The Bali Safari and Marine Park witnessed the blessed arrival of a baby male elephant born at the park on January 25, 2009.
The proud baby boy of two Sumatran Elephants, “David” and “Tini,” the yet-to-be-named offspring was assisted into the world by 2 veterinarians and a team of elephant keepers following a 22-month-long pregnancy. “Babies” weight at birth was a health 70 kilograms.
Believed to be the first elephant born in Bali in modern times, mother and son are being kept in a separate special enclosure at the zoo. According to the Bali Safari and Marine Park officials, the baby elephant will undergo a 3-month adaptation period before being shown to the general public.
The birth of the new baby brings the population at the facility to 38 elephants comprised of Sumatran, Indian and Thai strains.

The following Bali hotels have recently made key appointments in their management team.

Douglas Ariza-Giammaria, Hotel Manager, The Laguna
Laguna Resort & Spa, Nusa Dua, Bali have appointed Douglas Ariza-Giammaria as Hotel Manager effective December 15, 2008. Douglas arrives at his new post in Bali after spending two and a half years as Director of Rooms for The Regent Singapore, part of the Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts Group.
A veteran hotelier, he began his hotel career in 1995 working in banqueting division of the UH Hilton in Houston, Texas. While working with Starwood he has held senior roles in Rooms, Revenue Management, Food and Beverage, and Sales and Marketing. Along the way he has worked in a wide range of cultural settings including the St. Regis Houston of North America, The Hotel Grande Bretagne in Greece, The Great Wall Sheraton, Beijing-China and The Regent Singapore, A Four Seasons Hotel.
Holding a Bachelor’s Degree from the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management University of Houston,, Douglas also pursued a Master’s Degree in Hospitality Management at the same institution. A hard working hotelier known for his hands-on management style, approachability and open communications, Douglas speaks Spanish, English, Greek and Italian.
In his new Bali role as Hotel Manager, Douglas has overall responsibility for the Security, Housekeeping, Front Office and Recreation Departments as well as the Fitness Centre and Laguna Spa. He will report directly to David Cuddon, the General Manager of The Laguna Resort & Spa, Nusa Dua, Bali.
Yani Wongsowinoto – Director of Sales, Four Seasons Resorts Bali
Four Seasons Resorts Bali has announced the appointment of Yani Wongsowinoto as Director of Sales for both of their Bali Resorts in Jimbaran and Sayan.
Yani joins Four Seasons Bali from The Nam Hai, Hoi An, Vietnam, and is well known to the island’s hospitality industry via his earlier role as Director of Sales at The Legian Bali and its sister-hotel The Chedi Club at Tanah Gajah, Ubud.
Hailing from Surabaya, Yani graduated from the University of New South Wales in Sydney and Billy Blue Hotel School in Sydney, before attending Institut Hotelier ‘Cesar Ritz’, Le Bouveret, Switzerland from which he graduated with a diploma in Hotel Management. His first professional assignment was as Corporate Sales Executive at Malang’s Regent’s Park Hotel in East Java. He later moved to Bali, where he was employed as Sales & Marketing Manager at the Grand Mirage Resort at Tanjung Benoa. In 1997 he was appointed Sales Manager at The Legian Bali, and in 2002 promoted to Director of Sales responsible for both of the Island’s GHM Resorts. In 2006, Yani was transferred by GHM to The Nam Hai, Hoi An, as a member of the pre-opening management team in the capacity of Director of Sales & Marketing.
Juan Pedro Lemes Duarte, Resident Manager, Melia Bali Villas & Spa
Meliá Bali Villas & Spa Resort have announced the appointments of Juan Pedro Lemes Duarte as Residnet Manager.
Juan Pedro Duarte brings wide-ranging hospitality experience to Meliá Bali. A Manchester Southern New Hampshire University (USA) graduate where he specialized in hotel management. Professionally, he has worked as an Assistant Director Food & Beverage Sales Manager at the Morgan Run Club Resort in San Diego USA and with Barcelo Hotel Club as an Assistant Director and General Manager in their Spanish properties until 2008. He has also held positions with Hotel Siete Islas, Gran Meliá, Sol Meliá Vacation Club and Hotel Meliá Gorriones Salinas/
Aurora Brahami, Spa Director, Nusa Dua Beach Hotel & Spa
Nusa Dua Beach Hotel and Spa have appointed Aurora Brahami as their new Spa Director.
A French national, Aurora Brahami brings an impressive background in spa and wellness management to the Nusa Dua Spa where she will oversee all spa treatments, masseuse training, guest consultations and day-to-day supervision of their extensive spa facility.
Prior to her Bali assignment., Aurora worked as the Spa Manager at the Spa Cinq Mondes in Le Méridien Barbarons.
Aswin Pranoto, Public Relations Manager. Nikko Bali Resort and Spa
Nikko Bali Resort & Spa have appointed Aswin Pranoto as the property’s Public Relations Manager.
Aswin is a graduate of the Sekolah Tinggi Pariwisata Bandung in Bali majoring Hotel Administration.
He began his career in the hospitality industry in 2002 as Assistant Manager at De Palma Hotel Ampang, Malaysia. Returning to Indonesia, he joined the pre-opening team of Harris Resort Kuta in 2004 working as Duty Manager and later as Front Office Manager before eventually being appointed to a public relations role.

