Nature vs. Civilisation

Hello Readers,

It’s almost been a month – a month of living the life I love so much. I touched down at a certain airport on Monday and my dream was abruptly halted when I saw the first machine I had seen in a month, a car.

I can’t say it was unexpected. I’ve been over the same footpath more than a million times – it’s who I am. But none the less the shock back into another chosen reality even though familiar and inevitable – was simultaneously unwanted.

No cars. No television. No computer. No internet. No mobile phones. No mp3 players.

No electricity. No piped water. No toilet. No alcohol. What had I replaced these with?

Family. Wind. Rain. Fire. Sun. The ocean. The stars. The bush. The garden. Quiet.

An unlimited and never-ending supply of the best mangos, pawpaw, guavas, mandarines, sugarcane, bananas, water melon, jungle fruit, sawasop, aibika, pumpkin leaves, kaukau, taro, paragum, pow, ton, talis, galip, karikap, dumdum, aila…

And fish. Lots and lots and lots and lots of fish. Crabs, crayfish, fresh tuna, shrimp, turtle, shark, sting ray, and one salt water crocodile…

The endless days of spear fishing naked in crystal-clear 20ft deep ocean. The endless nights of fishing under the full moon and stars.

Afternoons of chasing chickens, riding water buffalos, climbing coconuts and buai.

Mornings of listening to nature waking you up. Evenings of seeing nature put on a show and then listening to nature sing you a lullaby…

And now I’m back. Back into “civilisation”.

And the first thing “civilisation” showed me was thick black smoke billowing out of buildings, a strong stench to my left, graffiti to my right, roadkill in front of me, greasy smells, a huge hole in the ground with rubbish, drunk people fighting in broad daylight, a car crash…

And I realised something: You need to get into a machine to feel the wind here.

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~ by Tavurvur on January 8, 2009.