Brokeback Mountain - A Personal Take

Synopsis

Very briefly, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ begins by telling the story of two young men, one a ranch hand and the other a rodeo cowboy, who meet in the summer of 1963 whilst tending sheep up in the mountains of Wyoming. When a bitterly cold night forces the two to share a tent, it ignites a physical spark that would see them form a lifelong connection that would span 20 years, during which each of the two men marry and start their own respective families. While Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) is more self-aware and continually hopes for something more with Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger), Ennis remains conflicted, unable to bring himself to offer Jack anything more other than intermittent once-in-a-blue-moon getaways together under the guise of fishing trips. ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is essentially a story about two men, one who knew what he wanted and another who didn’t know what he wanted until it was too late. It is essentially a sad story, and a tragic one at that, filled with the pain of thwarted love, of longing sorrow, fear and loneliness.

Click here to watch the trailer and selected clips from the movie.

On A Personal Level

‘Brokeback Mountain’ is an immensely moving film. It is raw, overwhelming in its emotions, breathtaking in terms of the scenery but at the same time, does not attempt to pontificate on about homosexuality.

However, it was a tad too slow for my liking, at least initially. But once the story got under way, the final hour or so was emotionally gut-wrenching for me, albeit tempered by my determination to remain objective. Gyllenhaal, Ledger and Michelle Williams all gave superb performance in their respective roles as Jack, Ennis and Alma and where words and dialogue were lacking – which I found extremely frustrating at times – the emotions conveyed by their body language, facial expressions and their eyes more than made up for it.

Ennis is this stoic character who hardly speaks and shows little, if any emotion. Yet, we get a first glimpse of what he was really feeling inside when he bade Jack farewell after their first summer together working up on Brokeback Mountain. As Ennis watches Jack’s truck drive off into the horizon, thinking he'll never see him again, the seemingly stoic Ennis suddenly stumbles to a dusty sidestreet where he falls to his knees, vomits and pummels the wall he’s leaning against and weeps – perfectly articulating the emotions he felt – the confusion, the loss and pain swirling within him.

I was also moved immensely for Alma in the scene where she discovers, by accident, her husband’s infidelity four years into their marriage when Jack and Ennis meet up again for the first time after that summer of 1963. The profound shock, confusion and betrayal felt by Alma is an experience that anyone who has ever been cut wide open by love will be able to relate to.

The film allows us to slowly realise, almost as if teasingly, that it is the reluctant but stoic Ennis whose love is perhaps the most searing and most faithful – at least towards Jack in any case (discounting his infidelity towards Alma for the moment) – and one, which he tells Jack towards the end of the film that meeting him has cost him everything – including his chance of living a life as a married man with two daughters (whom he adores).

The other scene which really moved me was towards the end when Ennis visits Jack’s parents, only to accidentally discover his bloodied shirt tucked inside Jack’s shirt in a narrow space behind the wardrobe in Jack's bedroom – this was the same shirt Ennis had worn when he had a fight with Jack years earlier up on the mountains and which he’d left behind by accident. The entertwining of the shirts seemed as if to say Jack was holding Ennis. But by then, Jack was gone for good and we only get to see this unfathomable sadness in Ennis as he clutches the shirts tightly to himself, smelling them, as if wanting to take Jack into his embrace.

Years later, in the very last scene, Ennis walks over to a closet door in the trailer where he now calls home and as he opens the door, we see the two shirts again, hanging on the inside of the door; only this time, Ennis’s shirt is now on the outside and Jack’s on the inside, as if to say that he was now prepared to hold Jack in his embrace.

I walked away out of the cinema theatre deeply moved. Although I saw bits of myself in both Jack and Ennis, I identified mostly with Ennis (never mind the fact that his folks were Methodists too). However, it did not resurrect as many ghosts as I had initially anticipated, that for which I was thankful for.

As another blogger puts it so aptly, the film is a 'meditation' on the sorrow of finding everything you thought you wanted and yet not being able to or not knowing how to keep it. It is about a nagging ache within you that slowly eats away at you until you finally realise what you have lost and that it’s too late.

