them?
that I know anvone—but TH sul be
(Until recently, there were
more people in jail in Indonesia than
out of jail in Micronesia.) Well, the
United States has both a legal and a
hauling water by the bucket.”
The judges m Nicronesia arrange
their court situngs te ue in with air
schedules. Vhe judges have ta make moral oblization to bothers one cannot
the most of their ume; in Micronesia, jireat an adopted chikd like ao statistic.
as on any American turf these days, "For a long time, the administrators of
make do with what
crime is rampant. After assisting at his” I Micronesia had to
was,
by
American
standards,
a pittance.
third autopsy in four weeks on a person
Even
the
current
robust
appropriation
either shot ar speared to death, a Peace
lof sixty) million dollars (six hundred
Corps docter wrote to the Didt a. |
Chais, “Why does the society condone { doHars per Mlicronesian per annum)
does not tell the whole financial story,
these acts of violence? . .. is there any,
for in addition to the Peace Corps,
movement afoot to change this aspect
of your society, or is the free use of vio-
‘
t
which has its own budget, heronesia,
thanks to an avuncular interest en the
part of Hawai’s congressmen 3A
cannot be controlled without desctroving t:
Washington, has benefisted from sevthe culturer”? (He also wrote that he
cral
federal programs set up to help the
thought it unfair to the lecal hospitals
!
states—Head Start, for ingovercign
for Palauans to come to shortestaffed it
the Office of Economic Opand
tance,
I
emergency rooms after holidays to have
| portunity, the Library Construction
hangovers treated.) “The muse celejand Service Act, and the Manpower
Jence so essentil to vour culture that it
brated act of violence to date was a
murder conimnntted by an) American—
the first ever to stand trial for a major
crime ina Trust Territory court. He
was a tourist of sorts, dhe twenty-two-
year-old seapegrace owner of a power-
boat, which is sull reosting on a reef of
the unpopulatced Oroluk Atoll, in the
Truk District. Vhe voung man had sec
off on a cruise @ fran with ano older
American man and an aauable seventeen-year-olde Filipina gird. .\fter the
hoat ran aground and the twe VOU LET
people were rescued, the body of their
companion was found aboard, with a
bullec ta hus head. Phe case had poliveal
sienificance. VWhen word af the crime
aot around Pruk, the nagves assumed
that smneo the alleged kifler was an
American, he would not be arrested,
that if arrestudl he would not be
charged, thacaf charged he would not
be tried, tf tried not convicted, and if
convicted certainly net locked up in the
Vruk gai (Mieronesian prisons are so
miserable that Judes sometimes lec ansereants go free pust te spare them a sty
behind bars.) Vhe veung American
was arrested, charged, cited, found
ealiy of scoond-degree unirder, srtd
sentenced (by three judges, the two
senior Ones -\mmerican) to twenty vears
mthe Truk jail Pls warders made one
concession to his mauenaliny: he was
allowed a mattress Wo sleep on instead
of amat.
Vi f Hy
i
‘
athe, Vy Hs Somme Giles asks dy
In these days When there are se
.
1
Hiws pressing problems on earth, with
people who for conturies have got alone
Parl
well
aoa
baby cloaute
wiih
plenty of Ash and taro and breadfruit
and covenuts ta cate-especmlly SINUS
there are onh oa hundyvod thousand of
|
t
|
!
Development
Act.
Furthermore,
as
a result of a personal request that
Secretary Hickel made of Seeretary
of Defense Laird, the Prust Territory
recently enjoved a high priority in
obtaining millions of dollars’ worth of
Defense Department
zoods——jeeps,
typewriters, rock crushers, diapers, and
so on——that had been declired surplus
and were on sale, in Okinawa, for
about seven and a half per cent of there
vane. Ta the Inet couple ef years, moreover, the Defense Departmenc (with
the “Cruse Territory in this instance
footing most of the bill) has sent
small contingents of Seabees and other
military construction men to Micra
nesia. Calling themselves “oiyvic-acion
teats,” they have been dome their bit
to spruce up thy
frequently dowdy
area. On the island of Rota, which is
one of the Afarmnas, sone Seabees built
a slaughterhouse, a merry-go-reund, a
dollars’ werth and imports two million
dollars’ worth, High Comunussioner
Johnston, whe at twelve was rating
vegetables andselling them to the Pre-
ely Wigely chain in) Honolulu, hes
been talking about stargng up garden
Ing projects i the elementary schunls
“Pi not interested in high-level eCDnomic projection curves through 198d,
he told me. “Lim interested in wherher
Mr. Billings’ store succeeds, and a
whether, as more and more tourisr
come here, there will be adequate dry-
cleaning services. We've got to starta
the bottom and do the litle thing
first.” Start, start, start——chat ws un
eternal American chant in Micronesia
The Americans in charge five year
ago were talking like that, too, ane
they had especially high hopes of inau
gurating a boom in produce by mean
of a Farm Institute then flinetionin:
on Ponape, where prospecuve agricul
turists were to be indoctrinated. “Th
Institute was shue down in 1969, be
cause clghty per cent of its graduate
had taken office jabs.
In the matter of fishing, the ster
has been much the same. “Phe wate:
of Micronesia reem with fish and shell
fish; the people of Micronesi spen
much of what ttle cash they have o
canned fish. Air. Johnston attended
conference in Hawai in 1970 oat
which evolved a new nonproht co
poration for the devslopment of con
mercial fishing ia all of America’s V:
cific islands. Bur will saving come «
ee In 1964, the Van Camp Sea foe
of
Company,
Calitoroia,
brougzhy
Koror a smiall tleer af tuna Hog
manned by Okinawans, “Vhey were #
be replaced by Palauans, ic was sand, .
soon
as
of
cnough
'
them
3
.
could
}
trained, Tt is nat hard to teach aang
schoolyard flagpole, and a community
to fish for tuna, vet by Ite 19700 on
thirty. Patsuans were thus coplors
welcomed and appreemted these ges-
hy flty-five Palnuans.) Most A tier:
Whether their benefactars may net be
would rather do anything chan lian.
few Years ago, a moun picture, “Ek
barbecue pit, Most Abicronesians have
tures; a few, though, have wondered
public-relations emissaries calculated to
iInake the nauves look Kindly upon any
sttbsequent Defense Department units
that showup.
Over the years, there have been re-
peated complaints that, no matter how
much money comes into MHeronesia,
too Jittle of gt is useck to bolster the
Prost
Pernters
lanping economy. |
Aiicrenest: may nover become ae
trialized, but at has porentialaes in ag-
ricultare and in fishing that haw neve
been
tapped.
“Phe
“Prast
Terriers
could casily predoace all ihe rice thar H
Inhabitants Constance, but, as things
stand, it produces only eleven thousand
CA freezing plant ashore was mina
nesians, When push cames to shov
in the Pacific,” was shot an Koren.
proditc¢tion provided jobs fay many Ni
croneszins, Phat vear, the value oft
Trust ‘Terriory's Ash eNpors—-n
counting Van Canip's ceatch---drapp
fram ninety-three thous:ind dollars
twenty-one thausand,
Arotad Aficronesian today, feae
cavriadie, Sond POLS Von.
1
-
on
down,
hacks
tro
upan
,
1
Lotehisnil
*
iis
magic potion most likely to revitah
the econamy, One locel agent ofa
Oreaniyiaen
evandle enlled
Ndtere
sia “Tours, on beta asked chit bth
though: the area should dale beh