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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The dilema on Balis ocean cleanliness by Zander

        In Bali there is a real problem with the cleanliness of their water and beaches. Bali is an undeveloped country, so there aren’t very many regulations.  They don’t have dedicated sewer system and they don’t clean the water before it hits the ocean.  We can’t drink the water out of the tap, and there is trash everywhere. It is really sad that Balinese government doesn’t care more about the pollution in the waterways.

            The primary sewage system is the ditch by the side of the road. For example there is a really big gutter next to every street as the draining system and the sewer. People walk in it and wash their kids in it. When it hits the beach they don’t clean it and it runs into ocean right next to our house. You have to be careful of that you don’t fall into it. At some beaches the water is brown, and there are lots of floaters in it, but people still surf in it because they don’t know how bad it is to swim in their own poop. Today it was really hard to surf because of how slippery the board felt; I think that it was like that because of all the soap and detergent that was washed to the ocean by recent heavy rains. My mom was picking shopping bags out of her surf board leash, while she was surfing. Some locals were fishing in the draining ditch and lining the rocks that made up the draining ditch walls with mortar. If the Balinese government put down some pipes and cleaned the water then the Balinese beaches would be much more pleasurable.

            I really learned from my time on the beaches in Bali. For instance how to dodge floaters and logs. What was really sad was how undeveloped and unregulated Bali is. There is always something wrong with places. For example, California is too regulated, and Bali is not regulated enough. Sometimes regulations are good, like if you want a clean beach.

2 comments:

  1. Hey Zander,
    Great post. You've put your finger on the main reason that we form governments. But why do you say that Calif has too much regulation?
    Love,
    GRAMPS

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  2. Yeah Zander. You have my vote!

    Actually, there are two reasons to regulate: 1] to control externalilties [check w. your Dad on that issue!] --stopping people/companies from doing things that harm the outside world and 2]to protect companies/groups who are already doing things in a certain way from suffering from the introduction of new technologies or competitors that have better technologies. That's a bad kind of regulation. An example might be old time-plumbers who get the legislature to pass a law saying all new houses must be plumbed w. copper pipe--when PVC is just as good. That way only the old guys who know how to work with copper can do the job. It protects them from young, cheaper workers elbowing their way into the field. Similarly, the food safety rules sponsored by the big meatpacking companies make it almost impossible for small farmers to butcher meat on their ranches if they want to sell it to the public.

    So, you're right. Regulation is complicated! We probably do way too little of the first kind and way too much of the second kind because of how responsive our governments are to businesses that give them lots of campaign money.

    Keep on checking out the world for us.
    love you. bippy

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