January 6, 2022

Once again this week's Sanur Weekly is mostly COVID news and news of Indonesia's continually changing response to COVID. Omicron is visiting the islands of course, including Bali. The government is shuffling quarantine rules like a deck of cards, with a new deck for every shuffle. It's all getting pretty old, but hey, that's COVID. 

I read as well that during 2021, the Bali immigration office has deported 194 foreign nationals. I'm frankly surprised that there were still 194 foreigners here to deport. Most were deported for overstaying their visa, working without a work permit, or committing some sort of crime. Seven foreigners were deported for repeatedly violating COVID-19 health protocols. 

Nonetheless, with hope everlasting, Bali continues to gear up for what will surely be a flood of tourists. A new international hospital is to be built in my own little town of Sanur, slated for completion within the next three years. At the port of Benoa, a cruise port will soon be under construction, to be the biggest cruise ship port in Indonesia (a step up from none). 

Now this little bit I will transcribe verbatim, so that no one may think that I am making it up: 

A 55 year old woman, originally from Surabaya, has been arrested for stealing a large amount of canned milk from supermarkets in Denpasar. According to the head of the Denpasar police department, Kombes Pol Jansen Avitus Panjaitan, the woman has stolen the milk cans from several supermarkets over the course of three months. When the supermarket noticed a big difference between their sales and their stock they reviewed some CCTV footage and finally identified the woman as the thief leading to her arrest shortly after the police report was filed. According to the reports the woman is a member of a gang of 5 milk thieves. The value of the stolen goods is estimated to be around 95 million Rupiah ($US6,650). That's actually a lot of milk. 

By the way, today is my brother's birthday. He would have been 70 years of age if he had not died when he was 30. Happy birthday, Gary. Still miss you.