The Aftermath

I gave myself a few days to let ‘Brokeback Mountain’ fully sink in and I think it is still in the process of sinking in. I thought it was amusing that Jack and Ennis met whilst tending sheep on a mountain. As I recall how Ennis and Jack made blunder after blunder with their sheep tending responsibilities on their first summer up on Brokeback Mountain, I am reminded of God’s heart for humanity and for those who struggle with the cross that they bear.

Suffering and pain are common to all humanity – and God is in clear solidarity with human suffering. In terms of Christian allegory, it was Jesus who said that he was the Good Shepherd who was willing to lay his life down for his sheep and that he’d go out of his way to find any sheep that had wandered off. And I take comfort in knowing that even in the midst of great loss, I still have Christ who is eternal and whose love is enduring. I just need to remember to look for God’s shadow and His scent, even in the most testing of times and darkest of places.

Brokeback Mountain - An Objective Take

I saw ‘Brokeback Mountain’ on Australia Day this year. And I’ve also posted my thoughts on it on a personal level in an another post. Click here to read that post. This post on ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is from a more objective perspective. But before I continue, let me take you back to an experience I had several years ago now.

I was living on my own then, and from memory, I think I was in my final year of university. I invited this friend over for dinner at my place one night. Tim had started coming to my church and I had gotten to know him a bit over the preceding months. We chatted casually over dinner and towards either the end of the night or around the middle of the night – I forget which – Tim suddenly blurts out to me after a silent pause that he was HIV+. I remember feeling sitting there stunned. He was, however, so concerned about the news upsetting me that he asked me if I was OK. On the exterior, I didn’t flinch a single bit nor did I bat an eyelid. But on the inside, I was literally guttered. He must have been only in his mid-20s at the time, not that much older than I was.

The night before Australia Day, I found out via two message posts on this online network of same-sex attracted Christians that two other guys (people that I know of rather than personally) have also recently been diagnosed as HIV+. One is in his early 30s, the other, his early 20s. Once again, I felt guttered. It was with this news on the back of my mind that I saw ‘Brokeback Mountain’. I share this because I want to hopefully be able to offer you a slightly different perspective on this film.

So, Requited Love Equals...?

On a broader level, though, I must confess I watched this movie with the determination to remain as objective as I possibly could. And it is from this perspective that I wonder whether ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is insinuating, albeit very subtlely, that love between any two people should never be restrained, sacrificed or given up; that requited love should be given free rein to carve out its destiny in the lives of those whom it has befallen, and that if our society could only be ridden of its disapproval and hang-ups about homosexuality, then these two men could very well have gone on to live a happy life together.

I also wondered as I sat there if society would still look upon as favourably or with as much empathy towards those who engaged in adultery so long as it is committed in the name of requited love between the parties involved.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying ‘Brokeback Mountain’ should be banned or that it is contributing to a decline in family moral values. Not at all. Neither do I wish to belittle the fact that the emotions and experiences portrayed by Jack and Ennis or suggest in any way that they do not exist in reality. However, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ told as a story of a same-sex couple’s thwarted love is but just that – it highlights and shows that even same-sex attracted people, share the same hopes and dreams and desires to love and to be loved, of wanting to know that you matter to someone. And that matters of the heart are never an easy thing – that it is complex, messy and sometimes outright painful.

In that sense, it humanises the experience of people with same-sex attractions and hopefully raises a higher level of awareness and compassion for those with same-sex attractions based on our shared aspects of humanity – regardless of our moral disposition on the matter.

Sexuality – A New Construct

Our generation – or perhaps the last two generations or so – are interestingly enough, also the first in history to ever construct our self-identities on the basis of our sexuality. And so, today, our society would label Jack and Ennis as ‘gay’. Or perhaps ‘bisexual’ to be accurate. Yet, Jack and Ennis both did not describe themselves that way and did not see themselves as that. Some may argue that it is because of the era that they were in, that people feared to identify themselves that way for fear of recriminations. Yet, the very physical and emotional behaviours of Jack and Ennis indicated to us they were very much drawn to each other.

