PATA 2007 will see HotelsAvenue launch

Avenues is set to launch its HotelsAvenue tool at PATA 2007 in Bali, an online industry tool that it touts as the ‘world’s best’ travel affiliate solution.

Avenues, South-Asia’s largest integrated eCommerce Company, claims that this new software tool is suitable for many in the industry, from hoteliers to travel agents, and even wholesalers.

The two main software solutions in the Avenues Travel Industry Services consist of HotelsAvenue and ResAvenue, with one geared at portals and the other a fully hosted booking engine.

HotelsAvenue.com boasts that it consists of the ‘world’s biggest commission’, ‘the world’s greatest rates’, and ‘the world’s biggest inventory feed’. It eventually hopes to have live feeds of over a hundred thousand hotels on their own websites.

ResAvenue is the plug-and-play booking engine which can be integrated straight into a hotel’s current branded websites. The solution allows hoteliers to accept bookings and payments in real time, with 15 available language filters, as well as multiple currencies.

ResAvenue.com, launched in 2005 and currently incorporating 600 users, addresses the hotelier’s need to build their hotel brand through direct online sales through a ‘Single Window’ interface. The utility allows for branded websites to distribute their room inventory globally, in a partnership with Pegasus.

The Avenues Travel Industry Services Stall will be situated at GO 20 at the Bali Convention Centre, Bali, Indonesia. PATA this year will be held between the 25th of September and the 28th.

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Bird Flu Lands on Bali

The island of Bali has always been a separate part of Indonesia. A Hindu province inside the biggest Muslim country in the world, a jet-setting resort inside a poor, rural nation — and a zone free of human cases of avian influenza in the nation that has recorded the most bird flu infections in the world. But Bali is bird flu free no longer. Today the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the death of a young Balinese woman from H5N1 avian flu, the second case on the island in less than a month. Although Indonesian and WHO officials were quick to note that there was nothing clinically unusual about the Bali deaths — both victims apparently contracted the virus from infected poultry — the presence of human bird flu cases on a small island that hosts well over a million foreign tourists a year only adds to fears that H5N1 could eventually trigger a deadly flu pandemic that could spread around the world.

It's also a reminder that Indonesia — a vast nation of 18,000 islands and 235 million people — is quietly losing its battle against bird flu. Three years after the disease was first detected among the nation's poultry, the virus has spread to virtually every province in Indonesia. So far, 26 Indonesians have died of the disease this year alone. The deaths have become so common that they now rarely catch the world's attention — but the Bali cases are different, especially for the Indonesian government. Tourist arrivals to Bali's beaches are just now recovering from a pair of deadly terror bombings in 2002 and 2005, and the perceived risk of bird flu — though the chances of contracting the disease remain minuscule — could stymie that revival.

The Indonesian government was worried enough about the Bali cases to do something it hasn't done in months: share H5N1 virus samples with the WHO. Under new international health regulations that went into effect in June, all countries are supposed to share virus samples of dangerous diseases like bird flu with the WHO, to help international scientists track contagion — and in the case of the flu, formulate possible vaccines. Since the end of last year, however, Indonesia has refused to share samples, claiming that international drug companies were using Indonesian H5N1 strains to produce vaccines, which they would then sell at prices developing countries couldn't afford. Though Jakarta sent samples from one of the new cases to a WHO-affiliated lab at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta — a move some experts say was done to send the signal that nothing was being hidden on Bali — the larger dispute has yet to be settled. "I think there's progress on this, but we'd suggest a greater urgency," says John Rainford, a WHO spokesperson in Geneva.

Such foot-dragging is dangerous for Indonesia and the rest of the world. As the WHO outlined in its annual World Health Report, released Thursday, the globe has grown so interconnected that open international cooperation is the only way to respond to infectious disease threats like avian flu. Diseases don't respect boundaries — from Bali, bird flu could hop a direct international flight to almost any country in Asia, and then the world. Avian flu has fallen out of the headlines, but that doesn't mean the disease has been eliminated, or the threat of a pandemic has disappeared. "We as humans do very well in responding to a crisis or disaster," says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. "But fatigue starts in quickly, and on this issue, we've hit the fatigue factor." Bird flu in paradise might be a needed wake-up call.

