Taken from ‘Bungklang Bungkling’, ‘Alu-Alun’, featured in Bali Post, Sunday, 10th May 2009,
a column by I Wayan Juniartha
Translated by Putu Semiada
Generally, the bigger the town, the less we can find recreational park. All you can see is just ‘concrete buildings’ everywhere; whether it is a mall, supermarket, café, shops, etc. At the end you will be sick of it and get bored.
When you see a piece of land in the town or city, you blink it will be turned into parking area. If it’s a private land, the owner would lease it to somebody else, and soon you will see a ‘Javanese warung ‘ build on it.
If it is a public areas (belong to the government), things can be worse. We have seen how the mangrove forest has been turned to megamall. Forests have been turned to villas. Many properties previously belong to the authorities or the villages, now owned by the bulés. The same thing happens to mountains, hills, lakes where resorts and hotels have also mushroomed.
“Why do we need recreational park, anyway? You know, most people prefer to stay home. They prefer watching cinetrons, instead of going out. They won’t go out unless they hear the sound of kulkul,” says I Made Medem Dogen.
Even the children now don’t seem really need a playground. They have been made studying too many lessons that sometimes their bags are very heavy for them to carry as too many books inside. They also have been given extra lessons after school that they are too tired when they get home. After that they play playstation or computer games. No time for socialize with their friends.
“Of course, you don’t really need a place for recreation when you have playstation at your house and your house is big enough. However, when your house is not really big, with many people living there, and gets flood sometimes when it rains, like the houses in Perumnas, or your house is where the power goes on and off many times, having a recreational park is very important, where you can get fresh air and take a little walk,” I Wayan Lacur Nektek argues.
The government thinks that all of their people have televisions, playstations, so they don’t really see recreational park is important.
In Denpasar, we only have Puputan Badung recreational park. As it is the only one, it becomes crowded as everyone from different background are there; children playing kites, balloon vendors, homosexuals waiting for their customers, and even yoga groups are doing meditation there and pray for a better world. Being too crowded, then it’s not a good place for relaxing.
“I think, the best thing we can do is to turn the golf courses into recreational parks, so that we can have places for relaxing,” I Wayan further says.
“I don’t see any reason why we should we have many golf courses. They are water and fertilizer-consume. And it’s a bit ‘risky’. I mean, love affairs happen here. You tell your wife you want to play golf, but the fact is that you are having an affair with a caddy-girl.”*
Glossary:
a column by I Wayan Juniartha
Translated by Putu Semiada
PARK
Generally, the bigger the town, the less we can find recreational park. All you can see is just ‘concrete buildings’ everywhere; whether it is a mall, supermarket, café, shops, etc. At the end you will be sick of it and get bored.
When you see a piece of land in the town or city, you blink it will be turned into parking area. If it’s a private land, the owner would lease it to somebody else, and soon you will see a ‘Javanese warung ‘ build on it.
If it is a public areas (belong to the government), things can be worse. We have seen how the mangrove forest has been turned to megamall. Forests have been turned to villas. Many properties previously belong to the authorities or the villages, now owned by the bulés. The same thing happens to mountains, hills, lakes where resorts and hotels have also mushroomed.
“Why do we need recreational park, anyway? You know, most people prefer to stay home. They prefer watching cinetrons, instead of going out. They won’t go out unless they hear the sound of kulkul,” says I Made Medem Dogen.
Even the children now don’t seem really need a playground. They have been made studying too many lessons that sometimes their bags are very heavy for them to carry as too many books inside. They also have been given extra lessons after school that they are too tired when they get home. After that they play playstation or computer games. No time for socialize with their friends.
“Of course, you don’t really need a place for recreation when you have playstation at your house and your house is big enough. However, when your house is not really big, with many people living there, and gets flood sometimes when it rains, like the houses in Perumnas, or your house is where the power goes on and off many times, having a recreational park is very important, where you can get fresh air and take a little walk,” I Wayan Lacur Nektek argues.
The government thinks that all of their people have televisions, playstations, so they don’t really see recreational park is important.
In Denpasar, we only have Puputan Badung recreational park. As it is the only one, it becomes crowded as everyone from different background are there; children playing kites, balloon vendors, homosexuals waiting for their customers, and even yoga groups are doing meditation there and pray for a better world. Being too crowded, then it’s not a good place for relaxing.
“I think, the best thing we can do is to turn the golf courses into recreational parks, so that we can have places for relaxing,” I Wayan further says.
“I don’t see any reason why we should we have many golf courses. They are water and fertilizer-consume. And it’s a bit ‘risky’. I mean, love affairs happen here. You tell your wife you want to play golf, but the fact is that you are having an affair with a caddy-girl.”*
Glossary:
- Kulkul: Hollow tree trunk drum used to summon villagers and housed in a kulkul tower.
- Perumnas: Real estate complex where each house is built on a piece of small land
