Bali inspires love, and a little bit of haggling

In Italy, she ate. In India, she prayed. In Indonesia, she loved. The film version of "Eat, Pray, Love" based on the internationally best-selling memoir written by Elizabeth Gilbert recently wrapped filming in Bali, with locals expressing mixed emotions.

Those who have read the book may have noticed that Gilbert didn’t actually visit much of Indonesia beyond Bali. Most of her time seems to have been spent in and around Ubud. Among some local expats in Ubud, she has become the woman they love to hate, perhaps because they didn’t like the book or perhaps because of the attention that it has drawn to this idyllic community.

Gilbert’ book is a memoir that candidly details her strugglefor personal fulfillment after a failed marriage. In Bali, she found love anew with a Brazilian expat, who is now her second husband.
The international film crew encountered both warm welcomes and protest from locals during the first week of three weeks of filming. Most would say that the protests were blown out of proportion.

Film crew arrived earlier than anticipated in Bentuyung village, near Ubud, to the surprise of some locals, who expected them to arrive on a later date. A handful of villagers protested during the first days of filming, claiming that they were not being properly compensated by for use of their village as a setting. Local village leaders mediated the conflict. The production company paid the village association, or ‘banjar’ in Bali, a few thousand dollars for their trouble, rather than the tens of thousands that some were demanding.

Not all locals were taken by surprise. Made Purnata, a local artgallery owner, said that people had been informed through informal lines of communication, and the protests were the result of miscommunication.

The evening before film crews descended upon the area, clogging roads and redirecting traffic, Made’s gallery Manacika displayed a sign warmly welcoming Julia Roberts and the rest of the film’s cast and crew.

“Welcome Julia “Pretty Woman” Robert (sic). We (heart) you full.”

“We have a philosophy that is friendship, caring, love and peace, whatever your skin, whatever your country,” said Made. “Bali is a place for love and peace for everyone, not just Julia Roberts. She is a symbol.”

Some local residents said that they were pleased because the filming of “Eat, Pray, Love” will bring positive attention to Bali, where the economy is largely dependent on tourism.
Others worried that it would increase traffic congestion, a daily conundrum for most Balinese. Three million people and counting live on the densely populated island. So many people makes for a lot of love, and a fair bit of road rage.

Animal Vaccination and Human Education Needed to Fight Rabies

Rabies is infecting not just a resort but the entire island of Bali. Seven out of nine districts have reported cases of rabies-positive dogs.

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/ap/20091115/tap-as-indonesia-rabies-in-paradise-64ed358.html

One Balinese man says:

"As we all know that rabies is a new imported disease to the Balinese, just like terrorism, bakso sellers, scavengers, buskers, beggars. They are providing us, the native Balinese 'more bad' than 'good'. Yeah, I think we have to except and swallow those germs...

I think the local government have done their best to eliminate the street dogs and to pay a lot of attention and actions to that issue. My suggestion is, continue to eliminate unowned dogs, owners have to register their dogs, dog family planning to reduce the 'production' of Bali dogs, minimize importing dogs to Bali. Socializing one family only allowed to have one dog through the 'banjar' community, unless special case, permitted by government. Balinese always use grey/blangbungkem color dogs for sacrificial rituals, so we have to save some of those color dogs. And 'stop' eating dog meat for the Balinese at least!!!"

There seems to be a reasonable concensus around the idea that the much of the solution to this problem, like so many, is education.

Refreshed mandate for Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1934874,00.html

A peek inside Islamic education...

Islamic boarding schools have gotten more attention from the media since 2001. Perhaps, in part, because they’ve gotten more attention from wealthy proponents of Jihad as well. Like so many stories in the media, that of Islamic boarding schools has drawn on extreme examples and played on people’s fears. Like so much in life, the reality is a bit more varied and nuanced.
In March 2009, I visited my first Islamic boarding school. In Indonesia, Islamic boarding schools are called pesantren. It was an all-girls boarding school in central Java, a densely populated island in the middle of the country, where 97 percent of the population is Muslim.
I stayed with my friend Erin, who was an English teacher at the pesantren. She and I were both Fulbright fellows that school year, two among about 35, who were teaching English at schools across Indonesia from Medan in North Sumatra to Tembagapura in Irian Jaya. I stayed at the school with Erin—who slept, ate and passed most of her free time, as well as taught, at the school—for about three nights. Students ranged in age from kindergarten through high school.
My overwhelming impression of the school was one of self-discipline and cheeriness, as well as the conservative culture you might expect. All of the girls I met were very respectful and friendly. The girls prayed together, ate together, washed together, studied together. It seemed they rarely slept for more than four hours at night.
When meeting an older person, as a respectful greeting, many of the younger students would gently draw the back of my right hand to rest momentarily on their cheek, rather than shaking hands in a western manner. Some of the older girls were shy, but most of them warmed up quickly and wanted to take photos with the new outsider in their midst. Everyone seemed pleased to have an American friend visit the pesantren.
I attended several classes and was impressed by the English ability of many of the students. In general, students seemed more engaged and self-disciplined than at the Catholic high school where I was assigned to teach for the year. I had tried from the beginning of the school year to guide students at my school through the process of creating and publishing a regular student publication. Several showed genuine interest but were always investing energy in other pursuits and never managed to get the first issue, much less a regular publication, completed during that school year. The pesantren students had initiated and pubished their own glossy, bi-lingual magazine.
In one English class, students were invited to ask me questions. Some were the standard fare, such as “What is your impression of our school?” Others took me by surprise, such as “What is your greatest purpose in life?” I wondered if these 14 and 15-year-olds had already given more thought to their life’s greatest purpose than I had given mine.
At the time of my visit, students were preparing for an English competition in which their entry had to answer the question, “How do my traditions matter in a changing world?” Several students submitted thought-provoking responses, but the winner was quite impressive. Hers was a poem about women wearing the veil—wearing it proudly, growing up strong and realizing all of their own best potential as educated as well as pious individuals and members of their community.
I was not very comfortable in the veil I wore around the school’s campus, especially during the heat of the tropical mid-day; but I could hardly argue with her interpretation of herself as a veiled woman.
It’s hard to say to what degree my experience at this school was representative of pesantrens in Indonesia. I think there must be others rather like it, just as there are undoubtedly others that are more conservative, oppressive and inciteful ofhatred and even violence. During this brief visit I felt a bit relieved and encouraged about our prospects for mutually respect and understanding, as well as very privileged to be allowed the look inside their walls.