Backyard (Teba)
The older the earth, the more natural disasters happen.
“Global warming has caused many problems. The obvious one is extreme climate change. As we can see recently, it keeps raining heavily all the time in spite of dry season. It seems it never stop raining,” says I Made Aktivis Pesan Klengis (I Made An Amateur Activist).
Everyone nods. They listen to I Made very seriously. They’ve never heard about the global warming.
“I haven’t heard about global warming. But the climate seems unpredictable. Any crops you plant on the field will not do any good,” replies I Wayan Belog Megandong (I Wayan Stupid Idiot).
Everyone laughs. They all understand that I Wayan never talks seriously. He is less sociable so he doesn’t know how to talk properly.
The earth is getting hotter and hotter. The ice at Pole keeps melting, which makes sea water level higher and higher. In the long run, our small island Bali might sink.
Everyone looks surprised. They think that they still can make jokes of other problems; such as heavy pouring, your laundry which takes time to dry due to rainy or cloudy weather, rheumatism they suffer which get stronger during the rainy season, etc., but Bali sinks? This is a serious problem. In fact, they all can not swim.
“I think we should ban the ice vendors, no matter what of kind of ice they sell. After that, we go to North Pole and try to stop the ice from melting,” I Wayan comments further.
They have no comments. They have no idea where North Pole is, let alone South Pole. How come they know about them while they’ve never been to Kintamani?
“You know, global warming is mainly due to pollution from fuelled vehicles and machines. The carbon dioxide blocks the heat from the sun and prevents it go through to the earth. That’s why we feel like being ‘steamed’.”
I Wayan has no comment. He is confused as he keeps thinking how the earth will look like being kept ‘steamed’. Will it become something like a cake?
“Only plants can absorb the carbon dioxide. That’s why it’s important for us to preserve the forests. And you also have to preserve your own house backyard (teba).”
They can’t believe what they hear as this is the first time someone asks them to preserve their backyards. They are usually asked to preserve their religion, culture, traditions, cock-fighting, fund-raise (bazar), black magic (leak) and kites.
“Are you serious? Isn’t that our back yard just for doing things that others shouldn’t know, such as defecating, throwing rubbish, having sex or practising leak?” asks I Wayan.
‘Well, I’ve leased my backyard to westerners (bule). The trees are gone. Now what you can see are bungalows and villas,” says I Wayan further
Everyone laugh. Now they understand that back yard has important functions.
I think I can not join the movement in decreasing global warming. I think I have a more urgent problem; I’m broke,” says I Wayan.
When you are broke, you will have headache and you won’t really care if global warming has affected the earth; you won’t care if the island will sink either as your life is already hard. So ‘Global’ Warming seems less important than ‘Global Crisis’.