Rabies are the suspected caused in yet another death in Bali as Sanglah General Hosptial officials report that a 45-year-old woman, Ni Made Ruken, died on Wednesday, January 28, 2009.
The woman, reportedly bitten by a dog that entered her home 3 months ago, was admitted to the isolation unit of the hospital shortly after midnight on Wednesday complaining of breathing difficulties and displaying clinical symptoms consistent with a rabies diagnosis. The woman died some 12 hours after her admission to the hospital.
The specially “rabies team” of physicians working from the Sanglah hospital caution that a definite linkage of the woman’s death to the current rabies outbreak can only be confirmed after the results of laboratory tests are received.
Dog Smuggling Effort Foiled
Proof that Bali officials are deadly serious in their order to close the island’s borders to the import and export of dogs, cats and monkeys was made clear when officials at the Gilimanuk Port seized and euthanized 17 pedigree puppies discovered on board a local tourist bus. The animals were part of a group of 19 dogs hidden away on the bus. Two of the dogs were dead when discovered by port quarantine officials.
The dogs were destroyed by officials who injected the animals with strychnine.
On Monday, January 26, 2009, officials at the Gilamanuk Port managed to thwart the illegal entry of 20 pedigree dogs hidden in baskets on another Bali-bound tourist bus.
To date, 6-7 deaths have been linked to the rabies outbreak prompting the massive inoculation program now underway in Bali.
Bali Seeks 50,000 More Rabies Vaccine Dosages
According to the Jakarta Post, Bali Animal Husbandry officials are requesting 50,000 additional doses of rabies vaccines from the Health Ministry in Jakarta to allow mass inoculation of Bali’s dog population to continue. To date an estimated 35,184 dogs have been given the vaccine.
Animal Health officials indicate that for dogs to obtain a complete immunity from rabies a series of three inoculations are required over the course of one-year.
Related Articles
[Locking the Dog House Door]
[Rabies Spreads to South Denpasar]
[Bali Eager to Be Declared Rabies Free]
[Bali Rabies Update: Massive Inoculation Underway]
[Update on Bali's Anti-Rabies Offensive]
[Interview: Dr. Dewa MN Dharma DV MSc PhD]
[Bali No Longer Rabies Free]

The following article by Andrea Wisnu, the Bali correspondent for The Jakarta Post appeared in the Wednesday, January 28, 2009 edition of that newspaper:

