From Publishers Weekly:
On a six-month odyssey in the South and Central Pacific, Village Voice editor Malcomson encountered a paradise partly spoiled by neocolonialism, ethnic and political rivalries, poverty and nuclear radiation. In Guam, the native Chamorro people fight discrimination and clash with American, Filipino, Japanese and Chinese newcomers. In the Marshall Islands, a hierarchical clan structure has blunted protests against U.S. nuclear missile testing. In Fiji he interviewed Brigadier Sitiveni Rabuka, who led two coups to restore the "Fijian way of life" and curb the influence of prosperous Indian merchants. Touring French Polynesia, he found vestiges of Paul Gauguin's lush eden, but also an increase in radiation-related cancers from nuclear testing, and an independence movement weakened as France's economic vise has tightened. Travel, adventure and politics blend in this involving, serendipitous journey.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal:
Any dream of traveling to the islands of the Pacific in order to escape to a tropical paradise free of 20th-century problems is quickly dashed as one reads this political and social travelog. Malcomson, an unabashedly liberal journalist, presents the stark reality of life on these Pacific islands, from assassinations in Palau, coups in Fiji, nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands and French Polynesia, a war for independence in New Caledonia, and poverty nearly everywhere. Malcomson describes the political structure of the islands influenced by the Tuturani (white people) as well as those still run by the natives. Though somewhat superficial in its treatment of contemporary Pacific island politics, the book would be of interest to anyone who wishes to learn something about this area of the world.
-Thomas J. Baldino, Juniata Coll., Huntingdon, Pa.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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