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A Sincere Sympathy from Uncle Sam

A few days ago, I had a guest from the United States named Gregory G McElwain. He is Assistant to the Press Attaché of the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta. Wearing white batik shirt with floral motifs, this man looked so calm. He spoke slowly and steadily. After talking more about the press industry as well as advances in the information technology causing a lot of the media industries in the world to be marginalized or even go bankrupt, Greg, as he familiarly greeted, asked a lot of questions about Bali and its condition so far.

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“Tourism Promotion” on YouTube

ACTION of the blackmail committed by police officer to tourists from the Netherlands, Kees Van Der Spek and then uploaded to YouTube site drew various reactions from a number of parties. By all means, Police Department was full of anger and then immediately relieved the rogue individual police officer. Besides, Police Department was said to plan summon to Van Der Spek for questioning. On the other hand, ordinary people, some of whom having been interviewed by print and electronic media regarding the incident gave various opinions. In essence, they seemingly agreed to what had been done by Van Der Spek through his candid camera.

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Blueprint

This March may be regarded as a month full of Hindu ritual celebrations. They are starting from the celebration of Nyepi Day of Caka New Year 1935 to the upcoming Galungan and Kuningan future. To Balinese people, the successive holidays should be made a kind of torch, to flash on the path forward. By all means, it is in the context of how to build Bali as a whole.

Today, it is recognized or not, Bali bears abundant loads either related to environmental, cultural or social issues. It requires a clear and mature thinking. Probably, it has been mentioned for thousands of times that Bali has not had a blueprint for the development at least for thirty or even fifty years to come. The development is rolling out as it is, without careful planning. How about the blueprint of agriculture, tourism centers, housing and sacred zone? There is nothing about them. Even though a regional bylaw has been made, it does not guarantee and has no enough authority to absorb the turbulence in all sectors of development tending to be uncontrollable.

As a result, it’s like that. There are still inter-sectoral disparities increasingly getting wider. These matters have been voiced about twenty years ago. But anyway, there are no meaningful responses from the government to overcome them. Then, do not be mistaken if there will be a kind of excessive development among the counties. No need to wait, these facts have been coming to view at the moment.

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Traffic Congestion

Have you ever imagined that Bali, especially Badung and Denpasar, to be free from traffic congestion? You must have done it or it even frequently happened. When we are trapped in traffic congestion, complaints and curses are often expressed. Who is wrong? By all means, in this context, the government is accused of being incompetence in managing the transportation. It has never been able to formulate a safe, convenient and inexpensive transportation system for people.

All these indignations really make sense considering that Bali as an international tourist destination is in need of smooth and safe transportation condition. Even, if we want to be objective, without the predicate as tourist destination, it has become the responsibility of the government to realize such a dream. However, considering the current condition, we have to wait for long time to make it happen. On the other hand, the number of vehicles is getting more unstoppable. Traffic congestion is increasingly intolerable and expands everywhere.

Formerly, a friend working as a tour guide told me that amidst the traffic congestion he could still tell many stories about Bali from A to Z. Without being realized, the traffic had turned a finger and ran smoothly as usual. More luckily, if the congestion was caused by a ritual procession it would generate many stories like a live broadcast. However, it became a problem if the tour guide did not master the subject matter on Balinese culture properly. Virtually no single story could roll out. As a result, ambience in the vehicle was so silent and it was vulnerable to kindle boredom or complaint.

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Tourism Ambassador

There was something interesting when the MotoGP champion, Jorge Lorenzo, visited Bali recently. To media crews, the man from Spain said that he was ready to become a tourism ambassador for Indonesia, but it was unknown if it was said seriously or unintentionally. Expression of the friendly rider was actually a form of appreciation to what he saw and felt over several times visiting Indonesia, especially Bali. Lorenzo was not alone but several other celebrities also often praised the nature, culture and hospitality of the Indonesian people. However, there have not been people expressing so as explicit as Lorenzo has.

In terms of Bali tourism development, it is inseparable from the roles of tourism ambassadors, both formal and informal. Simply have a look, Kuta, Ubud, Sanur and others will not turn as famous as today if there are no tourism ambassadors. They are backpackers, artists, writers, academicians and so on. They render a service to disseminate the information that in the Eastern hemisphere follows a small and exotic island. Its people are friendly and welcoming as well as having high culture and cool climate.

We can note a few names such as Mr. Lange in Kuta and please do not forget the role of backpackers from Australia and other countries. They rendered a great service for Bali. Another was Le Mayeur in Sanur whose museum is now visited by many tourists. Besides, there were also Rudolf Bonet, Walter Spies, Arie Smith in Ubud and much more. They had respective advantages and competence to conduct socio-cultural acculturation and engendered collaboration being able to penetrate the boundaries of space and time.

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