Pape’ete
Topics of the day: island tour, rain, discussions, silence, teenagers, agriculture, Marae, film
Today we set off with Robert and Eric in their rental car – using fossil fuels (just to share some of the cynical comments that were made in that poor soulless piece of steel on wheels which never harmed a fly… prescinding from a closer look at the wind shield – which would doubtlessly exhibit traces of insect intestines). We drove all the way to the Presque-Ile (Tahiti Iti) feeling like monkeys (munching on those sweet little bananas Eric had bought at one of the little stalls at the side of the road which are so common here (usually private people who have a surplus of produce in their gardens)).
We actually didn’t want to talk about “work” today but couldn’t help getting into a discussion on where and how to best start the Tahiti project – put the theory into practice (well most theories in the book “Equilibrism” (which currently isn’t available in English yet – at this point let me stress that money doesn’t stink… well it does in our current system, or maybe even in general but that’s what we (still) have to work with - so if you have any to give away, dear reader, don’t be shy ;) are proven just not all in one place – which is obviously our goal).
Up on a mountain I heard something for the first time in Tahiti - well I actually didn’t: silence. No car to be heard – a moment of tranquility can really help the soul calm down a bit. We stood by a little hut/refuge which was full of graffiti and lettering of people who wanted to eternise themselves there. We philosophised about teenagers revolting all around the world and pondered on why they often seem to rebel in the direction they do (which is mostly destructive and towards consumerism) and wondered how a whole generation could be persuaded to move onto the “right” (I know, objectivity doesn’t exist) path… I just came to the conclusion that it must be possible somehow (don’t ask how – my internal eternal optimist said so).
It rained almost all day so we didn’t go look at the waterfalls (in which Cording and Maeva, the two protagonists in Dirk’s (first) book (about Tahiti) go for a swim) we just went to see the agricultural area (in Eric’s vision including the golf course - I really like his way of looking at things :) which seemed so vast that we proclaimed it to be sufficient to nourish the entire Tahitian population. At this point I sheepishly indicated that there had been wars over resources (which aren’t mentioned in the history section of shiny tourist magazines) when Tahiti had a population 150.000 – now the island has roughly 180.000 inhabitants… I guess everyone will just have to eat less! We really need some statistics about agricultural area, productivity/fertility of the soil and how big the area needed for one vegetarian (my assumption/suggestion – starting to think about eco-dictatorship again – Dirk has planted some (more) radical thoughts into my little brain ;) Tahitian. And if we don’t like the statistics, some Tahitians will just have to move back to the islands and atolls where they were born… and the French have to go back home anyway – obviously I’m just kidding again… sorry we had a pretty cynical day, maybe because it rained so much and we had prepared for a sunny Sunday to enjoy the dolce far niente…
On our way back we listened to Eric reminiscing about past times in Tahiti (I’m afraid he got a bit disillusioned when we drove past another armada of construction workers installing a massive concrete wall) and visited the Marae (ancient cultural site made of rocks which was used for assembly, worship and other spiritual purposes – there are not many left in French Polynesia because missionaries used the rocks to build churches) in Paea which Raphael and I had been to before. Then we went to another “drive through”-marae (culture-to-go) – it looked pretty sad: buildings on both sides, weeds starting to reclaim their territory (can’t they reclaim “modern architecture” (ugly concrete buildings) instead?!) and not even a sign explaining this cultural and formerly spiritual site…
In the evening I actually wanted to get some work done but we were so exhausted (from sitting in the steel-beast on wheels all day!) that we borrowed one of Johann’s films – starring him – about time-travel and surfing (apparently it’s still a box office success in Hawaii). Back in 1911 there was only one hotel in O’ahu; people still spoke Hawaiian (I think the language has now died out), they used horses to get about, ate local food around a big table with the whole family and surfed on wooden boards -yes, and they died of pneumonia and didn’t have chocolate.
Wonder if I’d still be happier if I could travel back in time…
Final thoughts of the day: If you want to pull off a tag you either need to find a corner that is already sticking up a bit or you need to have really sharp fingernails…
How does one unite people who strive towards the same goal but all have different ideas of how to get there?
Apparently we were on the news last night – Johann will try to get us a copy from his TNTV-colleagues… (this thought seems so absolutely inane next to the others!)
Aloha means love, compassion, affection, peace, mercy…
Topics of the day: island tour, rain, discussions, silence, teenagers, agriculture, Marae, film
Today we set off with Robert and Eric in their rental car – using fossil fuels (just to share some of the cynical comments that were made in that poor soulless piece of steel on wheels which never harmed a fly… prescinding from a closer look at the wind shield – which would doubtlessly exhibit traces of insect intestines). We drove all the way to the Presque-Ile (Tahiti Iti) feeling like monkeys (munching on those sweet little bananas Eric had bought at one of the little stalls at the side of the road which are so common here (usually private people who have a surplus of produce in their gardens)).
