• Selling Last and Love in Bali
• What to Do-Kuta and Seminyak
• The Hidden Life of South Bali
• The Struggle to Save Bali's Turtles
• Jimbaran-The Bukit
• What to Do-Impossible Surf at The Bukit
• Fair Trade in Bali
• Ubud
• A Dance for Every Day
• Balinese Painters
• Ubud-What to do
• A Word of Dance
• East Bali in a Nutshell
• The Hidden life of East Bali
• Klungkung
• Where to Stay-Padang Bay
• Where to Stay Candidasa
• First and Third World in Tenganan
• Amlapura-Tirtagangga
• Tirtagangga and Around
• Amed Beach
• Planning Your Trip: The Best of Bali
• South Bali in a Nutshell

 

Fair Trade in Bali

The image of Balinese craftspeople as soulful artists engaged in a traditional way of life hides stark realities. While some handicraft makers from artistic centres around Ubud may have learned painting or stone carving from their parents, may choose this sector as the only way to work out of poverty. Their works make it to mar­ket because they are cheaply produced with poorly paid labour and inexpensive raw materials. In fact, many crafts made in Bali have no relationship with the local culture.

Carved giraffes and panda bears, Christmas tree ornaments, Native American dream catchers, Australian didgeridoos, and Inuit carvings are all made in Bali to be sold as “authentic” elsewhere . the success of their producers is their ability to copy a sample brought by a foreign buyer. Indeed creativity is risky, especially for Balinese who have little understanding of the cultural context that makes Western want to own carved cats holding fishing poles in the first place.

A Balinese Cersion of Fair Trade

Agung Alit, a Balinese social welfare activist, founded the Mitra Bali foundation, Bali 's first "fair trade" organization, in 1993, to address these concerns. The buyers who work with Mitra bali must pay provide craftspeople a 50% deposit on orders, allowing small-scale producers to par­ ticipate without going into debt or selling the family land. Producers are taught to calculate their material and labour costs instead of accepting out of desperation whatever a buyer offers. Mitra Bali also organises a producers' mutual aid society lending money or labour to members in need.

Mitra Bali also tries to raise awarenenss of safe working conditions. There is a long way to go since most craft makers consider safety and gloves as expensive and cumbersome, shunning them even when breathing toxic varnishes or using sharp tools. The foundation also encourages producers to use materials that do not contribute to environmental devastation, like easily – grown coconut and albasia woods, and they sponsor the replanting of trees felled for craft production.

grandiose cremation ceremonies

centres around Ubud

fair one tries