Once more, rice fields disappearing in Ubud

[Melati]

From time to time I go to walk to places I used to walk a few years back and come back home shock, sad and with tears in my eyes.
At the end of Jalan Sandat used to be a lot rice fields, so nice because they were very close to central Ubud and easy to go and walk, we used to play kites with the kids and were full of capung.
Now is full of houses for renting, guess houses and villas or hotels, there is not one arra of rice fields or any sign there was rice fields not long ago, event they make a cement path for motorbikes so you can go from jalan sandat to jalan sri wedari, before it was just go trough the rice fields, which I loved it, and I remember I fallen down a few times on the rice fields.
I will never get use to see this and I wonder if all these guess houses has tamu, maybe now in july and august but the rest of the year?

 

[DenpasarHouse]

While I understand and sympathise with the sentiment, we have to be careful to not let our own aesthetic preferences stand in the way of other people bettering their economic situations. That's how a developing country becomes a developed one.

 

[Melati]

develop countries are full of unhappy people who try to escape from their seems materialistic, individual, superficial and consumist world and come to Bali looking for some spiritually, yoga, relax and happy to see happy people who were not traditionally caught up by that and this is the reason why they are happier than us, the ball is turning around....
I know is a difficult topic, my post was just a need to express and not really to create a topic, sorry, we have been already talking about this so much and so hard to get a point.

 

[DenpasarHouse]

develop countries are full of unhappy people who try to escape from their seems materialistic, individual, superficial and consumist world and come to Bali looking for some spiritually, yoga, relax and happy to see happy people who were not traditionally caught up by that and this is the reason why they are happier than us, the ball is turning around....
I know is a difficult topic, my post was just a need to express and not really to create a topic, sorry, we have been already talking about this so much and so hard to get a point.

It is a difficult topic, but it's a very interesting one.

IMHO, the idea that the Balinese are happier than westerners is a bit of myth. I can't remember where I read it now, but suicide is not an insignificant problem here, and getting accurate numbers can be difficult because of a taboos.

In fact, most of the Balinese I know (from kota to desa) have significant problems, some of which cannot be solved because of the pressure to conform to mainstream Balinese society.

All in all, I think that it's very difficult to achieve prosperity and freedom without a significant number of people feeling existential dread. I think it's telling that not many foreigners actually take up Indonesian citizenship and adopt ALL the customs of the people they consider to be living "happily" and "authentically".

 

[mugwump]

A very difficult topic.
I was once someone that provided money to buy land close by the rice fields in Mas-Ubud, and the people who owned that land were very happy to sell. Were they consumerist, materialists? Perhaps they were, for the son of the seller was very anxious to have the money available to him to buy a vehicle as he was a sopir and wanted to earn a living from transporting tourists in Ubud each day.
This is a difficult topic very often because the people that sell the land that has been changed from sawah to guesthouse are also responsible for this change.
It is not possible to have things enjoyed both ways, and the Balinese are as responsible as the people that bought the land.
Please do not be discouraged by expressing yourself here. It is important among the expat community that we hear your voice, and understand your frustration with the downside of the success of tourism.

 

[davita]

The topic of 'best use of land' is forever debated but I recall a historical situation where the argument for development can be verified. The Dutch traded Run Island in the Banda Sea for Manhattan Island in New York.

 

[Mark]

This is obviously an emotional subject and as noted above the loss of rice fields is due to both a willing buyer and a willing seller. Perhaps the government needs to step in and designate as greenbelt more of the sawa so that it cannot be developed. The so-called economic gains of the Balinese land sellers are usually short-lived, with most of the money being frittered away on consumer items like big screen tv's, smart phones, rapidly depreciating vehicles, a fancy new motorbike for the son, etc etc. I understand that Bali is losing around 1000 hectares of sawa per year to development. At this rate, Bali will eventually be importing rice from abroad like the rest of Indonesia, which would be a significant cultural loss, as well as worsening a food insecurity issue. I would hardly call this economic progress.

 

[JohnnyCool]

DenpasarHouse

IMHO, the idea that the Balinese are happier than westerners is a bit of myth.

Some are but many are not. The ones who are tend to be relatively “rich” with land, businesses, money and social status (higher caste).
On the other hand, many extremely poor Balinese are also “happy”, up to a point. Because they don’t have many choices.

Moderately “poor” Balinese struggle to make ends meet on a daily basis. They might have a job in a swanky bar/restaurant/hotel and get paid between Rp 1 -2 juta/month (excluding tips). Some get more but it’s never quite enough. It’s not easy for them.

The fundamental conundrum for Bali, in my view, is over-developing a tiny island with limited resources. Bali is over-populated for its size, its ecology is at breaking point, and yet “officials” want to make it worse by making it “better” economically as far as they’re concerned.

