None dare call it geopolitics

I assumed RT had been blocked? The Putinista news outfit has some fun with Australia´s supposed "invasion threats" against the Solomon Islands, which recently signed a security pact with China. The idea of Chinese military bases close to Australian territory is intolerable to Canberra. A bit like Ukraine joining NATO is intolerable to Russia, perhaps? At least, that seems to be RT´s implication. 

Always a bit awkward when two great power alliances poke a finger at each other. See also: Donbass versus Kosovo. Or Donbass versus Chechnya. 

But sure, maybe Oz really should invade the Solomon Islands... 

Australia reacts to "invasion" threat claim

Australia accused of double standards

Another world

“Wild Pacific” (also called “South Pacific” in some jurisdictions) is a fascinating documentary series about animal and plant life in the South Pacific and Hawaii. New Guinea, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Polynesia are featured (including Easter Island).

If you like weird stuff, this is definitely for you! How about real footage of large sharks gathered to eat young albatrosses which are learning how to fly? Apparently an annual spectacle on a certain reef in the Pacific. Meanwhile on New Zealand, you can run into penguins in the forest. Another island features enormous crabs living in the palm trees. The poor cat Tibbles, who supposedly exterminated an entire species of songbird, is mentioned in one episode, although it seems feral cats had decimated the population of Lyall´s Wren already before his arrival at Stephens Island. Also featured are underwater volcanoes and above-water ones at Hawaii. Somewhat surprisingly, “Wild Pacific” promotes the idea that the culture at Easter Island might have been destroyed by rats.

One problem with this series is that most episodes tend to depict the Pacific as some kind of pristine paradise, which it definitely isn´t. This is particularly galling when discussing Hawaii, “the most isolated island chain in the world”. Yeah, except for Honolulu and the little detail that Hawaii is the 50^th state of the Union! Nothing about the civil war at Bougainville, the near-civil war at New Caledonia, the nuclear tests at Mururoa, the military coup at Fiji, you get the picture. Instead, we are shown happy natives living in fundamental harmony with nature. Only in the last episode do we get some insight into the environmental problems besetting the region, such as overfishing, coral death and climate change threatening to wipe out entire island nations.

That being said, “Wild (or South) Pacific” is well worth watching, and I therefore give it five stars out of five. And yes, I´m still eating tuna…

Gonzo mysteries

“Solomon Islands Mysteries” is a book taken seriously by some crypto-zoologists, but it's actually a very extreme work. The author, Marius Boirayon, has ideas similar to those of David Icke and has previously published his work in Nexus, an Australian magazine devoted to various conspiracy theories. Boirayon is an Australian pilot, explorer and businessman. He spent a large portion of his life in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

In his book, Boirayon argues that the Solomon Islands are home to several races of giants and aliens. He recounts local folklore about the giants, a kind of ape-men who seem to be much larger, more human-like and far more dangerous than Bigfoot. While Boirayon hasn't observed any giant himself, he has made a number of UFO observations. The Solomon Islands UFOs are associated with the sea and certain mountain lakes, and are regularly observed by the locals. So far, nothing out of the ordinary: “giants” and UFOs are seen all over the world, especially the latter!

Unfortunately, Boirayon then spins a web of conspiracy theories around these stories and observations, making the book progressively less believable as it unfolds. He claims that the mysterious lights seen at the islands are mechanical craft manned by an alien civilization, the denizens of which has lived in bases below the Earth's surface for millennia. The “aliens” aren't really from outer space, but represent an intelligent species evolving here on Earth, which for various reasons have gone literally underground. They have a vast network of tunnels and secret bases all around the world. Some of these creatures are reptilian in shape. The giants, by contrast, are surface-dwelling primates, but at some point, they became subjected to the “alien” power. The Australian intervention at the Solomon Islands in 2003, ostensibly to stop ethnic violence at the main island of Guadalcanal, was really a move by the secret One World Government cabal to stop the author from exposing the truth about the aliens and giants! Boirayon also claims to have discovered that the islands have such large quantities of oil, gas and precious gemstones that the world market prices would collapse in the event of commercial extraction. Therefore, the Cabal has to take control of these resources and stop them from being exploited until such a time that they can become profitable. Above all, they have to stop the whistle-blower, Marius Boirayon himself. According to the author, all his evidence (including UFO photos) was forcibly taken from him by Australian secret agents…

I admit that Boirayon is a good writer and that “Solomon Islands Mysteries” does give you an interesting (and frequently absurd) look at the life in this small nation. The book is eclectic and contains folkloristic material, UFO conspiracy speculations and personal anecdotes about everything from corrupt local politicians to tribal ceremonies. Indeed, Boirayon is something of a “gonzo journalist”, since he frequently inserts himself into the story. If you like Jon Ronson, you may find this to your liking.

That being said, as a reader interested in crypto-zoology and the occult, I obviously want to know how much of this material is really true? That is, how much is based on actual reports about paranormal activity, and how much is the product of the author's own fertile imagination. Some claims are manifestly bogus. Thus, Boirayon claims that the Japanese war memorial at Guadalcanal shows a reptile-like creature with a ray gun, and cites this as evidence for the Japan knowing the truth about the “aliens”. However, a quick search on the web reveals that the statue (and it is the old statue, not the recent replacement) shows a completely ordinary human fisherman. In another chapter, Boirayon retells a story about an abandoned woman and her two sons confronting a giant, an event which supposedly happened during the 19th century. However, the same story is known from all over Melanesia in slightly different versions and is really a mythological motif. At New Ireland, north of the Solomon Islands, the “giant” killed by the two brothers is a monstrous pig! I get the impression that the author may have misinterpreted a myth as a real historical event. The underground civilization is another common myth, but also surfaces in science fiction (compare “The Shaver Mysteries”). Boirayon wonders why the natives refer to the subterranean world as “Mu Mu”, which sounds much like Mu, the lost continent in the Pacific proposed by James Churchward. Unfortunately, it sounds even closer to the trolling British pop band the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, inspired by the Discordian Illuminatus Trilogy! While none of this necessarily disproves Boirayon's claims (legends can be based on true events, after all), it does raise some red flags.

The part of the story dealing with “UFOs” or orbs is easiest to accept, at least for me. Weird phenomena of this kind have been observed all over the world (most famously in Hessdalen, Norway). The giants are more difficult to accept, since they are supposedly ubiquitous and extremely large. Why haven't they been seen, caught or killed by outsiders? But the “hard to believe award” surely goes to the claim about a worldwide conspiracy directed at one single individual, the gonzo journalist himself. By all means, read this book. It's not bad. However, I don't think it reveals the truth about the Solomon Islands mysteries…

Thin red line, or wrong side of the peace dividend?

A review of "The Thin Red Line" 

A realistic and disturbing film, sure. Yet, I never liked it. Why choose the Battle of Guadalcanal to criticize war in general? The Allies were the good guys during World War II. Japan was part of the Axis. End of story, right there. Or would the director have preferred a Nazi victory?