and packages that they can no longer refuse. Country-wide sweatshops and the
supermarkets will thus perpetually scuttle grassroots and traditions.
How does all this affect the tourism engine? We can easily grasp that the receding of
the traditional marketplace will turn away the culturally-conscious local-foodies, a
ubiquitous coalition of tourists on the exponential rise. Likewise will it affect any tourist
wanting to step outside the
gates of their resort into the
active community. Overall,
the
image
religious
of
Bali
and
as
a
cultural
masterpiece will be tainted
with the same stink of overcommercialization
and
exploitation that many tourists
vacation away from. Unless
Bali’s
wealth
is
more
equitably distributed to meet
the rise of tourism, poverty and unemployment (not the hypermarkets) will reign
supreme. Those choosing to live behind closed doors will surely be spending more time
behind them while the streets become increasing disreputable, the laws more sharply
defined, and the police stations more welcoming.
The solution to all this may be found in diversification, equative consideration, and
creative enterprise. We can apply traditional wisdom to contemporary economics.
Real farmers, the ones who have profound relationships with their land, know that
mono-cultures do not yield much food on farm land for long. Mono-cultures rob land of
its natural replenishing cycle and adulterate this natural life where chemicals and
pestilent synthetic substances are used. Such is life in the sphere of economics when we
choose to look at economics from a holistic standpoint—Bali in her entirety. What is
incontrovertibly true is, as just mentioned, the fact of financial unfeasibility of customers
being able to afford quality products after collecting corporate wages. If the markets
further recede and decay, workers will have no traditional shopping option and small
businesses will teeter-out. The corporate money will thus stay all in the regal family.