They’re Filthy Rich; And We Should be Filthy About It… THERE’S something obscene about vast wealth. It’s never earned – as in being a fair return for a fair day’s work – and it’s almost always offensive in terms of the excessive habits and lifestyles it makes possible for those upon whom the fates have [...]

DENPASAR ~ One of six alleged ringleaders in a Rp3 billion (US$300,000) Bali airport visa-on-arrival corruption scandal was named on Wednesday as Ulul Raja Azmi. The public prosecutor named him as one of a number of people publicly identified to mark Anti-Corruption Day. The airport scam, which came to light six months ago and which [...]

TABANAN ~ Bali’s 16th rabies fatality, a 46-year-old labourer from Klating in Kerambitan who had not been vaccinated after a dog bite three months ago and was taken to hospital only after he became seriously ill at home on Thursday last week, died roped to a bed in Tabanan hospital’s isolation ward early on Saturday. [...]

DENPASAR ~ Bali’s Consumer Protection Agency (LPK) has threatened monopoly state power provider PLN with a class action in the courts if it does not compensate consumers for losses caused by its extended programme of rolling blackouts now set to go on until January 15 and poor performance over new electricity connections. LPK chief Putu [...]

SANUR ~ Bali, now the icon of Indonesian tourism and a top global destination, would within 20 years end up on the scrapheap of world tourism if it did not act now to preserve its identity as a destination for religion, culture and nature, leading industry observers have warned. While Bali carries the heavy burden [...]

Captured: American portrait photographer Jared Collins is photographed here shooting images of a young Balinese girl in traditional attire, for a portraiture exhibition to open at the Tony Raka Gallery at Mas, Ubud, on December 26. Collins, an award-winning photographer, relocated from New York to Ubud in 2007.

… because it’s the most relaxing place I’ve ever been. ~ Jamie Swan, 24, London, UK. ~ BT/PCAR I Love Bali returns to The Bali Times by readers’ request

SURABAYA ~ Hundreds of Indonesian Islamists rallied on Tuesday, World AIDS day, to demand the imple-mentation of sharia law to prevent the spread of AIDS rather than condom use. About 700 members from the Muslim Women of Hizbut Tahrir group staged a rally in the city of Surabaya in East Java province, distributing pamphlets on [...]

WASHINGTON ~ The United States unveiled a five-year strategy this week for fighting AIDS worldwide, shifting the focus from emergency response to sustainable programs in countries worldwide. Marking World AIDS day on Tuesday, the administration of President Barack Obama outlined the next phase of the widely hailed President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which [...]

Longevity News and Review provides readers with the latest information in breakthroughs pertaining to the extension of the healthy human lifespan. These news summaries are compiled by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M; www.worldhealth.net), a non-profit medical society composed of 22,000 physician and scientist members from 105 nations, united in a mission to advance [...]

Indonesia: the largest archipelago, with 17,508 islands, and the second-highest level of biodiversity. Living on 6,000 islands are 237 million people belonging to 300 distinct ethnicities and speaking 742 languages and dialects. Consider these figures: Almost 30,000 different types of plants, more than 2,500 species of animals and birds and an astonishing number of over [...]

Call me stupid! Go ahead – because sticks and stones… But I can tell you I am learning. I am learning daily and that is better than stagnating at this time in my life and just assuming I know it all because I’ve attained this… umm, age. So The Doorman is my perfect case in [...]