The lack of the “fruity drink” hotels is not only a good thing, but an enivitable result of what draws people to Rapa Nui and the climate. I couldn’t see a resort hotel doing well on the island.

I do think the issue of protection and restoration of maoi is one that needs to be addressed. But for them, Rapa Nui would be a rock in the middle of the ocean as far as tourism is concerned.

Also, clearly Rapa Nui has a culture. However, what I experienced there seemed much closer to visiting Chile than visiting any other polynesian country. Your right that there is a story to be told of the people of Rapa Nui and its a very sad story. I dare say it is one of the saddest in the world, but again, it is the maoi that is the tourist draw.

I appreciate you taking the time to post here.

I think the title Easter Island Fights Prosperity is misleading. Pedro Edmunds, who by the way spent several years in the United States while attending University, is not against prosperity for his people. He is just cautious in the interest of his people, of which I am one. The author, referring to Pedro as an out of touch “tin-pot dictator,” may in fact herself be too far removed from the island and love of the island herself to understand the great strains the island has undergone as a result of progress in the last twenty years.

The island does need a plan, a commission per say to labor in the interest of the people and not necessarily in the interest of the tourist. A plan for the future, so that what is left of our existing culture is not lost to assimilation. Mr. Edmunds is talking about the future that benefits islanders as well as tourists. For when all is said and done, tourists go home not likely to make such a long journey again to our beloved island. But we must live on our island and as such must make a plan for it that doesn’t cost us the very island that at this point we still own.

The island doesn’t have the trendy “fruity drink” hotels of say Hawaii or Tahiti. But the many residentials, guest houses and rooms are at least still owned by the Rapa Nui people. The bathrooms they are cleaning are still their own and do not belong to some group of investors that live scattered about the world.

In conclusion, Mr. Edmunds might be out of touch with the author of the article, but he is not out of touch with his ancestors. If he is boastful of his lineage, culturally speaking this is a good thing. For contrary to popular belief we do have a culture. It is a culture of many hardships in our story, our history, but is a culture that has survived. We are a culture of survival. And to lose what we have left would be sad for the Rapa Nui, even if it is not sad for the tourist.

Maurur -