broken atlas

The South Pacific nation of Vanuatu (220,000 people dispersed over a vast archipelago) has long been an incubator for some of the more curious manifestations of human culture. Most famously, in the aftermath of World War II Vanuatu became a hotbed of cargo cults, one of which still worships noted xenophobe Price Philip. Less known is that the islands are among the most linguistically diverse in the world, with more than 110 indigenous languages still actively spoken (each one used by at least 2,000 people).

In more recent Vanuatu news, a bank on Pentecost Island is now accepting pig tusks as currency. There are many instances of non-paper & coin currencies throughout history, but it’s probably one of the few cases today of a resource being easily bankable and convertible. And it’s being done in the hopes of tackling poverty; the logic being that using traditional goods as currency will mitigate some of the discontinuities and damages wrought by modern global capitalism, while preserving the integrity and coherence of local cultures.

Cod was once currency in Newfoundland, where I find myself now. I’m here for a week doing research and working on a couple magazine articles. St. John’s appears to have changed only a little since I was last here three years ago. A few more swanky boutiques on Water St. and more Norwegian-flagged oil exploration vessels in the harbour. I ran into a drunk Pole last night who says he captains one of the ships. He extended me an inebriated invitation to tour the ship today.

Something I missed last time was Gibbet Hill, one of the promontories overlooking St. John’s on the way up to Signal Hill. A gibbet is a gallows or scaffold from which executed criminals were gruesomely left to hang as a warning to others. Often the unfortunate sod being made an example of was also tarred and encased in an iron contraption.

The gibbet hasn’t been used in Newfoundland for about 150 years. Reading the local papers, however, I can say the same effect is more or less achieved rhetorically. I’ve never seen letters and opinion pages in Canada so full of personal attacks, albeit rather ingenious and well-phrased ones.

In other news of note in Newfoundland, The Independent, a politely nativist weekly broadsheet, features a centre-page spread that considers the candidates for the province’s greatest orator of all time, including Joey Smallwood and Peter Cashin, Smallwood’s opponent in the debate over dominion with Canada. But the paper leads rather tellingly with news of a job action brewing on the Alberta oil patch and its impact on the Newfoundlanders working there. Another front page item indicates that the number of missing persons in the province is on track to reach a record high this year. Maybe they’re in Alberta.

Thanks to Tyler Stiem for the Vanuatu news.