Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 1, February 2001 | Page 52

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Popular Culture Review

Two “Outside Investors Exploit Bali” Cartoons

The Appendix B cartoon features a large man who has stuck his fork into a big
bite of food shaped like the island of Bali. He is preparing to devour it after ripping
it into pieces with his frightening, shark-like teeth. While I was viewing it at the
Globalisasi exhibition, a European man turned to me, pointed at the huge man,
and said guiltily, “He is us.” I agreed with him because the hungry for profit man
appeared to be a rich foreign investor from Europe or America who was buying
land from its Balinese owner to develop as another luxury tourist resort (like those
I had seen proliferate all over Bali since the mid-1980s).
I bought this cartoon because it communicated the harmful impact the
globalization of Bali’s tourism economy was having, as indicated by the frightened
little man (symbolizing the common people of Bali) behind the Balinese who was
“selling out” to the big foreign investor. I changed my interpretation, however,
when I returned to my hotel and three Balinese reception desk employees examined
the cartoon with great interest. All three immediately interpreted it differently than
the European and I had. The predatory investor was definitely what they termed a
“Big Man from Jakarta” rather than a European or American. It was then that I
comprehended the depth of their dislike for this type of powerful outsider. As
Balinese, they clearly felt much more exploited by the political and economic
elites (mainly Javanese and Chinese, respectively) in their own national capital
than by investors from foreign countries.

Appendix B