Word: polynesia
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...possible to quietly detonate a100 kiloton nuclear bomb, France did it Sunday off the Fangataufa Atoll in French Polynesia. "Because Greenpeace's boats have been confiscated, the organization currently has a greatly reduced capability to protest. The French government has very shrewdly focused on this strategic weakness, and was able to explode the bomb with very little resistance," reports TIME's James Geary. Hours before the explosion, a blast more than five times as powerful as the one that levelled Hiroshima, the French seized another Greenpeace vessel, the fourth since the tests began last month at the Mururoa Atoll...
...nowhere was the reaction more dramatic than in Papeete, Tahiti, the capital of French Polynesia, where several hundred rioters went on a rampage. In a 36-hour orgy of trashing and looting, they virtually destroyed Tahiti's international airport, smashed storefront windows and torched several buildings before French Foreign Legionnaires and paramilitary troops arrived. The upheaval, which injured 40 people and did damage estimated in the millions of dollars, was attributed to a volatile mixture of antinuclear and pro-independence sentiments...
...near the South Pacific atoll targeted for tests. In Paris, more than 300 people were arrested as thousands demonstrated. In Switzerland, protesters occupied two diplomatic offices, and on Saturday, about 100 legislators from Japan, Europe, Australia and New Zealand plan to join up to 15,000 activists in French Polynesia. But Crumley says the protests are unlikely to budge Chirac, who claims the tests are needed to develop a computer simulation that will make further tests unnecessary. "Chirac will go through with the tests no matter how much pressure he gets," Crumley says. "He's in too deep...
...Eighth syndrome, referring to the corpulent King of England who lived so well off the labor of his peasantry. "Think about how many people had to work to make the King the size that he was," says Armelagos. Being rotund is still a sign of prosperity and prestige in Polynesia and parts of Africa...
...central role that dance plays in primitive societies; they must also slam-dunk colonialism and Christianity for trying to suppress native cultures. Missionaries have much to answer for, but it is surely not unreasonable that they would seek to convert tribes from religions that encouraged cannibalism (as in Polynesia) or the ritual mutilation of female sex organs (as in much of black Africa...