Let's hear it for the ten-ton Tongans from the world's fattest country on earth
By JANE FRYER
Last updated at 07:26 28 September 2007
It is illegal for a Tongan man - or woman - to remove their shirt in public.
Officially, the country is the fattest nation in the world. Some 92 per cent of adults over 30 are clinically obese, 20 per cent have diabetes and, with a national diet of pork, lamb fat, imported corned beef, mutton flaps (a particularly high-fat cut from sheep that is normally discarded on health grounds), yams and coconuts, that's unlikely to change.
The instructions for a popular breakfast recipe read: "Take a loaf of bread, cut it in two, fill it with honey and ice cream and eat the lot."
Captain Cook christened Tonga "the Friendly Isles" when he landed in the 1770s - his arrival coincided with the middle of the annual fruit festival ('inasi') - and he presented the locals with a giant tortoise called Tu i Malila, which survived until 1965. But the islanders weren't that friendly - stealing the crew's cats to eat. Cannibalism was still very much in vogue and historians claim the chiefs wanted to kill Cook but, unable to agree on a plan of action, invited him to join in the festivities instead.
Cannibalism persisted well into the 19th century. The crew of one American ship were reportedly devoured wholesale, leaving a sole survivor - Elizabeth Mosey - who was spared and became the wife of a chief. The marriage lasted two years before she escaped.
The current King George Tupou V (nicknamed Tippytoes) is a 59-year- old, goutridden bachelor and Sandhurst graduate with an Oxford degree, who succeeded the throne last September.
He is haughty and deeply unpopular. Once, he called his fellow countrymen "squatters who would urinate in elevators" and encouraged police to "thrash the habit" out of drug addicts. He uses a chauffeur-driven black London cab and has a passion for faux military outfits, toy soldiers, model airplanes and computer games.
His mansion is awash with gold and Italian marble and boasts an enormous swimming pool where he plays with radio-controlled toy boats.
His father, the late King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, was the world's heaviest monarch. In 1976, he formally weighed himself at the airport - on the only scales in Tonga strong enough - and found he was 33 stone, which qualified him for an entry in The Guinness Book Of Records. When the 6ft 4in king attended the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, he needed two seats to accommodate his massive bulk. During the visit, the Tonga High Commission's official car - boasting the number plate '1Ton' - was too tight a squeeze for the 56in-chested monarch, who had to order a specially-reinforced car.
The late King Tupou - who normally wore two watches, both showing the same time - had a weakness for zany financial schemes, including selling Tongan passports, converting sea water into gas and building a fish sausage factory.
Most famously, he was made a fool of by Jesse Bogdonoff, a Californian investment specialist whom he appointed as his court jester. The king entrusted him with £13.8 million of public funds - equivalent to more than half Tonga's national income - which then disappeared after being invested in a string of dubious ventures in the US…
Wealth is not evenly distributed. While the royal family live in palaces with gold taps and dine on champagne, caviar and flying fox baked in coconut milk, most of the rest of the 114,689 population eke out a living from the sea or farming - the main exports are fish, pumpkins and vanilla beans.
But it's not all bad. Tongans are well-educated - 98 per cent literacy - and schooling is free and compulsory for children up to the age of 14, with only nominal fees for secondary education. Per capita, Tongans reportedly have more PhDs than any other country in the world and health care is free.
Women have greater social prestige than men, so a man's sister will outrank him socially even if he is the older sibling. Until recently it was taboo for an adult male and his sister to be in a room together.
Following the deaths in a car crash last summer of Prince Tu'ipelehake and wife Princess Kaimana, the end of national mourning was marked by the presentation of 50 pigs to the royal family.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-484372/Lets-hear-ton-Tongans-worlds-fattest-country-earth.html
One of every four Tongans in U.S. calls Utah home
State has nearly as many Samoans, but national share is lower.
In fact, one of every four Tongans living in the United States resides in Utah, according to a Salt Lake Tribune analysis of 2010 U.S. census data. Utah ranks second among the states for total population of Tongans, behind only California — but ahead of even Hawaii.
"We like it here," said Fahini Tavake-Pasi, executive director of the National Tongan-American Society, which has its headquarters, naturally, in Utah.
She says the first Tongan immigrants to Utah were Mormon converts who came to live among fellow Mormons, but later brought family and friends of all religions to take advantage of educational and economic opportunities. And she says Tongans who migrated first to other states such as California and Hawaii found that Utah is cheaper and has a lifestyle pace that they like better.
https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=52551592&itype=CMSID
is 5G D5?