We actually didn’t want to talk about “work” today but couldn’t help getting into a discussion on where and how to best start the Tahiti project – put the theory into practice (well most theories in the book “Equilibrism” (which currently isn’t available in English yet – at this point let me stress that money doesn’t stink… well it does in our current system, or maybe even in general but that’s what we (still) have to work with - so if you have any to give away, dear reader, don’t be shy ;) are proven just not all in one place – which is obviously our goal).
Up on a mountain I heard something for the first time in Tahiti - well I actually didn’t: silence. No car to be heard – a moment of tranquility can really help the soul calm down a bit. We stood by a little hut/refuge which was full of graffiti and lettering of people who wanted to eternise themselves there. We philosophised about teenagers revolting all around the world and pondered on why they often seem to rebel in the direction they do (which is mostly destructive and towards consumerism) and wondered how a whole generation could be persuaded to move onto the “right” (I know, objectivity doesn’t exist) path… I just came to the conclusion that it must be possible somehow (don’t ask how – my internal eternal optimist said so).
It rained almost all day so we didn’t go look at the waterfalls (in which Cording and Maeva, the two protagonists in Dirk’s (first) book (about Tahiti) go for a swim) we just went to see the agricultural area (in Eric’s vision including the golf course - I really like his way of looking at things :) which seemed so vast that we proclaimed it to be sufficient to nourish the entire Tahitian population. At this point I sheepishly indicated that there had been wars over resources (which aren’t mentioned in the history section of shiny tourist magazines) when Tahiti had a population 150.000 – now the island has roughly 180.000 inhabitants… I guess everyone will just have to eat less! We really need some statistics about agricultural area, productivity/fertility of the soil and how big the area needed for one vegetarian (my assumption/suggestion – starting to think about eco-dictatorship again – Dirk has planted some (more) radical thoughts into my little brain ;) Tahitian. And if we don’t like the statistics, some Tahitians will just have to move back to the islands and atolls where they were born… and the French have to go back home anyway – obviously I’m just kidding again… sorry we had a pretty cynical day, maybe because it rained so much and we had prepared for a sunny Sunday to enjoy the dolce far niente…
On our way back we listened to Eric reminiscing about past times in Tahiti (I’m afraid he got a bit disillusioned when we drove past another armada of construction workers installing a massive concrete wall) and visited the Marae (ancient cultural site made of rocks which was used for assembly, worship and other spiritual purposes – there are not many left in French Polynesia because missionaries used the rocks to build churches) in Paea which Raphael and I had been to before. Then we went to another “drive through”-marae (culture-to-go) – it looked pretty sad: buildings on both sides, weeds starting to reclaim their territory (can’t they reclaim “modern architecture” (ugly concrete buildings) instead?!) and not even a sign explaining this cultural and formerly spiritual site…
In the evening I actually wanted to get some work done but we were so exhausted (from sitting in the steel-beast on wheels all day!) that we borrowed one of Johann’s films – starring him – about time-travel and surfing (apparently it’s still a box office success in Hawaii). Back in 1911 there was only one hotel in O’ahu; people still spoke Hawaiian (I think the language has now died out), they used horses to get about, ate local food around a big table with the whole family and surfed on wooden boards -yes, and they died of pneumonia and didn’t have chocolate.
Wonder if I’d still be happier if I could travel back in time…
Final thoughts of the day: If you want to pull off a tag you either need to find a corner that is already sticking up a bit or you need to have really sharp fingernails…
How does one unite people who strive towards the same goal but all have different ideas of how to get there?
Apparently we were on the news last night – Johann will try to get us a copy from his TNTV-colleagues… (this thought seems so absolutely inane next to the others!)
Aloha means love, compassion, affection, peace, mercy…
1 Kommentar:
Liebe Kimberley, was für ein wunderbarer Bericht! Is`nt it sad? Je näher man der Natur kommt, desto deutlicher spürt man den menschlichen Irrsinn. Aber eine gute Nachricht hätte ich für Dich. Das Klima-Magazin veranstaltet in der Europa-Passage am Hamburger Ballindamm eine Klimawoche. Ich bin am nächsten Donnerstag dort eingeladen, um an einer Talkshow teilzunehmen. Die Chefredakteurin Christel Volmer ist beeindruckt von Eurer Arbeit auf Tahiti und ich habe ihr vorgeschlagen, dass sie nach eurer Rückkehr Kontakt aufnimmt. Es ist durchaus denkbar, dass das Kima-Magazin einen größeren Bericht über die Machbarkeitsstudie und eure Eindrücke vor Ort bringt. Mühsam ernährt sich das das Eichhörnchen ...
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