Tonga, Western Samoa, Polynesia

XXL Pacific


Smaller island, inhabitant XL
Tupola Tapaau, resident of the island of Manono, a smaller island in Samoa.
Collection II
Tongatapu natives scour the reefs during low tide.
Collection I
A resident of the island of Tongatapu shows a freshly caught octopus.
over the counter
Kosetalau Toreafoa, owner of a roadside shop in Western Samoa.
overcrowded
A bulky passenger in traditional dress boards a mini-bus from Tongatapu.
food forest
The tubercle was once the great taro in the food base of Tonga and much of Polynesia.
skipper XL
Helmsman at the helm of a boat connecting Tongatapu to? Fafa Island Resort.
disgust
Ladies from a cemetery in Tongatapu where they visited a relative who perished due to uncommunicable diseases plaguing Tonga and the South Pacific.
Collection III
Tongatapu native scouts reefs during low tide.
The possible delicacy
Tongatapu residents cook greaves a? local fashion, another unhealthy snack.
literary race
Samoan runs up and down the hill you're on? buried Robert Louis Stevenson to lose weight.
Collection IV
Tongatapu natives scour the reefs during low tide.
For centuries, the natives of the Polynesian islands subsisted on land and sea. Until the intrusion of colonial powers and the subsequent introduction of fatty pieces of meat, fast food and sugary drinks have spawned a plague of diabetes and obesity. Today, while much of Tonga's national GDP, Western Samoa and neighbors is wasted on these “western poisons”, fishermen barely manage to sell their fish.

We felt the topic of excess weight on our skin much sooner than we thought.

We boarded the plane bound for Nuku' Alofa, the capital of Tonga. Less than a minute after we sat on board, we got to know our most immediate flight partners. A lady approaching from the back of the aisle gains an intimidating volume.

With a lot of effort, it fits into the meager seat. Without being able to avoid it, it makes the left arm of our nearest chair disappear and invades the space that was reserved for us.

The plane slows down on the runway at Fua'amotu airport and comes to a stop in front of its main building. Freed from the squeeze, we crossed the final meters of asphalt, attentive to the nation's inaugural peculiarities.

Dozens of other Tongan passengers slowly followed, waving to family and friends on the balcony overlooking the airport.

Between them, the exaggerated and rounded size of the people stood out once again. not the tupenus and the kofu-tupenus – the traditional striped skirts – disguised the bulk of the figures, many of them over 90, 100 or even more kilos.

As we explore the city and island of Tongatapu around, we realized how widespread overweight and population size were. And how, over time, it had accumulated from the top of its dynastic sphere.

A Monarchy of Weight

In September 2006, after 41 years on the throne, Tonga lost its king Taufa'ahau Tupou IV.

In the three decades before his death, Tupou IV he held his place in the record books as the heaviest monarch in the world, at the time of the initial registration (1976) with a modest 209 kg. Throughout his life, health problems followed, cardiac, diabetes and derivatives.

The king even ventured to exercise three times a week and lost nearly half that weight. Down to 130kg. The effort was not enough to avoid a year and a half of exile and treatments in Auckland. And his death, at the age of 88, even so, not as early as could be predicted.

Many of its innocent and humble subjects succumb to the same ailments, too many, in their middle age, or shortly thereafter.

This was not always the case. Despite the prevalence of poor diet and disease, a significant portion of Tongans resist, especially those who do not even have the money to eat outside the home, or to consume differently than their land provides.

Native of Tongatapu shows a freshly caught octopus

A resident of the island of Tongatapu shows a newly captured octopus

The food base of the Tonga archipelago, of all the islands of the vast Polynesia, in fact, was based on tubers (especially taro), bananas, coconut and fish and shellfish caught offshore.

However, from the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries, due to the influence of the emigration of these islanders to the New Zealand and Australia, began to popularize, in origin, fatty meat pieces (full of saturated fats, cartilage and skin) and inexpensive.

Taros, Tongatapu, Tonga

Large taros, once, the tuber in the food base of Tonga and much of Polynesia.

Tonga: From Traditional Food to Harmful

These were the cases of boobs of lamb and turkey tails, considered leftovers in countries that produce cattle. The habit of eating them will have developed in those same countries. Over time, producers found that immigrant Polynesians appreciated them.

Aware of the difficulty that the isolated islands of Tonga, Samoa and the rest of Polynesia had to consume meat, either because of its scarcity or the high cost of the best quality pieces, they found in the export of those “leftovers” a profitable business niche.

A New Zealand started to export the mutton flats that it produced in industrial quantities or did not have many more ovine inhabitants than humans. already the United States, holders of neighboring American Samoa, exported the turkey tails.

Before long, South Pacific Polynesians saw them as delicacies.

