Reflections in Bali

Like most mornings, bali was bathed in glorious sunshine. I woke up bright and early and decided to begin my day with a refreshing swim before breakfast. It seemed just like any other morning on this beautiful island paradise. Little did I realize that this would turn out to be a most remarkable day in this most extraordinary place.

No sooner had I left my hotel room and headed for the pool (the tides had receded a lot and taking a plunge in the sea on this particular morning was out of the question) when I bumped into a visibly excited hotel attendant who told me, "There is a dolphin on the beach! It must have gotten stuck when the tides went down. People are trying to revive it and bring it back to sea."

I immediately rushed to the beach fronting our hotel and saw a lot of people running around, gathered around a huge blackish creature. It must have been more than twelve feet long. As I approached, I realized that stranded on the soft sand was not actually a dolphin, but was in fact a small beaked whale which had a nasty gash on its forehead and was bleeding. But regardless of the species, the men were undeterred in their efforts.

They dug a deep hole nearby as a water source and, with the help of a water pump and a long hose, were pouring salt water over the mammal to keep it alive. Others were quickly erecting a tent to provide relief from the burning sun, while a couple of more men were massaging and caressing the whale in an apparent effort to give it some comfort and reassurance. People appeared to be hollering all sorts of instructions and there was a lot of excited chatter but sadly, most of it was in Bahasa and I couldn’t really understand what they were saying.

More people began to arrive– hotel guests and locals from different walks of life. They came on foot or in their motor scooters, all eager to see what was happening. It was turning out to be quite an event for the surrounding area and was punctuated by the eventual arrival of a TV camera crew.

I was scarcely able to contain my own sense of excitement and curiosity. I sought out someone who could speak English and quickly found a man in hotel uniform. "Why," I asked, "is there so much interest in this?"

His replied: "We found it early this morning. We really do not have the expertise to know exactly what to do, but we are trying to keep it cool and wet. It may be too late to wait for the high tide to come this afternoon so we are thinking of bringing in a bulldozer to dig a canal all the way to the sea and channel water through it. In the meantime we are doing all we can to keep it alive by keeping it wet and protecting it from the sun and heat."

I kept my thoughts to myself but in reality I felt truly ashamed. Here I was, Chairman of the World Wildlife Fund in the Philippines, and I did not really know what to do to save this magnificent creature.

Soon a foreigner arrived and told them that they were doing the right things but that they should be aware that the mammal could not be dumped into the water right away. They would have to let go very cautiously as it had probably been out of the water quite long.

It took six long hours for the tide to come in. And sure enough, as the waters rose, the gentle people of Bali took the whale carefully back to the sea. It took a little while for the mammal to stir and move but as soon as it had done so, it flapped its tail and quickly disappeared. By then there must have been a crowd of about two hundred people and everyone burst into applause and shouts of joy.

Amidst the celebration, it occurred to me to probe further. "But why are the Balinese so affected by this event and so keen to save this whale?"

He answered: "Our Hindu and Buddhist beliefs teach us to always be in harmony with the environment. Ever since the bombings in Kuta, we have been told by our priests that the people of Bali have been neglecting their religion and their spirituality. We have been killing too many turtles for souvenirs, for instance. We have been neglecting the land…so we think that the gods are giving us a sign with this mammal. So we all felt that we had to save it and prove to the gods that we do care."

My emotions were raw and I did not know how to feel. Here I was, only three hours away from my own country, in a clean, lush and beautiful island and people were "praying to the gods and thinking of ways to atone for their neglect of their environment." The exhilaration of witnessing such an act of caring was matched only by the sadness of realizing that if this had happened on one of our islands, the end result may have been very different.

Later in the day, I shared the whole story with my daughters. Monica then told me: "The sad part of the story, Dad, is that whales are known to commit suicide when they get lost. They tend to bash their heads against rocks and then go to die on the shore. That may explain the gash you noticed. Despite their efforts, this particular whale may just go to die elsewhere."

Monica’s observations gave me pause and I reflected on the interaction of man with nature and the role that we play on this earth. We are all governed by our beliefs and for the Balinese people, this was an act of reconciliation. Their faith dictated their actions and perhaps it mattered not how the whale ended up on the beach nor its destiny afterwards. Perhaps all that mattered was that this was an act of goodness. Religion, whether Muslim, Buddhist or Christian, teaches us that all things happen as part of some divine plan. Perhaps the intercession of man in this event restored order as it should be. Or did it?

Just because man has the power to affect the outcome of a natural event, does that mean that we have the right to in all instances? Clearly where natural disturbances and ecological disasters originate from man’s actions, then we have a responsibility to do all we can to restore the original balance of nature. But nature has its way in the cycle of life and it would be arrogant of us to pretend to understand the natural order of things at all times. What if the whale, in some Darwinian process, had been pre-selected to die on that beach? What if it had been carrying a disease which threatened the whole of its herd?

While the act of saving a dying whale appeals to our innermost desire to see man perform redeeming acts of humanity (amidst all our many failings), did the Balinese people in fact upset nature’s balance with their actions? Did this selfless act of reaching out to help have unintended consequences?

Certainly this incident can be analyzed and debated from many different angles and on a higher level of reasoning. But even as questions continue to float in my mind, there was nevertheless something refreshingly innocent about the actions of those people. They did what they did for no other reason than the belief that it was the right thing to do. It made me realize that there are still places on this earth where people are not cynical and where deeds and words are not calculated or governed by a hidden agenda. The day’s events strengthened my own faith in the innate goodness of people and for that I am grateful to the people of Bali.

I leave you, dear reader, to draw your own conclusions. But one thing is clear–it was indeed a remarkable day.