This has the whiff of reality TV about it, but that doesn’t make it sound any less fascinating. A BBC doc transported members of a small Vanuatuan tribe to the U.K. to get their impressions of British life.

Most surprising is what Yapa, Joel, JJ, Posen and Albi find either enjoyable, or shocking. In the Norfolk countryside, they were deeply upset by the practice of artificially inseminating pigs (“a crazy thing…undignified…goes against nature”), but delighted by ferreting for rabbits, which they considered a sort of land-based fishing. In Manchester they were staggered by the phenomenon of homelessness (in Tanna, your family provides a home, come what may), but felt relatively at home in a nightclub, since ritual dancing is an important part of their culture. In London, where they spent a week in a penthouse flat in Docklands, they learnt to love Marlboro Lights and fish and chips, but were left cold by the hustle and bustle of city living.

I reserve a full endorsement until I see it, since a Mark Burnett could make it junk, but from the Independent article, it sounds like the producers are relatively human. And perhaps it’s good for Vanuatuans to get to know the rest of the world, since their islands will likely be among the first victims of global warming.

10 September 2007

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