© amandabhslater

The New Guinea rainforests which house the largest remaining tropical rainforests may not be so green anymore. Earlier estimates stated that 75% of its rainforest cover is intact. It covers a huge tract of land around 100,000 square miles which is a biodiversity hotspot with a variety of mammals, plants and birds.
These lush New Guinea rainforests are under a siege by the excessive logging of trees and oil palm plantations. The mindless logging of trees is being supported by the government which sold the logging rights in the first place. These activities are not only disturbing the native ecology but are also helping the spread of diseases among the native tribes. The rights for logging in the new guinea rainforests has been given to a Malaysian company whose sole outlook is the production of cheap timber. There have also been cases of illegal taking over of land by the logging companies. A lot of groups including the landowners and greenpeace are up in arms against the activity.
The oil palm plantation in the new guinea rainforests are totally export oriented and hence it involves exploitation of the local labor as well as resources. None of the oil produced is used for satisfying the edible oil needs of the native people of the new guinea rainforests. The fish and the tourism industry will be the most affected by this senseless act of exploitation of the resources of the new guinea rainforests.

© Clevergrrl

A new off-Broadway play focuses on the true story of Michael Rockefeller, the son of former New York Governor and business magnate Nelson Rockefeller. Michael died at the hands a New Guinea native tribe called the Asmats in 1961.

The play is a comedy, which is told from the native's point of view. Michael is portrayed as a bright and inquisitive 23-year-old fresh out of Harvard who is fascinated by the carvings of the Asmat people. With his family's extreme wealth, he is able to travel to New Guinea with the intention of buying Asmat art and showcasing it in a museum. The culture clash is portrayed in a very humorous way, and the Asmat are portrayed as very intelligent people but also very ignorant. The play turns darker at the end as the Asmats view Michael as a disruptive threat to their natural order.

© thms.nl

"Owner of the Voyage" is one of a series of videos produced by the Dutch artists Roy Villevoye and Jan Dietvorst that focus on the outside influences to which the Asmat people of Papua New Guinea have been exposed to since their first contact with Westerners in the 1950s.

This film runs through March 25 , and it is a part of a video series at Bates college in Maine called "Dialogue, a video series". This series also features videos by Rachel Perry Welty, whose 2004 video "Karaoke Wrong Number" features the artist lip-synching to wrong-number messages left on her answering machine. The video is described as humorous, mundane, and deeply touching. The series opens with Marclay's "Telephones", which uses telephone scenes from Hollywood films to create a fresh narrative.