When Annie Proulx wrote her short story ‘Brokeback Mountain’, on which the movie is named after and based on, it is perhaps to her credit that she never used the word ‘love’ in the original short story despite the fact that it’s there nevertheless. The tragedy of the story essentially hinges on the ambiguities of love and sex by blurring the concept of friendship between men. Are Jack and Ennis gay because they loved each other or is it because they loved each other that they are gay?

Read more about Annie Proulx by clicking here.

Some What Ifs?

The increasing blurring of non-sexual emotional intimacy between men and sexual physical intimacy between men is an unfortunate one. I wonder whether Ennis would have perhaps gone on to be a happily married ‘heterosexual’ man to Alma for all of his life had the initial sexual encounter with Jack not happen whatsoever. And had he not met Jack, who instigated the sexual advance, would he have realised what that nagging emotional hunger (for male intimacy) might have been for?

Death of the Male Friendship?

Perhaps one of the stronger views expressed about ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is that by Anthony Esolen, an English professor at Providence College, Rhode Island, who argues that the breakdown of natural sexual order in our society today - as portrayed in ‘Brokeback Mountain’ -has led to the death of male friendship.

In his ‘A Requiem for Friendship: Why Boys Will Not Be Boys and Other Consequences of the Sexual Revolution’, published in Touchstone magazine, Esolen uses the example of a scene from ‘The Lord of the Rings’ where Sam Gamgee, having followed Frodo into Mordor finds him in a small cell lying half-conscious and cries out, “Frodo! Frodo, my dear! It’s Sam. I’ve come!” Frodo embraces his friend and Sam cradles Frodo’s head. Likewise, when David is told of his friend Jonathan’s death in the Old Testament, he cries out, “Your love to me was finer than that the love of women.”

These days, Esolen suggests, a reader or viewer of either scene above is more likely than ever to question the nature of these friendships and erroneously conclude that they are gay. Yet, Esolen points out that just only a few centuries ago, Shakespeare and many other great authors all spoke of non-sexual love between men in the strongest terms. Alas, what has become of male love these days? To this, Esolen offers a blunt but haunting assessment – “If a man cradles the head of his weeping friend, the shadow of suspicion must cross your mind.”

Click here to also read Albert Mohler's full commentary on this issue.

Romanticisation of the Alternative

The film in of itself does not necessarily romanticise homosexual relationships. Ang Lee certainly does not shy away from showing the damage done by the choices that Jack and Ennis make. Yet, you don’t walk away from the film thinking about the trail of destruction their unfaithfulness, not only to their respective wives but to each other (more so Jack than Ennis), have had on their lives. No, it’s not unrequited love that is the story here. It’s thwarted love that cuts at all of us and makes us want to cheer on for the underdog.

As someone pointed out in one of the numerous articles and commentaries that have been written since ‘Brokeback Mountain’ hit the screens, the film portrays a conventional lifestyle with families as a chore – namely that of crying babies, demanding wives and hard, frustrating work to put food on the table while the sexual liaisons and get-togethers that Jack and Ennis have in the glorious outdoors is so much better. Indeed, the adulterous affair shared by Jack and Ennis is associated with nature, framed by the magnificent backdrop of the Wyoming mountains, of clear blue rivers, horses and camp fires while family life is associated with mundaneness, of financial and emotional pressures to escape from.

A Different Reality

Yet, the realities of life and of gay relationships are far more complex and varied than the one portrayed in ‘Brokeback Mountain’. Granted that perhaps Ennis and Jack could have indeed lived a happy life had they not been restrained by the social mores of their time. But who is to say they may not have eventually broken up either? Of the three to four percent of the general population that may be homosexual, lifelong monogamous homosexual relationships are by and large the exception rather than the norm. Admittedly, there are increasingly more and more same-sex couples in long-term relationships. But then again, the rules that govern same-sex relationships are not a homogenous one but rather vary from one end of the spectrum to the other even within the gay community.

