Unemployment, poverty, and health are the three main problem requiring full attention of the newly inaugurated governor and vice governor of Bali. Additionally they are also expected to keep and restate the fading integrity of Balinese religious culture and tradition. The minister of of internal affair H. Mardiyanto briefed the recent governorship election winner when he inaugurated Drs. Made Mangku Pastika, M.M. and Drs. A.A. Puspayoga as the new governor and vice governor of Bali yesterday (Thursday August 28th). Continue reading »

Indonesian ministry of culture and tourism engaged into a cooperation on promoting Visit Indonesia Year 2008 to attract more foreign tourist to Indonesia, especially in achieving ambitious target of 7 millions arrivals to the end of the year. The cooperation was inaugurated by signing of memorandum of understanding between the Director General of Marketing of the ministry Sapta Nirwandar and Vice President Marketing of the airliner Huang Chen Eng. The event held at the ministry office was also attended by the minister Jero Wacik, and Indonesian ambassador in Singapore Ashor Mirpuri. Continue reading »

For consuming 800 liters of subsidized fuel, I Made Djaman Setiadi (64 years old) was brought to trial at Denpasar court of law on Monday, August 25th. The general attorney I Ketut Sujaya appealed to board of judges chaired by Judge Nyoman Gede Wirya charged Djaman, the President Director of Taman Wana Villas for violating the 55th article of Indonesian legislation no. 22/2001 on fuel and gas. Continue reading »

In the middle of soaring inflation and global economic turmoil due to increasing food and oil prices, Bali economy recoded positive trend. Economic growth during the second quarter of 2008 was by far higher than the previous quarter. Obviously economic growth was mainly driven by prime sectors of trade, hotels, restaurants, and services. Growth in trade, hotels, and restaurants was resulted by improving performance of tourism industry presented by following indicators: increasing tourist arrivals, increasing hotel occupancy rate, and increasing income generated from Visa on Arrival fee. Continue reading »

Better management of public facilities including road, sewerage disposal, sidewalk, and security in Kuta area need urgent attention to be implemented in expedited manner, considering its presence as Bali’s tourism icon. Tourism business practitioner and community leader of Legian, I Nyoman Rutha Ady S.H. called for integrated effort to regain the image of Bali’s most popular beach resort town both to domestic and international holiday makers. Continue reading »

Venezuelan Miss Universe 2008, Dayana Mendoza, inaugurated the new holiday service of Garuda Indonesia Holiday in Jakarta on Friday (August 21st). Dayana also granted the privilege to be the first visitor of GIH website ww.garudaholidays.com and chose Bali as her preferred holiday destination. “Wow it’s Bali”, she expressed her enthusiasm when she clicked selected destination options from available list in the website. Continue reading »

Three Turkish citizens was arrested and put into custody of East Denpasar police office for alleged criminal conduct. Gokhan Bozkurt (21 years old), Celale Tein Akdas (23 years old), and Farhan Armed (28 years old) have proven to conduct their criminal action at a cellphone counter on Jalan WR Supratman, Denpasar. Temporary stayed at Saraswati Bungalows on Jalan Danau Tamblingan, Sanur, they hypnotized waitress of Oke Shop, Dewi Sri Astuti, and stole cash amounting to 400 thousands Rupiah. The incident taking place at 4PM on Sunday, August 17th, was reported by the shop owner to the police. Continue reading »

Bali can be considered identical to tourism. Unfortunately, not all Balinese can make their living out of tourism. Tourism is only available to those living in Kuta, Nusa Dua, and probably a few small villages of Gianyar. Those living in rural villages of Karangasem, Buleleng, Tabanan, and Jembrana are reachable by the spread of tourism fortune. Bali is in economical paradox. Tourism as the leading sector has led a transition from secondary product based on agriculture into tertiary product based on services. Continue reading »

Degrading environment and decreasing of physical size of Bali potentially lead to severe disaster for the next generation. The next generation will possibly have to fight each other to get a space for living due to current weakness of commitment to maintain sustainability of the island. Crisis of commitment among governmental officials of different regencies in Bali has has jeopardize efforts to maintain Bali environment by their bureaucratic arrogance. Continue reading »

Aerial shot taken over Bali show that the island is getting smaller because of abrasion. Additionally the picture also show significant shift in space usage. Land allocation was severely abused. There was no clear differentiation between areas for environmental conservation to reserve water and areas where residential and industrial development were allowed. Weak commitment in enforcing land allocation has allowed physical constructions took place everywhere. Continue reading »