The Little Electric Bike Ballyhoo

 Here in the little town of Sanur, we have a Facebook group called Sanur Community, or something like that. What is actually meant by 'Sanur community', in this case, is the foreigners living in Sanur. Their community, not the Sanur community per se. Anyway, for the past week the community has been abuzz with frantic overreaction to the presence of little electric motorbikes on the beach paths. These little scooters showed up post-COVID, as I recall, and have proven to be a very popular attraction, especially among the young folk, but for older folk as well, both locals and foreigners.

For my own part, I enjoy watching people have fun on these things. They zip along the pathways, man, woman, and child, stop to take selfies, meet up with friends, and so on. Ah, but for the majority of the Sanur community exceptionals, they are a clear and present danger to life and limb. My goodness! They speed around without even looking, they don't even try to use the path marked for bikes, they nearly ran me over! 

Well, nearly is not good enough, I say. 

But this is not the only thing they complain about. Oh, no. They complain that Sanur is growing too much, becoming too crowded. They complain about the new mall under construction at the center of town. They complain about the hospital being constructed nearby on the Bypass. They complain about the new port facility and the traffic there and the traffic everywhere. They complain that Sanur is not the peaceful little place it was ten and twenty years ago. They came looking for peace and quiet, not for progress. What good is progress (except to the benefit of the local Indonesians, of course)?

They're ruining charming little Sanur! 

Ah vain and entitled foreign smudge. 

Well, a lone Indonesian gentleman took exception to these complaints of the community, suggesting that if people wanted a smaller, more peaceful, more primitive place they could move to one of the little villages on the island, replete with grass huts and local ambiance and nothing whatsoever to do. The people there would be glad to have the entertainment, as well as the money. 

As for Sanur, as the little town grows, the local economy improves, and as the local economy improves, the standard of living for those who were born here improves. 

Ruining little Sanur, are they? Ruining it for whom?