EASTER ON EASTER ISLAND Part II

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

The Rapa Nui Hospital on Easter Island desperately needed the help of Project C.U.R.E. The frustrated doctors explained that simple laboratory tests were taking a minimum of five weeks to be returned to the hospital, instead of fifteen minutes. The airlines flew only once a week from Easter Island to Santiago. They would then have to depend on getting their needed test results from an understaffed and overworked mainland hospital that also had inadequate lab equipment and continual shortages of supplies and reagents. Rapa Nui was put into a critical medical position. Within the past few weeks there had been a severe outbreak of dengue fever on the island. Tourists had brought in the fever, and the local mosquitoes had served to rapidly spread it throughout the island population before the blood tests could be cultured and returned. Several people had died because of the delays.

After assessing their medical facilities, I felt that Project C.U.R.E. could greatly increase their efficiency by supplying to them, in addition to the needed lab equipment, essential emergency room equipment and supplies, OB-GYN diagnostic equipment, including an ultrasound machine, and a ventilator and respirator for their small intensive care ward.

On Saturday, Governor Paoz and our other hosts continued to show us around Easter Island and share with us more impressive legends:

• We think of two tides: ebb and flow. The islanders studied and followed sixteen different tide categories. They knew when and where to fish, plant, travel, procreate, etc. according to the tides.

• Many rock pile structures were not Ahu formations, but rather, they were stone chicken coops. Early on, chickens were a sign of wealth. A guest was very honored if the host presented a white chicken to him. But the guest was most honored if the host cleaned the chicken, took out its intestines, washed them, and gave them to the guest to eat. A war was once started because the guests insulted the host by not eating the chicken entrails.

• At different locations around the island were surviving evidences of schools where the students were taught how to cook, plant, judge the sun and seasons, and even how and where to catch tuna fish. The lessons were carved into the stones and we could presently observe the ancient object lessons.

Saturday evening Anna Marie and I left our hotel room, walked along the rocky coastline and turned right on the main street called Avenue Atawu Tekera. We were headed to the end of the avenue just to walk by the Catholic church. It was the only church on the island. We were hoping that the church would have posted some kind of time schedule for Easter Sunday services. As we turned the corner the church bells began pealing out across the cove.

A little further on, we came upon a group of people spilling out into the dark street. The vacant lot abutting the street was being used by the Catholic priests and nuns to conduct an outside mass the night before Easter. The sky was very dark, and the church leaders had built a large bonfire of old wood to light the night. Many candles glowed from a small grotto as the group joined in singing, accompanied by some of the clergy playing accordions, drums, and guitars.

Anna Marie and I found a spot along the curb and sat down to join the service. The crowd continued to grow as the outside service progressed. After about an hour the church bells from down at the end of the street began to ring out once more. The priest closed that part of the service by lighting a very large candle measuring about five feet in height. From that main candle the parishioners moved in and lit their individual candles they had brought along.

The accordions, drums, and guitars started the music once again as all the people marched by candlelight up the hill the four or five blocks to the Catholic church at the end of the street. It was a wonderful experience, and the two of us joined right along with the marchers walking to the beat of the music.

During the balance of Saturday night’s service and the Easter celebration service on Sunday morning, we witnessed a very emotional and memorable time of worship. The Rapa Nui islanders brought all kind of fruits, vegetables, and even freshly butchered meats, marched to the front of the chancel, and presented their sacrificial gifts to be shared. We heard remarks that were almost reminiscent of the old Puritan liturgy, “no pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.”

As I listened I marveled. These Easter Island inhabitants had come to this extremely isolated location and had created their own legacy, their own culture and civilization. They had spawned an ethic of resilience, hard work, and courage. Their determination to persevere had maximized their human potential, and they had overcome the obstacles that logically should have destroyed them. From the time they had landed in their little canoes, the emphasis had been on courage, persistence, and determination.