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Bali flights stretched

THE number of Australians holidaying in Bali is gradually improving.But a lack of flights is hampering a full recovery.

Hoteliers and tourists say a lack of seat availability on flights, particularly between Bali and the east coast of Australia, is hurting them.

It appears that Qantas is gradually bowing out of the holiday destination and allowing its budget arm Jetstar to take over routes.

Qantas flies twice a week to Bali from Perth and Darwin, but it is understood the airline plans to drop its Darwin flights from October.

However it has added a flight to the Perth-Denpasar route between August 5 and October 21.

A spokeswoman said there were no plans at this stage to expand services from any other cities.

"Qantas will continue to monitor the route and make changes as demand increases,'' she said.
Jetstar, which launched services to Bali in early December last year, has already announced it will double its direct services between Sydney and Bali to four times weekly from October 28. This is in addition to twice weekly flights from Melbourne to Bali.

It says this is in response to the bounce back in Australian "traveller demand and the ongoing recovery of the island's tourism industry''.

It will mean six Jetstar flights a week between the Australian east coast and Bali. It doesn't yet fly from Perth.

Jetstar Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce says the carrier's additional Bali flights were a direct response to the island's existing performance as one of Jetstar's strongest international markets.
Garuda Indonesia cut its Adelaide services to Bali last November followed by Brisbane in January this year.

A spokeswoman says the cut was part of a global rationalisation of routes which "required the deployment of available aircraft according to route profitability''.

"There is no doubt that the Australian market to Bali is returning with a vengeance and we will continue to monitor this and, subject to available aircraft, would certainly not discount a return to either of these routes in the future,'' she says.

The airline is operating 20 flights a week direct to Bali from Australia (five ex Sydney, three ex Melbourne, two ex Darwin and 10 ex Perth) in addition to four direct flights a week from Perth to Jakarta, with connections to Bali.

Customers have also noted a rise in the number of delays and postponements with flights.

"As for the delays and postponements, occasionally flights must be delayed due to operational or technical reasons,'' she says. ``This happens with all airlines and is nothing out of the ordinary.

The safety of our passengers will always be our highest priority.''

The Indonesian national carrier reported a profit of around $A19 million in the half year to June, which includes the low season and is usually its weaker half.

It says consolidation measures recently undertaken have improved revenue, passenger volumes, load factor and yield.

Garuda Indonesia's Regional Manager, Southwest Pacific Suranto Yitnopawiro says Garuda Indonesia's traffic from Australia to Bali has more than doubled that of the first half of 2006, reflecting an increasingly strong surge in the overall numbers of Australians visiting Bali for holidays.

Bali is now Australia's fourth most popular holiday destination, behind New Zealand, Thailand and the US. Its share of the total Australian holiday market has grown by 44.5 per cent over the most recent half year, he says.

Garuda says the 85,860 Australians visiting Bali during the first half of this year was around 30,000 more than for the same time last year. WA remains Bali's biggest Australian market, followed by NSW and Victoria.

Meanwhile, collapsed Bali airline Air Paradise is often reported to be looking at a comeback, depending on finance, while Singapore-based low-budget carrier Tiger Airways has also hinted at possible flights between Bali and Australia.

The Little Bali Hotel and Resort Company co-founder Brett Morgan says although Australian numbers have improved they are still a long way from where they should be.

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the 12th Anniversary of Ubud's Museum Rudana

Modern Indonesian Masters
8 Senior Indonesian Artists Celebrate the 12th Anniversary of Ubud's Museum Rudana in a Joint Exhibition.