It is also a fact that the majority of new HIV infections in Western countries like the USA, Canada, Western Europe, New Zealand and Australia generally occur among men who have sex with men – people like Tim and the other two people I mentioned at the start of this post.

The number of HIV infections is proportionally higher amongst sexually active gay men than amongst straight men – at least in Western countries - perhaps due to the type of sexual practices and types of sexual relationships that sexually active gay men might engage in: from closed monogamous arrangements to open relationships; from barebacking with individuals other than one's partner to having casual anonymous sex with multiple partners. Organisations like the Australian Red Cross also aren’t ignorant about the statistically higher incidence of various blood-borne diseases among sexually active gay men, including the HIV virus, and this is reflected in the organisation’s standard practice of not accepting blood donations from men who have had sex with men within the past 12 months. (See the Australian Red Cross statement here)

What Then?

I think while it’s important to realise that same-sex attracted people have the same hopes and dreams as everyone else, we must sometimes also consider the broader implications of what we throw our weight behind in support of. We all need love, but it is a tragedy if we begin to assume or believe that the only form of love possible between two men is that of a sexual one. I sincerely think that all men - straight or gay - lose out in the long run when we think that the only way a man can love another man is that via homoerotic expression and no other means. We are poorer when we equate love to eros and forget that non-sexual love can be just as real, legitimate and powerful between men.

Regardless of your moral and ethical disposition towards homosexuality, same-sex attracted men and women all deserve the same love, dignity and understanding as you’d expect to receive from others. My only hope is that deep, intimate but non-sexual love between people of the same gender, such as the love shared between Frodo and Sam and the one between David and Jonathan won't get forgotten, marginalised and made suspect in light of the advances society is making by becoming more accepting and tolerant of same-sex relationships.

New Caledonia (Nouvelle Caledonie)

Capital: Noumea
Airport: Tontouta (45km northwest of Noumea)
National Airline: Aircalin
Visas: Not required for Australian passport holders for short stays
Population: 230,789 (2004 census)
Official language: French
Ethnic Groups: Melanesians (42.5%), Europeans (37.1%), Polynesians, Wallisians, Tahitians (12.2%), Indonesians (3.6%), Vietnamese (1.6%) and others
Location: South Pacific Ocean (Approx 1,200km east of Australia)
Land size: 18,575km squares
Currency: French Pacific franc (CFP franc)
Currency Code: XPF
GDP: US$3.15 billion (2003)
GDP per capita: US$15,000 (2003)

Brief Background Info:

Settled by both Britain and France during first half of the 19th century, the island was made a French possession in 1853. It also served as a French penal colony for about 40 years from 1864. Under French law, New Caledonia is part of the French Republic. New Caledonians are French citizens and hold French passports. Agitation for independence during the 1980s and early 1990s has since dissipated. The last referendum on independence in 1998 did not pass and as decided in the Noumea Accord, the next referendum on independence will be held after 2014. France props up the New Caledonian budget/economy with an substantial amount of financial subsidy each year.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New Caledonia. Quintessentially French yet so quintessentially South Pacific at the same time. I had to re-adjust to hearing and seeing Melanesians speaking fluent French after all these years of associating Melanesians with speaking English or pidgin English. It didn’t help that I’d also only just come from the Solomon Islands, where the linga franca was English and Solomons Pijin.

Mistaken for a ‘waku’ (or Solomon Chinese) in the Solomon Islands, I was constantly mistaken for a Japanese in New Caledonia. After all, the majority of the tourists that I came across in the New Caledonia were either French or Japanese and since I didn’t look anything like what a typical Frenchman ought to look like, many assumed I was Japanese – including even a couple of Japanese tourists, who started talking to me in Japanese until they realised I had a blank look on my face. Nevertheless, deep down, I was secretly ravishing in the erroneous cultural identity tag people were putting on me. I loved seeing people’s reactions whenever I had to challenge their perceptions and assumptions of who I was. “Non, non. Je non Japonais”, I would say in my broken French.