As Anna Marie and I were leaving the church, I recalled one last story that our host, the governor, had shared with us as we toured the island:

To encourage confidence in the leadership of the king’s governance of the island people, and to tacitly teach the virtues of courage, persistence, and determination, the king agreed that each year a prime minister would be selected from the tribal chiefs. But the tribal chief would not be the one determining his eligibility to become prime minister for that one year. An athlete would be chosen from each tribe to participate in a competition  

 

There was a small island off the southern coast of Easter Island where a certain bird nested on its migration route each year. The tribal participants would be ferried out to the small island by boat and left there. They would wait in hiding until the first migratory bird built a nest and laid an egg.

The first tribal competitor to successfully capture that egg into his possession would climb to the top of the small island and shout back to the king his name, his tribe, and verification that he possessed the egg.

The other contestants would try to take away the egg from the possessor for themselves, but if the possessor could successfully jump into the sea, he then would have to swim all the way back to Easter Island. But the feat was still not finished, because once back at the island he would have to climb a vertical stone cliff from the water’s edge up to where the king was sitting at the very peak of the largest volcano’s edge.

If the contestant was successful in fighting, swimming, and climbing without breaking the raw egg, he would then present the egg to his tribal chief, who would in turn present the egg to the king. Once the king received the egg from the tribal chief, he would declare that tribal chief the prime minister for the next year in a great celebration. The king would also bestow on the winning contestant the coveted title of . . . “Birdman.”

The enduring virtues and legacies that were being taught to the people of the island would sustain them through the hard times and uncertainties of the future. They were all Easter Island Champions!

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

EASTER ON EASTER ISLAND

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

The diverse geographical assets of the sliver-shaped country of Chile make for a place of outrageous and extravagant beauty. Warm sandy beaches, frozen tundra, rugged mountain passes, tropical plateaus, old volcanoes, generous fishing waters . . . Chile has it all!

I had been in the cities of Conception and Santiago in January. The political officials had insisted that I return in April and visit the Chilean province of Easter Island to evaluate their health care system. Anna Marie joined me on the trip, and we arrived back in Santiago on the Wednesday before Easter.

I remembered first hearing of Easter Island during my childhood as I listened to the reports of World War II on the radio. Then, Easter Island hit the news once more during the heady days of NASA’s space program. The U.S. had negotiated for the use of a sizable portion of the island in order to build a large landing strip in case any of the space machines got into trouble out in the vast, empty waters of the Pacific Ocean. The Easter Island tracking station became a household buzzword during those many space flights.

Easter Island is the world's most isolated inhabited island. It is also one of the most mystifying and mysterious places on Earth. The original settlers were Polynesian islanders who somehow paddled their canoes for weeks, maybe months, through open waters of the Pacific Ocean and discovered the island in the middle of “nowhere.” They named the island Rapa Nui and were isolated for centuries from the outside world.

The people of Rapa Nui developed their own distinctive culture, a culture perhaps best symbolized by the huge moai figures. There are hundreds of the large monolithic stone sculptures that were carved from volcanic rock and mysteriously situated along the coastline, facing the settlements with their backs toward the spirit world of the vast sea. 

 

The first recorded European contact with the island was on April 5 (Easter Sunday), 1722, when a Dutch navigator visited the island for a week and estimated a population of 2,000 to 3,000 inhabitants. But why on earth would the skinny country of Chili have any interest in owning little Easter Island today that sits 2,500 miles from its coast—that is farther than from New York to Los Angeles—out in the middle of nowhere? As an economist, let me suggest the answer . . . follow the money!

A country’s territorial water rights extend out to three miles past its borders. By being able to claim that Easter Island is an integral part of its sovereign country, Chile’s international coastline was not three miles out from Santiago, but a convenient 2,500 plus three miles out to the west of Easter Island. That gave Chile an incredible puddle of ocean water to claim as their undisputed fishing territory. There is no doubt about it, skinny Chile needs Easter Island!