If Bali was a matchbox with 50 matches in it and 30-40 have been used already, how long will it take before they’re all used up?

My first visit here was in 1973. Bali was completely different then compared with what’s evolved over the decades. Back then, for example, places like Kuta, Sanur, Ubud were sleepy, laid-back places.

I think the only “hotel” in Ubud then was Hotel Campuan (Walter Spies’ place). The main road was unpaved, just like Monkey Forest Road (which was a dirt track through rice paddies). Sure, there were several home stays, but that was about it. There was hardly anything much in Kuta apart from a great unpolluted beach, a few places to stay, and some warungs. The road from Kuta-Denpasar was still in the process of being paved (lots of women busting big rocks to make smaller rocks = gravel). Legian, Seminyak, Canggu weren’t invented yet (they were very small villages).

And so it all goes on to this day. Now it’s unbridled “Progress”.
I hope that some sanity prevails asap, or it’ll be bye-bye Bali.

 

[davita]

This debate about maintaining culture and land use has been going on for centuries...and not only in Bali.
IMO... there are two schools of thought....
1. Those that believe in the status quo...and
2. Those that believe in sustainable development.
Of course there are many peripheral arguments but it all boils done to...do we want the environment to stay the same or, do we want to deal with reality, move forward, and deal with environmental changes.
If we didn't procreate faster than our death rate we would have a sustained population. This has not been the case for centuries until recently where some countries, like Japan, have a dwindling population growth rate and others, mainly in the West, are heading the same way.
The increasing demand for everything, generally, will therefore continually outstrip supply unless we...
1. Get smarter and create product like housing, transport and crops which grow faster than before or,
2. Absolutely reduce our global population growth rate.
It seems to me that the Balinese, as in many other countries, have ignored both possibilities and are NEITHER going to maintain their cultural heritage NOR have a sustained developed society.

In Canada, First Nations demanded their land back. Their argument has always been the land holds their ancestor's remains, history and culture and, 'living off the land' in terms of hunting and fishing, is their right. Given that scenario, Canadians logically agreed and treaty obligations were honored and the Tribes got the land.
In my small town in B.C. the First Nations land, 2 years after the Tribal Band ensured title, sports one of the largest shopping malls in South Vancouver...
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Construction+begins+Tsawwassen+malls/9428089/story.

I suggest the First Nations knew more about sustaining development for their peoples welfare than we, the invaders, gave them credit.
If only the Balinese would understand this...imo...they can have it all!

 

[harryopal]

The juggernaut is the opportunity for making money. There is still a lot more money to be squeezed out of Bali and the mythology of the paradise island. Perhaps the ultimate outcome is a kind of Disneyland Bali where all the loveliness and beauty of the natural place are distilled into a cosmetic artificial entertainment so that the flocks of jumbo jets will continue to disgorge hordes of people for many decades to come.

Nearly fifty years ago I had the opportunity to spend time with one of the then last remaining semi nomadic rainforest dwelling, Punan tribes who hunted with blowpipes and poison darts in the deep interior of Sarawak. The group had a "head man" whose function seemed more that of a chairperson when they met to discuss problems rather than that of an autocratic chief. They were fundamentally a very democratic and delightful people. At first glance it did seem like the garden of Eden that Europeans have romanticized about for centuries. The reality was that life expectancy was mid forties with the ravages of malaria and hookworm and most of the other Punan groups were either being forced off their land to yield enormous wealth for the logging companies or they were being drawn away from traditonal life towards the razzle dazzle of "civilization" and what turned out to be fringe dwelling, poverty and to be the loweliest paid of workers and servants.

Many of the older generations of Australian Aboriginal communities still living in traditional homelands hate tourism and being viewed, as one woman said, "... like gorillas in a zoo." But living off the land in the traditional way is no longer viable. And here s the rub. It is tourism that has kept alive the skills of making traditional weapons such as woomeras, boomerangs, spears and coolamons for sale to tourists, not to mention huge amounts of money for art. And tourism offers the most likely means of taking people off welfare and providing employment. Meantime, outback communities are wasted by drugs, alcohol and violence. Most of the young people aspire to be rock stars or, at least with the males, Australian rules footballers.

As Davita has already observed in this thread, wordlwide we seem incapable of dealing with population explosion and the stripping of earth's resources.

But perhaps all is not yet lost. With people like Susi Pudjiastuti and those in Jakarta pushing to reclaim its footpaths for pedestrians as is being presently attempted, perhaps an emerging recognition by Indonesians of what is being so rapidly lost with "development" can save at least parts of Bali before it is too late.

P.S. That illustration from Johhny Cool pretty well sums up present day Bali.