Experts warned the administration Tuesday to stop allocating money to tourism -related infrastructure projects.
They cited the sector's inability to promote long-term economic growth and its "cannibalization" of other important sectors.
In a seminar on tourism and agriculture at the Art Center in Denpasar, experts told the Bali government to begin pushing programs that would promote growth in the island's other sectors.
"For the past 20 years, people have been trying to find a breakthrough in the tourism sector that could propel our annual economic growth back to pre-1997 levels," Dr. Nyoman Erawan, a professor of economics from Udayana University, said.
"Data has shown that the tourism sector cannot be relied upon for economic growth. It's time for the government to move funding to other sectors."
He added that a reliance on the tourism sector had caused the island's economic growth to drop significantly over the past four decades.
He said that in the 1970s, when the government intensified development, the tourism sector helped propel the island's economic growth rate to an average of 9.07 percent per year.
But by the 1980s, that growth rate decreased to 8.41 percent and decreased further in the 1990s to 7.99 percent. The Bali bombings, the SARS scare and the bird flu scare caused that number to drop further to 4.26 percent in 2006.
While many still look forward to a revitalization of the tourism industry, Erawan said the island could not afford to keep on hoping, citing the tourism sector's dangerous "cannibalization" of other economic sectors.
He said the tourism sector, which required additional infrastructure development, was limiting the expansion of other economic sectors.
"Take agriculture - the rapid development of roads and buildings are taking away space required for farmland and irrigation at a rate of nearly 1,000 hectares per year," he said.
He further cited the agriculture sector as a more sustainable tool for economic growth, saying that the rate at which a farmer's income fluctuated was relatively more stable than that of those working in the tourism sector.
He said that a farmer's real income grew at a rate of 4.83 percent in the 1970-1980 period. Though stunted by market marginalization, which preferred tourism, to 2.98 percent in the 1980s and a further 2.35 percent in the 1990s, the agriculture sector did record of real income growth per capita of 3.92 percent in the 2000-2006 period.
In comparison, real wages in the services sector including tourism continued to fall. During the Bali tourism heyday of the 1980s, real income growth per capita in the services sector showed a spike of 8.93 percent from 5.21 percent during the 1970s.
In the 1990s and during the Asian financial crisis, the number dropped to 5.97 percent. From 2000 to 2006, the services sector recorded a freefall with a real income growth per capita of 1.04 percent.
"This proves at least one thing: Our reliance on market mechanisms to support fair and equal development requires a second look," he said.
"This applies not only to the government, but to all stakeholders such as the public and businessmen."
Bagus Sudibya, former head of the Bali Tourism Board who was present at the seminar, admitted that an over-reliance on the tourism sector had caused the government some difficulty in growing the island's economy.

BisnisBali reports that the recent outbreak of rabies in Bali has prompted a local animal welfare organization Yudisthira Swarga to urge the government to put rules and regulations into place regulating pet ownership.
The Farm Animal Program Manager for Yudisthira Swarga, I Wayan Mudiartha, said, “with such regulations in place, the government will be able to ensure that the public adequately care for their dogs.”
Mudiartha hopes that rules governing canine ownership is needed due to the growing popularity of dog ownership and the relatively low level of knowledge on how to care and nurture such pets.
He told the press that such rules would limit the number of dogs that a single owner can possess in accordance with each owners ability to adequately care for their pets. Such controls would automatically require all dog owners to register their animals on a yearly basis and for dogs to wear an official license around their neck.
He also said that such a law should mandate that animals not kept for breeding purposes must be sterilized in order to prevent the establishment of large feral populations of dogs roaming the island.
Similar to other locations where dog ownership is regulated, dogs found by authorities to be unlicensed would be sent to a pound where, if they were not claimed within a specific period, would be euthanized.
Mudiartha also told the press that an essential part of any pet ownership law would be sanctions, including fines and possible imprisonment, for people who violate the rules.
The animal activist said that the current rabies outbreak formed the right time for the promulgation of pet ownership regulations for Bali.