The Chilean airline only flies once a week to Easter Island, and then on to Tahiti. As guests of honor, we were personally met at the Rapa Nui airport with beautiful floral leis and eager smiles. The governor of Easter Island, Pedro Pablo Edmunds Paoz and his wife would be our hosts. We were additionally hosted by Hernan Felipe Errazuriz, a prominent attorney in Santiago, who had served as Chili’s foreign minister and also the Chilean ambassador to the United States. The third dignitary to host us was Christian Labbe Galilea, the present mayor of the city of Santiago, and his wife.

Since we were confined to the Island for at least a week, Friday and Saturday were designated as our days to explore Easter Island. Pedro Pablo Edmunds Paoz was the perfect person to be our island tour guide. He was the undisputed official of the Island. He was the keeper of the legends. He knew all the history, all the folklore, and certainly all the people. As we traveled to the legendary spots throughout the island, Pedro told us many stories and related lots of facts about the kings who first came to the island and their exploits and Polynesian culture:

• The 820 hand carved Moai stone statues weighed from 90 to 150 tons each and all came from one rock-quarry located in the northern part of the island. Each statue represented a king, tribal leader, or very important man of island history. Legend has it that the stones were moved into place by mental and spiritual powers of levitation
•  A Moai usually sat atop an Ahu that was a sacred formation of stacked stones close to the sea that housed the bones of the dead island ancestors.
•  There were no bad words in the Rapa Nui language. If you wanted to say something bad to or about someone you had to borrow a Spanish, French, or English phrase.
• Likewise, there were no words of gratitude like “thank you” in their language. If someone did something nice for you, you would simply accept it.
• Neither was there any concept of forgiveness in the culture.
• The only, and ultimate, sign of disapproval or displeasure when someone had crossed over the behavior line was to stick out your tongue at the offender. That meant “death to you.”
• You didn’t just kill someone who had done wrong; you made him stop breathing, ate his flesh, and then pounded each bone into dust. Then, he could never be honored or return again.

As we drove to every historic site on the island, the governor continued sharing with us the unusual history and culture of the Easter Island people. On Friday afternoon I received one of the greatest stories I had ever heard regarding the power of information brokering.

It is not unusual for people to utilize exclusive information to manipulate other folks who do not have access to the same information. The Egyptians used to call it “the King’s secret” when he could control the information of the past to bend the outcome of a present situation. He alone possessed the information that was locked safe in the forbidding walls of his political position. He alone could rule in safety through the secret invention, destruction, or alteration of past documents or information.

• One of the past kings of the island divided the island into territories, one territory for each tribe. The king kept complete control, and his position was safe from an uprising or from someone killing him because only the king could read the ancient language carved in wood, which told of the compete history of each tribe and individuals of the specific tribes. Each year he traveled to the different territories reciting the sacred history to the tribes. He counted on the fact that knowledge was powerful, and in holding information there was safety. The king knew that no one would even think of killing him, since to kill him would be to kill the history of the individuals and each tribe. If they killed him they would really kill themselves and their posterity. The king lived a long and happy life.

I was reminded that knowledge is power, information is power. The secreting, hoarding, or manipulating of information may simply be an act of tyranny camouflaged as public service. I was becoming intrigued by the economics and culture of Rapa Nui and Easter Island.

                                       (Easter on Easter Island  to be continued) 

  

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

JARS OR CRACKED POTS?

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

Ancient Demosthenes summed it up by saying, “As a vessel is known by the sound, whether it be cracked or not; so men are proved by their speeches whether they be wise or foolish.” Others have implied that the empty vessel makes the loudest sound. I have observed, however, that genius and mystery are sometimes discovered in the cracked pot.

