Bali Has No Hard Feelings For Time Magazine

By  Edi Utama
Denpasar (Antara Bali) - Time's unexpected negative report on tourism has created  a big uproar in Bali, yet no one here seems to have hard feelings for the report.

"No big deal about the report. Time only doesn't know that garbage in Kuta beach is part of  Mother Nature's work,"  Anak Agung Gde Agung, Regent of Badung regency, Bali province, said an interview last Thursday (21/4) at  his office at Badung Regency's capital of Mangupura.

Badung regency occupies the largest swath of southern Bali land mass, where most of Bali's tourism potentials are located, including the Nusa Dua resort, Sanur, Kuta and Legian beaches, adjacent with the always hectic capital Denpasar.

Up to 150 big four- to five-star international hotels are located in this exotic part of the island paradise, with Ngurah Rai International Airport nestles strategically in the middle coastal rim overlooking Kuta and Legian beaches with their challenging waves and white sand.

Anak Agung added that during the west monsoon from November to early in January the waters around the sea across Kuta and Legian beaches would whirl bringing with it all sort of garbage, including those non-native of Bali including huge logs.

"In the peak of this period, we've a real hard time to clean up. Within a 24-hour period, the waves send tons of garbage on-shore, what a headache," said Anak Agung, added that residents of Kuta used to be very happy with getting free logs in the past when they cooked their meals using chopped logs.

Kuta beach provides the logs and all sorts of fire woods. In this time of convenience living, Anak Agung said, as no one at the Kuta region preparing their meals using fire wood as gas stoves have taken over the role of fire-woods.

Now, Badung regency has set up a special task force on keeping Kuta beach free from garbage that is operational 24-hour a day. In addition, some private companies, including Coca Cola bottling company, help with the job of keeping Kuta clean by hiring locals to clean up Kuta beach.

Anak Agung also admitted the yearly natural phenomenon causes problems when the waters at Kuta becomes a host for certain microorganism that turns the waters rather brown. However, the authorities would advise tourists from getting into the water for some time until the waters clear   from impacts of the phenomenon.

On the problems of traffic jams, as depicted in Time?s report on its April 7, 2011 edition, Anak Agung said Time must have also does not have a rather in-depth knowledge about Bali.

Bali roads and streets are typically narrow, crisscrossing between one another, making a smooth of the busy traffic a real impossibility.

"Bali simply can't enlarge or expand the roads and streets easily. There are hundreds of sacred religious site on either side of the roads or streets, this is a religious reality in Bali," said Anak Agung, adding that religious factors also make it impossible to construct elevated road.

Anak Agung made an emphasis when saying that Time might have written differently should it know that Badung regency, with the assistance of  the central government in Jakarta, is about to construct an expressway connecting Benoa, near Sanur, to Ngurah Rai Airport further to Nusa Dua.

The expressway would certainly lessen much of the traffic woes in those areas when it is ready by end of 2012 as the work will begin around mid 2011.

"This expressway will be constructed over the sea just off the coastal area there," the Badung Regent said.

Anak Agung also added that Time had overlooked in its report about the big project to make the Kuta-Legian-Seminyak a much better region by sanitation by April 2012 when the Denpasar Sewerage Development Project (DSPT) Phase-2 completed. The project began in October 2009.

The DSPT project, valued at 332 billion rupiahs with the assistance of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), will become an integrated conduit for household and other buildings? waste discharge when it is ready next year.

The hell and woes

Time magazine in its April 7, 2011 edition depicts Bali tourism negatively in an article titled 'Holidays in Hell: Bali's Ongoing Woes.' The report highlights some acute problems plaguing Bali, notably the garbage at Kuta beach, the traffic woes, infrastructure and crimes.

The report had apparently caused uproar not only in Bali but also in capital Jakarta.  The global posture of the American news weekly magazine was feared to bring about much impact on the arrivals of international visitors to Bali which last year numbered to 2.5 million.

"We're not angry (with Time). I think the report has even given us a sort of waking up call, making us see the reality more objectively," said I Putu Alit Yandinata, member of Badung Regency House of Representatives (DPRD Badung)  in an earlier interview.

Putu added long before the report by Time on the woes plaguing tourism facilities in the Badung Regency regions, the local parliament had hotly debated issues related to matters as reported by the magazine.

"We realized we've got a lot of problems. But we've also been trying to find the solutions to those problems." He added the problems being faced by Badung are also the province's and the central government?s so that those higher levels of governmental authorities would not just sit and let things unsolved in Badung.

Putu took as an example the quick decision by the central government to construct the Benoa-Ngurah Rai-Nusa Dua Expressway project.

Bali, especially the Kuta region, is also not a crime-free paradise as this area is a center for holiday makers to have a look, not only from overseas but domestic ones as well, said 42-year Made Adi, a traditional security staff (pecalang) at Kuta beach, employed by Badung Regency.

"I don't know about what the magazine says, as I don't know English except for thank you. But from this work I do, I can definitely say that people are still safe to move around even until late at night here," said Made.

"Kuta is as safe as ever, otherwise why would visitors keep coming in?," Made said, adding that only heaven is totally crime-free.(*)