Falklands blog for Wednesday May 15 2013
Not in the Falklands, but on Easter Island aka Islas de Pascua or Rapa Nui
Home of the Moai which stand on the Ahu.
Most were toppled in the wars that coincided with European discovery and ended with the Birdman cult.
The island and culture are held up as an example of profligate use of natural resources, but as always, the truth is more complicated.
Today, things that stand out are the feral dogs (they bark and howl all night long), the cockerels which take over from the dogs in making gratuitous noise and the shear peace of this land which has seen so much human endeavour sidetracked into the pursuit of status.
To cut out a 60 tonne Moai from the living rock with stone axes and move it kilometres away from the quarry is an astonishing achievement. To do this in the pursuit of power and status perhaps brings to mind the construction of cathedrals in the Middle Ages – great for the aggrandisement of nobles and a shortening of their time in purgatory – but it did not help the peasants much.
Are we so much advanced and clever? Just consider our prestige national projects (and local ones such as the Edinburgh tram system)
