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View all search resultsBali deserves more respect
While unscrupulous business practices certainly help tourism-adjacent illegal enterprises thrive in Bali, official government policies both at the local and national levels have made life worse for the Balinese.
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Tourists walk on May 15 near a lake during a visit to the Ulun Danu Beratan Tourist Attraction (DTW) in Tabanan, Bali. (Antara/Nyoman Hendra Wibowo)
It used to be that Bali attracted the finest among foreigners.
Walter Spies, Colin McPhee and Miguel Covarrubias were but a small contingent of foreign nationals who found their way to Bali, captivated by the island’s pristine nature and exotic culture, and chose to settle down.
These trailblazers in turn made Bali home, contributed to the flowering of the island’s art and culture and became the emissaries who attracted the Western world’s attention to Bali.
Even for those whose stay was not permanent in Bali, such as figures like cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz or Margaret Mead, research has shown that Balinese society has created a paradigm shift in the study of premodern society.
Those days are long gone.
Today, the only news that comes out of Bali seems to be about foreigners behaving badly, from nude travel influencers climbing a sacred tree to OnlyFans porn stars producing raunchy videos.
Some of these foreigners’ misadventures got the endings of a mafia film, with foreign nationals gunned down in gruesome cases of mysterious killings.
