Taking a warped view of Tahiti?

First of all, I would like to say that Pacific Islands Monthly is the best thing that ever hap pened to the Pacific. It is news for all of us to read. I no longer have to wonder what is happening in other parts of the Pacific. However, there are a few things that I would like to comment on.

I don’t think that a certain article in the August, 1985, issue was very fair. I refer to the

article “Time warp for Tahiti visitor. ”

This article reeks of the typi cal white man who wants to be one up on the rest of the white people, showing this by being able to tell all about the reality of life in a place that most wish to visit and are either consider ing visiting or are unable to (but nonetheless dream of visiting).

If Marie-Therese and Bengt Danielsson think that they are

telling the world something that they don’t already know, then I personally feel that my intelli gence (along with millions of others) is being insulted. By now, most people know that modernisation has struck even the most remote places in the world. Anyone travelling with the idea that they are going to see the world the way it was even a few hundred years ago is probably not in a suitable

state to travel. And most people realise that in the name of tourism, people will tend to overstate the qualities that lure tourists and visitors to their countries.

I also strongly resent this blatant discrediting of Tahiti. I know it is outrageously expen sive. So is my home Hawaii.

Yet people (not necessarily naive ones, at that) are still flocking there year round. The fact is, there are hardly any places that one could label a tropical paradise in Hawaii any more, but it is up to the individual to decide what does and doesn’t appeal to them. I strongly feel that Marie-Therese and Bengt Danielsson are pushing their personal likes and dislikes on the readers, and what they say about what you should imagine if you are in old Tahiti may be just what they have found through research, but not necessarily what any one else would have found in

old Tahiti. Especially in view of the living conditions of the less fortunate people in Tahiti (of whom I hear there are many), I think that more constructive (though honest) articles could be written about a place which though modernisation has changed it somewhat, is still quite a paradise.

There is always the financial ly well-off Westerner who would like to buy with his money his own personal para dise on his own terms, and become a local person, and tries to show the rest of the world how much he has adapted. I hope, though I am sure they disagree with everything I have mentioned, that the Danielssons might give some thought to this.

I’ll never forget a few years back when a terrible hurricane hit Tahiti and Gabilou was appealing to us in Hawaii for help and he didn’t overstate

or understate anything. This kind of attitude should be shared by people writing articles in your magazine.

There are those of us who had our own experiences in Tahiti as well as other places, and have found what Marie- Therese and Bengt Danielsson have to say to be quite untrue as far as our own personal opinions are concerned. ( You see? Personal opinions).

Thank you for your time in reading this letter. In spite of the article, I am madly in love with Pacific Islands Monthly, as it has made me feel at home, no matter where I may be.

Gale Faataualofalele

Afasio

Suva Fiji

Tourists from Japan seem particularly prone to become “hooked” on Tahiti’s charms.