Definitely no black people in Bali MagiK - I will back up Djinni Raffo on that one. I am going to go out on a limb and put that the author had one of those geographical grasps at the air and just barely missed the black African nation of Mali.
On the subject of affirmative action - I am against it and for it
. I don't like anything that is not merit based on principle. However - if extra places are part funded by a government program under the aim of closing the socio-economic divide, and those places have minimum standards set to an acceptable tolerance of the standard course (say must be within 5-10% of standard), then I am happy with the principle. Just taking someone that is well below the standard on the basis of race would piss me off that my tax dollars were wasted on someone that doesn'thave the credentials to be there.
I guess I am more anti-affirmative action than pro, but I guess that stems from the fact that I am quite lucky to have my high paying job with an American Multi-national. The HR department that employed me had been under strict instructions that they were to find the best female candidates, but after sifting everyone they ended up shortlisting 4 that were all guys. Forttunately for me, the company did not get in as early as some with their recruiting. The best girls in our class (and in classes acoss the country) were snapped up early, with the two that had better grades than me sorting through 15-20 firm offers - they were in much demand.