S12.E03: Indonesia

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

A shadow puppet performance provides an entry into understanding Indonesia, a country comprised of thousands of islands whose people endured political turmoil, and one in which, Bourdain discovers, food is the great unifier. In this fourth largest country in the world, every area has it’s own unique traditions. In Jakarta, Bourdain eats at a Padang Restaurant where nearly every menu item comes to the table; while in Bali he visits the beach, commenting on yoga before joining in a traditional Balinese Funeral ceremony.

Original air date: 10/7/18

[scrb]

Another episode light on narration.

I did enjoy the segment at the Bali resort, with Tony feeling alienated from the people on holiday there.  I guess the couple that he scorned because they were eating while being massaged on recliners by the pool must have signed the waiver for their faces to be shown?  Because some of the other faces, they blacked out.  While Tony was disdaining these resort visitors, he joked about wanting more Waygu sliders, to chase his sardonic commentary.

I don't object to wanting to emphasize the spiritual side of Indonesian culture, with the shadow puppets and their view of the invisible reality and how this physical reality is just a passage way to this better reality.  However it made me think of "religion is the opiate of the masses."  If adherents to a religion believe being poor in this world doesn't matter because a much richer life awaits them once they pass, doesn't it tend to make them more vulnerable to economic and political exploitation?

Sure the rituals and the funeral all had beautiful pageantry and it's not surprising that they want to emphasize those traditions over the reality of overcrowded, polluted Balinese resorts.

When I visited Bali, I encountered the traffic and the crowds.  I got to talk to the Balinese workers who worked in hospitality.  One had an accounting degree but was working for a little boutique hotel chain.  He said the average wage was about $200 a month and in many cases, the wages were set by the govt.  The best jobs were working for the govt. or possibly working for some of the Western companies there.  But the unfortunate reality is that tourism is the biggest business on the island and most people end up in that industry, if they want to stay in Bali, as opposed to moving closer to the capital.

His family owns a small plot near the rice fields so they live up there, about 50 km north of the coastal areas around Seminyak and further south.  That means riding a scooter, rain or shine, an hour each way to get to work.  Tourism on the small island is certainly an environmental disaster but it is also an economic lifeline.  Most of the visitors appear to be from Australia so maybe it mitigates the environmental impact somewhat that they don't travel further away for their beach holidays.  Yes the beaches in Australia are great but food and drink are cheaper in Bali.

Getting back to religion, Hinduism isn't associated with the atrocities of colonialism like christianity is.  But in that part of the world, though I don't know if it's the case in Indonesia, Hinduism have oppressed Muslim minorities, so they're not better than other religions, despite the beautiful costumes and temples.

So they show sequences of these caucasian tourists on the streets of probably Seminyak, implying that they're despoiling this spiritual place.  But maybe Tony and the producers need to also look beneath the surface of these rituals as well.  Though it's a lot less controversial to mock Western tourists descending upon the land of spiritual people than to look at the ugly aspects of a non-Western religion.  

Of course it's not that kind of show.  Tony wants to be taken seriously but doesn't want to seriously look at some of the matters he raises.  They could have done a lot more with food porn (presentation on Balinese dishes is very photogenic) or feature more of the beautiful landscapes.

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, scrb said:

But in that part of the world, though I don't know if it's the case in Indonesia, Hinduism have oppressed Muslim minorities, so they're not better than other religions, despite the beautiful costumes and temples.

Bali is the only island in the archipelago that is majority Hindu and is a tiny minority in the most populist Muslim nation on earth. And the government in Jakarta has crazy encouraged Balinese tourism because they didn’t care about their temples and rituals being ruined and have actively forced migrated many Balinese to outer islands in order for development. They also allowed hotels to build closer to temples than locals wanted and limited direct access to beaches which are an important part of several different Balinese Hindu ceremonies. Balinese Hinduism developed isolated from other types of Hinduism and differs in many ways. 

Bali as the site of a lot of massacres during the communist purge because  Sukarno Indonesia’s first President’s mother and Suharto wanted to eliminate any support of him.

Wayang (the shadow puppetry) is practiced throughout Indonesia and is often local folklore and not always religious though on Bali it often is religious.

Edited October 8, 2018 by biakbiak

[biakbiak]

2 hours ago, scrb said:

I guess the couple that he scorned because they were eating while being massaged on recliners by the pool must have signed the waiver for their faces to be shown?  Because some of the other faces, they blacked out.  

Pretty sure the blacked out eyes was just a trope and that they had posted signs that they were filming and anyone in the area was given this consent. This show blurs faces doesn’t do black bars over the eyes and I bet some of those people were pissed because they thought they might be on tv.

Not the jungle but you certainly got the “reported dead”, Tony.

Edited October 8, 2018 by biakbiak

[Yeah No]

I got the chills when that man at the funeral asked Tony how he would like to "go".  I don't even think it was 2 months later that he was dead.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Bourdain's blog on Indonesia

Parts Unknown Indonesia links

[arachne]

I recall hearing Tony say he'd talk about the food he was eating when he recorded the voice-over. Never happened of course.