"In Bali, everything is about “fun”. People has all the access for that easily. If Alcohol is not satisfying enough, you can combine it with weed, or move to drugs, or just run into sex, or all of them. “Get wasted” they say. Sooner or later you would be dragged to see things they way those people do ” see man or woman as simply a potential sex buddy” instead of trying to see who they really are.
In another part of the island, some people come to find “answers”. They practice meditation, they do yoga, they eat expensive healthy food, they go to ashram to find some Gurus to tell them what they actually already have inside.
After 6 years, i still find it so difficult to find something that is real in Bali. Left alone to find real people. The local seems to keep losing their true identity, and the comer finds it as heaven to just exploit and destroy the nature of the island."
Those are excerpts I borrowed from a friend's blog, the talented Sita Teofani. She has lived in Bali for a few year and now tell the tale about her love/hate relationship with this cosmopolitan island. Her words mirrors my sentiment on what Bali has become. Sex. Drugs. Alcohol. Endless parties. Exploitation. Traffic. Over-population. The island, if She could talk, will surely grumble on the weight She has to carry.
I'm afraid for Bali. I'm afraid for this tiny island that everybody wants to own and pillage. I'm afraid what will we become in the next decade.
Will we persist? Will we be strong enough to absorb and re-create the best of current condition? Will we have a strong, wise and smart leader who think more than just his governing period and what he could benefit from it? Will we, as Balinese, able to unite and intelligently have our voices heard? Will we be able to criticize what needs to be criticized, focus on what's important and able to see beyond our limitation?
Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2011 picked a wise quotation from a wise Balinese priest, Ida Pedanda Made Sidemen: "...idep beline mangkin makinkin mayasa lacur, tong ngelah karang sawah, karang awake tandurin..."
"...my intention now, pursuing the life of simplicity, (since) I don't have any ricefield, I (shall) cultivate the land within myself"
It is time, isn't it my fellow Balinese?
