Artist launches a book

Artist launches a book

JAKARTA (JP): Landscape designer Made Wijaya, whose real name
is Michael White, has launched his book Stranger in Paradise -
Diary of an Expatriate in Bali.

The launching ceremony was held at the Regent Hotel on Friday.

The book is a compilation of the author's eponymous column of
the same title written for the Sunday Bali Post between 1972 and
1981. In those days people living in Bali might know Made as a
columnist.

Now he is better known as "The Gardener of Bali", as most
hotels in Bali (and in many other big cities in Indonesia) have
been influenced by the hotel gardens he has designed.

Yet his name does not appear in a recent publication entitled
Balinese Gardens, apparently due to censorship by the main
sponsor of the book, the Hyatt.

Rumors has it that someone at the top of the regional
management of the Hyatt has a personal vendetta against Made.
This person did not allow the publishers of the book to include
Made's name, not even his former name.

Made declined to comment directly on his problem with the
Hyatt, and only said non-chalantly, "If anything, I made their
gardens famous!". (Amir Sidharta)