Bye-bye, Bali, Bye-bye

Hey folks, planning your next vacation? Were you thinking of visiting the "Islands of the

Gods?" Well, I'm sorry to break it to you, but the ancient gods of Bali have fallen to the new

gods; Circle K, Hard Rock Cafe, you name it, the gods of brand-name-ism are taking over these

tiny islands. How can the dark temples of ancient Buddhist and Hindu gods compete with the

brightly lit signs of hyper-consumerism, American style? For me, the difference is stark, in

only the past year, the old-growth culture of Bali has been chopped down, and is rapidly being

replaced with the icons of "Global Trade", Starbucks, Mac Donald's, KFC to name a few. You can

see it in the facade of the brand new "Discovery Mall", a Las Vegas style knock-off of the

Parthenon in Greece, filled with opportunites for tourists to spend, spend, spend, while

orphans line the steps, begging for change. Already, the home-grown resorts of the last decade

are lying in ruins, waiting to be overtaken by the concrete jungle.

How can I say such things, you might ask, having only been to Bali twice, about a year ago, and

about a week ago? Having seen these same effects in Guam, the Phillipines, Western Samoa,

Rarotonga, et al isn't what inspired me to write this. It is the time I spent with some

friends I made on the beach one night. Dani, Jepri, and Hari told me what is happening to

their home. They name it "ABRASION." Hari sits on the beach all night because his home used

to be where the Circle K now provides a gathering spot for the locals to meet and fleece the

tourists, while everyone gets fleeced by the cash register inside. And on that beautiful,

clear night, I watched the stars dim, as the "ABRASION" of flourescent marketting overwhelms

them. "When did Bali change?" I asked. "About 5 years ago," says Jepri. "Do you like it

better now, or before?" I needed to know. "Maybe, I think, it was better before" he says, but

he can only stay away from the ABRASION, he can't stop it.

Last week, a moderate earthquake struck Java, and thousands of people died. It wasn't so much

the size of the quake as the poorly constructed low-rise housing that has replaced the thatched

hut of the peasant class. This is what "ABRASION" is all about, and it pervades the third

world, which lives off the crumbs of "ABRASION", since the corporate class has all but taken

away what they used to live off of. The river that passes through town, where children used to

play and catch fish, has become a slimy green-brown muck where newborns are
thrown away, and the only thing anyone will catch is disease. The simple huts of the last

generation have been upgraded to brick death traps, with satelite dishes. The Mall has risen

atop yesterdaze social detritus, and the sanitation department wasn't sent with the disposable

packaging and plastic shopping bags. Even the once noble profession of fleecing tourists has

been taken over by these outlets for mega-tourism, where you can be overcharged for watered

down booze, while you admire the pictures and memorabilia of your own re-packaged cultural

heroes. From Janis Joplin to Jerry Garcia, Bob Dylan to the Beatles, they've become the

industrial fleecers of today's tourist. Jepri gets the crumbs.

But, what struck me most is the loss of perhaps the most iconic symbol of these small island

cultures, the wooden phallus. When I visited Indonesia last year, the things were in every

souvenir shop, on key chains, bottle openers, and the like. Now those former, well-hung gods

are all but impotent, tucked away in the closet, as "westernization" brings sexual repression,

like modern day missionaries out to "tame the natives" and make them wear clothes, while the

taxis cruise for oily men shopping for "illegal" sex and drugs. "Hey Mister, you wan' nice

young lady?" Even as the last unexplored places in the world are being helicoptered into, and

all the new species are discovered, and cataloged, and bent to the use of industrial

pharmacology, so too are the last native cultures of the world being cleaned up and turned into

another marketting icon for industrial tourism. Thus was born the new symbol of Bali, the

brightly colored pastel painted surfboard souvenir, available in ashtray form, bottle opener,

key chain, and even shaped into napkin holders. Painted palm trees swaying in the sunset, and

signed "Bali." Take heart, however, since I've only seen Kuta Beach, I hear that other parts

of Bali yet don't suffer from "ABRASION"

Peace - :)

this third world country has been westernized, but many people make a living off the tourists now and suffer immensely when things like bombs go off.

I'm sorry you didn't get to experience any other parts of Bali; I assure you Kuta is the den of iniquity compared to other lovely, simple, spiritual, beautiful places you'd find there.