Papua New Guinea: Warriors and Cannibals

By Riku Rantala on October 19, 2009 12:00 PM | Permalink | 2 Comments

Papua New Guinea is a country made of small societies who can be fiercely defensive about their territories and are ready to use violence and extreme prejudice to do this. There are myriad tribes living in the seemingly endless jungles that make up this intriguing island -- the ones who still cling to the good old days, not tarnished by the coming of the so-called progress that can be found in the jungles. Then there are villages, were modern day and ancient way go hand in hand. And then there are the cities, worst of which is Port Moresby, often called the worst place in the world to live.

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Papua New Guinea: Giving the Finger to Grief

By Tunna Milonoff on October 19, 2009 12:00 PM | Permalink | 2 Comments

Like so many basic human needs and emotions, grief is something we westerners are constantly trying to sanitize. Public display of sorrow is frowned upon or at least considered inconsiderate for the rest of us -- not because we are proudly stoic people or anything like that, it's just that it makes us feel uncomfortable. We are weak, so we shun away from showing grief. When a family member dies, one might wear black as a sign of loss but sooner or later it is business as usual and life goes on. Forgetting fast is the accepted form of mourning.

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Getting To China

By Riku Rantala on October 12, 2009 12:00 PM | Permalink | 0 Comments

China in January is a cold, cold place - in more ways than one. We've been there before and at the time, had uttered a few words about the People's Republic of China's politics in Tibet. This had happened way before the days of YouTube and its ilk. On our flight to the east, we started wondering if perhaps our reflections on what the Dalai Lama famously called "Chinese Apartheid" had found their way back to the ears of the very authorities we criticized through the miracle of Internet.

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Gosukumi

By Tunna Milonoff on October 12, 2009 12:00 PM | Permalink | 0 Comments

Madventures has a habit of leaving all the important decisions to the old reliable game of rock, paper and scissors. The Cantonese people of China play their own version of this merrymaking called gosukumi. Here's a quick index of rules to get you started.

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Philippines: Pagdarme Ritual

By Riku Rantala on October 5, 2009 12:00 PM | Permalink | 5 Comments

I'm the only Westerner who has walked symbolic Via Dolorosa to Mount Calvary in the town of Cutud.

In the Pagdarame ritual, one's back is opened with implement called Burdios which is a sort of concrete comb spiked with shards of glass. After this you walk a mile, whipping your wounds with a lash. This is bloody and painful. What can I say? It seemed like a good idea at the time. But you can see all this in the show, so nothing more about that.

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