Schapelle Corby: My life in a Bali jail

I just read the link you posted.

Contains text:
I felt sure their (Bali nine) crime of trafficking heroin had contributed to me getting 20 years,” Corby said.

Comments like this would indicate the woman who’s spending the best part of her life in the Kerobokan Hilton still hasn’t come to terms with the fact that She and only She was busted with the ganja.

The story goes on to reflect horrifying tales of her life in an Indo prison
Hmmmmm if its so bad there why doesn’t she want to get sent back if theres a prisoner exchange.

Corby was a fool from the begining, anyone who thinks she has merit is just as foolish.

Shame on me. I bought the Women’s Weekly containing the extracts from the book. The quotes the media used were taken completely out of context. Why it’s being reported that “it’s unclear” whether Corby’s attitude to Renae Lawrence ever changed is a mystery to me. (And the quotes the press are using were describing what she’d “heard” others say about Renae before ever meeting her.)

This is the extract they aren’t quoting:

” … A frantic whisper swept around as [Renae] swept around through the door. As I sat watching, my fears vanished entirely. She looked like a frightened mouse. Her face was full of terror. Her big blue eyes eyes spilling tears, Renae trailed behind the guards like a lost lamb.

I finally met Renae. She was sitting on the cell floor sobbing. “Come on, this isn’t going to help you,” I told her. It was impossible not to see the fresh scars on her sliced-up wrists. “And you can’t do that again. Forget about doing that again.”

But she had so much anger inside. Then a couple of days after checking in, she began slamming her fists into the cell wall until the bones in her hand were broken. I had no chance of holding her back.
About two weeks later, she again started smashing her broken hand into the wall. She was crying hysterically. I tried to soothe her, giving her a hug and holding her good hand.

Renae would often come and sit with me in my cell. She’d started taking a tranquilliser which zonked her out. She needed to blur reality and numb the fear.

One night I heard angry shouting. The guards opened her cell. She walked over to my cage window holding a razor blade between her thumb and first finger. “I’m justing moving my hand slowly and I’m going to take this out of your hand. Just give it to me.” My eyes were willing her to give me the blade.
Her eyes were full of pain. She finally dropped it into my hand. The suicidal moment had passed. For now.”

Okay, okay so this book will never win the Pulitzer Prize but Corby clearly doesn’t deserve a reputation for being a heartless homophobe when most people already think she’s drug trafficking scum as it is.

I’ve read the full extract in the Woman’s Weekly and I’m afraid the selective and out-of-context quotes used in the news article massively distort what she said. Suggest you all read the full chapter before jumping to conclusions.

It is bewildering, if the prison is so damn bad, why wouldn’t see take the prisoner exchange to come back to australia? Her family and friends would be much closer to come visit rather than trips to indo all the time. Oh, thats right, they have been caught with drugs too, so they cant come visit the jail in australia either.

Silly silly girl and those who belive shes innocent!

Miss Corby was caught and got her jail sentance
before the Bali Nine came into the picture ,so I do not see where she can blame them for her situation .
Kim

What Geoff said. The extracts were taken totally out of context. She doesn’t think Renae Lawrence is a “psychopathic lesbian”. Those were only irrational, misguided thoughts she had based on what she’d heard, when (whether she’s guilty or innocent) she must have been a total psychological wreck. The published extracts describe how she felt the upmost compassion and sympathy for Lawrence as soon as she met her, and the inference I made from was clear - she doesn’t hate or blame the Bali Nine for what happened to her at all.

Wrong Kim! The Bali 9 were arrested on 17 April 2005. Schapelle was convicted and sentenced on 27 May 2005. There was widespread speculation in the media when the Bali Nine were arrested that their arrests might have an adverse affect on Schapelle’s sentence. It is not surprising that she had the view at the time (which is all her book claims) that their arrest had contributed to her harsh sentence. It is clear in the full chapter printed in the Women’s Weekly that those were her views prior to meeting them and that her attitude to Renae at least had changed substantially after actually meeting her.

In general a comparison of the full chapter and the news story makes it very clear that as has become thge norm, the media have deliberately taken a negative point of view.

Not that it really matters, I suppose. People have made up their minds one way or the other and ain’t about to change now. I just get a bit annoyed that people who are generally so critical about the relentless pro-Schapelle pre-trial coverage are so ready to unquestioningly accept the current negative coverage.

And another small thing:

Nick states that “Schapelle Corby, the babe in a Bali jail, has written a book. Well she hasn’t actually written it, she told stories to a female reporter, who turned it into something resembling a coherant account, of life behind bars, Bali style.”

I’ve had substantial letters from Schapelle and she writes well. Clearly her co-author has cleaned up the grammar a little, but the WW extract is not hugely different in quality from the contents of her letters. Please don’t just assume she is a moron. It isn’t true.

Ahem

Only a Moron would get busted carrying 4kgs of dope into an Asian country.

