Not that long ago, the internet burst into chaos when Indonesian screen-writer residing in Bali, Jenny Jusuf, blew the whistle on a Mass Yoga Party organized by a Ubud-based Yoga Shala.
On her original tweet last month, Jenny posted a photo showing a mass of foreigners participating in the event with very close proximities from each other. The jam-packed Yoga shala was shown practicing a “Yoga Party” that the shala’s founder later claimed to have taken place in hope to raise money for local communities suffering from the Corona impacts.
As we all know, Bali has been gasping for air these past four months. So many places were closed down, cutting off the livelihood of so many people. In this spirit, as the founder of the yoga shala has claimed, they arrange a mass yoga exercises with a DJ for the house party to end things up. Although it is a bit of contrast ending a mass yoga practice with a party, we try to keep an open mind and just accept that many people might find it exciting. Afterall, the place was cramped, right?
Jenny’s post sparked some serious anger within the island’s community; both locals and foreigners were appalled seeing so many people in a small place without any regard to the official health protocols a.k.a wearing a mask and/or keeping a minimum of 2 meters distance from each other.
As always, people were divided into two poles. While most of them were raged to see foreigners giving no regard to the government’s health regulations, surprisingly there were so many that defended the shala, saying that they have done so much for the local communities and that we should be grateful for them being there.
Although ultimately taking responsibilities and apologizing for the inconsiderate event held at the Ubud Shala, the founder had tried denying the event and, with no shame wjatsoever, tried to discard Jenny’s reputation by saying that the photo she posted was taken months ago before the pandemic hit the world.
Claiming that it was an old photo, the irresponsible founder of the shala even tried to clean his footsteps by erasing older posts published in their social media accounts; a sad attempt to conceal a digital print since people had taken screenshots and other proofs in defense of Jenny Jusuf’s report.
When it was finally proved that the photo was indeed taken in June 2020, backed up with some videos uploaded by the very people who participated in the event, the founder of the shala then made a long and annoying apology post on their Insta, pointing out the things they have done and given back to the Ubud community. So many foreigners on their right mind were enraged with this half-heartedly made apology, saying that there is no point of giving money to the locals if they then decide to ignore health protocols and jeopardize the lives of so many.
As the situation went from bad to worse for Jenny, she actually felt like she needed legal counselors to deal with the threats and personal attacks she got from people defending the shala. Some local Balinese lawyers responded to her plea of getting legal help and is processing the case as of today and we wonder what the outcome will be.
Really, we wonder why it seems so hard to wear a mask and maintain a distance when not only our own but also other people’s health are at stake. When you live in a society, there is always a chance that you get or transfer the virus to other people without even knowing. If you do not have any care in the world of getting Corona in your system, then maybe it is time for you to think that you can also be a carrier, transferring your virus everywhere and to everybody you make contact with.
People who have families, jobs, and lives they can not afford to leave just for being sick and ridden on a hospital bed. These people might resist going to hospitals and just keep on pushing themselves to go to work everyday, infecting many more people in turn, and yet you wonder why the virus is staying for so long.
All in all, it seems like people are not taking the New Normal regulations seriously when they really should. Hopefully Bali government will have strict regulation regarding the matter in the near future. Until then, please wear your mask and keep your distance. We’ll fight this together!
