After ten years of pretty much unbroken fortnightly publication I’ve come to feel the shelf life of this particular column has expired and the time has come for this is to be the last regular contribution from ParacelsusAsia appearing in these pages.
The column has for the most part been great fun to write, ever self-indulgent and crying out for tighter editing, as it undoubtedly has been. Fun though it may be, there comes a time to call it a day, particularly when the risk of repetition becomes a noticeable danger. ParacelsusAsia, the persona adopted, has been generally iconoclastic, tongue-in-cheek (to my delight not everyone spotted that), by turn intended to amuse, inform and provoke. So for that reason I am equally appreciative of the most tolerant of editor/publishers of the phenomenon that is the Bali Advertiser and of the readers who loved or loathed the column, but read it. Judging by the many e.mails I received over the period, more than a few of you and not just in Bali, did both. No writer can ask for more. As for the legions of the indifferent and non-readers I remain content on that score too.
A Level Playing Field
One of the more serious underlying principles of the column was a desire to level the playing field, to cut through the self-serving commercial shill shedding light into those areas where the consumer was routinely misled or shortchanged. It is the observation of this writer that business people will get away with what they can and it is the consumer’s job to try and keep them honest. Caveat emptor and all that. For us all to become educated consumers is thus necessary but impractical. We can’t all be educated on everything we need to be, be it buying second hand cars, plumbing, medical insurance, unit trusts, alternative ‘healers’, nutritional supplements, multilevel marketing or how to get the best out of your doctor. We need someone independent we trust to mark our cards for us. That is easier said than done. By and large the media make a shameful job of it. They may tell us what is out there and compare the minutia of respective products but they will not reveal the tricks of the trade and smart marketing ploys their advertisers get up to in order to part us from our money. However imperfectly, this column sought to do just that and judging by the amount of mail received on many of the subjects mentioned (cars, financial instruments and plumbing being beyond my ken) the column went some way to answer this need.
A Tome of Importance
Perhaps the most significant piece of information imparted, which bears repeating today, involves the treatment of chronic disease. If you or a loved one are faced with serious or life threatening illness, it is, needless to say, stressful. You are quickly placed under extraordinary pressure to take action in a number of vital areas you know very little about. Your doctor/specialist urges you to one course, a second opinion another, your best friend carries you off to her favourite alternative healer, “go see my guru” trills your next-best friend, another comes bearing Howsyerfather Berries from the High Parmirs, an MLM maven touts a product that will save your life and pay your medical bills at the same time if you will only sign up in her downline, and a man you meet sitting next to you in an airplane tells you about this defrocked doctor in American Samoa, who can re-grow severed arms. It is all very confusing and just compounds the stress, not to mention expense. No wonder most people end up going along with what their doctors say, simply to end the stress of decision and because it’s covered by insurance, whatever reservations they may have. What your doctor says may well be the best course all along, but it is important to know that for yourself.
The problem lies in finding a clinically valid up-to-date and informed source, which sets out your options in terms you can understand, whether it be allopathic or complementary, amongst the forest of trivia, misinformation and salesmanship proliferating online and in print. Once armed with this information you can keep your doctors honest, ascertain areas of ignorance and ask them the hard questions you need answered to make the decisions you feel are right for you. If they feel challenged by this rather than welcoming your involvement, consider looking for another doctor. There is only one source that does this of which I am aware. It is the Protocols for the Cure & Prevention of Chronic Disease, an invaluable 800-page tome put out by the Life Extension Foundation and covering over 170 conditions. You can buy the book or better still access it free online and download whatever you need simply by going to www.lef.org.
Development Turbo-charged
Covering Bali as I have in such idiosyncratic fashion for the first ten years of the millennium has been a trip all on its own anyway. Visiting in the 1970s and finally building a house here in 1990 allowed me to catch the last echoes of the foreigner’s dream of Bali. A potent illusion that gained currency in the 1920s that had died by the mid-1980s with the advent of serious mass tourism. Looking back, the 90’s was a sleepy interlude in which not much appeared to change but everything in fact had, with three decades of New Order overlordship finally consigned to the dustbin. By 2000 development went into high gear. Group travel may have peaked but villa development, gorgeous and hideous, have spread like a rash over Southern Bali. Locals and expats expatiating as much as they like on spiritual, cultural and sustainable tourism along with the principles of Tri Hita Karana, coming up with all manner of wondrous development master plans, as indeed they have since the 1970s (and see where that’s got us) and which, based on results, signifies absolutely nothing except a free pass to overdevelop and befoul South Central Bali. Clearly, until such time as regulations long in place are taken seriously and enforced, coupled with some overdue remedial action, the problems of over development can only get a lot worse.
Hopes & Fears
Change is coming, that much is certain. Not before time, overpasses are scheduled to combat notorious traffic bottlenecks, the North of Bali is also to be opened up, new roads and new international airport there appear a certainty. This writer remains optimistic that Bali can surmount its infrastructural and environmental problems and has a bright if not stellar future if it can only muster the will to do so. Bali is much more than a package holiday destination. Foreigners coming to stay for longer periods of time and building homes here, properly regulated, are a valuable resource to be encouraged. Through its many positive qualities Bali has become an international design hotspot for large numbers of creative people from all over the world, for all kinds of products and has become an international shop window for Indonesia. Overseas buyers find it a pleasure, not a chore to come here on business. It remains agriculturally viable and the virtues of Tri Hata Karana are by no means incompatible with any of the above. Village life, culture and religious observation remain essentially vibrant and strong.
The only worry, and it is a big one, is business as normal. Then all bets are off. Bali simply can’t continue on its present course for very much longer and not pay a price in social stress and unacceptable environmental degradation. For this columnist at least, the cup that is Bali remains three quarters full, the positive far outweighs the negative - and that is likely to remain the case for quite some time to come. Meantime one’s hopes are for a much less modest result. It’s a bit like Bali’s sense of style and panache has been temporarily tarnished. It wouldn’t take much to buff it up and I look forward to seeing that come to pass. And with that my farewell and thanks to the Bali Advertiser and those who enjoyed the jottings.
Editors Note: Bali Advertiser wishes to thank Paracelsus for a decade of interesting articles. We hope to hear more from him in other guises.