(8/10/2007) The role of a Museum of Art is to inform and educate! This is a common enough objective and one that could be expected of any museum. But Nyoman Rudana, the owner of the eponymous Museum Rudana, has purposely given this objective a supplementary function: his museum aims to be at the service of the image of the nation. And indeed, all the main exhibitions at the museum, have had, as their subject, Indonesian modern art – the sole purpose of which has been to establish the place it occupies, in the larger framework of international art – and, by so doing, to promote its international recognition. This attention, given to modernity in art in the national and international context, needs to be seen within the context of what is presently the museum owner's principal occupation: politics. As one of the four senators representing Bali in the Regional Representatives Council(DPD, Nyoman Rudana wishes to promote an image of Indonesia, and of Bali, that goes beyond tradition. He wants to affirm that his country is a contender on the scene of both cultural modernity and post-modernity.

Much has been written about modernism in art. Its presence in the international landscape has often been seen as a mere phenomenon of diffusion, as if the brands of modern art that now exist throughout the world were mere offshoots of a single Western trunk and, as such, were of little interest. What this viewpoint overlooks is that modernism sprang up under different circumstances in the West from in the rest of the world. In the West, it was self-generated, issuing from a questioning of form in relation to subjectivity that was closely related to the great socio-economic and cultural transformations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the rest of the world, however, it was exogenous. It was imposed top-down by colonization. Borrowed "modernist" form was never an issue per se. It became a simple garb in which artists expressed their local cultural concerns. The result can now be seen: as modernity is firmly establishing itself throughout the world, non-Western modernism, sometimes ambiguously called post-modernism, is coming back to haunt the Western world, its matrix: the modernist revolution is now dead in the West, and it is now from the non-Western world with its strongly localized art that the most original expressions of contemporary art are coming.

The exhibitions, held since its creation at the Museum Rudana, have been concrete illustrations of this phenomenon of plural modernism. This current exhibition does not simply aim at "comparing" Indonesian and foreign artists, as with previous events at the museum. The current event goes further and aims at illustrating what is Indonesia's specific contribution to international modernism in art: the insertion of an Indonesian ethnic symbolism within a modernist system of form. The logic of form espoused by the various artists in the show is undoubtedly that of modern art: exploration of color and form appears as a goal in itself, and does not seem to obey to any figurative constraints; yet, at the same time, carefully selected and often subtly connotative elements of figuration are present, in an obvious enough way to suggest spirituality-related forms of symbolism.

Eight artists are exhibiting at the present show "Modern Indonesian Masters." Among them are the greatest names of Indonesian and Balinese modern art. These eight selected artists represent the two modernist traditions of Hindu Bali and Islamized Java as well as the two schools of Bandung and Yogyakarta. These two schools are differentiated by the way modernism was introduced: it was taught as such in Bandung, but it infiltrated itself more spontaneously into Yogya, thus leading, in the latter case, to a larger share being given over to the ethnic component. All the Balinese artists included in the show were educated in Yogya, thus adding a supplementary layer to their adoption of the modernist principles of art. As the exhibition hopes to make clear, it is by its modern symbolic expression, derived from the traditional local cultures, that Indonesian modern art makes a significant contribution to international art.

Among the selected artists, two are from Bandung, Srihadi Sudarsono and Sunaryo, while the rest consists of Yogya-educated Balinese, Nyoman Gunarsa and Made Wianta, as well as the younger Nyoman Erawan, Made Jirna, Made Budiana and Darmika, all of whom, with the exception of Darmika, are well-established names in the Indonesian art world. The only newcomer is Darmika, whose star has risen only in recent years.

