Bali Bashers
By William J. Furney
In the gutter-corner of the internet, that deludable global dais that gives voice to the voice-less but more usually the over-heard screechers is sometimes heard hollers of discontent over our fair isle. Some don’t like the way it’s run; others abhor various state organs such as the police; and a lot moan about either overbearing and foreign residents or money-grabbing locals.
In these respects, Bali is no different to anywhere else in the world; however, some elements of our society are amplified because of innate flaws.
But it seems that for some, their experience with Bali has left them like a lover scorned: they long to revive their days on this teeming tropical island but are no longer able to make the connection. And as in a failed human relationship, it leaves them bitter.
So it is with a number of vitriolic websites that have sprung up; blog is more the word. In the firing line: any expatriate of any kind of standing. The ire is on fire.
If it’s screeching diatribe you’re after, a good bet is the seemingly eponymously named Bali Bollocks site, where hate-filled messages are posted by an anonymous author. It’s described this way: “Wake up and smell the Java; Bali is part of vile Indonesia which every decent person should boycott to do the Balinese and the world a favour. Do not believe the BS; Bali is no island paradise.”
With such high wrath, there are more questions to be asked of the site owner than the people and places he or she attempts to deride. Others rant elsewhere, or set up Facebook groups – but more usually in a concerned vein, such as one newly established calling for the closure of the stab-house Bounty nightclub in Legian.
Overall, though, the condescending dim is drowned out by an overwhelming love for Bali: its people and its environment. No place on the planet is prefect, not even our own glistening isle. But here you will find the basics of human kindness that are missing elsewhere, in the rush to greed.
A colleague, newly arrived from Europe, was driving home at night from Ubud recently when she got lost. Unfamiliar with Bali’s roads, her attempts to find the way home only led to further confusion. Then a Balinese approached her, hopped in her car and drove her home, to Kerobokan – about an hour away in heavy traffic. An offer of cash for helping out in this extraordinary fashion was vehemently turned down.
When earlier this week my motorbike failed to start in Sanur, straight away I was surrounded by concerned locals who inspected the machine and quickly got it going – and shuffled off without accepting a word of thanks.
There is an unending cycle of similar Good Samaritan Balinese tales.
This sort of unswerving assistance reverberates right though the island, and at all levels. The colleague, who has travelled widely, said she had never come across anything like it, and was overwhelmed.
Outside of this personable caring, however, we would be naive to think that we’re living in some kind of utopia – however closely Bali may seem to resemble that mythical place. There are serious issues, with the law and justice, bureaucracy, regulations, transactions and many more. But these problems are removed from day-to-day Balinese living; they are organised, and at official level. In many cases they are directed by elements outside our island. People who get stung by them lash out and brand Bali as a cesspool, which is wholly unjust and a vastly erroneous generalisation.
Take foreigners’ encounters with Indonesians, for example. If one outlander has a negative experience – say, they were ripped off in a land deal, in a nominee transaction – they’ll say to their pals back home: “Indonesians are a pack of thieves.” Just like foreigners who only ever encounter service staff or taxi drivers, who do not generally have elevated standards of education, and then blast Indonesians as “thick.” With an open mind, that slur is reflected only on the speaker.
The point of all this is: Many non-Bali natives living on this island spend a great deal of time whining and moaning about their circumstances, blaming everything from the stifling heat to the corner cop for their unease at being here. The truth is: They don’t know how good they have it.
william@thebalitimes.com
