Scandal

Internet access is increasing in Vanuatu and I know that, some day, someone in this country will google “Amanda Russell Vanuatu” and find this blog. I often self-censor rather than write things that, while true, might be seen as disrespectful or inappropriate. I think that this is the right thing to do, because I am a guest in Vanuatu, but sometimes what I don’t write about is so interesting that I really, really want to write about it.

I tried to write a few drafts and didn’t come up with anything that I want to put my own name on. It sounds paranoid, but one of the first Peace Corps volunteers ever was administratively separated, in the 1960s, because she wrote a private postcard that disparaged the cleanliness of her country of service. She dropped her postcard and it was later found on the street, and then published in the national newspaper. So I don't want to write about politics here, just because everything is my own personal opinion, and I don't want it to be taken for the opinion of all Americans, everywhere.

BUT please, please, please google “Vanuatu bribery scandal” or “Vanuatu pardon scandal”. It’s so interesting. I think because the news media in America try to make everything into a scandal, American scandals are boring. Oh, look, another politician had sex with a call girl. Yawn. But this scandal has everything except, I guess, sex. And there’s no weapons or drugs involved in it. In fact, not much violence (except for a friend of mine who got slapped by a politician!) But there's money and constitutional misconduct. Even if you don’t care about politics at all, look it up. It's great.