Srihadi Sudarsono

Of the eight artists participating in the exhibition, the name of Srihadi Sudarsono comes first. At 76, ever-productive, he is an important name in Indonesian art history. He began his career in the late forties as an illustrator of the national liberation struggle. In the early 1950s, while still a student in Bandung, it was his cubistic works that brought the accusation that the Bandung School was a laboratory of the West. After a short stint in the United States, where he studied on a scholarship, he settled into a long period of symbolic "color fields": in the most typical of these works - most of which were "horizons" - the layers of color, classical tools of minimalist abstraction, were enriched by barely visible figurative elements (offering, temple etc), so as to convey an impression of cosmic fusion between Man, Nature and the Cosmos. While working on this series, Srihadi became his country's most prominent colorist to the point where he could as in his "social" and "political" series from the 1970s, purposely "uglify" colors in order to convey a strong protest. Today, his concern is meditative, as illustrated by the extraordinary subtlety of his colors: his "Borobudur" series are studies in often barely perceptible color nuances; so that it is through the small white spot of light he puts at the very top of the great temple's highest stupa that the monument comes visually to life, poetically bringing down to us, to earth, the idea of godly transcendence. In his works shown at the museum, the accent is on ethereality, that of dancers between the real and the unreal, moving into the sublime.

Sunaryo

Sunaryo (66) is another star from the Bandung school. His work is characterized by a stunning breadth of skill. A painter, he also has a reputation as a sculptor as well as an installation and performance artist. His painting style, always highly artistic, is no less eclectic than his medium, sometimes abstract, at other times symbolically figurative in a poetic or social way – an illustration, if need be, of the fact that the "style" factor is always secondary to the artist's creative power. If Sunaryo's endeavor is often purely aesthetic, via abstraction, he is no stranger to making social statements through his works. One of his favorite themes is the encounter of "tradition over against modernity." He sometimes represents this in a symbolic way as the fight between a red barong mask and the forces of darkness, but in the present exhibition, the point is made bluntly by dancers holding a hand phone - modern reality and its related threat of the loss of cultural memory. Here the accomplished master casts aside, for a while, his aesthetic concerns and has us ponder on Indonesia's cultural future. He leaves the answer open. Another interesting facet of Sunaryo is his role as a cultural activist. His Selasar Sunaryo is one of the most active venues of modern art in Bandung.

Nyoman Gunarsa

The most senior Balinese artist at the exhibition is Nyoman Gunarsa. He was also the first Balinese to study at Yogyakarta's ASRI art school, where he was later appointed as lecturer. ASRI's lecturers all insisted on the need to "indigenize" Western influence and therefore refused to practice pure aesthetic research, as done in Bandung. In Yogya, Gunarsa was also influenced by Indonesia's great expressionist painter Affandi. His art is the result of these influences, skillfully combining Balinese subjects such as dancers and wayang puppets with the "expressionistic", almost "action painting" manner of modern art. His works typically consist of a softly hued background on which his brush draws in swift color swabs the canvas-size figures of Balinese dancers or wayang characters. Such a conjunction of softness of color, etherealness of form and dynamism renders his paintings magically appealing. By shrouding the expression of Bali in modern garb, Gunarsa succeeds, the first among Balinese artists to do so, to make Balinese art accessible to a wider national and international public. But Nyoman Gunarsa is not "simply" a painter. He is also a cultural activist. He owns Bali's most complete collection of Balinese classical paintings, which are on show for the public at his museum in Klungkung.

Made Wianta

No less important than Gunarsa is Made Wianta. Made Wianta, who first came to attention of Indonesians with his black and white works, after a stay with Balinese traditional artists. Shapeless monsters, nameless forms, the subconscious side of Balinese psyche suddenly spurted out as the obsessive expression of this strongly individualized artist. In the middle 80s, Wianta's attention shifted from black and white to color, from graphic lines to color dots, and from the figuration of the subconscious to the representation of pure formal archetypes: he thus became an abstract painter. His works have since been combinations of archetypal studies in geometry, calligraphy and color compositions - often in the form of colored dots. They combine elements of informal abstraction, op art and geometric abstraction. Many are based on dialectic of micro and macro elements, a reminder of Hindu concepts. Since the 1990s, Made Wianta has also come to our attention through his installations. His recent installation masterpiece was dreamland: an exhibition in a totally dark space of photographs of the "Bali Bombing" painted with cow blood. A strong statement on violence and universal call for peace.

