How Not to Make Friends
My sister sent me this story about a Village in Fiji attempting to lift a curse. It seems that 136 years ago they ate a missionary and ever since they’ve had bad luck. Now, to lift they curse, they’re offering his descendants the man’s boots and 100 sperm whale teeth. Seems fitting, I suppose, but do they really owe an apology? The guy got eaten b/c he didn’t bother to learn their laws (the chief’s head is off limits). Now, in the U.S. it doesn’t matter if you are aware of a law; you do the crime you do the time. If these guys had come here and munched on someone we’d lock ‘em up no questions asked. Me, I think they’re beating themselves up. They need to let it go- I’m sure the Chief slept well with a belly full of foreigner. Sometimes these things happen- it’s the process of two cultures discovering each other’s boundaries.
November 12th, 2003 at 12:12 pm
Now, I’m not sure what the boots could possibly do for the descendants, but 100 sperm whale teeth seems a little cheap to me. They could at least offer 200 teeth and a few hundred fish scales to go with them. Then, I’d talk about a deal.