By Ketut Suardana For The Bali Times UBUD ~ The principles we need to adhere to in our daily lives are called Dharma. It is the realization of a moral code of life and contains within it the power to change the nature of things. Animals are governed by basic instincts to feed, procreate and [...]

JAKARTA ~ A group of Muslim activists have attacked the settlement of an Islamic sect in a village in Java, resulting in a clash that left four injured, police and reports said on Wednesday. The Ahmadiyah sect believes that Mohammed was not the final prophet, contradicting a central tenet of mainstream Islam. The group has [...]

JAKARTA ~ A grammatical error in Indonesia’s new 2008 tourism campaign – splashed across airplanes and television advertisements – is to be fixed, a Culture and Tourism Ministry official said on Wednesday. The new slogan of the “Visit Indonesia 2008″ campaign reads: “Celebrating 100 years of nation’s awakening.” “Nation’s,” in correct English, should read either [...]

MANILA ~ The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said this week it will lend US$200 million to Indonesia to support government efforts at stamping out corruption. The project is part of a series previously funded by the Philippines-based ADB as well as the World Bank and Japan, an ADB statement said. It would “support wide-ranging reforms [...]

JAKARTA ~ The government and the UN children’s agency signed off on a new agreement this week aimed at raising the living standards of children throughout the archipelago, UNICEF’s Indonesia representative said. The US$125-million agreement will encompass a range of projects to tackle mother and child health and education in 2008, Gianfranco Rotigliano said. A [...]

Janet De Neefe For the Bali Times Now that we are in the festive season and have entered that escalading countdown to Christmas (only four more sleeps), I figured it is time to talk about Balinese ceremonial food. Imagine Christmas lunch with your loved ones, sitting down to a grinning table spread with all the [...]

By Paulo Coelho For The Bali Times   A medieval legend tells us that in the country we know today as Austria, the Burkhard family – a man, a woman and a child – used to amuse people at Christmas parties by reciting poetry, singing ancient troubadour ballads and juggling. Of course, there was never [...]

By Mark Ulyseas For The Bali Times I wish my editor William Furney, the staff and readers of The Bali Times, my son Kabir Andrew, Kamal and Sarita Kaul, family, relatives and friends like Sioned Emrys, Nia Williams and Jill Gocher, a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.  I regret I couldn’t find [...]

The fascinating aspect of this hill station is its people. One of them is I Wayan Darsa, who is married to Ni Nyoman Putri and has three young children, Yanik, Dewi and Aima. Their dog Doo Doo is the self-appointed guardian of Wayan’s home. This is a Balinese’s New Year’s message to all who arrive [...]

By Annabel Thomas For The Bali Times SEMINYAK ~ This being the last edition of The Bali Times for the year, and the one that comes out at Christmas, I thought I’d stick with the theme. Both the Latin name (Spirobranchus giganteus) and common name (Christmas Tree Worms) of these tube-building worms refer to the [...]

By Amy Chavez For The Bali Times I don’t usually argue – except with Christmas lights. You’ve probably argued with Christmas lights before, too. Every year you open the box of lights from the year before with that glimmering hope that they’ll still work. After wrestling with tangled electric wires for 15 minutes, you plug [...]

The Denpasar government allocated more than Rp374.5 billion (US$40 million) for development work in 2007, an official said. Head of the Denpasar Development Control and Watch Team I Ketut Wisada said that 83.2 percent was spent on 359 non-physical development projects, while 16.8 percent went on 180 physical projects. He said that in 2008, the [...]