Social/Culture/Education

Rhun Island Makes News

The NY Times reminded its readers of a 17th century colossal mistake: the Treaty of Breda. Rather than develop its outpost in North America at the tip of an island in the Hudson River, New Amsterdam, the Netherlands king traded it for a nutmeg-rich island in the Banda Sea claimed by the British, thereby consolidating its holdings in the East Indies and control over “the refrigerant” in pre-electric Europe. The treaty cemented facts on the ground: the English had seized Manhattan and the Dutch Rhun.

From the article: “Rhun, in the Banda Sea in Indonesia, has no cars or roads and only about 20 motorbikes. Most people get around by walking along its paved footpaths or up steep stairways, often toting plastic jugs of water from the numerous village wells or sometimes lugging a freshly caught tuna.”

A 14-year-old resident of Rhun quoted in the Times story — which I keep plugging, sorry — didn’t like the looks of Manhattan when he was shown a picture of it on a cellphone: “It looks like a very barren place,” he said, “because it has so many buildings.”