Editor’S Mailbag

Island Independence

Somehow, there seems to be a connec tion between R. Cherry’s letter (p 21) and Grace Mera’s article (p 25) in your July issue. Both address independence, the

quality of leadership and the relationship

between politics and economics.

If we are to believe Cherry, the Islands would be better off without independence, colonial administrators and leaders were never parasitic and Pacific Islanders prefer

begging to trading.

Fortunately, Ms Mera provides us with a case study of how faulty and antiquated Cherry’s argument is. Independence is measured, or should be measured, in terms of dignity, not material wealth.

Having leaders forced upon you does not guarantee they will be better, or less obstinate, or less entrenched in their posi tion than those you choose yourself.

Pacific Islanders never rejected trade as the main means to economic development, but began asking whose economy benefited most from it. When the internal economy is dominated by outside investment and non-indigenous businessmen, there is little chance for the Islander to compete in the economic sphere or have genuine control over the political sphere.

Cherry seems to be angered by an alleg ed lack of appreciation on the part of Islanders for his contribution to the aid bill. I say Ms Mera has far more justifica tion for being angered given the treatment her country has received from colonial powers and the beating its citizens received for expressing their political beliefs.

Neal Engledow

Honolulu, Hawaii.

I have absolutely no doubt that the basic white racism inherent in the letter of R Cherry (PIM, July p 21), will be clearly identified and treated with due scorn by Degressive people in the Pacific. Lest, by ny silence, I am accused of tolerating the Doint of view expressed in that letter, I feel i short comment may be appropriate. t Contrary to R. Cherry’s view that ‘racial discrimination throughout the vorld is now rapidly dissipating,” I would :ontend that racism, and white racism in articular, is among the leading causes of nost of the world’s innumerable injustices oday. No one can study the history of the ’acific during the last hundred years, or isit the Pacific today, without becoming

ware of the intense suffering, degrada

ion, poverty and dependence which is the

direct result of Euro-American colonisa tion in the Pacific.

In Papua New Guinea it was the isola tion of the colonial administration from the mass of the people which has left its imprint in the present detachment of many of the emergent black elite from their own

village societies.

In Fiji the tensions which exist between Fijians and Fiji-Indians are a direct in heritance of the segregation imposed upon these groups by a British policy of divide and rule.

In Western Samoa the foundations for a strong independent government were shattered by the violence used against the Mau movement. The military interests of the USA in the North Pacific have been used to disrupt Micronesian nationalism and to perpetuate a level of dependence which effectively discredits all options to colonial rule.

In the New Hebrides, the opposing in terests of white colonisers and black nationalists have been repeatedly emphasised in all reports from that coun try during the last 18 months. It is ironic that, having failed to stem the black nationalist tide through imposed, colonial institutions, the French and British ad ministrators should now be seeking other means to deny the New Hebrideans national self-determination.

R. Cherry suggested that “what the Islands need of course is trade not aid,” and implied that bridge-building between black and white people is the key to the Pacific’s future advancement. I disagree.

What the Pacific needs is genuine in dependence the right to choose future options on the basis of Pacific interests rather than those of Australia, New Zealand, the rest of Euro-America and other foreign intruders.

Politically, Pacific nations must be allowed to develop their own foreign relations and domestic institutions, rather than have the colonial models thrust upon them viz Australia’s determination to ensure that Papua New Guinea will not up set regional developments in South-East

Asia by opposing Indonesian imperialism

or by establishing contacts with the com munist governments of Indo-China, and of course the difficult constitutional framework bequeathed to PNG by Australia.

Economically, Pacific nations must be given the chance to develop producer oriented societies rather than become ser

vants of capitalist or other forms of foreign domination viz Fiji’s development of tourism which has served foreign interests so well and Fiji’s so poorly, and also foreign control of the mineral extraction and other industries, such as Bougainville’s copper, the development of which is more in the interests of advancing the wealth, status and power of the consumer oriented, industrialised societies of Euro- America than anything else.

Socially and culturally, Pacific nations must be encouraged to defend and develop their own independent identity based on their own rich and bountiful traditions rather than attempt an imitation of a civilisation which cannot appreciate their needs and interests viz the domination of Polynesian schooling by New Zealand educators and the importation of foreign values and life-styles into Pacific com munities which needed none of them.

R. Cherry was concerned that Pacific Islanders “have a peculiar manner for showing their appreciation and thanks.”

That may well be so, for Pacific Islanders are among the most generous and open hearted people in the world even to a fault, as far as protection of their interests are concerned. I suggest, however, that there is little if anything that people in the Pacific have to thank the foreign world for, other than the destruction and discrediting of the Pacific’s original independence es

tablished through hardship and suffering, toil and pleasure during the hundreds of years in the Pacific which preceded the in trusion of white colonisation.

Paul Grocott

Wayville, -South Australia.

Suspicious

In reply to Michael White’s letter (PIM, July, p 24), after Eti Saaga left Samoa College, where he had been head prefect, he chose to become a bulldozer driver.

Within 18 months he was the most qualified heavy-equipment driver in Western Samoa. During this time he wrote “Him Fella Saviour’.

I doubt if Saaga has ever heard of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, let alone read Ferlinghetti’s poems. Even if Saaga has read Ferlinghetti, his poem, except perhaps for the last three lines, is quite different from Ferlinghetti’s. And Saaga’s poem, in the context of our Pacific cultures, is the better poem.

Often poems (and poets) are inspired by other poems (and other poets). This applies to Ferlinghetti as well.

In the late ’sos and early ’6os, I too was a Ferlinghetti fan. Now, his work seems very dated.

Albert Wendt

(General editor, MANA Publications) University of the South Pacific, Suva

Fanning Island

I am an American research historian do ing a history book and a philatelic research paper on Fanning Island in the Line Islands of the Gilbert Islands Colony. I need the help of your readers to fill in historical gaps in the research, biographical sketches and pictures.

One picture that I am especially in terested in is that of David Cuthbert, the first radio station manager and postmaster of Fanning Island. 1 also have philatelic covers addressed to T. W. Hill, medical of ficer there in 1949, and H. Clark, who was there in 1946, and would appreciate

biographical data.

I need to contact old cable station employees for contemporary stories about the station, and need any information on old postmasters and cable station managers, and the names and approximate dates of the management of the various plantation managers. Would like to con tact Walter Gors if he is still alive and F. P. D. “Phil” Palmer.

Any assistance you can give on this pro ject would be greatly appreciated. Mail replies to Sherman Lee Pompey, Research Historian, Box 145, Springfield, Oregon 97477.

Sherman Lee Pompey

Oregon, USA