Nyoman Erawan

Nyoman Erawan (55) is the master of what can be called Balinese abstract symbolism. His paintings look outwardly abstract but reveal themselves, on closer inspection, to be laden with typical Balinese symbols. Interestingly, these symbols are not, for him, merely instrumental or intellectual references; they come from the core of his personality. Besides being a modern painter, he is also a traditional sculptor and architect (undagi), for whom the symbols he uses have a living religious meaning: colors of the cardinal directions, Chinese kepeng coins, checkered black and white cloth, cosmic mountains etc. What he, thus, expresses in modern aesthetic language, and are accessible to anyone, are the Hindu concepts of eternal movement, of the life force surging and waning away, and of Man engulfed in this great cosmic whirling. Erawan's ideas are still better expressed under the form of 'installations' and performances with similar, but this time three-dimensional symbols. A whole school of Balinese artists is following in Erawan's path of abstract symbolism.

Made Djirna

Among Balinese artists, the collectors' favorite is probably low profile Made Djirna. Djirna's key to success lies in an uncanny mix of technical sophistication and thematic simplicity: the skills of the painter are put at the service of a simple vision of the world in which everyone can recognize some of his dreams - and nightmares. Djirna's favorite theme is that of Woman. Yet, Djirna's typical Woman embodies men's ambiguities toward their lifelong partner. A symbolic archetype, this Woman is either depicted as a mother or, on the contrary, as a witch. In the first case, her shape, rounded, conjures up the image of the egg and, ipso-facto, of fertility, found also in the way she sometimes wraps her children in an oval composition. The atmosphere is that of an idyllic, universal motherhood. But this positive image is reversed as soon as the Woman gives up her function as Mother, then, the state of balance, symbolized by motherhood and fertility, moves into a state of disorder and evil, in which the Woman is either victim or perpetrator of evil. Controlled horror prevails – and artistic mastery. This same mastery is also at work in the artist's abstract series – works of color dominated by a dialectic of green and red, the product of the emotional flux of this interesting master.

Made Budiana

Less easily accessible is Made Budiana. A master of pastels, as much as painting proper, his starting point is not so much color as "line". Figurative representation in his work is never purposely accidental. It occurs, but less as the result of intent than as an accidental consequence of a "scrabbling frenzy" to which a few additional touches give a figurative content. The purpose of this spontaneous technique is to allow for the subconscious to come up to the surface. It does so, in images usually at the border of figuration and abstraction. Indeed, here and there, there appear in his works shapes vaguely reminiscent of cultural images through which the Balinese usually express and codify their anxieties. With Djirna, above, Budiana is one of the few Balinese artists who gives room in his works to a "modernized" version of Balinese cultural archetype.

Darmika

The last artist of the show is Darmika. Darmika is part of those FEW artist who come to maturity late on, once they have undergone a sort of catharsis through which their expression, until then impeded, finds a sudden outlet. Like the painters above, Darmika belongs to the modernist Balinese tradition, that of artists hovering between figuration and abstraction, and who usually end up subtly connoting Balinese symbols through an abstract-looking color composition. All is indeed subtlety in Darmika's works. The contrasted colors, which seem to melt into one another, like opposed cosmic forces, eventually combine and blend in the great whirling of things.

These eight painters, who are among Indonesia's most famous, illustrate the encounter of modernity and tradition. Yet, all are aloof from reality. Their world is that of symbols, dreams or ethereality. The real world is absent. There lies for artists, and for the museum, the challenge of the future. (Jean Couteau)

Museum Rudana is located on Jalan Cok Rai Pudak No. 44 in Peliatan, Ubud. (Telephone ++62-(0)361-975779).

The current exhibition runs from August 16, 2007 until October 1, 2007. The Museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and on Sunday from 12:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m..