I first heard of the Plain of Jars during the US-Vietnam conflict in the 1960s and 70s. The U.S. had showered Laos with more missiles than it had dumped on Germany and Japan combined during World War II. The Xieng Khouang province was one of the most heavily bombed targets in history with about four billion pounds of bombs dropped during the Pathet Lao offensive to try to cut off the Ho Chi Minh movement of the advancing North Vietnamese. Many of the bombs did not explode and still present a problem. Sightseeing on the Plain of Jars can be done only on cleared and marked pathways. 

Never did I dream that one day I would actually get to visit the Plain of Jars, located on the high plateaus of the mountains of Laos. I had been asked to perform needs assessments for several Laotian hospitals in the area that had requested donated medical goods from Project C.U.R.E. Just outside the city of Xieng Khouang was located one of the ancient sites where the mysterious hand carved stone vessels still remained. The jars were huge, up to nine feet tall, the largest weighing fourteen tons. Most were carved of sandstone, others of granite. Some were round, others angular, and most were hand chiseled between 500 B.C. and 900 A.D., and then, somehow, they were transported from a distant rock quarry to the present sites.

It reminded me a lot of standing out in the countryside in England and trying to figure out why the massive rocks of Stonehenge were balanced as they were. How were these massive jars transported? Who carved them? How were they used? What civilization placed them here? What happened to some of the lids that used to cover them? Did they bury people in them? Did they store water in them? There were thousands of the megalithic vessels around the Xieng Khouang area.

Traditional Lao stories and legends explain that a race of giants ruled by a king called Khum Cheung fought long and valiantly and eventually beat their enemy. He supposedly then created the jars to brew and store huge amounts of rice wine in the vessels to celebrate his victory. Another local tradition states the jars were molded, using natural materials such as clay, sand, sugar, and animal products, in a type of stone mix. They believed that a nearby cave was actually a kiln, and that the huge jars were fired there and were not actually hewn of stone.

Some legends claim that the jars were used to collect rainwater for caravan travelers along their journey at times when water was not available. The rainwater would then be boiled for safe use.

Initial research of the Plain of Jars in the early 1930s claimed that the stone jars were associated with prehistoric burial practices. Excavation by Lao and Japanese archaeologists in the intervening years has supported this interpretation with the discovery of human remains, burial goods, and ceramics around the stone jars.

The nearby cave is a natural limestone cave with an opening on one side and two man-made holes at the top of the cave. The holes could have been used as chimneys of a crematorium. Some archaeologists excavated inside the cave in the early 1930 and found material to support a centralized crematorium theory.

The Plain of Jars could have been a burial site. Inside some of the jars have been found glass beads, burnt teeth and bone fragments, pottery fragments, iron and bronze objects. The stone jars initially may have been used to distil the dead bodies. In contemporary funerary practices connected to Thai, Cambodian, and Laotian royalty, the corpse of the deceased during the early stages of the funeral rites is placed into an urn, where the deceased undergoes gradual transformation from the earthly to the spiritual world. The ritual decomposition is followed by cremation and secondary burial.

While exploring the megalithic archaeological landscape in Laos, I kept wondering what I could learn about empty jars and cracked pots. One thing I did know was that there certainly was a lot of confusion about the mission and message of the ancient traditions and practices. It was muddled and hidden enough that no one could really be certain now, even though it was incredibly important to the folks involved back then.

I concluded that the genius to be discovered was that compassion is not a megalithic jar to be filled, but a fire to be ignited. When that fire is ignited, and its energy and warmth is focused on a needy place like Laos or Cambodia, the white-hot flame will be extended not just into the years ahead, but into eternity. Project C.U.R.E. volunteers who spend their energies passionately collecting, sorting, warehousing, and distributing health and hope around the world are indeed messengers. They are human vessels with a message that will not be forgotten. The collective vessel is filled with the pulsing heartbeat of over fifteen thousand individuals who compassionately love and care for others.

                Hope can do exceeding good to the vessel in which it is stored,

                and multiply thereby the goodness onto which it is freely poured.

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com