In Reply to: From the ground I guess...and hard work! posted by Mr_Ken on Wednesday, 19. October 2005 at 16:38 Bali Time:
Once upon a time they shared an island and survived quite well for a couple of thousand years or so. Many people still live that way, to the extent that land ownership allows.
And today everyone seems to think that we saved them in the nick of time by going to Bali and turning half the population into our servants.
Bali exports food, takes in more than a billion dollars a year from tourism alone, and there ARE other industries in Bali. Yet there are people living at the rubbish tip and children suffering from malnutrition.
The narrow minded view is that if we didn't go, there would be no jobs and no-one could afford to buy food. The broad view is that if had never gone, they'd have a lot more to eat. The real situation is somewhere in the middle, and if you really want to help the people who need it the most then you have to think about where you spend your money.
Countries like Indonesia are billions of dollars in debt because the IMF and World Bank "loan" them money, which mostly gets split between foreign companies paid to create infrastructure and corrupt dictators like Suharto. Now, on average, each Indonesian is in debt to the tune of about a year's salary.
The problem is perpetuated when all that lovely money tourists spend winds up in the hands of foreign-owned companies, which means they can reinvest it by taking over more of the traditional farming land in places like Bali, making the common people even more reliant on the (mostly foreign) companies for employment. Or they can just invest what they make in Bali elsewhere.
From the sounds of your JBR, I'd be surprised if even one dollar stayed in Bali for every ten dollars you spent. How many pairs of shoes did you buy from Indonesian-owned companies?
If you'd spent that money on stuff that was Bali owned and manufactured, then you could really feel as though you are feeding people in Bali, rather than paying off a Mercedes for the CEO of Bata.