Often with things like this, the solution lies within. I wonder what aspect of Balinese culture/ethos/etc. could be connected to, where one or two or ten Balinese would feel the motivation to take steps that could be a beacon for their compatriots to follow?

I imagine the Balinese don’t like much of what’s going on either, but feel a sense of inevitability due in large part to how they’ve been selectively “polluted” by Western culture. This has lead to the changing of their views (as you described), their general apathy towards their future (“let’s face it, tourists are still coming, so it can’t be all bad”), and the feeling of frustration in the minds of those who can see back to their old world, but aren’t able to look forward.

Creating local passion, desire, entrepreneurial pressure, etc. is hard without some native sharing of your ideas. Are there those in the local community that might exhibit such tendencies, that you can nurture, develop, make successful, and promote *within* the local community (i.e. not to visitors) who can be the beacon for people to be inspired by?

While I’m the first to agree that education is paramount, I think you have to start elsewhere, with exemplars that create “adult” value and where adults will see possibility, try and realize it, and then (with the help of your beacons), inspire their children to go to school to become beacons themselves.

The thing is, this requires patience – answers will take years, if not decades…

So great to see someone from outside who wishes more for those she now lives with.

Your comments are great, and so is your advice: “focus on one thing or task at a time whenever there’s a window of opportunity to help out.”

I also hope that Pastika will continue to be brave enough to make wise but unpopular decisions and follow through on them. I think he realises as I do that Bali now is not the paradise that it believes itself to be. It is not a natural paradise of peace filled with gentle spiritual people who work together cooperatively in harmony. It is a small, densely populated island, developing rapidly, and facing all of the most perplexing dilemmas and dissonance that has come with rapid development elsewhere. No better, no worse. And the local population does not seem to have any special qualities that have served to change the course of rapid development toward economic, social and environmental disaster.

I sometimes wonder if the “Bali” people are crying out to preserve was ever real in the first place. It certainly isn’t real now. The reality here is very different. Only after pulling the wool off of our eyes and facing reality as it is, can we preserve what there is of value in Bali that is worth preserving.

Development here is real. The buildings that are standing are real. The ones being built are real, and most will probably be completed. Many others that are planned will also be built. There are going to be more buildings and more hotels, and more villas, and more restaurants and more shopping centres and more nightclubs in Bali. There is no doubt about that.

The non-Balinese people who have migrated here from other islands are also real. They are not going to leave, and the numbers of migrants arriving will in all likelihood continue to grow.

The environment of Bali is degraded, and is degrading further every minute.

The roads are full of holes and clogged. The number of vehicles in Bali is growing and will most likely continue to grow.

The built-up tourism-driven areas of south Bali are filling in rapidly, and expanding outwards to the north, east and west. The density of infill is already very high, and the urban and suburban sprawl is already very widely sprawled. This isn’t going to “un-happen”. And as a trend it is likely to continue.

Development in far-flung parts of the island has already happened, and is increasing. Candidasa, Seraya, Pemuteran, Sideman, Payangan, Munduk, Soka, etc, etc, etc. That is real.

Problems of public health are also real. Whether you have lab tests to pinpoint the pathogens or not, outbreaks of diarrhea, fever and vomiting are occurring. Rabies cases are occurring. Avian flu in birds is occurring. TB, hepatitis, HIV, typhoid and dengue cases are occurring.

Energy consumption in Bali is continuing to rise. Fossil fuel and fossil-fuel generated electricity are needed here in large quantities, and the demand will certainly continue to increase.

The level and type of education provided to the people has not created competence and skills that match the demands of the island’s industries and enterprises and governments.

All of these situations I describe are neither “good” nor “bad,” they are simply reality as it is in Bali at this moment. Without taking a very good look at reality as it is, we can’t possibly make things better.

Bali’s being bitten hard by the “Paradise Paradox”.

There is no paradise on earth, but I am optimistic also, that Bali can still fashion of itself a pleasant and relatively peaceful society on an attractive and interesting island, with habitable heavily-populated urban areas that work reasonably well.

Let’s get going on it, then, focusing on one thing at a time (tough to do that).

I agree completely that Bali (and Jakarta) should bring foreign community members into the circle of discussions about shared problems and possible solutions. The habit of not doing this smacks of insecurity+pride=arrogance perpetuating ignorance and incompetence.

We know that formula, it’s a familiar one, and never gets anyone anywhere.

Case in point. Two days ago, the landlord of my office/gallery space (affable Balinese gent in his 50s), showed me that work had begun on transforming the rice fields across the road from my office into a parking lot. The rice fields belong to the adjacent temple, and are its traditional “laba pura” land, set aside as a renewable resource for temple prosperity. Many communities in Bali flatly refuse to develop their “laba pura” land, as it has a function which they recognise as not only material but also symbolic and sacred.

My landlord proudly stated that he was among the circle of people who conferred to make decisions about this land. I immediately felt saddened that myself and other foreigners who are part of the local community in very real ways, were not consulted or drawn into the discussions about this land.

It looks to me like the land is to be bulldozed-over with limestone and opened as paid parking. There are already two large limestone-covered wasteland parking lots in our immediate neighbourhood. Both are oddly cordoned off by the local community, forcing people to park on the streets, increasing congestion. So, do we need another white stone wasteland in the neighbourhood really?

I asked my landlord-friend about plans for the parking lot. Is it going to be green, with rows of trees and plantings among the cars? Are there going to be trash cans provided, with trash collection on a regular basis (of course it will be a garbage magnet . . . drivers, taxis, transport touts . . . )? Would the street frontage part of the land be landscaped or provide an attractive townscape via some other means? Had the necessity for drainage been considered? Had the effect on drainage of adjacent properties been calculated? Had an engineer or urban planner been consulted about the optimal layout and size of parking spaces, with proper turning space to allow cars to park and unpark with ease?

