In a scene that typifies all that is wrong in the Pacific, a barefoot young woman forages for food on the reef at Bairiki.
Her child wears the disposable diapers that cannot be disposed of on the atoll, she carries a plastic shopping bag advertising an imported mild substitute, and a cardboard box that once contained imported produce from China.
I followed her, and the hard sharp coral hurt my feet through my shoes. She seemed immune to it.
I took her photo, but her look of shame and destitution made me instantly embarrassed, and I deleted it. As she walked on, I took an anonymous shot from behind.....
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