The News From Nuku'alofa
The best pictures of the riots' aftermath are on Matangi Tonga. My friend the former Peace Corps Volunteer Emile Hons has been working the international phone lines and reports that 80 percent of the downtown is destroyed. The old Tungi Arcade, gone. The Pacific Royale hotel, gone. The Indian department stores—gone. And of course Shoreline, the modern communications company started by the King-designate when he was Crown Prince—ratted and burned. By one account, many of the Chinese immigrants to the country—they bought their passports in a royal scandal some years back—are hunkered in the Chinese Embassy, waiting out the troubles.
Hons tells me that woodframed historic structures, the Royal Palace, the Nuku'alofa Club, and the Parliament House, have survived the riots. These sites will surely be the focus of the Aussie and N.Z. troops that arrived over the weekend, restoring order.
The riots are a paradigm shift for the Friendly Islands. They reflect a long-traditional people's impatience with a feudal structure of government and a Parliament dominated by noblemen. Or as former Peace Corps Volunteer Bob Forbes says:
I think the biggest burden is now on the shoulders of [future King] Siaosi Tupou V and especially the nobles in Parliament, who have the power to slowly change things.
Maybe not so slowly. The democracy movement has been around for many years now, with few real reforms to show for its efforts. Its time has come at last. The Tongans are a creative and (ordinarily) gentle people. I'm pulling for their leaders to wake up and grasp the moment.
BOOKS OF THE TIMES; In the Peace Corps, Evil Lurked Along With Noble Intentions and Good Works
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By JANET MASLIN
Published: June 21, 2004
AMERICAN TABOO
A Murder in the Peace Corps
By Philip Weiss
Illustrated. 369 pages. HarperCollins. $25.95.
The place: Manhattan. The year: 2002. The setting: a coffee bar in SoHo. The meeting: long-awaited. Philip Weiss has been working up to it for years. Readers of his ''American Taboo'' have been waiting for 340 pages that only feel like years.
Mr. Weiss is there to confront Dennis Priven, who was once a Peace Corps volunteer in the South Pacific island kingdom of Tonga. ''American Taboo'' has assembled considerable evidence that Mr. Priven murdered one of his fellow volunteers and got away with it. In preparation for this showdown, Mr. Weiss has hired a private investigator who wrote a book called ''Your Secrets Are My Business.'' The investigator has taught Mr. Weiss how to wear a baseball hat and to practice following people around.
When the two men finally have their encounter, readers learn how Mr. Priven helps Mr. Weiss adjust the zipper on his knapsack. There is talk about whether this conversation will be off the record. Mr. Priven says he doesn't want to discuss the case until 2007. One of them drinks juice; the other has lemonade. And nothing else happens.
''He didn't look back, I'm sure of that,'' Mr. Weiss writes. ''But then neither did I.''
In a real work of investigative journalism, this might qualify as a whopping anticlimax. But in ''American Taboo,'' it's just more of the same. The whole book is padded with repetitions, nonevents, paragraphs full of sawdust, marginal details, purplish flights of fancy and not-too-quotable quotes. To the extent that he has happened upon a never-told story of sex, scandal and cover-up, Mr. Weiss has done a remarkable job of sapping the life out of it.
Part of the problem lies with the book's iffy provenance. It came about because Mr. Weiss, no Tongan himself, with no ties to anyone involved, got wind of this decades-old killing and decided to investigate and imagine all its details. So as ''the smell of ripening guavas filled the air,'' and the murder of Deborah Gardner looms closer, Mr. Weiss pictures her dancing. He does it with characteristic overkill: ''Her mouth was open in laughter, her cheeks were dark with color, and thick strings of hair slapped around her face, slicked by saliva, sweat, life juice.'' Life juice? ''American Taboo'' would have been a much better book if it weren't drippy with the stuff.
''Why did you feel that you should write a book about something for which my family never sought any attention?'' Ms. Gardner's brother quite reasonably asks Mr. Weiss. Well, the answer has something to do with how attractive Ms. Gardner looks in old photographs. Then there are justice unserved, journalistic integrity to uphold and the apparent hot-stuff marketability of this material.
''Do you want me to give you a letter from my publisher?'' Mr. Weiss asks when he tries to persuade participants to talk to him. (Many refuse.) He often refers to Deborah Gardner's story as a legend, mostly because other written accounts (including a roman
The first commenter in this blog, who calls himself thewiseking, appears to be stuck in some kind of time warp and unable to compose thoughts of his own, choosing instead to paste in (for the 2nd or 3rd time) an old review from the NYT - one of the few reviews that pans Phil Weiss's book, American Taboo.
In contrast to these thoughtless cut-&-paste responses from thewiseking, this particular blog is intended to comment on the current state of affairs in a small but viable Pacific island nation that is home to some 100,000 nationals and at least that many Tongan expatriates.
To the Tongans, the events of the past few days are unprecedented in their history, and they will affect every Tongan individual, family, and business in the days and months to come. The news from Tonga is important as well to many Americans who have lived and worked in that beautiful and unique country, and have made life-long friends there.
As we approach our great American holiday of Thanksgiving, my thoughts and prayers go out to the Tongan people who are affected by this tragic turn of events, to their strivings for democracy, and to their aspirations for better lives for their families and offspring.
Testing if posting is unrestricted
point your browser to
u2r2h.blogspot.com/2006/11/private-business-mafia-caused-tonga.html
for the real story of the tongan riots
It is so sad that Tonga had to resort to violence in order for the democracy movement to get a sure foothold. I remember the days of their peaceful marches in the city and even on 'Eua.
As an RPCV, I also wonder of the state PeaceCorps affairs in Tonga. Any news of this?
Well, I'll venture to say there is no formal news from the Peace Corps in Tonga yet because they are still assessing the situation and trying to figure out what happens next. Certainly the first thing the PC administration wants to do is confirm that existing PCVs are relatively safe and secure in their current assignments. Any PCVs who don't feel safe will probably be given the opportunity to go home. Next is to figure out how the role of Peace Corps in Tonga will change in view of the changing political climate. That's a much tougher issue, and I'm guessing the jury will stay out on it for awhile to come. The Peace Corps has always served at the behest of the host country, and if the host country is in political turmoil, it will be hard pressed to give the Peace Corps any worthwhile guidance on future programs. So I think the Peace Corps situation in Tonga is largely "wait & see" at this point. I would be pleased to learn otherwise or stand corrected on this!
Dear RPCV,
The state of mind of most PCV's in Tonga seems stong and positive. I talked to a few the last time I was there in August (including a very nice young lady working in Eua'). The numbers are as strong if no stronger then they were when I was there some 30 years ago. I am as a matter of fact putting together a diabetes program with some of the PCV's as I write this. I have dug up some $10,000 in grant money to help fund a test program for Type 2 diabetes in the Tongan community. It is a real killer down there. It's hard to believe that I was once so young. Perhaps someone else has responded to you since you placed this note but if not there you go. By the way I have a website www.friendsoftonga.com . If you haven't seen it you should check it out. Not sure when you were a PCV down there, but most of the shots I have are around 1970 -80'. I also have a few dozen of todays Tonga as well.
Ofa atu',
Emile
Tonga 14