My first impressions of New Caledonia were largely positive (not counting the somewhat snobbish treatment I got from the Aircalin flight attendants). Perhaps my broken French just wasn’t good enough for them? *shrugs shoulders* The scenery of Tontouta as the plane came in to land was spectacular. I suggest you sit on the left side of the plane if you want to get a good view (see photo on right). When the plane finally pulled up at the terminal, I smiled to myself as I walked across the tarmac and into the terminal building. There was something quintessentially French about it – something that just simply announces to you that, yep, you have definitely stepped onto French territory without a doubt – from the uniforms worn by the police and immigration officials right through to all signs and billboards in French. And how could I possibly forget that image seared into my mind of this airport official (of Vietnamese descent) speaking French in an almost lyrical tone to the throng of mainly French tourists who’d also just walked into the arrival hall with me.

New Caledonia in some ways reminded me of South Africa – with its mountainous terrain on the one hand, but also barren plains on the other hand. Its beaches are beautiful and the fine sand and water were really quite a sight to behold. I had to keep pinching myself and rein in my muted laughter at the same time as I swam in the crystal clear waters of Baie de Kanumera at Ile des Pins towards the end of my trip (see photo on left). I felt like a goldfish swimming in a giant bowl of (unchlorinated) tap water! OK, maybe not a goldfish, but you get my point.

I always reckon that the quickest way to pick up on the nuances and heartbeat of a new country you’ve just arrived in is to take public transport. The bus ride from the airport into Noumea was a first glimpse into this very multicultural capital - the majority of my fellow passengers were a mixture of Melanesians and Polynesians. I was also flabbergasted at the level of public infrastructure in place that I saw during the 45-minute trip into Noumea. I found it hard to digest the fact that only several hours earlier, I was in a neighbouring country north of where I was now and yet such a huge difference in the standard of living existed between the two countries. From what I saw, New Caledonia’s living standards were, in my mind, nearly on par with that of Australia’s.

“This is exactly what the Solomon Islands could potentially be like one day,” I thought to myself, half-hopeful, half-despondent at the thought of what the Solomon Islands has become today nearly 28 years after independence. As much as I hate to admit this, I think countries like PNG and the Solomon Islands probably would have fared much better had they not been given independence during the period of rapid successive decolonisation of many former colonies throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Arriving into Noumea on a Friday night was probably not the wisest thing either since central Noumea becomes dead quiet once the weekend arrives. Central Noumea reminds me of a 1950s or 1960s town stuck in a time warp.

I also religiously heeded the youth hostel’s advice during my first few nights in Noumea on which routes to take if I were to go out at night. “Take this route,” the man at the hostel reception said, as he drew on the map, “because it goes past the police station.” “Don't walk through this and this area here at night.” Well, always heed local advice, so they say. “Great.” I thought to myself. “What a lovely introduction to Noumea on my first night.” As I picked up my key and walked towards my room, I saw a notice on the noticeboard further advising travellers to be careful of a group of men recently seen loitering around or near the steps leading up to the hostel. I made a mental note of that in my head to look up the word for ‘Help’ in French – because I’d just walked past them earlier. “Excellent.” I mused to myself.

If the living standard was high in New Caledonia, so was the price of nearly everything. One need only to compare the price of one MacDonald’s Big Mac (800F or AUD$12) against one back home (AUD$3) to get the idea that the wad of franc bills in my wallet weren’t gonna last long if I don’t watch my spending. Even the French tourists from France lamented to me about the price of things in this overseas territory of theirs. However, cheap food was still able to be found – provided you knew where to go. The Central Market in Noumea quickly became my favourite breakfast joint, where a crossaint could be picked up for as little as 70F to 120F.

After the first day or two, I became very good at regurgitating two particular lines in French. “Bonjour/Bonsoir. Excusez-moi, vous parlez anglais?” and “Pardon. Je ne parle pas francais.” Which means, “Excuse me, do you speak English?” and “Sorry. I don't speak French.” And, of course, I also uttered lots of “Oui” and “Non” as well, along with the vigorous shaking of my head – or nodding – whichever that was required. Not to mention lots of grateful “Merci beaucoup” to helpful locals.