The response I got from him indicated none of this had been considered. I looks like we are simply losing a rare patch of green in this almost-totally urbanised neighbourhood, and gaining a white stone wasteland of dust and heat and garbage.

If the little consortium of locals who are responsible for decisions about their temple land had invited a few of the foreigners who live and work in their community to join in the discussions, I am sure that very valuable contributions would have been made, and perhaps without any added costs, a better parking lot could have been created. Or perhaps a park. The long-term economic and human value of this little district could have benefitted.

I feel very sad about this little story.

If we as persons try to deal with all the problems facing Bali today the task will be overwhelming. I try to focus on one thing or task at a time whenever there’s a window of opportunity to help out.

I’ve thought it would be a VERY good idea for the people taking the big decisions in Bali (or Jakarta) to, dare i say it, ‘consult with foreigners’ and take a look at countries or places that have already set an example worthy to be followed. The blueprints for a viable future is out there but i’m not sure what it’ll take for people to take notice of it. I guess it all starts with someone actually looking for them?

With articles like yours i think you put a much needed spotlight on the problems and issues going on in Bali.

thanks again for that ‘slap in the face article’. I mean that in a good way. suksma. / Tompa

Ps. I don’t know about comparing Bali to Jakarta but um.. well.. Let me put it this way. I’m still optimistic about Bali but Jakarta.. phew.. now that is a task beyond my comprehension. I believe i saw a show on CNN just the other week about the future ‘mega-cities’ of Asia and Jakarta fell into the category of ‘mega-cities gone wrong’. Ouch!

I also received private messages from Graeme MacRae and Kadek Krishna with really pithy points.

Trying to take the big view, I note that opinions are divided regarding development and the best strategy to take. And the differences seem to be based on whether the person speaking is optimistic or more “realistic” about the situation and likely outcomes of it.

Let me explain.

Those who are optimistic advocate Bali leading the way in enlightened social evolution, saying “no” to more cars, saying “no” to oil addiction, saying “no” to further building and tourism development, except for sustainable, zero-impact development. This vision sees a future Bali which could be a model society, or approximate one.

The more pessimistic (or “realistic” as those of this persuasion put it), seem to base their stance on the belief (or prediction) that Bali cannot say “no” to the “no-nos” above, nor can it alter it’s course significantly enough to slow development and population growth enough so that damaging impacts can be addressed and resolved in an enlightened way. The pessimists see a certain inevitability to increases (or at least stable levels of) driving, shopping, consuming, building and energy consumption (at least in the short to medium term). This stance requires that with that inevitability, it would be detrimental to forego the creation of a viable road network with capacity to handle existing traffic levels, and it would be detrimental to keep the current four-story cap on building heights, and also detrimental to forego increases in energy supply and generation to meet current demand levels. And so on.

It’s a very, very tricky quandary.

If you think that Bali as it is now, with the various forces and interests at play here can “reboot” quickly and manifest a more enlightened vision for its future than one of shopping malls and freeways and flyovers and car culture and tall buildings, then you are on the optimists’ side of the coin and would oppose road building, geothermal power plants, hotel developments and cruise ship ports and bigger airports. That certainly does not constitute a Luddite stance, but it is one that is as regressive as it is progressive.

If you think Bali cannot possibly “reboot” and change course quickly, because of the present arc and speed of it’s trajectile (developments under way, continuing and unstoppable inmigration from other islands, already vastly overcrowded roads, need for energy and investment just to sustain what is already manifest without collapse), then you would be on the pessimists’ side of the coin, or perhaps it would be fair to call it the realists’ side. To take this stance does not imply that you are a go-go pro-development greed-monger, but it does mean that rabid profiteers would stand to benefit from the direction you advocate, at least in the short to medium term.

Complex, indeed.

A lot hinges on what you believe is possible.

To go the optimists’ way would involve discipline, restraint, and regulations. Discipline has not been a strong suit here. Neither has restraint. And where regulations have been imposed on economic players in Indonesia, they have been met by and over-run by more rampant corruption. That’s one of the risks of the optimists’ path, at least in the short run.

What a quandary.

My heart is with the optimists. My head is with the pessimists (or realists if you will).

What is possible? What is not possible?

Even if we agree on our core values and what we would like to see in the future, we may not agree on what route will get us there most effectively, and that disagreement is not about values, but about predictions, or wagers, regarding the likelihood of certain behaviours among a large population of people with divergent interests and limited ability to effectively analyse complex situations.

Nevertheless, I don’t see the local culture here as a hindrance to education at all. I think the problems are rooted in poor funding, low salaries for teachers, low status of teaching as a profession, erosion of funding and quality of facilities through corruption, and especially the legacy of generations that are accustomed to low standards of education. It’s kind of chronic. That takes a long time to repair.

I felt really upset the first time I was told that Suharto(military) regime provide bad education system on purpose to keep their power secure. So it is really the nation’s problems, Indonesian’s big cities have better access to it but not necessarily means good quality one. That at least giving me more hope if we reboot the system we can produce different generation with developed thinking ability.

In the case of Balinese, from my interaction with them and seeing how strongly the old tradition belief affect their idea of the world and how things work, unfortunately i haven’t met so many educated balinese, do u think their tradition/culture somehow affect their openness to new idea/knowledge that they received through education that might be contradictory to their belief?What do you think is the concept of education in Balinese culture, and how the modern education system can be fitted in?

Thanks for the thoughtful writings, it made me think even more. Being part of it, hard for me to see it as clearly as you and put it in perspective.