A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Market
In reality, nothing at all funny happened on the way to the market this morning. I was just stuck for a title. In fact, my blood was set on a slow boil. I hate it that there’s only one reasonable path by which I can reach the market. I could go out of my way to get there, but I just don’t have the time nor am I inclined to do so.
Therefore, every time I go to the market, I have to pass monsters such as this slug who calls himself a human:
If you click to enlarge and you can read Tok Pisin, you will see that he claims that his “medicine” can cure, among a host of other diseases, HIV/AIDS and TB. He is selling tickets to the graveyard and suckers so uneducated and steeped in the nonsense that if it’s “traditional” then it must be good are buying those tickets and climbing aboard the Death PMV.
I’m not even going to bother to go into all the reasons why this is so wrong. You either know it or you don’t.
Here’s another guy who will kill you for a few bucks:
I shouldn’t even bother blurring their faces, because they should be publicly shamed. However, a new windscreen for my car is more than I can afford to risk to expose their identities. Anybody can find out easily who they are. Just go to the market.
I know that it’s useless for me to nag about this. Nobody but me seems to care. Nobody cares that these people kill more humans in PNG than all of the criminals and silly tribal warfare put together. And, they do it for money.
Okay, that’s enough rage for the moment. Let’s move on to something happier. I shot this panorama and Zoomified it for you so that you can see the details:As you can see, if you’re familiar with the market, there are several new morota roofed buildings to make shady places for the vendors. This is one of the few genuine improvements which I have seen in Madang for some time. Everything else is falling apart. In another decade the whole town will go back to bush if we don’t get competent governance.
Before we leave the market I’ll show you The Soap Lady:
I can’t leave today without showing you The Deadly Wires:
This is about a third of all of them that I had to sort out the other day. The red bottle is metal polish for my Harley, which I never seem to have time to ride. I want to sell it, but Eunie won’t let me.
Oh, one more thing. Talking about the market got me hungry. I want to show you what I call The Blue Cheese Sea Squirt (Eudistoma gilboviride):
Doesn’t that look tasty?
Related posts:
- Back to the Market When I travel back to North America one of the most common questions I hear is, “What do you eat in Papua New Guinea.” That’s when it’s nice to have photos of the market. I enjoy going to the market. Sometimes I actually buy things. Usually, however, it’s to see...
- Healers or Killers – You Decide Sellers of medicines on the streets of Madang. Are they healers or Killers? You decide....
- To the Market We Go I tried to do a post yesterday, but Telikom was up to its usual tricks and our internet connection was useless. I’ll make up for it today with a long post and plenty of pictures. This post begins a new category called PNG Culture. Many of my readers are not PNG...
- Home Town Snaps A couple of weeks ago I spent half a day wandering around Madang looking for images that speak to me about my home town. I was writing an article for Ourway, the new in-flight magazine for Airlines PNG. I haven’t received word yet if the article will be published. I’ll...
- Nadi – Hotel City For the first day of moving around in Nadi we went to the market. If you want colourful pictures, a market is always a good place to start....
- Cholera Epidemic Doesn’t Stop Illegal Betelnut Sellers You may not have noticed that we're in the middle of a cholera epidemic. That doesn't stop these people from setting up an illegal betelnut market....
- The Funny Side of Life When I read through what I've written I can't imagine that anyone will make sense of it. Oh well, I am not here to make sense. That's never been a goal....
We in the temperate zones also have tropical fish.
12 Miles off the coast near Fremantle, Western Australia is Rottnest Island a popular, largely unspoiled holiday destination. The waters are pristine and there are surprisingly, many tropical fish to be found due to the Leeuwin Current sweeping down from Indonesia.
Rotto as we locals know it, is steeped in history. Originally discovered by Dutch explorers it was named ‘Rats Nest’ because of the Quokkas there. Quokkas are a small marsupial found on the island and look like large water rats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rottnest_Island
Very amusing stuff, Kevin. It’s an odd coincidence that I just wrote a post about the HMAS Leeuwin visiting Madang.
I love the interesting names of many places in Australia. “Rat’s Nest” – that’s a good one. In Indiana we have Bean Blossom, Gnaw Bone, Stones Crossing (we called it Stoned Crossing for obvious reasons), Beaver City, Floyd’s Knobs and Naked City, among others. Actually, I think Naked City may be a Hoosier myth. I’ve never seen it on a map, but everybody swears there is one while nobody knows for sure where it is. Maybe it’s just wishful thiinking.
Good post! I accidently found your site on google, I will be coming back here again. Love A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Market | Madang – Ples Bilong Mi.