8degreesoflatitude

Bali is a destination of choice for a great many kooks, and we often read about them through such beneficial mediums as The Beat Daily, a nicely presented and very lively online publication.

    But one recent arrival is well out of the ordinary run of events. Self-styled Brazilian virgin Catarina  Migliorini, who is apparently 20 which should mean she’s had time to acquire a modicum of common sense,  if not some semblance of good taste, not to mention to choose like most young women to freely dispense with her virginity along the way, has been stranded here because the Australians wouldn’t give her a visa.

      Migliorini had to flee Brazil, it seems, because that country’s attorney-general said her action in auctioning her virginity – for charity as well as her own pocket, so it is said – was tantamount to people trafficking and was against the law. Like many misfits, she’s ended up on our island, where if she never manages to become a cause celebre she will at least attract a snigger or two.

      She has sold her body – or at least, a one-time special entry permit to a particular part of her anatomy – for US$780,000 to a Japanese man, known only as “Natsu”, who clearly has more money than sense. The overpriced deflowering was supposed to take place in November, with events surrounding this – though not, thankfully, the act itself – to be recorded on film.

      She came to Bali in the hope of getting a visa here to enter Australia but this was denied twice. Apparently a third application was successful. It is far from clear why, but doubtless Canberra’s paperclip shufflers have some sort of excuse that will just squeak onto the plausibility scale.

      Perhaps it’s the novelty value, though the loss of virginity is hardly novel, except for the participants, and that hopefully in private.

      There is a further, less than savoury, antipodean connection:  Australian documentary filmmaker Justin Sisely had planned to film the event on a plane from Bali to the United States to avoid any legal complications with either Indonesia or Australia but apparently the film will now be made Down Under.

     A spokesman for filmmaker Sisely, Frank Thorne, told the media: “Things changed a lot as the documentary progressed. Other things are still in the works. For now, the project is on hold, and we are in limbo until the New Year. Can’t say anything more at the moment, because there is nothing to report.”

     In the meantime Migliorini has posed nude for Playboy in a picture spread due to be published in Brazil in January.

     It used to be said, by the Ancients, that those whom the gods wished to destroy they first made mad. Certainly several people in this ridiculous and prurient saga are prime candidates for visas to enter Lala Land. And this proves to be the case: the Australians reportedly have come to the deflowering party.

     There’s a sad parallel story to the main event too. Apparently a man – in some separate transaction – auctioned his own virginity (an ethereal rather than physical construct in the male case) and had to sell himself for only US$3000. Some say the fact that he has carrot-coloured hair negatively impacted on his value.

     For my money Catarina and “Natsu” – along with poor Mr Carrot Top – have all done their dough.