3 out of 4 stars
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So you want a business in Bali by Delma Davies is a non-fiction book. This book narrates the personal experience of the author as she ventured business in this place. This book presents different stories. It is also liberating because it recounts how the author struggled and is struggling in a foreign land. She sought to it that each Balinese encounter leads to an invaluable lesson. Let me give you tidbits of lessons from each chapter. I promise this will not spoil the content because this book is like a big chest with many compartments.
Chapters 1 and 2 give us a background on how the author started her business in Bali. She shared her observations and experiences in this foreign land. Chapter 3 discusses the different way Balinese approach problems. Chapter 4 uncovers the mysterious silence of Balinese which may indicate trouble. Chapter 5 lets us discover how Balinese portray gratitude in a very different way compared to the rest of the world. Chapter 6 is about being content with what one has.
Chapter 7 describes Balinese faith. Chapter 8 uncovers how Balinese women regard privacy. This chapter also explains the naiveté of the Balinese women. Chapter 9 shares to us the amazing Balinese way of healing. The succeeding chapters of this book narrate more practices and beliefs of the Balinese. It will make you laugh, smile and wonder and it enumerates a lot of things for you to ponder.
To live in a foreign land is challenging. We struggle to understand people in this new place and vice versa. We sometimes commit a mistake of using our culture as standard in understanding others’ culture. This book reminds me of my greatest lesson from my anthropology class. Never use your culture as a standard in understanding other cultures. To understand another culture, one must be free from any bias.
“Surupiahrise” forced me to check several dictionaries just to look for its meaning. I realized that the author coined this word. You will meet more words like this from this book. What I like most about this book is its neutrality and the free life lessons it brings us. I congratulate the writer for staying objective. What bothers me about this book is its acceptance to most of Indonesians or even Asians because culture is a delicate topic to discuss.
I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars because there are minimal typos. I recommend this book to those who wish to put up their business in a foreign land. This is a good source of human resource management lessons. I also recommend this to the Indonesians, especially to the Balinese. I hope they would read this objectively because as human capitals, they must initiate development.
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So you want a business in Bali
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