© Bali Discovery Tours. Articles may be quoted and reproduced if attributed to http://www.balidiscovery.com. All images and graphics are copyright protected

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Sanur leads the way in Bali

By Adrian Batten
Advertisement

What is the most expensive piece of real estate in Bali? The answer may surprise. It’s Sanur. Despite all the promotional hoopla for villa developments in Seminyak and Canggu, and even swankier ones on the cliffs of Bukit and Jimbaran, Sanur is and will remain, for the foreseeable future, the bluest of blue-chip Bali.

Known affectionately, or dismissively according to taste, as ‘Snoring-on-Sea’, the sobriquet is understandable if mistaken. A better analogy might be Belgravia-by-the -Sea, or just think of Santa Barbara in California.

“Not many people are aware of it, but every year 40 to 50 expat families from Kalimantan and elsewhere in Indonesia buy or build villas in Sanur,” says Roger Kalhoefer, a principal of BaliPropertyInfo.com. “They come because Sanur is a pleasant place to live and because it has three of Bali’s top schools, including Bali International School (BIS), the only institution in Bali offering the International Baccalaureate.”

“Sanur is known as a bit sleepy, and we hope it remains so,” adds British businessman Ian Spence , who has had a house for over 30 years in the renowned Batujimbar Estate gated community and who was heavily involved in the establishment and growth of BIS.

Evidence that Sanur is quietly absorbing the influx and reinventing itself is seen everywhere you look. Several major clearings of large beach properties from six to 20 hectares have been made toward the western end of Sanur’s beach, all but one scheduled for villa development. Informed sources say the Bali Hyatt in Sanur, the island’s first truly luxury resort, will be completely re-developed, with the long-empty property across the road to become an exclusive, upmarket estate.

Today, new fashion shops in Jalan Tamblingan add a more stylish look to the main shopping street, while pleasant high-quality, low-key restaurants and cafés have sprung up. Everywhere you look, whole neighbourhoods have taken on a solid and prosperous look as new villas are completed by independent owners.

Community appeal
The appeal isn’t just to foreigners. Wealthy Jakartans have long wanted a piece of Sanur, too, yet other than schooling, what’s the appeal? Unlike so much of southern central Bali today, Sanur is quiet, traditionally accepting of foreigners, has a sense of community, is well run and plans to stay that way.

The restored beach, a broad swathe of white sand, is safely protected from the surf by a reef and is readily accessible. Sanur has proper infrastructure. Getting around is easy, walking a pleasure and cycling’s not the life-threatening exercise it can be elsewhere. It has proper pavements, so you won’t break a leg falling into a nullah or electrocute yourself on a tangle of naked cables.

Above all, Sanur is a known quantity. What you see is what you get. In Kerobokan, Canggu and other ‘hot’ areas, traffic is already a problem and in two years current views of the rice fields could change to those of a modern concrete village, or at best another villa development. Observes Kalhoefer: “In Canggu typically, you have no easy beach access, no direct highway from the airport, no good restaurants within a 10-minute drive and your only view is the construction of other villas.”

Price ranges
Land prices in Sanur range from about US$10,000 per are (100sqm) across the bypass to double that as you near the beach. A property in Batujimbar, when they come on to the market, is expected to set you back about US$1.1 million for a four-bedroom villa, set in half an acre of mature garden several properties in from the beach. Beachfront properties in Batujimbar almost never come onto the open market.

“The proximity to specific views, like ocean surf, or the sacred River Ayung, adds a multiple of two or three times to the typical price of land that doesn’t have views, but the biggest multiple in Sanur, roughly four times, comes from being inside the security perimeter of the Batujimbar Estate,” says Kalhoefer.

Sanur’s attractions are summed up by 39-year-old Denise Baron, a business owner and author from Philadelphia, who has been coming to Bali regularly since 1991 and recently bought a property.

