ExxonMobil’s New Guinea Nightmare

[xchrom]

http://www.thenation.com/article/179618/exxonmobils-new-guinea-nightmare


Tumbi Quarry, July 2013 (Olivier Pollet)

Monday, January 23, 2012, was a routine day for 15-year-old Jackson Piwago. Like every other weekday, his father met him after school, and the two walked hand in hand back to their home in Tumbi, a small village in the remote, mountainous Hela Province of Papua New Guinea. There, at the foot of the Gigira Mountain Range, Jackson went about his chores: looking after the family’s pigs, collecting firewood, fetching water and cooking sweet potatoes. He chatted with some of his father’s nine wives, as well as his many brothers and cousins. As on most evenings, dinner was boisterous and joyful.

Then, just as he did every night, Jackson fell asleep alongside his father, using his dad’s arm as a pillow. Jokoya Piwago, a prominent Ware tribal chief, recalled that night vividly in a recent conversation. He remembered his son imploring him, “Please, Daddy, buy me the bicycle that I need to go to school and come back…. Buy me a bicycle tomorrow.”

Jokoya paused and said, “That’s the last word that he spoke to me.”

Jokoya Piwago rose at sunrise on January 24. He was running late for work, and his ride was waiting outside. He woke up Jackson, then jumped into the car, shoes in hand. Minutes later, three loud, rapid-fire cracks filled the air. To some, it sounded like the discharge of an AK-47 rifle. Other villagers said it sounded more like a thunderclap. No one could find words to describe the sound that immediately followed.

[pipoman]

1. a log in is required on that site to read...too bad...

[ellenfl]

3. i didn't have to log in. eom

[Nihil]

5. Can read it fine without logging in ...

... but that might be because I use NoScript to block unwanted interaction from sites.

[ladjf]

2. Humans are infesting the Planet. nt

[pscot]

4. Nine wives?

[hatrack]

6. Better title: "New Guinea's ExxonMobil Nightmare"

nt