In Reply to: Cliff - a question posted by Paulinelkr on Wednesday, 14. September 2005 at 14:42 Bali Time:
This could be the all-time vaguest question I've ever been asked. So well done. :)
The universe is full of information and it comes at me from many sources and at various times. Some people know some stuff and they tell me some of that stuff and then I know it too. There are newspapers, magazines, websites, experiences, and very occasionally some information on TV (at least there used to be).
It's not as though I did a course on how to find work in Bali. I read online newspapers like Jakarta Post and Asia Times Online, among others. I've checked out the Indonesian Expat site for general info. Various other websites have various other information. Sometimes even the BTF has useful info when you least expect it, like Rex's excellent post on diving equipment and Carlos's tips on identifying a good curry.
And when I'm in Indonesia (been three times), I go to a lot of places that tourists don't normally go and as a lot of questions that people don't expect to be asked, and then I find out lots of stuff that isn't in the papers or on websites.
And then of course I have to find out lots of other stuff about lots of other things in order to place my info about Indonesia in a context -- so that I don't just know stuff, but have some idea about what that stuff means. That's the tricky part. Facts and information are meaningless if they are isolated, which is why any media that reports "just the facts" is usually misleading.
But really, the sort of information you aquire about a place depends on what questions you ask in the first place. If you ask: "Where can I get cheap Nikes?", then that's probably all you'll find out. But if you ask "How come so many people are poor in a country so rich in resources?", then every answer leads to another question, and pretty soon you'll wind up with all sorts of information that points to the answer: "Because of companies like Nike."
And that's how Oktoberfest started. Or maybe not.