This is, as the saying here goes, "the most insular of islands," the place on Earth farthest from any other place on Earth. Most people here seem to like it that way, which is why a new plan to build a casino on this speck in the South Pacific has created an uproar among the island's 3,800 residents.
The furor may seem a small matter in a very small place. But to those who live here, the plan is the latest manifestation of a centuries-old onslaught of intrusions -- from colonization and disease to intermarriage and the steady erosion of the local Polynesian culture and language -- which threatens finally to undo one of the globe's singular outposts.
Tourism has grown rapidly here in recent years, as long-range flights have reduced Easter Island's remoteness. But visitors are hardly of the high-roller type, and come mainly to see the moai, the famous stone statues, carved centuries ago, that stand guard as mute sentinels along the coast of the island, which is three times the size of Manhattan. Slot machines and blackjack tables have been, until now, alien concepts.
PHOTO: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Opponents here fear that if approved, the venture would bring a host of outside social ills, ranging from drugs and prostitution to money laundering and gambling fever among a population that until a generation ago lived in an economy based on barter. The project was proposed late last year, but could be decided upon as early as next month.
"A casino would mean the instantaneous destruction of this island as we know it, in which our livelihood is based on a kind of cultural tourism found nowhere else in the world," said Mario Tuki, a fisherman and schoolteacher who is a member of a council of elders. "If people want to gamble, let them go somewhere else, like Las Vegas or Monaco," he said.
Local people are irked all the more that the final decision will be made in Santiago, Chile, nearly 4,000km away. Easter Island, known as Rapa Nui in the local Polynesian language of the same name, has been part of Chile since 1888, with Spanish as its language of government.
The author of the casino plan is Pedro Riraroko, a Rapa Nui businessman and landowner whose interests include a hotel and travel agency. He was on the Chilean mainland lobbying for the project, in which he has Chilean partners who already own a casino, and did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
But the mayor here, Pedro Edmunds, has endorsed the plan. He argues that the benefits of a casino would far outweigh its potential adverse effects.
"I welcome any project that would develop Rapa Nui society, and this is one that would create 150 jobs that I don't have today," he said in an interview. "Plus, a chunk of the profits and sales would stay here on the island and give me more money to build roads and maybe afford to buy a dialysis unit for the hospital."
The casino project comes at a delicate moment in the island's complicated and turbulent history, with the Chilean Congress considering a "special statute" that would grant political autonomy to Easter Island. That legislation, which is expected to be approved this year, would give the island's government much greater control over land use and finances.
Easter Island acquired its name when a Dutch vessel landed on that Sunday in 1722. Scientists were curious about the mysterious moai from the beginning, but initially there was little interest otherwise because the island was so remote and had no natural resources to exploit. But in the 19th century, raids by slave ships from Peru carried off nearly 1,000 Rapa Nui, including the island's king, to work in guano mines there. An international campaign freed a handful of survivors, who returned here infected with diseases that reduced the population, more than 10,000 at its peak, to 111 people.
The survivors sought protection from Peru's rival, Chile, but for many years thereafter the island was little more than a sheep farm. Residents acquired Chilean citizenship only in 1966, after protests against their second-class status and what they saw as the arrogance of their Chilean Navy overseers.
"This island was run like a ship," said Sergio Rapu, a Rapa Nui archaeologist who became the island's first civilian and native governor. "Everyone was in the navy, and if you were a Rapa Nui, then you were two steps down from a sailor."
In recent years, though, with Chile democratically ruled and increasingly prosperous, the national government has tried to make amends.
On a per capita basis, "More is spent in Rapa Nui than in any municipality in Chile," Claudio Agurto, an Interior Ministry official, said in an interview in Santiago.
But local residents complain that development, with tourism in the lead, has gotten out of hand. Since the return of democracy in 1990, the number of visitors has swelled to nearly 45,000 last year from less than 6,000.
The national airline, LAN Chile, now flies here almost daily, and there are also charter flights and cruise ships. But most of the profits from those flights go to the Chilean mainland, residents say, as does revenue from many hotels. In addition, many "continentals," as newcomers from mainland Chile are called, have settled here, attracted by jobs, and married locals. The result is a new class of residents of mixed ethnicity and growing concerns about Rapa Nui's cultural identity.
The influx of outsiders has strained public services. The island's electricity, water and garbage collection systems are buckling, officials say, and the capacity of schools and hospitals is taxed.
"We're heading for another collapse if we don't learn how to take better care of ourselves," said Ema Tuki, the local representative of the National Indigenous Council, referring to an earlier breakdown of traditional society that took place in the 1600s. "People say this is a paradise, but the changes have been so rapid and so brusque that I fear we may have already gone past our natural limits."
A few people favor complete independence, a position the majority regards as impractical because "we don't have the mechanisms or the resources to survive on our own," Tuki said.
Another group, mostly young people known as los yorgos, has distanced itself by retreating to the hills and living a more traditional life. Dressed in camouflage and colorful bandanas, their long hair plaited or flowing, they evoke the spirit of hippies or Rastafarians.
"We want to live in our own manner on our own island, not bound by the outside world and what it says," said Kiri Icka Pakarati, a self-proclaimed yorgo.
"Things have gone wrong here because the Chileans are in charge, not the Rapa Nui. Do you know what it is like living on your own island, but controlled by others? It's like being in prison," he said.
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