Different people show their intelligence and/or lack of judgement in different ways. I remember some years ago seeing a photo in the Guinness Book of Records of the man who has the highest IQ ever recorded. I suppose we would agree that he is unusually intelligent. But, in the photo, he’s smoking. Hardly an indication of good judgement, is it?

Eddie Tansil, you wrote: “Only a Moron would get busted carrying 4kgs of dope into an Asian country.”
Perhaps, but did Corby KNOWINGLY carry 4kgs of dope into an Asian country? This one question has never been satisfactorily answered. If she did do so - knowingly - she was indeed a moron. I’ll spare you and spare myself the effort of enumerating the reasons why.
Irrespective of everything about Qantas baggage handlers using the luggage of innocent tourist ‘Gary MacDonald’ to smuggle cocaine into Sydney airport on the day Corby flew out, only to find herself thoroughly fecked upon touch-down in Bali - it is the deficit of direct evidence to prove ahe is guilty of knowingly carrying the 4kgs that troubles and puzzles me.
The argument of most but not everyone to scream she’s ‘GUILTY AS SIN!’ boils down to one single assumption: ‘She Must Have Known’.
(And should anyone retort, ‘How can you not notice a boogie board bag is 4kgs heavier … blah blah blah?’, her brother was the one carrying it; customs officers thought it was his. Schapelle said it was hers, whereupon she lifted it onto an inspection counter … and the rest is disputed history.)
Nick: Apologies if this is too long.

depends what he was smoking

An interesting side effect from Corby’s bust seems to be that the ganga dealers who pester tourists in Kuta are gone as of my last visit in October! Hooray!!

Not a moron???

Why would she write stuff about the guards and fellow prisoners that she will have to live with for the next 12+years???

Still not a moron??

Her comments have made Kerobokan Prison more in the limelight, thus may be the target of a ‘clean-up’ of the jail by some pollies in Jakarta.

Apparently, you can do and get a lot of things at Kerobokan. Now, if this ’system’ was to change, how would her fellow prisioners and guards (that often receive presents) feel??

If she doesnt like it there, there are also the other numerous prisons in Java, Sumartra, etc…

I’m sure she’d love it there…..

Nick, I know I’ll sound like a crazy Corby supporter reading conspiracies into everything here, but precisely why are my comments ‘awaiting moderation’ for days and days on end? Is it that I don’t regularly post here or what?

You need not ‘publish’ all my comments on this thread (certainly not this one) but what am I doing wrong?!

How often I am ashamed to be part of the human race and reading many of your heartless comments is another one of those times. If only you people could find the beauty and compassion within your hearts that Schapelle demonstrates from the hell-hole that is her current situation. It is easy for you to say such things, I wonder how much ‘ease’ you would have if you went on a holiday and shock of all things drugs were planted in your bags. Do some research it can and does happen! Put yourself in her shoes - huh, near impossible - but try to imagine and if you are capable, read the whole book - you are the morons but hopefully still capable of developing such things as belief in another persons integrity and compassion towards their welfare.

ok I’m sorry she is a moron. Doesn’t she realise that writing a book being a convicted criminal means she will never see any of the proceeds (of her crime). That is a moron.

How can anyone say shes guilty or innocent no one knows only herself I believe Renae Corby lies to get attention seeing her in court the day of her sentencing she just could not stop looking and facing the camera and even a smirk now and then anyway i think she got what she deserves she sure loves herself.

Hey shirley, it\\\’s SCHAPPELLE not Renae!And I think you should just keep your jealousy in check.
I knew Schappelle on the Gold Coast. A very intelligent and well spoken woman, there is no way she would of done something that stupid. While there is actually more going on that we know,what it comes down to is that she wasn’t that bloody stupid to take drugs into Asia. And she does bodyboard, to those people who say that’s a lie, and she has taken that bag to bali numerous times WITH A BOARD IN IT!

Hey there natalie, Obviously her intelligence didn’t rub off on you…or maybe it did.

Hey Sebastian, speaking of intelligence, have you anything to say apart from a couple of snide comments that only prove your obvious naivety and youth? I understand that a lot of people , when observing from a newspapers and tv reports, come to their own conclusions, but it shows stupidity when they lower themselves to name calling and baiting,

Hey, the moral of this story: leave your body board at home and rent at the beach! RP20,000 or so will get you a nice board at Seminiak, negotiate the time….

Shirley, is it not possible you (and many others) are midreading what you see on tv etc due to you already having made up your minds?? What you see as a \’smirk\’ in the courtroom could have actually been a shy, hopeful smile. Her lawyers had told her they believed she would go home, her family had told her the same story - all to give her hope… I\’m not here to try and persuade anyone of her innocence or guilt, I just want people to make up their mind based on all the facts - not just on one or two things they have seen or heard in the media.

Hi Natalie,
Thank you so much darling for your insightful comments. Obviously you put a lot of time and consideration into your name calling and baiting.. Good to see your education didn’t go to waste.
And thank you also for your comment regarding my youth and naivety..very much appreciated if not a little inaccurate.
Anyway, ta. And peace sister