“I’ve fallen in love with Sanur and the surrounding area,” she says. “It provides me with the lifestyle I have back home, with a sense of community and great places to dine, socialise and shop. I feel safe swimming in the ocean with my family and I enjoy beachside strolls. The combination of cultural events, customs and friendly people make it a wonderful place to live.”

In time the new residential estates being built on Bukit may come to be the investment of choice, eclipsing Batujimbar. As for the social or ‘happening’ scene, Sanur’s already done that far more stylishly decades ago. Sanur is a benign and mature seaside village, redolent of wealth and serenity, with a history and a culture to match. It doesn’t take much imagination to see Jalan Tamblingan becoming the Bali version of Rodeo Drive. In the view of some of Southeast Asia’s most wealthy men who have homes there, if you can afford the ante, Sanur will long be one of Bali’s safest and surest investments.

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Arts forum to promote young choreographers, composers

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

Two things that could fire up Bali's senior choreographer I Wayan Dibia early in the morning are contemporary dance and young choreographers.

He spoke so passionately about these subjects on a cool Wednesday morning that he kept forgetting to sip his favorite tea. The untouched tea got cooler and cooler as Dibia warmed to his topic.

"There hasn't been enough space, metaphorically and literally, for our young choreographers to feature their works and to share their esthetic explorations with their peers and seniors," Dibia lamented.


"Similar things could also be said of our contemporary dance. The fact that Indonesia, particularly Bali, has a strong tradition of traditional performing arts has only made it more difficult for contemporary dance to gain a significant foundation," he said.

The 59-year-old choreographer has experienced this difficulty firsthand. In 1978, the young Dibia, newly graduated from Yogyakarta's Indonesian Dance Academy (ASTI), stirred up a heated controversy in Bali with his creation Setan Bercanda/Playful Demons.

The dancers' "primitive" costume of dried leaves, the rudimentary musical accompaniment of stone and bamboo instruments, and the dance's indifference towards established conventions in Balinese traditional dance regarding impolite gestures and movements immediately made many call the dance "un-Balinese". Naturally, Dibia became a regular punching bag for the island's numerous cultural pundits for weeks afterwards.

"Little did they know that every aspect of (Setan Bercanda) could be traced back to elements of ancient Balinese dances," he said.

Soon Dibia had earned a reputation as the island's daring new contemporary choreographer. His years at the University of California in Los Angeles, where he received his Master and Doctorate degrees, had further inflamed his passion for contemporary art.

His recent works include Kali Yuga, a repertoire inspired by the Bali bombings, and Adhipusengara, a Balinese interpretation of the Greek tragedy of Oedipus. Kali Yuga has been performed already in several cities in the United States.

"That difficult experience inspired me to provide our young choreographers and composers with a forum through which they can share their creative process, discuss their ideas and refine their works," Dibia said.

The forum, The International Forum for Young Choreographers and Composers (IFYCC), will take place from Aug. 10-13 at GEOKS, Dibia's modest performing arts facility in Singapadu village, some 15 kilometers northeast of Denpasar. The gathering will be attended by three foreign artists and 15 Indonesian artists and composers.

"The foreign participants come from Taiwan, Cambodia and Malaysia. Meanwhile, the Indonesian participants include talented young artists from Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Surabaya, Mataram and Kalimantan. It will be a celebration of cultural diversity," he said.

The IFYCC is sponsored by Arts Networks Asia (ANA), a network of independent artists and cultural workers aimed at promoting collaborative cultural projects among and with Asian artists, along with New York-based Asian Cultural Council (ACC), which supports cultural exchange between Asia and the United States in the performing and visual arts, and Yayasan Wayan Geria, a foundation dedicated to the preservation and revitalization of performing arts in Bali.

The participants' dance and music presentations will be performed on the evenings of Aug. 11 and Aug. 12, while discussions and select performances will be held in the mornings of Aug. 12 and Aug. 13.

