Cempaka Culture and Tourism: What to do with Bali's 'ground zero'?

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Friday, October 12, 2007

What to do with Bali's 'ground zero'?

By Lucy Williamson, BBC News, Bali

If you turn into the backstreets of Bali's main city, the sound of traffic deadens to a hum.

A small family compound is tucked into a narrow alleyway, and wind chimes compete with the noise of a sewing machine somewhere in a back room.

This is where Iluh Januarini lives, surrounded by photographs of her father - a taxi driver, blown up by a truck bomb outside the Sari nightclub in Bali's Kuta tourist district five years ago.

That bomb - and a smaller one at the nearby Paddy's Bar - killed 202 people.

All of them are remembered on a monument close to where the attacks took place, but the site of the Sari Club - known locally as "ground zero" - remains an empty plot of land, neglected and overgrown.

Once a year, on this day, Iluh makes the 30-minute journey to the site of the attack, to honour her father's memory.

"Every year I go back for the commemoration, and face that road," she says, sitting on a small sofa in the dim house she shares with her mother.

"Being there makes me feel cold. Apart from then, I don't go past it. I never go down that road - if I want to go to the beach or something, I go the long way round."

Looking forward

But will building on the site make it any easier for Bali to deal with?

On the first anniversary of the bombings, people from across the world gathered here on the beach to commemorate the dead.

But local journalist Iwan Dharmawan says that was more for the foreign visitors. Balinese culture, he says, is all about looking forward, not hanging on to the past with monuments and memorials.

"The empty Sari Club site lets the wounds remain wounds," he said as we walked back along the beach.

"It hurts the Balinese people every day when they walk past it. Visitors want to keep it as a monument to the ravages of terrorism, but the Balinese who live here want it to become a place of activity - a business or office, or whatever.

"The important thing is to get rid of the sense that 200 people were killed there by a bomb."

'Stained with blood'

At the marketplace where Iluh helps her mother run the family shop, opinions on what to do with the site are divided. Some people say they would like a memorial, but just as many are clear they want another bar or nightclub build on the site - a new Sari Club. "Rebuilding will bring the tourists back," one woman explained. "Don't leave it empty."

Iluh does not agree. "The site of the bombing is stained with human blood," she said.

"You can't build on a site like that - it's spiritually dirty."

She would prefer to see the site left empty, or made into a garden of some kind. It is an idea that has already gained support from victims' groups in Bali.

Asana Viebeke is a local community spokeswoman. She has thrown her support behind building a peace park on the site of the club, and says the Balinese need to accept that it is not only about what they want.

"Kuta does not belong to the Balinese only," she said.

"It's not about what the Balinese will accept, or won't accept. Look - it's 7am and people are walking here from all over the world."

Who owns the site is a very real question for Bali's government planning team.

It has drawn up plans to build a memorial museum on the site, but the private owner has so far refused to sell.

This is prime real estate, slap bang in the heart of Bali's busiest tourist area.

People may disagree over what they want to see on the Sari Club site, but ultimately it is likely to be market forces that decide.