It is tragic that inhumane treatment of Bali’s mentally ill continues to this day. The medieval practice of chaining up those suffering from chronic psychiatric conditions persists in villages right around the island, a shameful reflection of standards of care and treatment under the Health Department. With a report this week by the local Suryani [...]

One of the attractions of natural-energy generation is the cleanliness of operation; there is none of the belching smoke associated with coal-fired plants, for instance. As with wind and wave generation, the power of nature is relatively simply harnessed to turn turbines and produce electricity, of which this island is starved, relying on neighbouring Java [...]

At a time when public confidence in and respect for the nation’s police, prosecutors and judges remains at rock bottom due to perceived high levels of corruption and failings to clamp down on elite elements engaged in wrongdoings, it is pitiful that these institutions continue to waste both their time and state money on frivolous [...]

In many respects, Bali is ahead of Indonesia as an overall country that is still in developmental stage, still struggling to provide infrastructure and services to its people on a par with those enjoyed – and frequently taken for granted – in Western nations. That is largely because of this island’s success in international tourism [...]

Nearly a decade ago it seemed as though this small island had been destroyed.  With the loss of 202 lives in the bombings of 2002, and of a further 26 in a subsequent terrorist atrocity three years later, it looked as though Bali would be shunned and rendered solely to its ancient agrarian ways as [...]

If our capital city can’t solve – or at least attempt to devise a workable solution – to the economy-damaging gridlock that is an unfortunate feature of city workers’ lives, what hope is there for Bali? It is obvious that we are a victim of our success, but we are only in this mess because [...]

Suggestions that high-rise buildings in Bali’s tightly packed southern regions will solve the island’s increase in overcrowding are badly misguided. Turning the once-rural island into a concrete jigsaw is not the answer. Stopping the rapid proliferation of tourist accommodation is. We have backed Governor I Made Mangku Pastika’s moratorium on the construction of new hotel [...]

Designed to empower Indonesia’s diverse regions after the three-decade centralist reign of president Suharto, regional autonomy in many respects has not worked. It is not surprising, therefore, that there are growing calls for the decade-old project to be scrapped, the most recent coming this week from the Democratic Party in Bali. The main problem with [...]

Members of the dreary Association of Southeast Asian Nations need to do something worthwhile in their week-long series of meetings here next week to convince their respective populations that they are capable of anything other than vapidity. Their docile leaders, who traditionally eschew criticising the excesses of fellow member nations, including human rights abuses, due [...]

Every visitor to our shores is all too aware of the harassment by local vendors that they encounter – Balinese and other Indonesians brashly and forcibly peddling everything from trinkets to “transport.” It is a frustrating experience that mars their time spent here and clouds their view of Bali as an island of tranquillity. And [...]

The latest threat to human health in Bali, the resurgence of deadly bird flu, has claimed three lives in the past week, those of a Bangli mother and her two children. It comes as Bali continues to deal with an ongoing outbreak of rabies that has killed at least 130 people in the past two [...]

As we marked the ninth year this week since the terrorist atrocities visited on this island, it is reassuring that since the subsequent strike three years later peace has returned to Bali, bolstered by stringent security, and the once-shattered economy has thrived. While the threat of terrorism has faded, we remain ever vigilant. But as [...]