Leave Us Alone
by Charles Roring
An old West Papuan screamed, "We don't want your modernization. It only puts us into trouble
being trapped by the clutch of capitalism. Your modernization flatten our stomach taking out
its content leaving us starving. Your modernization cuts our hair. It destructs our sacred
places. Is this what you call better civilization? You proudly claim that you come to help
us develop our land. You only a thief. You inject your pipes in our throat and arm pit. You
drain all our blood. In return, you only gave us a small piece of cake.A young West Papuan girl cried, "Last night I was waiting for my boyfriend. He didn't come.
You arrested him. You accused him and his friends as the betrayer of the big family. I never
know that we are of the big family. I am not your relative. I only want my boyfriends return
home. I miss him so much. We have planned to get married next full moon. You took him to
other island, far from home. I am here alone. I can't meet my boyfriend anymore. You offer
me other boys who like riding motorcycles around our town who cook noodle and smarter than
mine. No, I am not interested in them. I need my boyfriends back. We can go to the jugles
swimming naked at streams near the Sago tree. Why you took my friends from me. They only
shouted for free air. They used to go anywhere naked. Your stuff makes us sick. We cannot
wear your clothes. We cannot make love with clothes. You gave us white food. We've our own
food. The taste of your food is weird in our tongue. No. Please, return my boyfriend and his
friends."The girl's mother sobbed, "I have five sons. The first died. His lung was wet. The third one
died in that big town while opposing what we called as monsters. Those monsters look
handsome but they can eat anyone whom they think are not good for them. They come here to
make friends with us. We think they want to be our brothers and sisters. Finally, we
realized that we are wrong. Nothing more than deception. Now, I only have the number two,
four and five. I hope that the number two will protect his younger brothers. The number two said, "I cannot protect my brothers. I have an unknown desease in my whole
body. One day I went to town. I sold a big deer I trapped in the juggle. I got alot of
money. When I was walking along the market, a beautiful girl approached offering to make
love. I agreed. We made love all night. The next morning I gave him all my money. One week
after that I got high fever. I feel weaker day by day. I cannot protect my your brothers. I
am sorry. The your brothers cried, "Who will bring us up? We are too young to fight those monsters who
are getting closer to our villages. They use bulldozer, helicopter. dynamites. They have
injected big pipes into the stomach of a village one night walking from ours. That village
frequently shakes at noon or night. The old man said again, "Leave us alone. I am too tired to study your language. I am not
interested in your songs. My ancestors have created our own songs. When they killed enemies
from other village, they returned home singing victory. When they catched a very big fish at
sea next to snake island they jumped singing uttering names of our big-big grandfathers.
Leave us alone. Leave us live our own way. Leave built our homes. We are full with half
burned pork, it is delicious to us more delicious than your soy cake. We never sail to your lands and we never robbed anything from your villages. We never inject pipes in your stomach. We never cut your have or strangle your throats until it is dry. No, we don't even want your new song which is full of our languages. No, it is not a sacred one. We only want a simple one which was created by our great great great grandfathers. The song of hunting birds, and fish in green lake. The song of dancing bird under a bright morning. Leave us alone.
