Guest Post #1: "Drinking Kava for My Country in the South Pacific"
Hank Benson fills in during Finals week
Dear Readers,
It’s Finals week. I’m under a mountain of grading, and I can’t get up. Luckily Hank Benson—foreign affairs professional and, more importantly, friend of the newsletter—visited the tiny Pacific island nation of Vanuatu (pop. 335,000), went to a kava bar, and sent us a report.
If you’re not familiar, Kava is a drink made from the root of Piper methysticum.
Wikipedia’s summary is illuminating:
Kava or kava kava (Piper methysticum: Latin ‘pepper’ and Latinized Greek ‘intoxicating’) is a crop of the Pacific Islands. The name kava is from Tongan and Marquesan, meaning 'bitter'; other names for kava include ʻawa (Hawaiʻi), ‘ava (Samoa), yaqona or yagona (Fiji), sakau (Pohnpei), seka (Kosrae), and malok or malogu (parts of Vanuatu). Kava is consumed for its sedating effects throughout the Pacific Ocean cultures of Polynesia, including Hawaii and Vanuatu, Melanesia, some parts of Micronesia, s…
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