Daily Archives: December 28, 2011

Easter Island Tragedies

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Another thing I keep finding on the island besides plastic trash and natural beauty are dead horses. I see at least 10 carcasses in three days and no one seems to care or take them away. The living horses which are everywhere on the island and are walking around freely in different naturally formed hordes, don’t seem to mind either and are grazing just a few inches away of a skull that might have been a relative. I have no idea how hey died but the last one I saw had a plastic rope around its ankle. No strings attached huh? Look at his front left foot…

On my way back to the other side I pass a remarkable mixture of histories and religions. It seems weird that the Rapa Nui still allow this abomination to exist. The European missionaries brought Catholicism, ok, but that was a long time ago (1864). Why keep this remnant of the raping of their cultural heritage?

When I’m almost back in town I pass the garbage recycling center. Although recycling is a big word; most of the trash is just dumped in a huge empty pit. Compared to the plastic on the beaches, which is mostly coming from the ocean, this is land based trash. Is there really no better way to handle it? I feel sick again and understand perfectly why most of the Moai are laying flat on their face and stay like that, so they don’t need to see what has happened to their island.