The spin on Pelabuhan Ratu

The spin on Pelabuhan Ratu

As a frequent visitor to one of Indonesia's -- and perhaps one
of the world's most beautiful areas -- I would like to appeal to
the Indonesian Tourist Board to let me assist them in properly
promoting Pelabuhan Ratu. My brochure would read something like
this:

Pelabuhan Ratu.

Where the hand of God and the hand of man join together to
create a truly unique environment.

Where, amid the creator's breathtaking natural beauty, you can
walk as far as the eye can see on pristine plastic-garbage
covered beaches totally unspoiled by the natural nuisance of
sand.

Where you and your children can explore and frolic in tropical
rock pools teeming with a spectacular variety of synthetic
species of trash.

Where each beautiful wave that rolls up unto the glistening
plastic shoreline delivers a bountiful harvest of man-made waste
products.

Where you can comb the beaches to your heart's content in
search of exotic specimens of plastic bags, bottles and wrappers.

Where you can join the local scavengers in collecting
souvenirs of every conceivable type of plastic container known to
man.

Pelabuhan Ratu.

Experience it now, before some environmentally conscious
liberal do-gooder comes along and has the local authorities
criminally prosecuted for simply dumping thousands of tons of
garbage into the otherwise empty and unused expanses of Pelabuhan
Ratu Bay.

To the readers of this letter, just let me say that what is
happening at Pelabuhan Ratu is so overwhelmingly heartbreaking
and so unimaginably criminal that sarcasm is the only way I seem
to be able to relate this truly profound tragedy.

MARSHALL LESESNE

Jakarta