Rubber Time aka Bali Time
A professor said to one of his students who really like to come late, “What time do you have?”
“10:20, Sir”, he said.
“You haven’t been on time, so just wait outside till the class end”, the professor said.
“Yes Sir, I’ve been on time. I’ve come on your time”, he disputes.
“???”
It is so rarely events or agendas started on the exact time in Bali (the real meaning of on time), it is usually begun on time (above the precise time alias late). It happens almost every where in every occasion, such as starting a lesson at school or campus, working in the office, carrying out a musical show, and etc.
The illustration above still gives a proper model where the one who was late is the student not the professor but the real life doesn’t show in such way. A lot of outstanding political or social figures do the tardy nature. The time management in Bali is often chaos. If you get an invitation which says it will start at 7, it means it will begin at 7:30. Unfortunately it seems normal in Bali; there is always a tolerance for that kind of condition so it is called rubber time due to the elasticity of the time which is able to be made longer and longer – to be delayed.
Well, let me tell you another story. There was a press conference held in Nusa Penida Island (an area belongs to Klungkung, state East of Denpasar) in the early of this month. It was to promote the island into tourism sector. Written down in the schedule it will start at 7 am. Waiting for an hour there was nothing begun. At last at 8:30 am the regent came in and started the meeting. His reason for the delay was because he woke up late on that morning. Spontaneously the members in the press conference murmured. Well, it is easy to guess what they were murmuring on.
The most strange thing when someone complaint on this bad habit it will be answered, “Well, this is Bali with its rubber time.” Yes, it is so difficult to change a fossilization of habit except the change is started from each of the individual.
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