>>So, all is not well in Paradise...;-(.
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>>wow, sorry to hear that... When I was a freshman and sophmore in college there were some Samoan students attending and I got to know them very well. Things must have changed in Polynesisa since 1960... Tsui, my friend, said that life was easy and food was abundant in fruit and fish and tubers.
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>Yes...for one, "Polynesia" (islands across the S. Pacific, mostly lush, w/good growing soil) are different from Micronesia (islands spread across the N. Pacific - w/not such good soil and growing conditions) are different. THe cultures seems different also, from my experience, w/Polynesians (including Samoans) being much more hospitable and welcoming (perhaps because they have more natural resources?) (The 3rd Pacific island group is Melanesia...New Guinea, etc.)
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>Was your friend from American Samoa, or ("Western") Samoa?

American Samoa. My other Samoain friend was Peta Sunia, is now (was?) governor in AS. He had married an American woman while he was here and had a kid. They went back to AS but after a couple of years she and the kid came back. She couldn't take the curltural change.


>Things have changed a lot, w/a desire for material goods...TV's, stereos, etc. The young people want all these things, and you can't buy them w/papayas. So, the change to the cash economy. I heard about quite a few villages on remote S. Pacific islands where the young people left to live in Tahiti because there was no TV on the island...or the mayor would install a TV and sattelite dish, to keep people happy.
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>>Temperatures were constant the year around, and kids came and went as they pleased, staying at one house or another as they happened to find themselves at sundown, because everybody raised everybody's kids... They were good Ukalalie players.
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>To me, the weather is great...people still share children w/in their families, and, of course now, many more people have office jobs. Here, there is very cheap foreign labor, so many locals have gov. jobs and a full time "domestic helper."
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>The general belief here is that government is for supplying JOBS not SERVICES. A good number of the jobs are paid for by US grants money (thank you, Am. tax payer).
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>>One song they sang had a verse that said "women go from man to man like a coin goes from hand to hand", but they wouldn't elaborate on what that meant. So, as you can see, my images are rather old.
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>Reminds of the "all weather girl" (a quite large woman): keeps you warm in the winter, and gives you shade in the summer.

rof,l


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I expect, tho, that life here was similar in the '60's (except for the US presence, the CIA training in the hills, the restriction on arrivals, etc.) Saipan was the head of the US administered Trust Territory after WWII. Lots of poor decisions were made, I think, in the long run for the locals (and hindsight is great, isn't it?)

For them and for us. Now our gov is trying to sell Fossil Fuel when we should be engaged in a MASSIVE "Manhatten" type project to build Solar Power Towers all around our country, and convert to Hydrogen for a fuel source that is non-polluting and recyclicable.