Launching Baleku

In case you don’t know, I grew up in Lombok, an island next to Bali.

The great part: it’s far more beautiful than I could ever describe in words. The greater part: more and more people are coming for a visit, or, if they have money, for a great investment opportunities. Every time I come home, these people are pouring their money into the island. They build luxurious villas, resorts, modern malls, and soon F1 circuit? Perhaps Disneyland too or anything else that we locals can’t afford?

However, that’s not the part to get excited about. Infrastructure indeed plays the key part in development but I doubt it’d go far enough without promising quality of human resources. I think we all agree that what makes Singapore great is their own people or it’s the Israelis themselves who build what they have able able to build, not the insane amount of money they have there. It’s always about who get to build it. Therefore, one of the keys to get there is to have access to everything we need. When I say access, I mean the proper information we can get. In Lombok today, it’s close to nonexistent.

The smallest thing I can contribute is to create something where everyone gets to say what they have in mind and share kinds of happening activities on a website called Baleku. Very simple. My aim: everybody (even those in areas where XL does not work well) knows where they can go or what their friends and people from the same province think of something. If you think of it as an info hub, yes it is. And this should be a good start to exercise our freedom of speech more frequently, to be the actively contributing citizens of the digital world. I hope this will be the right place, not only Facebook.

Why did I bother? My experiences working with many organisations in Lombok and Sumbawa have led me to this problem: some of us who initiate things, who belong to an organisation, who think we’re changing the world, don’t seem to communicate with each other effectively enough to let the outsiders know what’s going on. Meaning, those cool activities are almost unheard of, burried inside these whatsapp and line groups that seems a little exclusive. And as we know, there are a lot of cool stuff going on. That cultural show, standup comedy, hip hop dance, poetry, volunteer activities, cycling club – you name it. So, my friends and I helped me start Baleku:

Hello, Lombok and Sumbawa. It’s time to make use of the internet more wisely. We’re launching a free site for everyone to share their opinions on things that matter (you can even share where the new Instagrammable beach is or tell people what you think of what happened to Gili T). We’re also eager to connect all kinds of communities that do cool stuff. We’ll add your event to the public calendar so everyone can see. We have a great team ready to help keep everything organised. To start, you can help us share this 😉

Halo, Lombok dan Sumbawa. Yuk mulai aktif kontribusi di dunia digital. Berbagi opini kamu tentang apa saja (bahasa apapun! Bahkan Mbojo pun bisa). Dan share kegiatan komunitas kamu di Baleku. Dengan begitu, informasi untuk mengembangkan diri kamu tidak terbatas lagi. Mari berbagi informasi!

Check out http://www.baleku.club
Questions? e-mail to nanya@baleku.club

If you care enough and have some time, take a look at http://www.baleku.club and share your opinions on everything and share events there. Or tell about this to your friends in Dompu, Praya, Sumbawa, wherever you are.

Thank you.