Among the more memorable things I did during my time in New Caledonia include the pirogue boat ride up the eastern coast of Ile des Pins (see photo on right) – thanks to a fellow French solo backpacker at the hostel who told me about it – and also nervously hitching a ride on the same island not once but twice, to get to Vao and back to where I was staying. Vao was the main village on the Ile des Pins. It was a case of either hitch a ride or risk getting heatstroke by the time I got to the village. It was a calculated risk and both times, the driver slowed down almost as soon as my thumb went up. I also really enjoyed swimming at Baie de Kunamera.

And, oh, not to mention clambering over a two-metre-or-so high fence at 5am in the morning in order to get out of the hostel in time to catch the bus to the airport on my last day. The hostel manager had told me the night before to return the keys to my room by dropping them down this key chute at the office. But she forgot to tell me that I needed to also open the outside gate first. Lovely. And so, I felt very much like a burglar, throwing my bag over the fence and then clambering over the fence to get out of the hostel compound.

New Caledonia is definitely worth a visit if you want a taste of France with sunshine all year round but without spending as much on the airfare. Things may be expensive but there are bargains and cheaper food to be found. I highly recommend staying at the youth hostel if staying in central Noumea or at one of the many hotels in Anse Vata or Baie de Citron, two beachside suburbs where much of the touristy activity is concentrated. The Tjibaou Cultural Centre in Noumea is also worth a visit (see photo above left), especially if you're into architecture and cultural stuff.

Ile des Pins is also definitely worth a visit - and I highly recommend the pirogue ride up Baie d'Upi, off the east coast of Ile des Pins. If you're keen to try out some Kanak tucker, you can arrange to taste some bougna at the end of the pirogue trip. However, arrange this with the gite you're staying at least a day beforehand. New Caledonia is very beautiful and unfortunately, I didn’t get to see all the other bits, especially the northern regions. Next time, perhaps, when I win Tattslotto.

Solomon Islands

Capital: Honiara
Airport: Henderson International (8km east of Honiara)
National Airline: Solomon Airlines
Visas: Not required for Australian passport holders for short stays
Population: 538,032 (2005 est)
Official language: English
Ethnic Groups: Melanesians (94.5%), Polynesians (3%) and others
Location: South Pacific Ocean (1,600km northeast of Australia)
Land size: 27,540km squares
Currency: Solomon Islands dollar
Currency Code: SBD
GDP: US$800 million (2002)
GDP per capita: US$1,700 (2002)

Brief Background Info: The UK established a protectorate over the Solomon Islands in the 1890s. Self-government was achieved in 1976 and independence two years later in 1978. Ethnic violence and past government corruption has undermined its economic development and stability over the years. A multinational peacekeeping force, at the invitation of the Solomon Islands government, is currently in the Solomon Islands to help maintain law and order.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was in Port Moresby when the Fiji coup led by George Speight overthrew the Chaudhry government. That was on 19 May 2000. Less than a few weeks later, it was the Solomon Islands turn. Fuelled by ongoing ethnic tensions, the coup threatened to escalate into a civil war.

Click here to read about the history of the ethnic tension.

Click here for a BBC report on the coup.

I was doing some volunteer work with World Vision in Port Moresby around the time and I still remember the director and some of the World Vision senior staff holding meetings to discuss their next operational movements on Guadacanal island in the Solomons as the drama unfolded.


I also remember the feeling of unease that rippled across the expat community in Port Moresby. It seemed almost as if each of the South Pacific countries were one by one falling into political and civil turmoil, like that of a chain reaction. Would PNG be next in line? Some in the expat community and several political analysts were confident that PNG had a stable enough government to withstand any political and ethnic turmoil that had engulged its nearby Pacific neighbours. And they were right.

