It’s August 3rd. Time flies. I’m back in Pohnpei having spent the last 9 days at a training conference in Guam. If you’re thinking 9 days is a long time to be at a conference since most conferences run Monday to Friday, your right.
Let me explain – To be on Guam Monday morning, a traveler from Pohnpei has two options. He/she can take a plane that leave Pohnpei Sunday night/Monday morning at 1:30 AM and get to Guam around 4:00 AM. While that does leave the traveler time to check in to a hotel, shower, and eat breakfast, it’s a tough way to start the week. The other option means leaving Saturday afternoon, which I did. Getting back to Pohnpei isn’t much different. There is no Friday evening flight nor is there a Saturday flight. 7:30 Sunday evening we boarded the plane and arrived back in Pohnpei around 1:00 AM.
Guam was an experience. I didn’t know much about the place other than that there are a couple of US military bases there. Thus, I expected to find bars, strip clubs, but not much else. They had much else! Guam, which is a U.S. territory, is just a 4 hour flight from Japan.
Guam developed itself into a Japanese tourist destination, complete with resorts, restaurants, and high end shopping. Rolex, Cartier, Coach, and other high end stores lined the main resort boulevard next to places like the Hard Rock Café and Planet Hollywood. For us local Micronesians, our money was deposited at KMart,Ross, and the local grocery store which all supplied items we can't get at home.
The first couple of days, as I looked aroud a little voice in my head kept saying, “Toto I don’t think we are in Micronesia anymore.” The second morning I actually woke up confused thinking that I was still doing freelance work stateside and had just dreamt the whole Micronesian thing. But Guam is part of the region known as Micronesia (the Federates States of Micronesia includes just a few of the islands in the Micronesian region), it just has more in common with the U.S.
Guam has about as much in common with the FSM as a bird has with a dinosaur. Both Guam and FSM were wrestled from Japan and put under American control after WWII and both Guam and the FSM states are small Pacific islands but the comparison ends there.
I’ve heard it said that success comes from equal parts talent, opportunity, and hard work. Guam by virtue of its closer proximity to Japan and the US military presence had the opportunity to develop its economy, and it has. I don’t know the history of its economic development but when I asked a local about it, he explained that Guam allows foreign investors to own property and the FSM doesn’t. That may explain why Guam has a robust tourist economy complete with 40-story beachside resorts and the FSM doesn't.
I did find myself missing the greenness of Pohnpei. Some places are built around nature and other places replace nature with buildings and roads. Guam's tourist area was more concrete and less greenery. I sat in traffic, changed lanes, and waited for the light to turn green, all things I don't do in Pohnpei.
So which island do I prefer? I guess I'm like Goldilocks, this one isn't developed enough and that one is too developed. I hope to see Palau some day.
nice but too lengthy..
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Finding that balance between a level of development and tourism that provides jobs and opportunities for the local population while preserving culture, custom, and the environment is a challenge. A note on the foreign investors matter. Guam is a territory of the United States and has been so since the Spanish-American war. Guam was never a part of Japanese Nan-yo (1922 to 1945), not as far as I know. The loss of Guam to Japan was, as far as I know, considered a hostile act of war. Guam remains a United States territory, while the FSM is a sovereign and independent nation. Protection of FSM citizens from potential loss of their land was, I learned, an intent of the FSM founders. If you have ever driven out to Waianae on Oahu, the founders concern over landless and thus homeless indigenous peoples might be understood better.
ReplyDeleteDana,
ReplyDeleteThe FSM may be a sovereign nation but can it really be called an independent nation when it receives approximately $100,000,000 a year from the US through the Compact Agreement, its students can apply for US Dept of Education Pell Grants, and additional funding is received through miscellanous US grants?
I agree that a country must find a balance between preserving its culture and environment and allowing development, but its a legitimate question to ask whether the FSM is achieving a good balance. I applaud a contry's efforts to protect its citizens from the loss of land but one must analyze whether the benefits of development (jobs, an increased GDP, etc) outweigh the costs. What good is land if many of the best and brightest have to go abroad to find jobs?