony Abbott to visit Indonesia?

I think I would have more respect for the video if some of the celebrities actually instructed Abbott on what he was supposed to do once he reached Indonesia—if they had an actual plan mapped out for him.


Oh! Well, this is interesting. I was going to find the link to the video so I could stick it in the post. It's gone from Vimeo now.  Is it gone everywhere?  And was it taken down because the person who made it realized it was a bad idea? Or is it gone, because now it's too late to make a difference anyway?