I had an uncle who had (and still has) business interests in the Solomon Islands at that time. And I remember hearing various evacuation stories being exchanged and retold around the dinner table between my father and other expatriates in Port Moresby. The Australian Navy sent in a ship while the NZ Air Force sent in its Hercules aircraft. The Malaysian and Philippine governments also sent in their military aircraft for the evacuation of its citizens while PNG informed its nationals to begin registering for evacuation.

Click here to read a BBC report on the ceasefire and evacuation of foreigners.

I thought at the time that that was it for the Solomon Islands. “There goes another Pacific island state down the gurgler.” I seriously wondered if the Solomon Islands was ever gonna recover from this and whether my uncle would ever return to Honiara again.

Well, five years later, I would find myself driving through Honiara in a 4WD, surprised at the recovery it has made. What made it even more astonishing was how safe the streets were. I felt safer in Honiara and as I travelled around the Solomon Islands than I ever did when I was in PNG. So what happened?

Well, back in July 2003, with the increasing breakdown of law and order and continuing ethnic conflict, the Solomon Islands government finally issued an official request for international help. Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea responded by sending nearly 2,000 troops and 300 police. In August 2003, this international peacekeeping force known as the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) and Operation Helpen Fren entered the Solomon Islands to restore peace and to disarm the ethnic militias. RAMSI has no doubt been effective in restoring law and order and in rebuilding the various government institutions in the last two years or so. RAMSI continues to be welcomed by many Solomon Islanders and their presence on the streets of Honiara certainly has made a big difference. Another spin-off from RAMSI, as with any long-term UN or multinational peacekeeping force that enters into a Third World country, is the boost to the economy, albeit ‘false’ economy, with the sudden surge in demand for imported goods. This was noticed by my sister who commented to me that the variety of supermarket food products and goods had significantly increased over the last two years since RAMSI came to the Solomon Islands.

Many Solomon Islanders are ‘migrants’ within their own country in one way or another. Being an archipelago consisting of several hundred islands, many Solomon Islanders I met along the way came from the various provinces, often travelling to the larger islands and urban centres in search of employment and/or supplies. As the BBC aptly puts it, the Solomon Islands is a beautiful but poor country. Being a poor country, the Solomon Islands government has also decided to give recognition to Taiwan in exchange for foreign investment and massive aid assistance. Although they weren't everywhere, I still saw more Taiwanese flags flying in Honiara than I did the Australian flag. EU presence in the capital (via its developmental agency arm) was also significant, much to my surprise.

However, with government stability, law and order restored, the economy is picking up again. Business optimism was high when I was in Honiara – at least that was the sense I got. And for this tiny capital without a single set of traffic lights whatsoever, this town was the last place on earth I’d expect to get stuck in a traffic jam. Peak hour traffic in Honiaral reminded me of peak hour traffic on Punt Road/Hoddle Street in Melbourne, albeit on a miniaturised scale (bearing in mind that Honiara has only one main road which runs from one end of the town to the airport at the other end). When I exclaimed to my sister who was in the 4WD with me, “What? A traffic jam – here in Honiara?”, she merely shrugged her shoulders, nodded her head and said, “Yep.”

Taking domestic flights within the Solomon Islands are also a bit of a hit and miss. Sometimes the plane simply fails to show up or has been known to leave even 30 minutes earlier! In my case, my flight to Gizo was delayed two times from 9am to 10am and then again to 11am. It eventually left at around 12:30pm. And it was just as well that I flew to Gizo instead of Seghe because I got to see the village on the way back to the capital on an inter-island passenger boat.

I had originally planned to fly to Seghe and then try my luck at finding this man at the village there about taking me to this eco-resort in the Marovo Lagoon (see photo on right). However, as I was booking the ticket at Solomon Airlines office, the airline agent thoughtfully explained to me, “If it rains in Seghe, the landing strip will be too muddy for the plane to land and you may get stuck in the middle of nowhere. My suggestion is to fly to somewhere else.” Given that I only had three days left to play around with before I had to get back to the capital in order to catch my flight out of the Solomon Islands – and there aren’t that many flights out of the Solomon Islands each week – there were just too many unknown factors to risk it.

