john frum

Edward Said proposed in his seminal book Orientalism, that the west (Europe) embarked on a campaign, from colonial times onwards, where the native of the colonies was Othered, through their representation in literature and art, both in the view of the colonist and the founding empire's citizens as well as in the mind of the native, the idea of the Orient is a construct devised to create a division in our mind between us and them, the civilised and the barbarian; me and the Other

Our fantasies of the geography of the Other conjures up anything from idyllic desert island beaches where we dream of returning to our natural state of nudity to the thrill of savages hunting and killing. We expect to see this when we visit exotic locations and due to the projected pressure the indigenous populations have engaged in providing this hyperreality.

However, the native to certain pacific islands have fantasised about the West's geography: “The airstrip had a bamboo control tower with 'air traffic controllers' wearing dummy headphones made of wood. There were dummy planes on the 'runway' to act as decoys, designed to lure down John Frum's plane.” Known as Cargo Cults, several had “...sprang up independently on islands that were widely separated both geographically and culturally.”; the natives to the Pacific Islands fell under the spell of “...the wondrous possessions of the white immigrants...”. When the soldiers that were stationed on these islands left, the natives tried to reproduce complex technology by emulating the form, without understanding it, to attract the 'cargo'. (The God Delusion Dawkins, R. pg 202-204)

In both cases the construct of the Other's exotic, unknown geography, is built up in the mind, and the slippage that has occurred as a result thereof, has resulted in a distorted version of reality that has become self fulfilling prophecy; perpetuated by a feedback loop.

In the final scenes of the film Mondo Cane, Gualtiero Jacopetti’s original “shockumentary,” we see eager Papua New Guinea islanders clustered around a huge, roughly-made model of an airplane. They are high up in the mountains, sitting on a new airstrip they carved out of the forest. Their eyes search the skies, so the film tells us, for airplanes full of wonderful “cargo” that they expect will soon arrive. But they are destined to be disappointed. No planes will land. These islanders are the misguided followers of a cargo cult... http://www.berkshirepublishing.com/rvw/022/022smpl1.htm