i finally get it

please allow me to briefly introduce you to my lovely feet. they get hidden most of the time and poor dears, they kind of suffer by being hidden. they are go-getters and really want to be out and about. they want to be raw, naked and 4WD (more 1976 landrover troopie than 2010 lexus, prado, pajero, discovery or pathfinder).

They want to explore, discover and recover from a few oyster/barnacle grazes without having to visit the doctor. They don’t have ABS, airbags, AC, cruise control. not even power steering, but they will never fail.

my feet lament the ‘good old days’ when they used to tread the beaches and hot asphalt of the eastern suburbs of sydney unperturbed. my feet also complain that the eastern suburbs in which we grew up together in, have been swamped by wankers. i can not disagree.

In a previous post, i gave a bit of a hard serve to the tongans for being so lazy.

i have come around full circle i think. look at the map below to see where tonga actually is:
View Larger Map

these people live in a dream place and in splendid isolation.

it was a massively bad move of the king to sell off citizenship, a move that has potentially destroyed tonga’s way of live forever.

tongans can grow all the food they need, if they want to, and become a small self sufficent island community.

as long as the majority doesn’t lose its way and all want to aspire to i-pads, i-phones and hummers, they should be fine.

it seems that before the now dead king fucked up and blew the whole kingdoms  cash, most tongans were pretty content with life over there.

i could easily imagine living an i-pod free life over there, growing my own fruit, veg, goats and pigs as well as spearfishing and surfing. what a life!

i take back part of a previous post of mine on tonga. it’s not so much about being lazy – it’s about assessing you priorities. If your priorities are are about staying alive, feeding your family and living a happy and stressless life, then do it tongan style.

Edited: August 13th, 2010

when the sky meets the sea

ahh, how good is this!?!?

Edited: August 12th, 2010

a tongan supermarket and the tongan diet

welcome to the largest supermarket in tonga. this is one of all its about 10 aisles. i kid you not, but EVERY CAN YOU SEE IN THIS SHOT IS CORNED ‘MEAT’!

well shit, no surprise so many of them are so ‘large’.

with a perfect climate and perfect soil to grow things in and abundance of life in the sea, i wonder what compels these people to eat this salty, fatty crap in a can. it doesn’t even taste good.

it has been proven genetically that the metabolisms of the tongan people really can not cope with too much fat, refined sugar or salt in their diets, yet this is precisely what they eat. they have skyrocketing rates of ‘grotesquely obese’ people and diabetes is on the rise.

any fresh veg is imported because they can’t be arsed growing it themselves. a bunch of celery costs AUD$12, because it’d airfreighted in from NZ.

the majority of ‘fresh’ meat they eat (ie: not in a can) comes in frozen from NZ – it’s called ‘lamb flaps’. i thought it came from a particularly sensitive part of the sheep, so i needed to ask around for more info. it’s basically the lamb belly, it’s also where the most fat accumulates. this stuff is near unsaleable in nz (or anywhere else really), so it’s frozen and sent of to tonga where it’s rapidly devoured. to be fair, i need to say that we DID stumble across about a dozen pigs troughing through some rubbish, so someone does cut animals on the island, and we DID eat some pretty awesome suckling pig on a spit, so someone, somewhere is doing the right thing.

EDIT: April 2011 – I just found this article in the Sydney Morning Herald on just this issue, check it out:
Junk meat diet takes a deadly toll in Tonga

Edited: August 11th, 2010

peak hour just outside nuku alofa, tonga cbd

not much road rage going on here. good to see…

Edited: August 10th, 2010

the kids in tonga are little legends

these kids are awesome. what a place to grow up!

everywhere we went the kids seemed to think they were little homies which is a bit of a worry.

in general, i feel that the people of tonga are really sweet, hospitable and caring.

seems there is a real cultural lock-down on them. it’s a church run society and they have only 3 radio stations. (which only seem to play UB-40 which is funny because the tongans are prentending to be black and they listen to, and are influenced by, the music of white boys who are pretending to be black – figure that one out.). their choice of films at the cinema is also heavily censored.

i look at these beautiful kids and wonder how many of them will end up coming to australia or nz to work in security or construction. no problem with that, it’s just that a disproportionate amount of pacific islanders end up in court for stomping on peoples heads for ‘fun’.

i don’t want that for these little fellas – they are too awesome to become that. what should change?

Below is part of the soundtrck to Tonga:

Edited: August 8th, 2010

bustling port at nuku alofa in tonga

this is the main port at nuku alofa, capital city of tonga.

a little bit different to port botany., but that’s the charm.

if you wander down to the docks in the afternoon, you can meet the local fishermen.

they hand spear all their fish while snorkelling. you can pick up a plastic bag full of fish, maybe 3-4 kilos worth (mixed species) for about AUD$5.

not bad at all. makes me wonder why they keep eating this.

Edited: August 7th, 2010

day one in tonga – nuku’alofa

ahhh Tonga, I love you, but you are stupid.

Much like australia in the olden days, you are the land of  “she’ll be right mate” and “it’s all sweet”.

Actually, it’s not. And you guys better sort it out and learn how to work before you are all forced to learn to speak Chinese. Chinese eh, you hate them, right?

The individuals who have come from China to control your food supply were sold residency on the cheap by your former King (who was not a wise investor). Don’t hate them. They were invited by YOUR King and YOUR Country. You can’t fault them for giving it a go. Fault yourselves for being so fucking lazy and apathetic. They are just willing to work harder and smarter  than you.

You have god blessed volcanic soils and a climate that anything can grow in. You own the land, get up off your fat lazy asses and make your land productive.

Fuck it, I don’t have that much money but I’d just love to come over and buy some of your land to form a local co-operative.

Grow fresh fruit and veg and get you fat lazy Tongans off that canned and imported shit that you call a diet.

Edited: August 6th, 2010