The Central Elections Commission (KPU) is granting special license to the island of Bali to reschedule the timings for the coming “open campaign” to reflect the special requirements of the island’s residents.
National rules for campaigning stipulate that the active campaign period for all the political parties will run for 21 days from March 16 until April 5, 2009. However, the celebration of the Galungan, Kuningan and Nyepi holidays would effectively reduce the time for active campaigning to only 14 days.
Responding to Bali’s special circumstances, Sri Nuryanti, the Chairwoman of the Central Working Group for Campaigning from the KPU told Kompas, “we agree that the permission for three parties to campaign on any one day of the campaign period be expanded to five to six parties on any single day for Bali.
Related Article
[Presidential Elections July 8, 2009 ]

The Bali Government Tourist Office has issued a set of guidelines for local residents and visitor that must be observed on Nyepi - the absolute day of silence that will mark the dawn of a new year on the Bali-Hindu calendar.
On Wednesday evening, March 25, 2009, streets across the island will be clogged by revellers out in force to watch teams of young men from local banjars parade large Papier-mâché floats through the streets. Police will be out in force to contain any excesses by parade participants and spectators who are often well-oiled with rice wine.
The Silence Falls
Somewhat worse for wear, the celebrants will find their way back to the village homes by 6 a.m. on Thursday morning, March 26, 2009, when local tradition dictates that island residents must enter into a 24-hour of silent reflection during which:
• No lights may be lit
• No work may be performed
• No amusements enjoyed
• Silence should be maintained
• People should not venture outside the sealed and silent quarters.
The silence remains in absolute effect until 6 a.m. on Friday morning, March 27, 2009.
Tourism to Come to a Standstill
Tourist visitors and non-Balinese residents of the island are expected to heed local tradition.
• Hotel service staff will be compelled to stay at the place of employment during the 24 hour period as travel to and from the place of employment will be forbidden.
• All roads across the island will fall silent and available only for use by emergency vehicles.
• Hotel guests must stay on their hotel grounds throughout the 24 hour period during which they will be able to enjoy most hotel facilities and services. Guest rooms windows will have their curtains drawn and outside lighting at hotels will be dimmed or extinguished during the Nyepi period.
• Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport will be closed with no flight operations during the 24 hour period. Technical and emergency landings will be allowed, including medical evacuation flights, but crew landing at the airport between 6 a.m. on March 26 until 6 a.m. the following morning will not be allowed to leave the airport.
• All Bali sea ports will be closed during the 24 hour Nyepi period.
• The once monthly tsunami alarm testing that occurs at 10 a.m. on the 26th of each month will not take place on March 26th.
Related Activities
A one of its kind activity, many visitors actually flock to Bali to enjoy the unique experience of seeing an island of 3 million inhabitants go absolutely silent for 24 hours.
If you’re planning a visit during this period, here’s some related activities you won’t want to miss:
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - Meklyis or Melasti. Processions of Balinese Hindus across the island bearing effigies from their temples to the ocean for purification ceremonies on Kuta and Sanur beach.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
- Tawur Agung Kesanga Ceremony. Sacrificial rites are held starting from 12 noon to appease spirits of the underworld followed by ogoh-ogoh parades in the evening of large Papier-mâché effigies resembling evil spirits through local streets.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
- Nyepi the celebration of the Icaka New Year 1931. The Day of absolute silence.
Friday, March 27, 2009 - Med-Medan - a traditional celebration held in Banjar Kaja, Sesetan, South Denpasar that sees young unmarried men and women gather in a local square to douse each other with water and exchange kisses. Thought to bring good luck, the fun starts at around 3 p.m..

While usually models of tolerance, recent press reports that Indonesia’s Buddhist religious minority can, when pushed sufficiently fare, proclaim “enough is enough.”
Such appears to be case when a group of devout Buddhist from North Sumatra called on the government to close the recently opened Buddha Bar and Restaurant in the capital Jakarta, insisting the use of the Lord Buddha’s name in a commercial venture was sacrilegious.
The Jakarta bar, according to the state news agency Antara is said to part of a chic Paris-based franchise.
Brilian Moktar, representing the Buddhist Association of Medan, told the press, “We urge the Jakarta administration to take strong action against the use of the name Buddha to avoid angering Buddhists.”
Reflecting a national disinclination to never give offense, especially on matters of a religious nature, Parlindungan Purba, a member of the Regional Representatives Council, said he would deliver the Buddhist community's objection to the Jakarta administration.
Purba said: “I'm concerned about this. Names related to religion must not be used for purposes other than religious.”
Wider ImplicationsThe Buddha Bar, reported to have outlets in Jakarta, London, New York and Dubai, may not be the only establishment under threat of a mandatory name change if authorities act consistently and a nation wide basis. Bali has at least two bars and restaurants that have incorporated Buddha into their name and a major 5 star hotel in Jakarta is named after the Borobudur Buddhist temple.