The IFYCC will close on the night of Aug. 13 with a cultural evening featuring the world-renowned Legong Saba troupe and a collaborative work created by the forum's participants.

International Forum for Young Choreographers and Composers Aug. 10-13
GEOKS Performing Arts Center
(500 meters north of Bali Bird Park)
Jl. Raya Singapadu
Banjar Sengguan, Gianyar
Phone: (0361) 298846

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Cry wolf? Travel advisories raise tourism, business concerns

Trisha Sertori, Contributor, Melbourne

A recent Australian advisory warning against travel to Indonesia has concerned the Indonesian Consul General to Victoria and Tasmania, Budiarman Bahar, who said repeated travel advisories could lead businesses to question the closeness of the two countries' relationship.

Stressing his understanding of the Australian government's "constitutional responsibility" to protect its citizens, Budiarman said the renewal of high-level security warnings in its travel advisory were a concern -- given the relative safety of Indonesia compared to countries that were more frequent victims of terrorism, such as the United Kingdom.

The Australian travel advisory on the U.K. was downgraded last month to "exercise caution", whereas the advisory on Indonesia directs citizens to "reconsider your need to travel". The downgrade came despite the recent failed bomb attacks in England and a foiled airport attack in Glasgow late June.


"People are traveling to Bali again, but unfortunately the Australian government has renewed travel advisories (to Bali), while England has actually had an attack, but the level of travel advice on Indonesia is much higher, so it is unfair," said Budiarman, who was appointed Indonesian Consul General to Victoria and Tasmania four months ago.

The Australian government's travel advisory for Indonesia and the United Kingdom, posted on July 9, presents disparities that may be confusing to travelers.

The downgraded advice of "exercise caution" to the United Kingdom came just days after two car bombs were discovered and defused in Central London, and a burning vehicle was driven into Glasgow's main airport terminal.

At the same time, the travel advisory on Indonesia was upgraded to "reconsider your need to travel" following the arrests and deaths of "high-level terrorist operatives in Indonesia".

The continuing and upgraded travel advisories to Bali and other parts of Indonesia not only have an impact on the tourism industry, but also on trade and business, according to the Consul General. He added that he believed many within the Indonesian and Australian business and academic spheres felt the upgraded travel advice to be exaggerated.

"I find it strange that when I speak with many Australians from business, academia and even some parliamentarians, they say the level of travel advice is not needed," he said. "Some suggest the travel advice warnings need to be downgraded, but unfortunately the federal government is maintaining (them)."

He continued: "This is a concern, as these travel advisories will give the wrong signal to other Indonesians. I am afraid those in favor of strong relations with Australia may rethink their opinions, as it may be read that Australia is not sincere in its relationship with Indonesia."

Budiarman stressed that Australia was Indonesia's closest neighbor, and that the joint relationship was important, "not just politically, but (also) in organizations and business".

Vice Consul Ratna Harjana agreed, adding that she feared repeated travel advisories could cause people to drop their guard when traveling -- a level of caution required when traveling anywhere in the world.

"People can become immune to calls for personal security -- a 'Peter cried wolf' scenario," said Ratna. "I certainly hope nothing ever happens, but when people are seeing repeated warnings with nothing happening, as in this most recent travel advice, I feel there is a risk they will not heed advice when it is actually needed."

According to Denny Kusuma of the Victorian Mahindra Bali organization, travel advisories should be seen as a catalyst for Indonesia to get its security act together.

"I think as Indonesians, we need to take heed of these advisories and really upgrade our security, not just at the government level, but at the banjar, or community, level," he said.

"As Indonesians it is our responsibility to ensure our nation is not only safe, but is seen to be safe and that needs to come from our communities. We can no longer be complacent, expecting others to take on the role of keeping our communities, and our guests, safe," said Deny, stressing that he believed Bali and most of Indonesia was safe.

"I only recommend that people stay away from places like large shopping malls, because I have found they are no longer listening to, or believing, the government travel warnings."

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