"The smile of the Balinese people is slowly being turned upside down by the rich."
A new drone reel of Bali’s Bingin Beach looking like Gaza or Beirut has driven Instagram users nuts, some reaching for some real nutty conclusions over who’s at fault, what it all means etc.
A little history.
In July, all those rickety lil cliffside warungs at Bingin, the world’s easiest tube which you can find just north of Uluwatu, were pulled down after an edict from the local administrative authority the Badung Regency government.
Local villagers, some of ‘em who’d been operating their joints since the eighties protested fiercely, claiming the actions disrupted livelihoods for 48 families and ignored cultural sites.
Critics argued it’s selective enforcement, while supporters saw it as reclaiming public land. The full operation will totally reshape Bingin’s bohemian vibe, shifting investments elsewhere like Sumba.
In the reel posted by noted drone pilot Sean Strecker, we see the extent of the demolition.
Counterintuitively, replies had an anti-Western, anti-imperialistic vibe.
It’s wild to see the destructive nature of western culture and the exploitation of the land. You want to make a change? Stop going to beautiful places just to take what was never yours in the first place.
If there’s no demand from you guys rich influencing tourists and expats, Bali will probably still Bali.
This place was a Mecca and had cultural significant to surfers all over the globe. The culture of surfing was intertwined with local Balinese culture. It’s been destroyed. It should have been preserved for my kids and their kids to come and see this place in all its glory.
The smile of the Balinese people is slowly being turned upside down by the rich. Balinese people are the most beautiful on earth and because of this trusting beautiful nature they are now being turned away from their homes and birthplace.
Bali should urgently stop the capitalist destruction of the island. It’s sick and won’t end well.
My favourite memory of Bingin is being seventeen years old and getting shaken down for cash in the carpark by local heavies. I sat in the little Suzuki, not comprehending the intensity of twenty screaming men surrounding the car, unaware that this was the same island that had, just a few decades earlier, wielded machetes against the local Chinese, mass-killing with gusto.
Some quotes from the 65-66 mass killings in Bali.
“They handed out knives to us youth, saying, ‘Cleanse the island or lose your soul.’ We herded 50 men to the beach at dawn—tied, beaten, throats slit. The sea turned red.”
“Grandma never spoke, but she’d wake screaming about the machetes at midnight.”
“They screamed for mercy, but the knives came down anyway. Blood ran like a river.”
“They came on carts pulled by cows… their hands were tied together with rope. They were forced to kneel, then shot in the back by soldiers and kicked into mass graves.”
One survivor of the massacres, Nyoman Ramin, said in 2010: mass graves dot “virtually every village in Bali,” and survivors like him faced lifelong stigma, barred from jobs or marriages.
There’s pain behind those smiles.
taiBuddha has been very very quiet
Whatcha thinking? got a finger in the pie?
everyone seems to ball gargle this guy to nth degree.
Chinese getting the machete treatment isn’t unique to Bali. Every time the economy in Indo goes to shit (which is about every 5 years), the Chinese businesses get fire bombed in Jakarta and Surabaya.
It’s almost like when a demographic that you can’t ever become part of has all the money and gets blamed for being miserly rich bastards. You’d be familiar with that Derek.
Yes, very familiar! Oy vey!
Same shit happened when Singapore got kicked out of proto Malaysia because the Malays didn’t want the Chinese to be running the show. Epic fail but not surprising.
Dreamland 2.0
Does anyone recall the indo bikies in Kuta in the late 80s that just disappeared? A bit heavy one day. Gone the next.
It’s just the Binginning…
Bingin the pain!
Fairly unbothered by this except for the usual ‘millionaire real estate developer with close ties to the regime’ getting away with it.
Once upon a time stayed at the cheapest cliffside warungs next to Padang Padang. Family owned, lovely people. During a severe bout of diarrhea, spent a good few hours in the toilet emptying my bowels, wondering where all that rotting half digested fried rice, fruit juice and e-coli was going to end up.
Circle of life
I’d say alby falzon holds a fair bit of the responsibility for Bali being fucked over
Yep and the rip curl black money.
No midnight adventure down the back of Poppies lane with a benchong DR after a few too many araks?
Didn’t need any araks!
This is nothing. How’d do ya reakon it’ll be when they start on the underground rail. Have a look at Auckland & it’s apparently 1st world
Bali will be HK by 2050. Surfers don’t bother to realise no one gives a fuck about what they think & what they want. Like surfers give 2 fucks about anything other than then their self serving wants in the moment.
Besides, last time I looked there was an infinity pool on the cliff up the road at Ulu that wasn’t there in the 90s
But that’s apparently cool.
Who said the infinity pool at Ulu’s is cool?
The bloke who owns it can surf, so that changes the perception/acceptance – does it not?
“can surf” doesn’t hold much weight these days in Bali.
Disagree.
Being able to surf well dictates you’re social > buisness networks
In a place like Bali, this is genuine currency of the highest kind.
It also distinguishes you between
Foreign corpo money & although objectively you’re exploiting to the same degree, it’s perceived as something completely different.
All da boys hanging at (off) the recent single fin comp. Beers in the pool. In 10 years they’ll be in a bigger pool looking over Bingin
Ahh surf well and can surf are two completely different currencies in Bali.
And then the Russian jews came to town …the end.
Ingrained human nature much like the wellness corruption of our once degenerate pastime is fucked.
Xox.
Love the umbrellas still on the beach, and thats about it.
I copied that into Grok and all it came up with was “burn after reading “
That was a good movie…peak Malkovic.
Ha dez i love it when you provide a nice dose of reality.
On another note i have been staying in bingin the past couple of weeks, and there is still cold bintangs on the beach, a few barrels to be had and pending what is developed next, the demolition will be a huge improvement.
Should do the same thing in Rio de Janeiro. Bulldoze the slums and pay off the national debt.
“Washington was the prime mover” of the operation and “shares guilt for every death.” Mark Aarons contends that (US ambassador) Marshall Green is “long seen as one of the principal officials involved in encouraging the slaughter.” Kai Thaler asserts that declassified documents show that “U.S. officials were accessories to this mass murder” and “helped create the conditions for the killings.” Bradley Simpson, Director of the Indonesia/East Timor Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, contends that “Washington did everything in its power to encourage and facilitate the Army-led massacre of alleged PKI members, and U.S. officials worried only that the killing of the party’s unarmed supporters might not go far enough…”
This rich bashing is disgraceful. It’s basic trickle down economics, be thankful so you can cut the grass and raise their children.