Woe befalls Kuta Cowboys as a documentary shames village officials into action against them.
On 27th April twenty-eight men (and one woman) were rounded up by public order officials on Kuta beach, the raid apparently carried out in shamed reaction to a spate of publicity over the premiering of the documentary film “Cowboys in Paradise” at the DMZ Documentary Film Festival in South Korea last week.
“Cowboys in Paradise” chronicles the lives of some “Kuta Cowboys” or gigolos who entertain foreign tourist women in Bali. Village and tourism officials are unhappy at seeing Kuta portrayed in the film as a haven for male prostitutes.
‘Cowboys in Paradise’ trailer.
Said Kuta village head Gusti Ketut Sudira:
We found 28 men whose identity was unclear but none of them has confessed to being a gigolo.
In future young men, especially “dark and muscular” ones, hanging around beach areas had better have a good reason to be there: vivanews
We will intensify monitoring of the beach and those who are neither tourists nor vendors will be questioned
Meanwhile the Singapore-based Indian director of “Cowboys in Paradise”, Amit Virmani, claims to have received death threats and hate mail from ashamed Balinese, while the contents of the film’s website have been removed and (melo)dramatically replaced with:
Governor of Bali, I Made Mangku Pastika, said that he would order an investigation into “Cowboys in Paradise”, to determine whether the producers had had the necessary permits to make the film.
The indian guy has to be guilty because he revealed (accidentally) the biggest conspiracy work. Those cowboys are not prostitutes clearly, so it could be the spies sent by CIA to destroy this country from inside and gain first-hand information from the terrorists. I don’t know they paid those boys or not.
But how actually the ethical side was considered during the movie-making process?
Okay, Amit Virmani said that the boys knew exactly what the movie was about and they shouldn’t feel ashamed with their job as cowboys. But even they agreed, Amit should protect them and aware on any possible things that may ruin their life including social reactions. I think everybody that living in Indonesia for pretty long time will know things that still considered as taboo to be discussed in open forum even practically it happen everyday. By filming them so blatantly open like that, he made those boys vulnerable.
Believe me, they are well aware of what they are doing and so are their social relations.
_________
Oh ok, thnks for the explanation. I never thought that they are THAT aware.
The female prostitutes in Bali easily outnumber the Kuta cowboys 10 to 1, but no one is making a film about them. Even if they were making a film about female prostitution in Bali, no one would make a fuss. The reason being, most female prostitutes in Bali are Javanese, hence there is no injured pride. Secondly, they are not roaming about out in the open.
The Kuta cowboys may be prominent, but the actual numbers are very small. You go to any bar in Kuta, and its not going to be a brown sausagefest. Even the tourist clubs/pubs are not packed with hookers (female/male) like the typical expat haunts in Jakarta. Bali is far from becoming another Phukat, Pattaya or even Jakarta/Surabaya.
I think the reason why the Balinese are upset, because it also reinforces the stereotype among many Indonesians that Balinese men are lazy. I spent a part of my childhood in Lombok in 1980s, where my father was working as an Engineer. I used to go to the construction site in Lombok, and saw the usual, men bashing rocks, pouring cement, etc. Not much different from the rest of Indonesia. But when we went to Bali for holiday, we passed several construction sites and we noticed alot of construction crew were women. Mental Note: Never get into a fight with a Balinese Woman.
Seriously how could they not be aware, its common knowledge. Always amusing like the pretend shocked outrage at the latest tax, customs and police corruption. Well amusing for outsiders but I have never understood why the Indonesian populace accepts being treated like mental retards by its lawmakers.
______________
Blame it on the Dutch colonialism *lol*
But for this case, truly, I didn’t know that those cowboys were actually so proud and even bragging about it, and so were their community. The core is the same: prostitution. So even it’s their daily life, I think no one will brag and proud about prostitution job. That’s why I think that Amit probably missed the important point while he made his film: protecting those boys.
There is no point made about female prostitution in Bali because the ladies already pay the bribes and have to give free services to the police other government members.
It’s just a way of local politicians to put the pressure on the beach boys to get them paying bribes to get free when catch by the police and it will probably work..
With a good lawyer they would have a strong case when brought to court. Don’t know the written Balinese law, but i guess there is nowhere written that muscular brown skinned guys are not allowed to hang around on the beach.. All they have to do is unite and fight this stupid crap from the “officials”.
Copyright Indonesia Matters 2006-2023
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Contact
Those curry-smelling head-bobbing funny-accented people…. I told you, Aluang Anak Bayang was damn right!!! And I yet have to locate their skin color in the color wheel…. What a hassle.