More on Kuta Beach
As much as I also detest the litter that periodically plagues Kuta/Legian beaches, in response to the letter from Jolie E. Dorey (The Jakarta Post, Dec. 28) I can only say: "Sorry, Jolie, I believe you've got it all wrong, when putting most of the blame on Western tourists!". The unfortunate fact is that the seasonal combination of winds and tides leads to a near-daily dumping of consumer rubbish on Kuta/Legian beaches around and during the month of December. At least it has done so for the past five years, to my knowledge.
I was always struck by the sheer volume and spread of the rubbish on some days in December. Although there is a lot of natural vegetation debris, the annoying stuff consists mainly of plastic sachets, and packaging for hair shampoo, washing detergent, toothpaste, instant noodles, soy sauce, candy bars, and so on.
A check of the packaging, on any day, consistently shows Bahasa Indonesia labels on these items of rubbish. This, and the very nature of the products, leads to the fair conclusion that this rubbish is not from Western tourists. They are unlikely to engage in mass teeth cleaning, hair shampooing or soy sauce consuming on these beaches.
Whether the tides bring in this rubbish from further up the West Bali coast, or from the numerous, small, fishing boats offshore, or from elsewhere, I cannot tell. However, I seriously doubt that "the majority of it is contributed by Westerners", as Jolie claims.
As for the responsibility for cleaning up this mess, it was a positive move when several enthusiastic, organized teams of Balinese first came out in December 2002 to clear Kuta and Legian beaches from all this rubbish. Presumably, this initiative was taken to offset the effects of the Kuta bombings in October of that year. So where has that local enthusiasm for clean beaches gone? I do hope that the appropriate adat (traditional law) committees will revive and continue all these earlier, fine efforts.
It is hardly the responsibility of Western tourists to clean up, or even organize the clean up, of this domestically-sourced rubbish. Jolie's angst and assignment of guilt seems inappropriate.
MICHAEL ASHURST Singapore