In addition to issuing tickets to motorcyclists lacking driver’s licenses, vehicles titles and helmets. NusaBali reports that Denpasar’s traffic police will soon also be taking actions against drivers (presumably male) cruising Bali’s roads bare-chested.
Declared “Operation Sympathetic” and focused primarily on the streets of Kuta, a police official confirmed that special attention would be given to foreign male tourists driving motorcycles while not wearing a shirt.
Insisting that Bali’s streets and highways were in great need of a “standard of ethics and normative behavior” for motorists, the police spokesman also said a failure to wear a shirt can result in greater injuries when cyclist fall and make contact with asphalt road surfaces.

Book Review
Anyone searching for an inspirational gift for a friend, loved one or even themselves in this economically troubled time should consider buying a copy of the recently published Odd Poems and Slogans. This quirky, soul searching, beautifully crafted and produced bundle consists of 135 select poems documents the spiritual, emotional and physical life journey of Irishman John O’Sullivan over a period of one decade.
Like T.S. Eliot, O’Sullivan, kept his talents well hidden, beneath a series of successful corporate alter egos for years. The bard within, however, stimulated by the salubrious effect of the ‘other’ Emerald Isle of his life (Bali), could be repressed no longer. To the surprise of many, who had no idea of his talents, the gregarious Irishman launched his book of verse at the 2008 Ubud Writer’s Festival.
For those who delight in the creative destruction and reinvention of language, John’s poems will tickle and amuse the ear, heart and mind. Resounding with lyrical passion, irreverence and an irrepressible childlike joy of life, they face in the dark forces of entropy with self-effacing irony. “In a sense, I am not angry; I am numbed”, he mutters in “of pain”. Elsewhere in “Batavia” he sensibly poses the rhetorical question, “why is there irony in hope?”
Odd Poems and Slogans can be bought in all Periplus Book Shops or ordered directly from O’Sullivan’s website [www.irish-poet.com], which also includes a selection of his paintings, one of which is featured on the cover of the book. He is booked to read in the upcoming Hong Kong Literary Festival in March and will once again join the 2009 Ubud Reader’s Festival during which time he will hold a joint exhibition of his paintings with Ida Bagus Indra at Gaya Gallery in Ubud. It would seem that talent is not always dispersed evenly and as the Balinese well know, denying your calling is fraught with danger. John is out of the creative closet and the world is happier for it.
And, yes, this is the same John O’Sullivan who runs both Four Seasons Resorts in Bali, a task performed with poetic elegance as anyone who’s stayed there can confirm.
Odd Poems and Slogans
John O’Sullivan
Qube Press, Singapore, 2008
148 pages, 135 poems.

Running from January 23 until February 15, 2009, Bali Trade Fare 2009 on Jalan Hayam Wuruk in downtown Denpasar is an opportunity for local companies to display new products to local consumers.
Household appliances, vehicles, and a whole range of items intended to augment the quality of daily life will be on display and offered at special prices for the duration of the exhibition.
Daily musical live entertainment and door prizes that include new Honda motorcycles will are also on offer as further inducement for the public to attend.
The Fair is open each day until February 15, 2009 from afternoon until evening.

