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After Easter Island statue vandalized by a Finn many want his ear
As Grant pointed out, the Giza Pyramids are not for wandering about freely because of vandalism. Here are some more can't get close to items. Plymouth Rock can't be seen up close due to vandals that once chipped at it for a souvenir. You can't wander around Stonehenge at random anymore for the same reason. You can't get too close to Michelangelo's, Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica either. A man attacked it years ago with a hammer, although he didn't really want the pieces to keep, he just wanted it in pieces.
The pull to take parts of history home, particularly if the history is etched in stone, was strong enough that Marko Kulju, the Finnish tourist got his hankering to cut the ear off one of the Easter Island statues and put it in his luggage. Marko, Marko, Marko, Van Gogh did the ear thing years ago to not very good results. To add to Grant's admonishment, didn't your parents ever say to you, "What if everyone decided to cut an ear off the statues?"
The Chilean president is fuming mad and wants a piece of Kulju's ear as retribution. Kulju is currently under house arrest in Chile and will have to pay a fine. I picked that one out of three options in the AOL poll today that went with the article. Many people, 37 % when I checked, want his ear.
Jeez people. Get up on the wrong side of the bed did we? Anyone ever write their name somewhere? How about pick a wildflower from a national park? Walk where the sign says, "Don't walk." Take that tiny arrowhead or pottery shard that no one will notice home in ones pocket? (I haven't done one of these things, I'm just saying.)
This story is one more lesson in don't touch so the rest of us have something left to enjoy or you may have to pay. Think of the highway signs that say fines for littering. Those count too.
Filed under: Arts and Culture, History, Stories, South America, Chile, News
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ryan Mar 28th 2008 10:47PM
I didn't vote to cut off his ear because I think it's a punishment too heavy, visit Easter Island is on top 10 of my list of 100 things to do before I die, but he should pay an expensive fine and NEVER more put on any feet on Chile is a best punishment.
Pauli Ojala Mar 30th 2008 6:36AM
There were more column meters published on the death of Princess Diana than there were on the invasion at Normandy. Soon there will be more column meters on this earlobe of the moai statute (1 out of 400-1000, the blood thirsty media does not even check out the number) than there are columns on the massive Buddha statutes annihilated by the Taleban regime.
This countryman of mine has been lynched high. Ear off. 7 years in a South American prison. After this publicity, even a day in a South American jail would kill him.
And as I read the actual story behind the News from Congoo to Australia, it seems to me that he's not proven to break it by purpose.
A high-octan, adrenaline addict adventurer climbs on a top of a high and sacred monument. Bad enough. The Finn brokes the ear of this fragile lava type of stone. Worse enough. My countryman tries to hide it and runs away. Worst enough. (OK, Oll Korrect, he confessed what happened later on.) But this does not prove him a thief though the whole globe would shout and shoot so!
It was the Easter week at the Easter Island. The same week the Finnish leaders of the Botnia pulp factory at the border river between Uruguay and Argentine were on trial in a South American court for "Planned damage". After Finnish flags had been burnt in the streets of Argentine for 3 years for this biggest investment ever to the poor country of Uruguay. We have a classical scape goat and red herring here, it appears to me. Not every tattood boxer is suffering from Dementia pugilistica. In Finland we enjoy extreme sports, but the aim was not to vandalize it appears to me. So now we know we should prefer Tibet over the highest 22-meter Moai for climbing. That I want to apologize.
An outrageous mob wanting to lynch a man is an old scene, only the internet phenomenon is new. A raging mob behaves irrationally when it goes out to lynch. In AOL there are already over 3200 News comments on this (versus 5500 on the US presidential election campaign), 314000 votes, 52% would sentence him to de facto death in South American jail, without knowing whether it was an alleged theft or an accident from climbing. If it bleads, it leads.
Few FACTS about Finland
Finland has been the least corrupt country in the world in the transparency international throughout the 3rd millennium. In the OECD's international assessment of student performance, PISA, Finland has consistently been among the highest scorers worldwide; in 2003, Finnish 15-year-olds came first in reading literacy, science, and mathematics; and second in problem solving, worldwide. The World Economic Forum ranks Finland's tertiary education #1 in the world. In 1906, Finland became the first European nation (and one of the first in the world) to grant women the right to vote and run for parliament. Finland's most famous company is Nokia, the world's largest producer of mobile phones. Just 30 years ago, Nokia company was selling mainly tiers and rubber boots.The most famous Finnish person alive today is Linus Torvalds, who originated (and still maintains) Linux, the shareware free computer operating system. It has been embraced especially in the developing countries, instead of the commercial Microsoft Windows.
Pauli Ojala
Finland
PS. Another viewpoint on the hang-up party:
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Easter-island-broken-ear-mob-lynch.htm
HRH Sir Prince Charles Apr 9th 2008 8:04PM
What an incredibly vain, arrogant and stupid young man!
It is also hard not to dislike the arrogant man, he looks like a young prince Phillip and, oh yeah, I am part of the world wide conspiracy against Finns.
Nuke Finland now, before the disease spreads!
Pauli Ojala, as the British tabloids might say, what are you like!!?
William Apr 9th 2008 8:03PM
Wow Pauli. You really are defensive of Finland? Do you defend Finnish criminals with such gusto all the time?
Afghanistan's destruction of the bhudda statues WAS A HUGE DEAL. But the GOVERNMENT of the nation wanted it destroyed as did a majority of their country. Horrific in my mind, yes, but perfectly legal as the inhabitants of the country didn't want it. In this situation, a rich bratty Finn goes to a small isolated part of the world and tries to destroy a cherished heritage figure AS A TOURIST in a country WHERE IT IS CHERISHED.
I'm Canadian, and I've met quite a few Finns a few years ago. A ruder more boorish people from Europe I have never met. Even Finn hockey players, like Koivu, play dirty and refuse to even learn the basics of French when they play in Quebec the majority of their career. While I'm sure Finland isn't a bad nation, you have to accept that many of them are pure scum. And this guy, Marki, is pure scum.