Live from Japan!

One thing that was really nice about travelling with Intrepid Travel during our Bali trip was that we always had a local guide with us during our walks, hikes and bike rides. Having this local on hand was really useful to ensure that we were understanding what we were seeing, instead of just looking at things and wondering what it was or why it was there.

On our first little walking tour of a small village we saw these signs on every entrance to the individual family compounds. Had it not been for the guide, I would have had no idea why they were there and what they meant.

As it turns out these signs are part of the census in Bali. Every so often (I believe it was ten years) the country takes a census. The census involves many of the same things that are recorded in westernized countries, like America. These particular signs at the entrance to the family compound give data on the people living in that particular space. In the case of this particular compound, there are two families living there. The first family has three males and one female, for a total of four people. The second family has four males and three females, for a total of seven people. Eleven people altogether live in that compound.

In addition to the small signs at the entrances of individual compounds, there were also large signs at each villages’ meeting place. These large signs held the data for the entire village posted in plain view for all to see.

Our guide explained this board to us and all the information it contains and it is really quite fascinating. The census even counts how many pieces of livestock and what types (cows, ducks, chickens, pigs) each family owns. It also logs education level, profession, data about income, etc.

I was not surprised by the fact that they kept these kinds of records, in fact I was rather impressed by the level of detail. However, I was a bit surprised by the fact that none of it was private. Everyone could see exactly what each of their neighbors owned. The same data is collected in other countries, in many cases even more data, but the information about each individual is held in confidentiality and information is only released once all the data has been collected. Bali’s census seemed a bit intrusive, no one could have any secrets. It is possible, however, that they don’t really have any secrets to keep. It seemed to me that the villages in Bali were a bit closer knit and intertwined than your average westernized community, and it is likely that even without a huge board posted in the village hall that everyone would know who you were and what you owned anyways.