Political

Currents

Micronesia:

Another View

Dr Mac Marshall, an American anthropologist who lived in Micronesia for almost three years, and is currently in Port Moresby as Visiting Senior Re search Fellow at the PNG Insti tute of Applied Social and Economic Research, here com ments on the letter headlined ‘ What's wrong with the U.S.

Trust Territory?’ by James R.

Mancham (PIM Feb p 5).

Mr Mancham, a former Chief Minister, Prime Minister and President of the Seychelles, re cently touched at several islands in Micronesia while aboard a cruise ship and has levelled criticism at the US Government for a variety of things he observed there which purportedly represent ‘an obvious lack of a defined, comprehensive and coordina ted policy for the islands on the part of the administering

power.’

Mr Mancham gives the

following examples in support

of this contention; the use of corrugated iron in the construc tion of churches and public buildings; the supposed lack of fishing, with ‘hundreds of empty tins of canned fish’ lying about; loss of the skills necess ary to operate traditional out rigger canoes in the face of the outboard ‘engine craze’; use of the beachfronts as ‘latrines and refuse dumps’; ‘alcoholism resulting from the indiscrimin

ating [sic] tapping and drinking

of toddy’; and political frag

mentation.

While I would concur that the US government has not always operated with a coher ent, overall policy in Micronesia, I think Mr Mancham has chosen strange examples to illustrate his point.

It is odd that Mr Mancham assumes the US government to be responsible for the use of

corrugated iron sheets in the construction of churches and

public buildings. To begin

with, the government does not construct churches; in the sec ond place, on the atolls of Micronesia corrugated iron

roofs provide an important

rain-catchment surface, which is far more important than their (admitted) aesthetic faults.

Churches and public buildings

usually are the largest struc tures in Micronesian village communities and, when roofed with corrugated iron, provide a community-wide source of water that can be collected in cisterns. Finally, in the Pacific, if not in the Indian Ocean, cor rugated iron has been readily available as a building material for at least a century and its use in Micronesia long antedates the US governmental pres ence.

That large quantities of

tinned fish are consumed in Micronesia, as elsewhere in the Pacific, is true particularly so in the port towns. That this automatically means that there is a lack of fishing in Micronesia does not follow.

Members of both of the Micronesian communities in which I have lived for extended periods one an outer island and one a suburb of the port town in Truk undertook fish

ing almost daily, even though

canned fish also was con sumed. In any event, the US government can hardly be held directly responsible for the im portation of tinned fish; it is imported and sold by private Micronesian businessmen to meet local demand.

Mr Mancham is correct that

open-ocean sailing of canoes has declined greatly in Micronesia in the past 35 years and that outboard motorboats have become increasingly popular. In contemporary Micronesia traditional naviga tional techniques survive only on a few atolls in the Central Carolines, but most young men still learn how to ‘operate’ (i.e., sail) traditional outrigger canoes, even if they do not master celestial navigation lore.

I suspect that with the tight ening of the fuel crisis world wide the canoes may begin to make a strong comeback at the expense of motorboats, but it will be a few years before this hypothesis can be tested. More importantly for this discussion, Micronesians have consciously chosen outboard motorboats because these vessels perform some jobs more rapidly and efficiently than canoes, e.g., they are faster, can carry larger loads, can be used for open ocean trolling on windless

days, etc. Again, I emphasise

that it is Micronesians them selves who have opted for motorboats; the presence of these vessels is not a con sequence of US government action.

Overwater beachfront la trines were introduced into Micronesia as a sanitary measure by the Japanese Government between 1941 and 1945, not by the US govern ment. They are superior hy gienically to the earlier practice of eliminating on land, par ticularly so on atolls where human waste can percolate down to and contaminate the

freshwater lens. In the absence

of Western-style sanitary sewer

systems, which are expensive to build and maintain, beachfront latrines flushed by the tides are a reasonable answer to waste

disposal everywhere in

Micronesia but the densely populated port towns. After all, the need for some sort of latrine cannot be eliminated.

It is on the subject of ‘al coholism’ that I find Mr Mancham to be particularly ill informed. He claims ‘... that fresh [coconut] toddy can be as potent as wine and four days later become[s] as strong as

whisky, gin or vodka ..

Hogwash!

First, there is little evidence of real alcoholism in Micronesia, in the sense of addictive, pathological drink

ing, although alcohol abuse,

involving social disruption, is

quite common (see, e.g., my re cent book. Weekend Warriors: Alcohol in a Micronesian Cul

ture, Mayfield Publishing Co,

1979). Second, fresh coconut toddy is a non-alcoholic bever age and is widely used through out Micronesia as a nourishing supplement to infant diets as well as a refreshing drink

enjoyed by adults. Four-day

old fermented toddy has a mean alcohol content of 5 per cent and would require distil lation to approach the alcohol content of whisky, gin or vodka.

Where serious alcohol related problems exist in

Micronesia today, they involve

commercially produced,

imported alcoholic beverages

and not fermented coconut

toddy.

As termination of the UN Trusteeship in Micronesia nears, the artificial colonial creation known as the US Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands has broken apart into four sep arate political entities: the Commonwealth of the North ern Marianas, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands.

To a large extent these enti ties reflect traditional linguistic and cultural divisions, and while the US government has

not seriously discouraged pol

itical fragmentation in Micronesia, I suggest that this process simply is part of a

larger political process occur

The overwater beachfront latrine ... ‘superior hygienically’. Photo A G Shearer

ring throughout newly post colonial parts of the world (e.g., Africa and the Carib bean). Of the examples of ‘ad ministrative failure’ Mr Mancham presents, this last case is the only one where the

US government might rightly

be faulted.

Although I am an American citizen, my purpose here has been not so much to defend American policy in Micronesia as to point out that much of what strikes the casual visitor to the islands as deplorable is not the result of administrative bungling. Rather, many such problems (if indeed they are problems from the local point of view) have a long history and involve the active partici pation of Micronesians them selves (e.g., decisions to purchase motorboats or to sep arate from other parts of the

Trust Territory).

Mr Mancham’s apparently genuine concern for the well being of Micronesians is to be

applauded, but his specific

criticisms are wide of the mark.