At the same time, this pseudo-meat generated an obesity epidemic that would only get worse, which is not surprising if we take into account that every 100g of Mutton Flaps contain 40g of fat, 20g of which are saturated.

Some Tongans consume almost 1kg in a single meal.

Crackling preparation in Tongatapu, Tonga

Residents of Tongatapu cook pork rinds the local way, another unhealthy snack

Os Mutton Flaps, instead of Fish and Vegetables

On the days that we dedicate to Nuku'Alofa, we work at the computer, rest and eat in such a “friends cafe” a cosmopolitan den that attracted and brought together outsiders, tourists and on business.

Even if its westernized menu proved to be one of the most expensive in town and the WiFi offered took half an hour to send or receive files with a few dozen kb.

We also rented a car and set out to discover Tongatapu, the mother island of Tonga. On these tours, we noticed the number of natives who, during low tide, passed the reefs with a fine-tooth comb and collected everything that moved or looked alive: octopuses, cuttlefish, molluscs, urchins and similar creatures.

Tongatapu residents scour the reefs during low tide in Tonga.

Tongatapu natives scour the reefs during low tide

And inland, like different families, they continued to plow the land and plant and harvest the most prized vegetables.

However, lacking any notions of health or nutrition, many of these fishermen, gatherers and farmers seek to sell the products of their work.

If they succeed (which is not always easy), they acquire the cravings Mutton Flaps that fed and addicted the last generations that grew up without viable meat alternatives. Often, the Mutton Flaps they were the only piece of sheep for sale.

Healthier meats from other livestock were priced out of reach. At the same time, consumers were deceived by the widespread prejudice that what came from outside was of superior quality:

“Once upon a time, Tongans paddled across the vastness of these Pacific seas in their big canoes,” Elder Papiloa Bloomfield Foliaki told the BBC about the problem. “When it was no longer necessary, we inverted these canoes on land and used them as homes.

The Harmful Prejudice that If You Are a Foreigner is Better

Now no one is happy with these houses. Only the westerners, more evolved, those found in the New Zealand, and on Australia e United States satisfy families. It's the same with food.”

As modernity washed over Tonga and other Polynesian islands, different recipes of the same evil spread.

In line with what we have witnessed in the poorest and most socially unprotected communities of New Zealand, mainly Maori or Polynesian immigrants, later in Apia – the capital of Western Samoa – the MacDonalds, Burger Kings, KFCs and similar franchisees enriched owners and parent companies.

It generated large profits generated based on the families' lack of knowledge of what they should and should not eat, what was healthy or would ruin their health.

On repeated occasions, we have noticed how they gathered their great clans within months of these establishments. And how they stuffed themselves with hamburgers and chicken wings and fries, ice cream and smoothies, and pushed them with near-buckets of sugary and fizzy drinks.

On other occasions, we have seen how they indulged in lively homemade barbecues in which they devoured spare ribs, sausages and other snacks as fat or greasy.

Or how, in Samoa, Kosetalau Toreafoa, the returned owner of the diaspora in the Australia e USA of a roadside store had little more for sale than sodas, canned goods, and Chinese packets of noodles instant, full of MSG's, salt and saturated fats.

Shop owner on the island of Upolu, Western Samoa

osetalau Toreafoa, owner of a roadside shop in Western Samoa.

The Genetic Vulnerability of Polynesians

As if that were not enough, scientists found that many Polynesians carry an obesity gene developed over the centuries, it is believed that because, in their travels and attempts to colonize the Pacific, they were forced to resist for long periods without feeding .

This gene allegedly causes more fat to accumulate in their bodies and make them gain weight and volume faster.

This factor will be decisive in the Polynesian predominance at the top of the ranking of the heaviest countries in the world.

According to the World Health Organization, nine of the top ten countries are American Samoa, Nauru, Cook Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Samoa, Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Palau.

Obese resident of Tupola Tapaau, a small island in Western Samoa.

Tupola Tapaau, resident of the island of Manono, a smaller island in Samoa.

Only Qatar, Kuwait, Saint Kitts and Nevis, the Bahamas, Barbados and other Caribbean islands make their way into the Top 20 in this restricted obese club. In several of the territories more than 50% of the population is obese.

In some, the national percentage exceeds 80%. In more recent times, American Samoa, with nine obese in ten inhabitants, has come to stand out from the rest. The even more intense adoption of the fast food which has long been wanton USA

Polynesians like the tattooed, full-bodied, paunchy Kosetalau Toreafoa, who cares for us to pat the big belly displayed above the counter, resist abandoning cultural beliefs that “big is beautiful and a sign of wealth and prosperity”.

Tongatapu women in mourning, Tonga

Ladies from a Tongatapu cemetery where they visited a relative who perished from the non-communicable diseases that plague Tonga and the South Pacific.

They fail to understand that thin does not necessarily mean poor or hungry, and to distinguish between big and fat.

