Over half of Indonesia’s 235 million people are poor. Most struggle to survive on less than US$2 a day and about 18 per cent live on US$1 or less.
In the 1970’s Indonesia experienced economic growth accompanied by progressive social development. Then during the South-Eastern Asia crisis 1997/98 the Indonesian economy came close to collapse. Before the crisis, 16.8 per cent of the country’s families were officially classified as poor. At the height of the financial upheaval, the proportion of poor households in the country doubled. Using the $1-a-day measure, it is estimated that more than 80m Indonesians are in poverty.
Although Urban areas were hit the hardest they also recover the quickest, Millions of small farmers, farm workers and fishers are materially and financially unable to tap into the opportunities offered by years of economic growth. Approximately 60 per cent of the population live in rural areas where agriculture is the main source of livelihood.
Most of my time through Indonesia was to urban centres in Java - Jakarta and Bandung mostly… so here are a few photos to remind us how grateful we should be even be able to read blogs, because the people in these photos are just grateful to make it through the day. Today is blog action day, so share this post and give generously :-D
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Kuta beach is clean these days, its the off season and there aren’t many Aussies in sight. The surf was perfect for beginners. After the Bali bombing tourism took a big hit, its slowly on the up now though. Balinese hawkers aren’t as aggressive any more as well, they know the value of ‘return holidays’ are to their economy, so they don’t piss you off that much like 10 years ago - BUT you’ll still find them around ripping off tourists whenever they can, O well still cheap - cross bow and blow pipe anyone?
Ku De Ta, Seminyak, Bali is pretty awsome place to be during sunset. At night they’ve got spotlights to the ocean. pretty epic. This spot rages with the carefree laughter of the ridiculously rich…them not us :-D
Beratan Lake is only a shallow lake, apparently the deepness point its only 22 meters. Visitors can do various water/outdoor activities like parasailing, fishing and canoeing. We just ate :-D
We paid Rp 5,000 each for these photos…pssh, everything has a price in bali.
A hindu temple in Tabanan, Bali. It is one of less touristy temples of the island One stipulation to entering this temple was we had to wear sarongs. There were a few other rules of who was allowed in, see the sign board below. A lot of the signs were in Indonesian, English and Dutch.
You got to watch out with the monkeys in Bali, they harass visitors for food and often will steal your sunglasses, camera and anything else they can get away with.These road side monkeys were relatively safe.