An Ubud area man is now under police investigation for literally “taking a shine” on his former employer, a leading property located along the Pejeng River.
According to a report in NusaBali, the 40-year-old man had recently resigned his job from the hotel after being caught by hotel security attempting to steal 40 liters of cooking oil on January 2, 2009.
While apparently accepting the end of his employment with the hotel, the former employee apparently decided to seek revenge on the hotel by installing sheets of reflective glass of aluminum sheeting on a hillside owned by his family on the hillside opposite the hotel aimed at the guest rooms and guests lounging at his former place of employment.
NusaBali reports that the man has been called for questioning by Gianyar Police who, it is assumed, will caution the man about causing any further inconvenience to guests.

Last October the Hard Rock Hotel Bali held their ”Pinktober” annual fund raising event which saw pink cancer awareness wristbands and pink cocktails sold at the Centerstage Bar - all in aid of helping women afflicted with breast cancer.
On January 23, 2009. a check for Rp. 12 million (US$1,075.00) was handed by the Hotel’s General Manager to the Indonesian Cancer Foundation.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month was founded in 1985 and has now become an annual event every October to increase awareness of the disease and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention and cure.
Shown on balidiscovery.com is (left to right): Dr. Ketut Mulyadi , Vice Chairman - Yayasan Kanker Indonesia Bali Chapter and Darryl Marsden, General Manager Hard Rock Hotel Bali.

The hard fought debate over allowing a private investor to manage Bali’s sacred Lake Buyan has now come to an end with the very public rejection of the development plan put forth by PT Anantara. Governor Pastika’s outright rejection of the private management plan for the lake and its surrounding environs was made when a group of 150 demonstrators marched on his office to protest the plan on Friday, January 30, 2009.
Quoted in Bali Post, Pastika said he “agreed 100%” with plans to save Bali. Leaving a scheduled meeting at his office to meet with demonstrators, Pastika shouting: “Don’t think that Mangku Pastika can be bought by investors. No matter how much is offered, I won’t be selling my head to investor.”
The governor went on to restate his commitment to defend Bali with his entire heart and soul. He told the demonstrators that following his meeting with PT Anantara on January 9, 2009: “At that time, I did not give me ap proval to the investors. I had only heard their proposal. I invited them to first undertake a study that examines the physical, religious, traditional values, culture and economic implications of the proposal. And, remember, I place economic considerations fifth in order of priority.”
With demonstrators proclaiming “the Motherland is crying,” Pastika rejoined: “I, too, am crying. Every time I have returned to Siririt over the past five year the land encroachment into Lake Buyan has increased. Now more than 60 hectares of the lake has become shore land. What’s more, 260 of Bali’s 400 lakes are now dry. Of the remaining rivers 140 are on their way to becoming dry. Jungle trees are cut while rivers are polluted. Ten years in the future Bali will become like a desert if it is not saved.”
Warming to his theme, the Governor told the demonstrators that not only must Bali’s natural environment must be saved, but the island’s people, traditions and culture must also be rescued, adding, “I do not want to leav e Bali dry. The Hindu religion must be preserved and embraced by the people of Bali.”
The Protests
Prior to the Governor’s comments putting an end to the PT Anantara plan for Lake Buyan, the protestors all wearing traditional costumes and led by Hindu priests sang “Ibu Pertiwi” and “Padamu Negeri” – two well known patriotic songs. Si Ketut Mandiranatha, one of the demonstrations leaders, delivered an emotional address that included: “End the poignant cries of the nation’s children. Don’t allow Bali to become an island of the people’s suffering.” He then went on to call on all of Bali’s leaders and all its citizens to harden their resolve to maintain Bali as an island paradise.
Mandirranatha said that violations of Bali Hindu norms have already occurred in a number of areas in Bali including Loloan Yeh Poh, Uluwatu, Silayukti, Tanah Lot, Serangan, Lake Buyan and adjoining areas. He called for an end to exploitation of sacred areas across Bali and that investors be diverted to projects that with strengthen the people’s economy. He specifically pleaded for an end to all exploitation which defames religious values, local tradition, culture and the religious sensibilities of the Balinese Hindus. He also called on the Governor to take firm action against all violators of sacred zones in accordance with the island’s established zoning regulations and to include the Hindu Dharma organization in deliberations affecting sacred zones.