This disturbs me. I know Bali quite well. These Jumping to conclusions may be justified....but I have yet to see the evidence. And I know Bashir to be a doubtful character.....but both responses speak of a quickness to seize the moment. We have friends of friends who have died here....... We have friends with little shops in Legian Road.........Devastated lives.....I am not sure...The hotspots of Bali, like those of Phuket have little to do with the rest of the island. And Bali has little to do with much of Indonesia....which is, after all, yet another invented country. A little go at the US owned mines of Irian Jaya might be a better idea........ There are seething ethnic and business rivalries...easily exploitable...... Of course it is an easy target.. and yes nightclubs in Jakarta have been attacked. It is a pity, if they wish to attack licentiousness, they do not see fit to attack the appalling brothel villages of Surabaya and Jakarta, where women., a number of whom one presumes are Muslim., are held, by Muslims, in unthinkably degraded situations.
Ubud must be one of the most civilised places on earth....
.There are wonderful books about Bali.. though none of them very recent....Michael Covurrabias, Hickman Powell-this the OUP pb with the Walter Spies cover
Colin McPhee, Gorer, Bateson and Mead, Geertz, Helen Yates, Isabel Anderson, Vicki Baum, Nancy Carter. CARTIER..BRESSON Les Danses a Bali and Walter Spies............
