Where does the money go?
This morning, at home in Australia, I’m reading the latest
on a disagreement between the Bali wage council and the unions on the minimum
wage for workers in Indonesia. According to the Bali Daily, the Bali Wage Council has set the minimum wage at 1.4
million Rp (about $130 AUD) and is now waiting for approval from the governor.
The Independent workers Federation wants it to be raised to 1.7 to 2.1 million
($160 – 200 AUD).
Something doesn’t sit right--negotiations over $70 per
worker per month going on while these huge planes arrive, from the bellies of
which emerge millions of tourists every year. They will spend more than
$70 per day on having drinks and seafood
served up to them, luxuriating in spas and shopping for fake or real designer
clothes, and locally crafted jewellery. Where does all the tourism money
go? We Aussies with our sunburn, pot
bellies, thongs and Bintang t-shirts are an odd-looking global aristocracy,
haggling over goods in the markets and shops of Kuta. I don’t know what the
answer is, or even the question sometimes, but reading this Bali Daily report this morning as I
think about my upcoming Christmas trip to Bali, my toast isn’t going down as
well as usual. In the great land of the fair go are we becoming anesthetised to
global inequity?
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