Tristan : Tristan: Chief Islander Sets The Record Straight
Submitted by Tristan Times (Juanita Brock) 19.11.2004 (Article Archived on 03.12.2004)
Anne Green, the Chief Islander on Tristan da Cunha, has set the record straight in response to an article by Gregory Rodriguez in Los Angeles Times Online.
TRISTAN: CHIEF ISLANDER SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT
By J. Brock (SARTMA-TdC) with Anne Green (Tristan Times)
Anne Green, the Chief Islander on Tristan da Cunha, has set the record straight in response to an article by Gregory Rodriguez in Los Angeles Times Online. “I had to read it and then leave if for a while. It makes you angry when people come here for a few weeks and then go away and write about the island as if they know everything there is to know about it,” said Mrs. Green on Friday. “I have found some information about the writer who is a journalist. He wanted to come to Tristan to write about the islander's participation in the asthma research being carried out. He stated that the "Washington Post" and "The Nation" magazine in New York were both eager to run his story. I don't know if he had anything published in them regarding the project.”
The article, “Sin Gets Around…Even in Paradise,” starts out talking about the conviction of men on Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific but very quickly turned to trashing the people of Tristan da Cunha.
See the article at: http://www.latimesonline.com.
Mrs. Green wrote to the Editor of LA Times online:
The writer of the article, a journalist, obtained permission to visit Tristan in 1998 because he wished to know why people wanted to take part in an asthma research programme. He said he would like to speak with islanders “to understand their decision to assist scientists in finding a potential cure for asthma” also “I think it’s a phenomenal tale and I’d like to highlight the role of a small group of people in the search that, if successful, would help millions of asthma sufferers.”
In answer to his article I would like to say this:
“Anyone who visits Tristan is entitled to his /her opinion of the island and its people, they may or may not enjoy the experience. However their opinions are not necessarily a true reflection of how things are.
We are not perfect and we do not consider ourselves so, nor do we consider ourselves to live in Paradise. We are ordinary human beings like millions of others around the globe. {Did the writer expect to find some alien species?}
One difference many outsiders find, is the fact that living in an isolated community has made us develop a self sufficiency not readily found in the so-called civilised world.
And how civilised are those in that world who look down their noses at those from isolated communities like ours, or less developed nations?
No one on Tristan gets evicted from their home because they can’t pay the rent. Each family owns their own home. Children are not abandoned or the elderly put into institutions because the family can’t be bothered with them. No one is found sleeping on the street or dying of starvation. We look after our own. Can the same be said for those “civilised world” beings?
Is it no wonder Tristanians distrust most outsiders, when those outsiders, whom they have befriended, go away and write articles based on tit-bits of gossip and not facts? But this is not something that is so only on Tristan. Communities throughout the world, especially those who are remote or different in any way, have to suffer the same problem with the media who tend to sensationalise minor news items. After all, the ordinary everyday life is hardly news is it?
We are not controlled by fear of the outside world, and interaction with the outside world is not discouraged. Many Tristanians have travelled frequently off the island. Every year there are people visiting Cape Town or the UK for holidays or on training courses. The fact is that many Tristanians prefer the security of island life to the pressures of life overseas. The notion that the Island Council chooses everyone’s job for them is pure fiction.”
The writer says that visitors who admire Tristanians are usually dissatisfied with western life. Is that a crime? Perhaps he found that he couldn’t cope without those trappings and that is why he was so miserable. Maybe his idea of paradise is the shopping mall, news magazines and Gwyneth Paltrow movies [but it is certainly not ours!]
Anne Green.
Chief Islander
Tristan da Cunha
South Atlantic Ocean
TDCU 1ZZ
Tel: 00 870 600 245 563
Fax: 00 870 600 245 565
e-mail: hmg@cunha.demon.co.uk
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