Tribe from New Guinea sues New Yorker

by Jeffrey White on

Some of you might have caught Jared Diamond’s recent report in the New Yorker about the Handa clan of Papua New Guinea highlands and their penchant for revenge killing. The story profiled tribesman Daniel Wemp and his six-year quest to avenge the death of his uncle.

Well, the Handa tribe is pissed: They say the story unfairly portrays them as bloodthirsty animals bent on rape and murder.

Wemp is now availing himself of the great American pastime: Taking the New Yorker to court.

He is suing the magazine for $10 million, having filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court earlier this week.

How does a New Guinea tribesman come to sue in New York court? I’m a little unclear of that too (though clearly the Handa clan has a bit more contact with the outside world compared to, say, some tribes in Irian Jaya). It appears he has help in the form of the New York City-based Art Science Research Lab, which recently sent a team to New Guinea to closely fact check every one of Diamond’s assertions in the story. They claim Diamond was duped by many of the people he interviewed.

The group is preparing a 40,000 word report — 40,000 words! — refuting the New Yorker story (which strikes me as overkill given how little Americans likely care about this story).

Right now, the New Yorker is standing behind Diamond.

I’d personally like to know how the Handa tribe figures it was wronged to the tune of $10 million. I mean, the tribespeople live in New Guinea’s highlands, for heaven’s sake.

Photo of the Day (1.5.09)

by Karen Walrond on

Have you figured out yet that I’m a sucker for a portrait of a happy child? And this lovely photograph by muzzman packs a quadruple punch: check out the great smiles on these four little ones, taken in Papua New Guinea. I was initially drawn to the image because it reminded me of an everyday scene in my homeland of Trinidad, but looking at it now, these really could be 4 children anywhere in the world, couldn’t they? Lovely shot.

If you’ve got some great travel shots you’d love to share, be sure to upload them to the Gadling pool on Flickr. We might just pick one as our Photo of the Day.

2008’s best travel writing

by Jeremy Kressmann on

While browsing my local Barnes & Noble earlier this week, I stumbled upon a display of The Best American Series – a collection of books recapping the year’s best writing. Among the collection is a travel-themed edition, curated this year by travel “badboy” Anthony Bourdain.

Gadling has given great reviews to these anthologies in years past, so I decided to pick up a copy. As a fledgling travel writer myself, I’ve found the pieces in this year’s edition to be highly compelling. The featured content covers a surprisingly broad array of topics. Foodies will savor writer Bill Buford’s account of Extreme Chocolate, which finds the author deep in the rainforests of Brazil in search of the perfect cacao beans. Adventurers will want to dive into James Campbell’s look at the Kapa Kapa Trail, a grueling overland route of American soldiers fighting in Papua New Guinea during World War II, in Chasing Ghosts.

For anyone who’s interested in the travel genre, this is a great recap of this year’s best-written and most interesting stories. Travel writing is a well-worn style – pithy descriptions of swank hotels and delicious meals can only take you so far. It’s the stories that are able to rise above the cliches and well worn metaphors to truly give a sense of place and its people that truly does these locations justice.

Let’s continue to encourage this sort of high-quality travel writing. Stop by Barnes & Noble or hit up Amazon and pick yourself up a copy.

Top hell-holes on earth

by Jamie Rhein on

April Fool’s Day, 2007, I wrote a post on Linfen, China. Although it was written as a joke, the premise is true. Linfen is a royal mess. Its mighty pollution problem has earned it the number 2 spot on the recent “Hells on Earth” list. The air quality in Linfen is so horrific that there is a perpetual feeling of dusk in this coal dust laden city.

Here’s the rest of the ten places that have a hellish quality. Perhaps you know of others that should have made the cut.

10. Baghdad, Iraq–No surprise here. What, with the war and all, it doesn’t matter if the place has one of the coolest names. According to the article, the city is so dangerous, it’s hard to find people out and about on the streets.

9. Dhaka, Bangladesh–And to think I almost moved here. I had a job interview that I canceled because getting to this place was a hassle. The pollution is problematic. That’s why it’s on the list. Too bad because, everyone I’ve ever met from Bangladesh has been a real gem of a person.

8. Yakutsk, Russia–When I read that this city is the coldest place on earth, that stopped me cold. We’re talking major frostbite. Temperatures can go down to -58 degrees, according to the article. If you’re a kid, it’s a day off from school, so for the younger crowd, this might be heaven.

7. Mogadishu, East Africa (Somalia)–Another one of my favorite city names. I’ve have many students from Somalia–lovely people, and they shake their heads in sorrow over what once was. No one is minding the store in this country that has been wrecked to shambles. The rebels keep running amok. This truly does not sound like a relaxing place to get away. Get away from, sure.

6. Chernobyl, Ukraine–If you want a radiation boost that could do you in, come here. Most of the city was deserted after the nuclear explosion in 1986 and it has not recovered since. There aren’t any prospects for a brighter future either.

5. Oklahoma City, The United States–But the state has such a catchy song, you might be protesting. What’s wrong with Oklahoma City? Weather, that’s what. A Kansas tornado has nothing on Oklahoma City’s. The Ask.Men folks cite 320 mph winds as the fastest. That seems like enough to turn eyelids inside out. Besides that, blizzards are also fierce. I’ve driven through here a couple times on a calm day–always in the summer, and not a gust in sight. Who knew?

4. Pyongyang, North Korea–Gadling blogger, Neil went here and found that hell must have things to like. Sure there’s some hellish, oddball qualities to Pyongyang, but he found it worth the visit. If you can handle the oppression and a tour guide who never lets you wander off on your own, this might feel more like limbo than hell.

3. Bujumbura, Republic of Burundi–If the accounts of people in Burundi feeling the least satisfied than all other people in the world is true, I’d say this is hell indeed. Look at this list for starters. They feel worse than people who live in Linfen? The reason for Burundi’s problems is the corruption.

1. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea–This place does sound like a hell hole. The murder rate, according to Ask.Men is 23 times that of London and gangs and disease–like HIV, run rampant. Swell.

My good friend over at BloggingStocks and WalletPop, Tom Barlow gave me a heads up on this one. Thanks, Tom.

Naked Nomad presumed dead; left multi-million dollar estate

by Iva Skoch on

Let’s set this straight. According to hard evidence I have gathered, Victor Flanagan, an Australian also known as “Naked Nomad,” didn’t walk around naked all the time. He wore a sarong when walking through towns and a pair of thongs for when there were too many prickles on the road. Sellout.

He spent at least the last decade living in Papua New Guinea, where he walked from Australia sometime in the 1990s. And, he was found dead lying in a canoe – without any clothing — in a PNG jungle, news.com.au reports.

Last week, more than a decade after he last spoke to his sister, the Supreme Court in Perth declared Naked Nomad “presumed dead”. This is a relevant piece of information because he left all his property–primarily the multi-million dollar beachfront property near Busselton–to his sister. Flanagan had inherited the property after their father’s death but didn’t have much use for it since he primarily just wanted to be in touch with nature and spend his life walking around naked.

Naked Nomad really isn’t that different from multimillionaires, after all. Multi-million beach front property is only fun if you can do nothing all day, but walk around naked.

###

The 10 Richest Cities in America


Did yours make the list?