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Yesterday at 三角地, I published a posting whose title was 美以「友邦」相稱挺台灣. Today in Note (b), I explain 公使; the two sets of brackets are inserted today.
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(b) photo caption in this news report: "美方十八日主動公布白宮國安會資深主任博明（右四）與我外交部次長徐斯儉（右三）在索羅門群島的合照：右一及右二分別為我駐索羅門公使廖文哲、大使羅添宏。（圖：取自美駐巴布亞紐幾內亞大使館臉書）
美方十八日主動公布白宮國安會資深主任博明（右四）與我外交部次長徐斯儉（右三）在索羅門群島的合照：右一及右二分別為我駐索羅門公使廖文哲 [Minister Counselor Oliver Liao; in Taiwan's embassy, this position ranks right beneath ambassadorship; in America's the rank is ambassador> deputy chief of mission (DCM; a career diplomat from Foreign Service). Minister Counselor (often there are several in charge of different areas]、大使羅添宏 [Ambassador Roger Luo]。（圖：取自美駐巴布亞紐幾內亞大使館臉書）"
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Richard Conniff, The Globe's Greatest Explorers; A vast realm of scattered islands was settled by a people with a single language and distinctive customs -- but no maps, compasses or writing system. Wall Street Journal, Mar 16, 2019 (in the Review section)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/sea ... plorers-11552659111
(book review on Christina Thompson, Sea People; The puzzle of Polynesia. Harper, 2019)
the first six paragraphs:
"As HMS Endeavour was preparing to leave Tahiti in July 1769, after a tropical sojourn of four months, a celebrated Polynesian priest and navigator named Tupaia announced that he wished to join the British in their travels. James Cook, commander of the expedition, demurred at first. But with a nudge from the expedition's naturalist Joseph Banks, he relented, allowing that Tupaia 'was the likeliest person to answer our purpose.'
"This soon proved to be the case at sea, where the new passenger’s navigational guidance through the intricacies of Society Islands proved extraordinarily precise. But Tupaia's real value only became evident on land, three months later, as Cook struggled to make peaceful contact with the Māori. The Endeavour had by then traveled 3,500 miles from Tahiti, Christina Thompson writes in 'Sea People; The puzzle of Polynesia,' and 'there was nothing in the geography of New Zealand to suggest that the people who lived there might have anything in common with the people in the tropical islands they [people in Endeavour] had left behind.' " (quoting the book).
"The first encounter at Poverty Bay had ended with bloodshed on the Māori side. 'The following day, Cook tried again, this time taking two additional precautions,' Ms Thompson continues. 'First, he landed with a party of marines, and second, he took Tupaia with him.' Again, the situation deteriorated, with about a hundred Māori brandishing their weapons and staging a haka, their ferocious war dance. The marines advanced in turn, with the Union Jack in front. 'The stage was set for a confrontation -- and then something unexpected occurred. Tupaia stepped forward and addressed the warriors in fluent Tahitian and, to the surprise of everyone present, he was immediately understood.'
"The violence suddenly drained out of the scene, and the strangeness and immensity of the Polynesian accomplishment became apparent. 'It is extraordinary,' Cook would later write, 'that the same Nation should have spread themselves over all the isles in this Vast Ocean * * * which is almost a fourth part of the circumference of the Globe.' What's now called 'the Polynesian triangle' encompasses 10 million square miles of water, with the northern apex at Hawaii and the base stretching from New Zealand in the southwest to Easter island in the southeast.
"Let's put that extraordinary expanse in terms that might make it a little more meaningful for landbound readers: New Zealand is of course southeast of Australia. But Easter Island is some 4,000 miles further east, on about the same longitude as Salt Lake City. For the north-south extent, think Mexico City down to southern Argentina. The Polynesian Triangle is not only unfathomably vast but also contains so little habitable land that, as Ms Thompson puts it, the surprise is that 'anyone ever found anything at all.'
"And yet somehow, she writes, 'all the islands inside this triangle were originally settled by clearly identifiable group of voyagers: a people with a single language and set of customs, a particular body of myths , a distinctive arsenal of tools and skills, and a ‘portmanteau biota’ of plants and animals that they carried with them wherever they went. They had no knowledge of writing or mental tools -- no maps or compasses -- and yet they succeeded in colonizing the largest ocean on the planet, occupying every habitable rock between New Guinea and the Galapagos, and establishing what was until the modern era the largest single culture area in the world.
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发表于 3-20-2019 15:23:14
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