Thus, I fully commiserated with the exasperated Solomon Airlines woman as she lamented to me, “Our tourist industry and transport infrastructure is not very good. We can get some international tourists into the capital but then we can’t get these people out to all the beautiful islands and resorts around the Solomon Islands.”

And so I opted to fly to Gizo instead, one of the more established tourist sites in the Solomons, particularly for its diving spots and WWII wrecks. And I had an absolute ball there. Apart from unashamedly self-inviting myself onto this island which houses a Dominican Order (see photo on left), I also nearly half-drowned when I snorkelled for the first time in the choppy sea around there – they were far more choppy than anywhere I’d ever snorkelled before. Gizo also provided, by far, the most interesting and memorable airport transfer I’ve ever experienced in all my travels – by boat. The airstrip took up the entire space on this small island opposite the Gizo township and had my light plane not stopped in time, we would all have landed in the water at the other end of the island.

Would I go back to the Solomon Islands again? Definitely. And if you ever get the opportunity to visit the Solomon Islands, it’s worth a visit. The people are friendly, genuine and it has beautiful lagoons and islands that are still yet to be exploited by tourists and also a lot of dive sites with WWII wrecks if you’re into diving. Just be prepared to fork out quite a bit of money for the airfare there. Return economy airfares alone from Melbourne to Honiara via Brisbane cost me about $1,600, flying Qantas and Solomon Airlines.

Big Eden

John Lennon once said, “Life happens when you’re busy making other plans.”
And then he got shot.

When a friend asked me on New Year's Eve 2004 what my thoughts were for 2005, I said I was hopeful. I still am hopeful even though my hopes for 2005 didn't quite realise the way I thought they would or had hoped for.

Instead, I ended up floundering along the way. It took me the whole of 2005 to realise that I have spent a significant chunk of my time preparing for a life, a way of life which would never quite eventuate - at least not in the way I'd dreamed about and occasionally still permit myself to dream about. And that while being focused is not necessarily a bad thing, sometimes we can become so focused and hold so tightly onto the steering wheel of our lives that we lose our way altogether because we forget to look around us to see where we're actually going.

Sometimes we need to stop planning each of our every move and simply let those 'moves' happen instead of being in control all the time. So often, we think we are the ones who are writing the stories of our lives and we know exactly how the next chapter of our lives will turn out, but in reality, we don't control all of it.

Life can cease to hold any surprises left when we forget to notice the beautiful things that are happening around us. Nearly two-thirds of the way into 2005, a wise friend pointed out to me that I'd been so focused on getting to the end destination in my mind that I'd forgotten to see or enjoy the beauty of the present, in of which God's kingdom exists - right here right now and not in some far distant time. And he urged me to re-think and re-question the life script that I'd seemingly written for myself.

It took another film I watched in late November to knock more sense into me. In 'Big Eden', Grace, a long-time family friend of a successful artist called Henry living in New York admonishes him to re-think his decision to return to New York, after Henry spent a few months looking after his ailing grandfather in their hometown in country Montana. During these ensuing months prior to his grandfather's death, the townsfolk gradually embrace Henry and welcome him home and a couple of people also pour out their love onto Henry - one of them albeit subtlely in the form of cooking him meals since Henry can't cook - and yet Henry fails to see it all.

After his grandfather dies, Henry decides there is nothing left in the town to warrant him staying and so makes plans to return to New York, where he thinks he "belongs". It is here then that the shocked Grace admonishes Henry to reconsider and gives him a little advice that I believe rings true not only for me today but also tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. And I believe it rings true for many of us too. So, come on, hit me with 2006!

'Big Eden' (2000)

Henry - "I never intended to stay. I live in New York. I have a nice
apartment. I have friends. They have restaurants there."

Grace - "That's it? You want to eat in a restaurant?!"

Henry - "I've just gotta go."

Grace - "Henry, you know what they say when you get lost in the woods?
If you stay put, stay in one place and don’t wander, they’ll find you.
And I was just hoping you’ll let yourself be found this time...
But you keep wandering."