Islanders
Rugby's Biggest Winners
Renowned for their uncompromising style, New Zealand rugby players would be the last group that many would dare call timid. But that's the slur in a local magazine piece that notes a dwindling white presence in the country's best teams. Maoris and Pacific Islanders comprise 17% of New Zealand's population, yet last winter they made up more than half the players in its four provincial sides-and four-fifths of those in Auckland's premier tournament. And for the first time in the only country where rugby is the national sport, more people now play soccer than the brutal 15-man game.
Calling the phenomenon "white flight" a term used by Sports Illustrated to describe comparable trends in American sports-New Zealand Rugby quotes coaches as saying that white players at all levels can't match the Polynesians' size and strength, and that worried parents are steering their sons to gentler sports.
While few dispute that the number of white players is falling, the charge that fear is the cause has upset many. "We think it's a load of bollocks," says New Zealand Rugby Union spokesman Matt McIlraith, who adds that the Kiwis' world champion under-19 and under-21 sides are predominantly white.
Caucasian players of various standards deny being afraid of any opponent, and argue that Polynesians can be demoralized by preemptive aggression. Former Australian Test player Peter FitzSimons says he finds all such talk distasteful, but adds: "I wouldn't say it had anything to do with their ethnicity, but there's no doubt that the two hardest men I ever faced on a football field-Wayne Shelford and Zinzan
Brooke-were Maoris." While sport remains an avenue out of poverty for underprivileged groups, New Zealand society is becoming more "individualized" and mature, says Otago University physical education lecturer Douglas Booth: "Why would you want to spend your leisure time being yelled at by some baboon of a coach when you can go out and have a latte or visit a museum?" -Daniel Williams
Betel Mania
The bloodstains that spatter Papua New Guinea's roads are actually betel juice -the red saliva produced when betel nuts, with pepper and lime, are chewed like tobacco.
But lately there's real blood amid the spittle. As a seasonal shortage of the national pick-me-up bites, rural growers bringing nuts to town are being waylaid by desperate dealers. "When passenger trucks arrive, they run up and buy as much as they can," says Port Moresby civil servant Pauka Karafa; while they shout and jostle, poorer folk try to steal. In Lae, boats from betel-growing areas are met by "crazed" crowds, says Lutheran Shipping manager Don Hodgson. "They scream, they cut bags open, they steal from trucks, they try to mix with passengers and claim their bags." Each time a boat docks, "there are knife fights." Karafa, a 15-a-day man, says buai "is like cigarettes, but better for you." It may aid digestion and even prevent tooth decay. But it's starting to look like a health hazard.
-Elizabeth Feizkhah
Saved by Cuteness
Killing koalas is a task few people can bear. But on Kangaroo Island, some conservationists and residents say 20,000 of the button-nosed tree-huggers must be put down-for the good of the ecosystem. Eighteen koalas were introduced to the South Australian island (pop. 4,300) in the 1920s; now there are about 27,000 of them, and their relentless munching is killing the manna gums that are their only food.
So far, authorities have tackled the problem by sterilizing 3,400 koalas and moving 1,100 to the mainland, at a cost of $A1.2 million. Last week, ecologist David Paton called that program a failure and urged the state to "bite the bullet" and cull 65% of the marsupials to save the rest from starvation. But National Parks and Wildlife Service deputy director Lindsay Best says that won't happen. Wallabies and possums on the island are culled, but "koalas are a celebrity animal," he says. Culling could lead to "trade boycotts and damage to the tourism industry." Instead, the sterilization and removal program will be stepped up. Koalas are widely seen as a threatened species, but on Kangaroo Island, the only enemy they face is each other.
-E.F.