Pitcairn scandal

NPR audio and text: book review of:
" Lost Paradise: From Mutiny on the Bounty to a Modern-Day Legacy of Sexual Mayhem, the Dark Secrets of Pitcairn Island Revealed " (Kathy Marks)
here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103569364

OMG! What a terrible, horrible story:

"In December 1999, several Pitcairn girls claimed that they had been sexually assaulted by a visiting New Zealander. By chance, a British policewoman was on the island, and one of the girls confided that she had also been raped by two local men in the past. An investigation into those allegations developed into a major inquiry that saw British detectives crisscross the globe, interviewing dozens of Pitcairn women. Their conclusion was that nearly every girl growing up on the island in the last forty years had been abused, and nearly every man had been an offender."

The questions it raises about us and all humans who look the other way are only slightly less disturbing:

"Why was it that many outsiders persisted in defending men who were guilty of a crime that was normally reviled — pedophilia? Why did they continue to mythologize Pitcairn, although it had failed, in such a dramatic way, to live up to its utopian image? How far back, I asked myself, did the sexual abuse stretch — to the time of the mutineers? Why had parents not denounced the perpetrators and kept their children safe? Had anyone outside the island realized what was going on?

There were bigger questions, too. What did Pitcairn tell us about human nature and life in small, remote communities? Is this how all of us would behave if left to ourselves, with no one looking over our shoulder?"

[ Edited by: christiki295 2009-04-29 10:05 ]

Very interesting article about this in Vanity Fair a while back --

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/01/pitcairn200801

Background:

Pitcairn Map

Pitcairn Island is one of the most isolated islands in the South Pacific. Despite numerous announcements and much controversy, an airport has yet to be constructed on Pitcairn Island, and getting there involves a two-day sea voyage from Mangareva in French Polynesia. Cruise ships call occasionally between Easter Island and Tahiti, but their passengers only go ashore for a few hours, weather permitting.

Pitcairn Island's history is entwined in the famous story of the mutiny on the Bounty. First sighted by the son of Major Pitcairn aboard HMS Swallow in 1767, Pitcairn Island was forgotten until 1789 when the Bounty mutineers led by Fletcher Christian decided it would be the perfect hideout from the Royal Navy. They settled there, burning their ship in Bounty Bay on January 15, 1790. By 1800 all of the mutineers except John Adams had died.

Pitcairn Island was only rediscovered by the outside world in 1808 when an American sealer happened to call for water. The 50 native inhabitants on Pitcairn Island today are all descended from the Bounty mutineers and their 18 Polynesian followers. In 1838 the island group shown on our Pitcairn Islands map was declared a British colony, a status maintained until this time.

The local economy depends heavily on British government aid, although money is also earned through the sale of Pitcairn stamps and coins. Family-made handicrafts are sold to cruise ship passengers. If you'd care to visit Pitcairn Island and neighboring Henderson Island, you'll have a chance to do so in June 2006 when the MV Bounty Bay sails from Mangareva on a two-week cruise to the Pitcairn Islands.

Wikipedia has an extensive story on this issue. This is an excerpt from the NY Times:

This is not about free Polynesian love, or an inevitable adaptation to life in isolation. Instead, prosecutors believe, this is the story of a tiny community where power, intimidation and silence have fed upon each other.

A few powerful men, led by Steve Christian [yes a descendent of Fletcher Christian], run Pitcairn Island. He is the island's mayor, head of the most prominent family, chief engineer, radiographer and dentist . . .

According to the prosecutor, Simon Moore, Steve Christian is the leader of a group of island men known as "the boys." This group of distant cousins has spent at least 40 years using any woman they wanted for sex, at any time, at any age,"

I am blown away by how the child abuse and sexual depravity was so easily explained and excused:

"In the video, Brown told the police that it was "a normal part of Pitcairn life" for adult men to have sex with girls of 12 or 13. "It didn't seem wrong," he said. Most islanders, including his parents, had started having sex at a young age, and each generation had followed on from the one before it. He said, however, that he had rethought the widespread acceptance of underage sex, and had concluded that it was not appropriate."

"A study of island records confirmed anecdotal evidence that most girls had their first child between the ages of 12 and 15. "I think the girls were conditioned to accept that it was a man's world and once they turned 12, they were eligible," Tosen said. Mothers and grandmothers were resigned to the situation, telling him that their own childhood experience had been the same; they regarded it as just a part of life on Pitcairn."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitcairn_sexual_assault_trial_of_2004

One last anecdote: Of the original 7 mutineers, all but 1 killed each other over who could have sex with the Tahitian women they kidnapped to come with them to Pitcairn from Tahiti.

[ Edited by: christiki295 2009-04-29 10:36 ]

holy inbred batman!!!....

...it's amazing they still have any teeth in their heads and can see straight!!....

..probably some of the best banjo players in the world on that island.

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2009-04-29 12:54 ]

This story just gets worse, and more bizarre: The rape of 11 year old girls; adultery on an island which only holds about 50 people; blaming the rape victims, even though the other women were rape victims themselves; the mayor Steven Christian denying he ever did anything wrong and, of course, brutal attacks against women by men who had done the very thing for which they were beating women.

This from Vanity Fair:

"Her parents had unhappy affairs with brutal results. Her father beat her mother senseless, then poured a bucket of water over her to revive her. “I can recall quite a few of the adults having affairs with different husbands, different wives,” she said. “I have seen some of the fights. All I’ve associated with sex on Pitcairn is violence.”"

"The trial of Steve Christian’s son Randy revealed the more perplexing aspects of the abuse on Pitcairn. His accuser testified to some of the most violent rapes, including one in which she was gagged and gang-raped by Randy, then 21, and his brother, Shawn, then 20. She was 11 at the time.

But her feelings for Randy grew conflicted. By age 14 she was infatuated. She wrote him in two love letters “that he made me feel special and that I really did like him,” she testified. Asked to explain her feelings toward a man who had assaulted her, she said, “I was confused. It was like he had two sides to him.… A great friendly guy and a person that did these awful things to me.”"

"Brian Young was tried last. He became the only defendant to testify, and opened a window into the roots of the abuse: how he had watched the schoolteacher having sex with a schoolgirl, how he and his chums had gotten their “sex education” watching one of their parents bed the parent of another.

Kari Young chose to testify, too, surely knowing her testimony would be humiliating and do Brian little good. But, like Fletcher Christian centuries earlier, she was in for the whole trip. There was no turning back now. In court, she conceded that she had supported the police at first, but changed her mind when she “started to doubt the ethics of the investigation.” She also delivered a line the reporters would have devoured had they been there to hear it: “I don’t know any married couple on Pitcairn who were faithful to each other.” "