July 28, 2013
Rapanui: The Unknown Truth Behind The Moais
Mati Hitorangi, 2013
We, the Rapanui people of Easter Island, have managed to preserve our Polynesian culture despite a horrible history, our ancestors were sold as slaves, infected with deadly diseases, locked up in a ghetto. We have experienced all sorts of physical and psychological tortures since our first contact with the `civilized world’ in 1722. AHU-TONGARIKI The most striking legacy of our Polynesian culture are the stone sculptures called moais. They have made our island known around the world, and there are all kind of theories about them, how we made and moved them. What is really important for us is very different though. The moais are spiritual tombstones; build to protect the land and the blood matrix to which each clan belongs. At the top of the moai, sits the Pukao, or hat, representing a Henua (a mother’s womb). The place in which the moai reaches into the pukao, is the komari, or clitoris, the sacred key that opens the space for the kuhane (soul) to come into each newborn of the clan. The moais stand on top of the Ahus. The Ahus are enormous rock catacombs. When someone died his or her body was left on the Ahu, so the flesh could disintegrate, so the bones could be buried underneath. Beside it, women buried their placentas after each birth. Both traditions where done as a gift to Kainga (Mother Earth) so that it would always nourish the clan. Our moais represent conception, birth and death. What for the tourists are unrivaled archeological sites, for us symbolize the profoundly spiritual bond between we have with our land. Not long after our island was annexed by the Chilean state in 1888, it was rented – together with all inhabitants – to a British sheep farming company. All clans were dispossessed of their land. It was the darkest time of our history, 7 decades in the ghetto, forgotten and enslaved. I am proud to belong to one of the fiercest clans of Easter Island, the Hitorangi Clan. Our land, together with our holy sites was stolen by the state, and later sold. Our moai and ahu were destroyed, so a pool for the five star “Hanga Roa Hotel” could be built. How would you call this? I call it cultural assassination! This luxury hotel is built over the wombs and the bones of our clan. The tourists who come, travel around the island taking pictures of the remaining ahus and moais. I don’t really blame them, they just don’t know. But after uncountable peaceful attempts to recuperate our land, and nobody wanting to listen, we have begun a different fight! We have occupied the land that was stolen from us. We are taking it back. It is and has always been ours. Our struggle is being filmed by an international team, and maybe the future tourists of the island will be able to learn that they are coming to a sacred place. “Nua Rapa Nui” is a documentary film project, that unfolds the ancestral richness hidden behind the archeological sites of Easter Island. It follows my clan, the Hitorangi Clan, while we risk our lives in defense of our stolen land.
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July 14, 2013
July 9, 2013
July 8, 2013
July 7, 2013
June 30, 2013
June 20, 2013
May 29, 2013
The 2013 Eastern Pacific tropical cyclone season was extremely active, destructive, and deadly. Three notable storms occurred this year, Hurricanes Erick, Juliette, and Kiko. Erick killed 800 people and caused $500 million damage due to major landslides across Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and many other Central American nations. Juliette caused an unprecedented rainfall catastrophe across many of Hawaii’s islands, as well as producing tornadoes of EF-3 intensity on Hawaii’s Big Island. Combined with storm surges of 10 feet, the hurricane caused $1.4 billion in damage and 1,300 fatalities across Hawaii. Kiko also produced deadly landslides across Guatemala, southeastern Mexico, and Hawaii, killing 1,100 people and causing total damages of $1.1 billion. Elsewhere, Hurricanes Cosme, Priscilla, and Tico, as well as Tropical Storms Dalila and Flossie, had minor land impacts, but they were not as severe as Erick, Juliette, or Kiko’s.
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May 22, 2013
MERS-CoV
A 66-year-old Tunisian man has died from the new coronavirus following a visit to Saudi Arabia and two of his adult children were infected with it.
His sons were treated and have since recovered but the rest of the family remains under medical observation. The cases are the first for Tunisia and indicate that the virus is slowly trickling out of Saudi Arabia, where more than 30 coronavirus cases have been reported. There have been at least 20 deaths worldwide out of 40 cases.
The Tunisian fatality, a diabetic, had been complaining of breathing problems since his return from the trip and died in a hospital in the coastal Tunisian city of Monastir. Many previous coronavirus patients have had underlying medical problems, which WHO said might have made them more susceptible to getting infected. There is no specific treatment for the disease, but the agency has issued guidelines for how doctors might treat patients, like providing oxygen therapy and avoiding strong steroids.
The new virus has been compared to SARS, an unusual pneumonia that surfaced in China then erupted into a deadly international outbreak in early 2003. Ultimately, more than 8,000 SARS cases were reported in about 30 countries and over 770 people died from it.
The new coronavirus is most closely related to a bat virus and is part of a family of viruses that cause the common cold and SARS. Experts suspect it may be jumping directly from animals like camels or goats into people, but there isn’t enough proof to narrow down a species yet. The virus can cause acute respiratory disease, kidney failure and heart problems.
The Saudi Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina will receive millions of pilgrims from around the world during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which falls in July and August this year.
The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona virus (MERS-CoV), which was first reported in Saudi Arabia and is now slowly spreading to other countries like the U.K., Jordan, France, and Tunisia.
Strange enough, despite the fact that Kerala has a lot of women working in the health sector in the Middle East and that there is good traffic between the Middle East and Kerala, active surveillance for the illness has not yet been launched.
The infection is still being reported in small clusters, even outside Middle East countries and hence no screening at airports has been advised by WHO. Yet, given Kerala’s widespread links to the Middle East and the fact that so many Malayalis live in very crowded environs in these countries, it is very much possible that the virus could come into Kerala.
Human-to-human transmission of the virus has been confirmed with many cases being reported among family members and through hospital-acquired (nosocomial) infections. The virus has so far resulted in 40 confirmed cases of severe respiratory disease, including 20 deaths.
The MERS-CoV belongs to the same family as the SARS virus, which had erupted as a major global outbreak in 2003. The novel CoV, however, though more lethal than SARS virus, does not spread from humans as easily as SARS.
Till now, all the confirmed cases of MERS-CoV has had some link to the Middle East – persons who travelled to the destination, their close family members, or health workers who came into contact with confirmed cases in hospitals.
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