Save the world [AUGUST 2nd 2007]

J ust before I left for Bali, I attended a presentation that BuGils sponsored. Organised by Equinox Publishing, I learned about Al Gore’s scary facts on global warming. Indonesia had the fastest pace of deforestation in the world between 2000-2005, with an area of forest equivalent to 300 soccer pitches destroyed every hour. With this fact, Indonesia finally made it into the Guinness Book of World records. At one point in the presentation, the presenter showed a map of Holland and what would happen to it, if the water would rise by just one meter or so. First Friesland, up in the north of Holland, would completely dissappear. I was shocked! Our fights for freedom, our Frisian cows: everything under water within 50 years! One big blue dot continued to spread over the big screen, absorbing the rest of The Netherlands in just 5 seconds. I expected a loud applause or even a cheer from the Indonesian crowd, while the water creeped in over the lowlands, the homebase of their old colonial master. But, no.... I only heard a soft ‘kasian....’ from an elderly woman in the seat in front of me. What a great meaning Indonesians give to forgiveness, I thought...

After seeing this presentation I felt guilty in a way and realised I had to do something. IF my newsletter can in any way help to protect the environment, I should do so. I came up with a simple but possible effective plan.

Thinking about this plan at the pool side of the pleasant Hotel Harris in Bali, two young Australian blokes jumped loudly into the pool, clearly out to impress two local girls that were sitting kneeled and fully dressed up against a wall in the shadow. They covered their faces, trying to protect themselves from the gushing water. One of the two Australians apologised after noticing me drying off my laptop with a towel. ‘Sorry mate...’, he said. Not sure if he meant it or not, but I waved it off. The other started cleaning his throat, loud, dirty and long. After a short silence and a deep breath, he spitted a long green phlegm a few meters behind me. Now the other one started a well. They obviously had had a big one. The two girls, still in their clubbing outfit from the night before, looked with wide open eye balls at the two giant bules and pulled their leggs further up, trying to hide deeper into the shadow of the wall. ‘These girls want money for the taxi, but we told them to go home on a bus. Much cheaper. But they don’t want to...’, the biggest of the two explained me in a gutteral voice. He shrugged his shoulders with an innocent expression on his face. I hadn’t said a word yet. ‘Are you staying here alone?’ the other one wanted to know. They had seen me already for a few days, but only on the laptop and never with somebody. Before I could answer, they suddenly coughed and both cleaned their throats again. ‘Mate, maybe we should not ask too many questions...’ his friend replied before I could tell them that I was actually waiting for 70, mostly young and wild, Jakarta girls. They probably would have thought that I was talking nonsense anyway. They both climbed out of the water, to waterbomb the two girls again. One girl stood up and pointed to her forehead. She pulled the other one up by the arm and they headed angrily for the exit.

Bali is back in business for sure. The traffic in the Kuta and Legian areas is worse than ever before. There is lot of building going on and the price of nasi goreng is back to 25.000 rp in many places. In the meanwhile the mess on the roadside starts to grow again.  

My plan is to create an awareness program in which all the TV stations join. By showing every evening simultously at all TV channels 30 seconds clips on why and how the people can help to save the environment, we can reach the masses. I know I have a lot of readers who are in the advertising and film making industry, and I would love to discuss ideas with them. Creating awareness and responsibility. Throw your plastic bottles out of the car from your left window, but the empty cola cans through your right windows. Make it easy for the recyclers. Most difficult will it be to get the TV stations to participate in this. If there is anybody out there who thinks he can help me with this, please contact me. WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING.

It was 3 o’clock in the morning when I heard shouting, screaming and a few loud bangs, probably of chairs falling over. It was from the room above me. I recognised the voice of one of the Aussie boys. ‘YOU GO HOME! ME NO WANT! NO HAVE!’, he shouted. There was obvious a dispute, but this time the woman involved was not planning to leave before she would get some kind of compensation for whatever she had done, if anything at all. ‘I CALL MY BROTHERS’ FRIENDS!’, the girl shouted loudly. ‘I CALL THE POLICE!’ the guy shouted back. A last loud bounce of a door, the aggressive clicks of high heels down the concrete stairs and the quietness of the Bali night returned.

The next morning the guys were sitting at the pool side, pale faced, smoking a cigarette. They looked even more wasted the night before as I continued with my master plan to save Indonesia. One of the awareness clips needs to be about planting trees, I thought. 200 million people should plant a tree on a certain day. 200 million people should collect one bag of garbage a certain day, in one effort, all together. 200 million people should turn off 2 electric things in their house at the same time. Next to me the Aussie boys started cleaning their throats, again. Both at the same time. One jumped in the pool. Water overflooded the pool, into the pathway. All Australians should stay on their surfboard in the sea and throat scraping is only allowed 50 meters away from the coast. This, I told the guy still sitting on a bench. He looked at me with red eyes. ‘What do you mean?’, he asked. “I am working on the environment”, I proudly told him. He blankly stared at me for a few seconds. ‘Good luck mate..’, and turned around in a state of confusion and indifference.
-- Bartele