When my late lecturer at UNE, went to Flores, they uncovered The Hobbit. As they had permission to do this, and some Indonesians were involved in the dig, they sent the original skull to someone in charge a Prince. Who knew nothing about Paleoanthropology and Archaeology. They changed the skull. Luckily our team had taken a plaster cast of it prior to handing it over. Then these Indo lot, started to dispute Mike's and Peter's description to suit their own. But they were ignorant of Palaeoanthropology so their scam was soon uncovered.
If you tune into Bonsai Farm TV there is a lovely expo of Penjing landscapes, held in Manilla in 2013, and the coordinator of this, handles the politics all the time. So it was said.
I suppose in a way, other than wanting to evict small business owners who stand in the way of development blocks, (Hope they don't get earthquakes or volcanic eruptions there?). There is an amazing amount of racial jealousy, when someone who is foreign comes around and on their own turf finds an amazing genus of a hominid, no one else knew about? To the point they will sabotage a precious artifact.
Thank goodness we live in a relatively democratic country.
