This is what the rebuilt Paddy’s Pub looks like today. The Sari Club no longer exists. The economic impact on all sectors in Bali is massive and ongoing. Signs of recovery from the 2002 bombings were shattered by the 2005 bombings. I spoke with a number of Balinese business leaders and they estimated a 70% total economic decline. The psychological and spiritual impact on the Balinese is also great. They are broken hearted, bankrupt, and hungry. Widespread suffering throughout the island is causing great anxiety and fear for the future of the Balinese people.
The 2002 bombings were the Balinese and Australian 9/11. The small Sari Bamboo Club’s destruction had a far more devastating impact on Bali than the twin towers’ destruction had on America. Small ethnic groups throughout the world do not have the strength and resilience of the world’s leading super power. Many Americans take comfort in military capacity and economic privilege. Complacency and fantasy are not luxuries that weaker targets of Islam can indulge in. They understand that Islam poses a threat to their existence, as individuals and as a society. Many in the west believe that only smaller societies like Bali are at risk from totalitarian Islam. This is a decadent illusion and a lack of understanding of the strength of Islamic ideology.
The Balinese have great love for America and Americans. Bali was freed from Japanese slavery by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atom bombs. This may sound harsh, but I learned this truth in a harsh way. In Tampaksiring, Bali, an elderly priest, with whom I was doing business, upon our meeting, said the following words. “Thank God America A-bombed Japan. All our village men were taken as slaves to build tunnels for the Japanese in Candidasa. Because of the bombs I was freed.” This was a great shock to me. He was a beautiful old man and a famous carver of bone miniatures. He was also the first non European freed slave I’d ever met in my life. His name was Ida Bagus Tantra.
