Travelling away from home to be closer to it

By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy

It's been 6 days now that we've been away.

It's been an amazing and fun-filled stay. We have another day here in this beautiful place before we say "so long" knowing that we will return.

Today, however, I feel compelled to write about what is happening at home in reflection to what is happening here.

A man has been killed. The fair part of my mind is saying wait till all the evidence is in before judging the supposed guilt of the suspected conspirators. I empathise with the sadness and the horrible sense of loss that his family and fiancee must be feeling at this time.



Pura Uluwatu at Sunset

My gut instinct tells me that too much was at stake for him to be alive. That somehow or other, there was a conspiracy that did him in.

And there's the rub.

I live in a country which is blighted by a SMALL number of people who believe that it is ok to say and do anything to remain in power. I live in a country with groups condoning the actions of "journalists" who under the guise of carrying out their work, go to Catholic churches, accept communion into their mouths without understanding what it is, and spitting it out and taking pictures of it for their own disgusting ends.

By the way, for those "journalists" who don't understand what the 'host' in communion signifies, it's nothing short of the body of Jesus Christ himself. The Catholics believe in something called 'TRANSUBSTANTIATION" which basically means that during the ceremony of Mass the wine and host is transformed into the blood and body of Christ through the direct intervention of the priest celebrating the mass which is in itself like a recreation of the Last Supper.

In other words, to me, those two disgusting people spat out the body of Jesus Christ. Who to me is part of the holy trinity of the Godhead, and to them, a Prophet of high repute...supposedly.

I live in a country where the powers that be routinely lie, spin, and tell half truths, to perpetuate their power and furthermore have the gall to say that they can afford multi million dollar homes on a dentist's monthly salary (which by the way, is a very comfortable living, but nowhere NEAR what would be required to build an estate of the sort he owns).

Then I contrast it to the people living in Bali. And in Indonesia.

Bombs have fallen on their heads. In Jakarta, and before in Indonesia. But there is a calmness, a ONEness that seems to have them bound together for a common good. The Balinese are Hindus (of a sort) and the greater population is Muslim, but the greater picture is that they're Indonesian. And nowhere is this felt more than in Bali. And perhaps truer of their vaunted "Panca Sila."



As I sit here listening to the drizzle of the rain, a lady in a Balinese kebaya, walks past balancing a tray of spiritual offerings on her head. Woven coconut leaves, flowers, coffee and oils. Every single morning this lady goes about the various altars and places these for the God(s).

Go to every shop as they open and their's this very same offering out front. Be careful not to step in it however. Not because it's taboo to do so. But because it simply could get messy as cofee squirts out to dirty your trouser leg (this happened).

The result of all this is that there's a serenity that is palpable and a "rightness" to the atmosphere that for whatever it's faults can be righted by people of pure intent.

Such a contrast to the situation we have back home. Where we subscribe to shallow religiosity in place of true spirituality. What's the difference? One is judgemental, rules oriented, and results in a situation where people develop a "get-away-with-it" attitude and learn to ignore the pricks of their own conscience. One is internal, has a live and let live attitude, and results in a situation where people genuinely look out for each other.

But I still believe, no matter how rickety our system is, I go back to the second last sentence/paragraph above "for whatever it's faults can be righted by people of pure intent."

And that, friends, is where WE, THE PEOPLE, stand.