"As posted on the FACEBOOK - "SAVE THE BUKIT" dialogue page."
@ Amir: Re "don't be negative and cynical", and re: "education".@ Pak Amir: RE: not being "negative and cynical" and "education"
You know, Pak Amir, life is an education. And I have learned that:
1. If an island can't, after three attempts, build itself a
ring-road/by-pass without urban sprawl encroaching on the green belt
then it probably never will. Negative and cynical about the present
state of traffic management in South Bali is therefore a healthy
state of mind. To go out everyday with a sunny disposition and say
"WOW, what a great new billboard by SEA SANTOSO eating up half the sky
on Sunset Road!!!" would be delusional. To pretend that a few
educated Indonesians can make a difference speaking gently at the
Governor's pow-wow is a long shot. But let’s remember also: "Hope dies
last".
(A famous and very educated Jakartan once said, out of
exasperation with the emerging Ibu PKK/Ordre Baru taste: "When the
last Dutch-educated Jakartan dies, the city will return to the
Barbarians". He was speaking metaphorically. And he is a very proud
nationalist.)
2. If a culture can't preserve its architectural heritage, as we are
seeing in Bali today --- with exquisite Majapahit red-brick gates and
temples going down , daily, like flies-- to be replaced with gaudy
black monsters and truly hideous giant black and white marble signs
appearing outside every temple-- then one is perhaps right to be a bit
depressed and cynical. Especially someone who has spent 35 years
documenting the beauty and appealing for its conservation.
3. If I had decided, in 1973, to make my life in Bali purely because
it had such great scenic attractions and heavenly townscapes then I
would have moved out years ago.....but I chose Bali because I fell in
love with the people and the culture which amazingly, despite all this
visual pollution and environmental degradation, remain pretty much
unchanged. And I think, syukur, that most of us 'educated arrivistas'
feel the same way. I think it folly to believe that any amount of
pressure can change the developers who are cold-blooded and
hard-hearted and un-sympathetic (to the environment and the culture,
lets face it) ---look at Sakenan, Tanah Lot.
Negative and Cynical have been good to my people (design consultants)
when dealing with unscrupulous developers and clients (which accounts
for about 95%, ask any architect...don't just take my word for
it)......I'm sure not going to give up.