Other Harmful Agents in Tonga and Samoa: Churches and Multinationals

Religion, in turn, fills in a non-negligible variable in the theme.

The priests of churches such as the Free Wesleyan Church, the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints, the Free Church of Tonga, and even the Roman Catholic Churches occupy influential but harmful places of authority and social model if we keep in mind that almost all are obese.

Not everything is negative. Both in Tonga and in Samoa, young people and men up to middle age continue to play rugby in the evenings or mornings on weekends and holidays, in various natural grasslands spread across the archipelago.

Jogging around Robert Louis Stevenson's grave in Upolu, Western Samoa

Samoan runs up and down the hill where Robert Louis Stevenson is buried to lose weight

Rugby not always first class but athletic and eager, violent spaces and that makes the small nation the 12th world power in the sport, supplier of countless naturalized players, especially the all-powerful New Zealand.

Na French Polynesia, the Welsh authorities reacted in 2009 with taxes on sugary drinks. Since then, other Pacific nations have followed suit, with limited success.

Multinationals are so prevalent that they end up manipulating governments and circumventing restrictions. Here and there, their logos and designs decorated the facades of homes, bars and other businesses on the islands, as happens with those of multinationals from fast food prominent.

Meanwhile, most Polynesians still do not know how to unravel the nutritional scourge that victimizes them.

More information on this topic on the respective page of Wikipedia.

Moorea, French Polynesia

The Polynesian Sister Any Island Would Like to Have

A mere 17km from Tahiti, Moorea does not have a single city and is home to a tenth of its inhabitants. Tahitians have long watched the sun go down and transform the island next door into a misty silhouette, only to return to its exuberant colors and shapes hours later. For those who visit these remote parts of the Pacific, getting to know Moorea is a double privilege.
Maui, Hawaii

Maui: The Divine Hawaii That Succumbed to Fire

Maui is a former chief and hero of Hawaiian religious and traditional imagery. In the mythology of this archipelago, the demigod lassos the sun, raises the sky and performs a series of other feats on behalf of humans. Its namesake island, which the natives believe they created in the North Pacific, is itself prodigious.
Apia, Western Samoa

Fia Fia - High Rotation Polynesian Folklore

From New Zealand to Easter Island and from here to Hawaii, there are many variations of Polynesian dances. Fia Fia's Samoan nights, in particular, are enlivened by one of the more fast-paced styles.
Tahiti, French Polynesia

Tahiti Beyond the Cliché

Neighbors Bora Bora and Maupiti have superior scenery but Tahiti has long been known as paradise and there is more life on the largest and most populous island of French Polynesia, its ancient cultural heart.
Competitions

Man: an Ever Tested Species

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Rapa Nui - Easter Island, Chile

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Samoa  

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Papeete, French Polynesia

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Tongatapu, Tonga

The Last Polynesian Monarchy

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Apia, Western Samoa

The Host of the South Pacific

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Maupiti, French Polynesia

A Society on the Margin

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Upolu, Samoa

Stevenson's Treasure Island

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Upolu, Samoa  

The Broken Heart of Polynesia

The imagery of the paradisiacal South Pacific is unquestionable in Samoa, but its tropical beauty does not pay the bills for either the nation or the inhabitants. Anyone who visits this archipelago finds a people divided between subjecting themselves to tradition and the financial stagnation or uprooting themselves in countries with broader horizons.
Savai’i, Samoa

The Great Samoa

Upolu is home to the capital and much of the tourist attention. On the other side of the Apolima strait, the also volcanic Savai'i is the largest and highest island in the archipelago of Samoa and the sixth in the immense Polynesia. Samoans praise her authenticity so much that they consider her the soul of the nation.
Residents walk along the trail that runs through plantations above the UP4
City
Gurué, Mozambique, Part 1

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The Portuguese founded Gurué in the 1930th century and, from XNUMX onwards, flooded it with camellia sinensis the foothills of the Namuli Mountains. Later, they renamed it Vila Junqueiro, in honor of its main promoter. With the independence of Mozambique and the civil war, the town regressed. It continues to stand out for the lush green imposing mountains and teak landscapes.
Host Wezi points out something in the distance
Beach
Cobue; Nkwichi Lodge, Mozambique

The Hidden Mozambique of the Creaking Sands

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Duo of giraffes crossing paths above the savannah, with the Libombo Mountains in the background
safari
KaMsholo Bush Safaris, eSwatini

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Yak Kharka to Thorong Phedi, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal, Yaks
Annapurna (circuit)
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coast, fjord, Seydisfjordur, Iceland
Architecture & Design
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Salto Angel, Rio that falls from the sky, Angel Falls, PN Canaima, Venezuela
Aventura
PN Canaima, Venezuela

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drinks entre reis, cavalhadas de pirenopolis, crusades, brazil
Ceremonies and Festivities
Pirenópolis, Brazil

Brazilian Crusades

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Luderitz, Namibia
Cities
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Wilkommen in Africa

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Cocoa, Chocolate, Sao Tome Principe, Agua Izé farm
Lunch time
São Tomé and Principe

Cocoa Roças, Corallo and the Chocolate Factory

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Culture
Shows

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Reindeer Racing, Kings Cup, Inari, Finland
Sport
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The Wackiest Race on the Top of the World

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Traveling
Inle Lake, Myanmar

A Pleasant Forced Stop

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Cobá, trip to the Mayan Ruins, Pac Chen, Mayans of now
Ethnic
Cobá to Pac Chen, Mexico

From the Ruins to the Mayan Homes

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Rainbow in the Grand Canyon, an example of prodigious photographic light
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
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improvised bank
History
Ibo Island, Mozambique

Island of a Gone Mozambique

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Teide Volcano, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Islands
Tenerife, Canary Islands

The Volcano that Haunts the Atlantic

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Horses under a snow, Iceland Never Ending Snow Island Fire
Winter White
Husavik a Myvatn, Iceland

Endless Snow on the Island of Fire

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José Saramago in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain, Glorieta de Saramago
Literature
Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain

José Saramago's Basalt Raft

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Dark day
Nature

Lake Cocibolca, Nicaragua

sea, sweet sea

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Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

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Kayaking on Lake Sinclair, Cradle Mountain - Lake Sinclair National Park, Tasmania, Australia
Natural Parks
Discovering tassie, Part 4 - Devonport to Strahan, Australia

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Starting moment of one of the races organized by the Barbados Turf Club
UNESCO World Heritage
Bridgetown, Barbados

Cannons and Horse Racing in the Old Barbadian Savannah

In the 1966th and 300th centuries, Bridgetown was home to the British Army and Navy Headquarters for the West Indies. In XNUMX, after XNUMX years, Barbados gained its independence. Garrison and, in particular, the racecourse-lawn at its heart exalt the vigor of the young nation.
Heroes Acre Monument, Zimbabwe
Characters
Harare, Zimbabwewe

The Last Rales of Surreal Mugabué

In 2015, Zimbabwe's first lady Grace Mugabe said the 91-year-old president would rule until the age of 100 in a special wheelchair. Shortly thereafter, it began to insinuate itself into his succession. But in recent days, the generals have finally precipitated the removal of Robert Mugabe, who has replaced him with former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Glass Bottom Boats, Kabira Bay, Ishigaki
Beaches
Ishigaki, Japan

The Exotic Japanese Tropics

Ishigaki is one of the last islands in the stepping stone that stretches between Honshu and Taiwan. Ishigakijima is home to some of the most amazing beaches and coastal scenery in these parts of the Pacific Ocean. More and more Japanese who visit them enjoy them with little or no bathing.
Ulugh Beg, Astronomer, Samarkand, Uzbekistan, A Space Marriage
Religion
Samarkand, Uzbekistan

The Astronomer Sultan

The grandson of one of the great conquerors of Central Asia, Ulugh Beg, preferred the sciences. In 1428, he built a space observatory in Samarkand. His studies of the stars led him to name a crater on the Moon.
Train Kuranda train, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
On Rails
Cairns-Kuranda, Australia

Train to the Middle of the Jungle

Built out of Cairns to save miners isolated in the rainforest from starvation by flooding, the Kuranda Railway eventually became the livelihood of hundreds of alternative Aussies.
Busy intersection of Tokyo, Japan
Society
Tokyo, Japan

The Endless Night of the Rising Sun Capital

Say that Tokyo do not sleep is an understatement. In one of the largest and most sophisticated cities on the face of the Earth, twilight marks only the renewal of the frenetic daily life. And there are millions of souls that either find no place in the sun, or make more sense in the “dark” and obscure turns that follow.
Fruit sellers, Swarm, Mozambique
Daily life
Enxame Mozambique

Mozambican Fashion Service Area

It is repeated at almost all stops in towns of Mozambique worthy of appearing on maps. The machimbombo (bus) stops and is surrounded by a crowd of eager "businessmen". The products offered can be universal such as water or biscuits or typical of the area. In this region, a few kilometers from Nampula, fruit sales suceeded, in each and every case, quite intense.
Fluvial coming and going
Wildlife
Iriomote, Japan

The Small Tropical Japanese Amazon of Iriomote

Impenetrable rainforests and mangroves fill Iriomote under a pressure cooker climate. Here, foreign visitors are as rare as the yamaneko, an elusive endemic lynx.
The Sounds, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Fiordland, New Zealand

The Fjords of the Antipodes

A geological quirk made the Fiordland region the rawest and most imposing in New Zealand. Year after year, many thousands of visitors worship the sub-domain slashed between Te Anau and Milford Sound.