John Griffin
- 1968
Fellowship Title:
- Pacific Islands
Fellowship Year:
- 1968
Micronesia: The Outer Limits II
Honolulu, Hawaii September 20, 1969 The Marshall Islands are the closest of Micronesia’s six districts to Hawaii and the U. S. Mainland. But a friend suggested I stop there last, saying: “If you see that first it could be a lasting negative impression of the Trust Territory and what the U. S. has done. If you go at the end it will be sobering, but you may like it better.” Right he was. For here you find some of the saddest impact of United States policy and neglect. Here on lonely islands you also find beauty that is physically unspoiled, yet which raises poignant questions about the people who remain there. And here in the Marshalls you get a final lesson in the dimensions and depth of the Micronesia problem. A thousand bits of land strung around 34 low-lying coral atolls and islands make up the group which runs in two parallel chains called “Ratak” (Sunrise) and “Ralik” (Sunset) running some 800 miles northeast from near the equator. There are 19,000 Marshallese on
Micronesia: The Outer Limits I
Honolulu September 18, 1969 Even more than other areas, it is a mistake to judge Micronesia by its capital. Saipan is important in a centralized government. But the firm administrative orders and unified legislative efforts displayed there can be deceptive. On Capitol Hill in Saipan one can see Micronesia as a unified whole. The concept at least still seems viable in the districts, but flying out to the limits, some 2, 700 miles across, is a sobering lesson in how difficult unity can be. The Palau, Yap and Marshall districts each say something very different about this diverse area. Each also has a special beauty that makes going there a memorable experience. Progressive Palau Palau has a deceptively backward look about it. These 200 islands are about 600 miles southwest of Saipan. The 12, 000 Palauans like all Micronesians are a complex racial mixture, but here they often reflect darker strains of nearby Melanesia to the south and the Philippines just a few hundred miles west. From the air Palau offers a
Micronesia: A View From Saipan
Honolulu, Hawaii August 10, 1969 President Nixon sat among top men of the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, including leading figures of the Congress of Micronesia and High Commissioner Edward E. Johnston. The President was in Guam on his recent round-the-world trip and newsmen were allowed into this meeting briefly to take pictures. “They tell me,” the President said by way of animated conversation as shutters clicked, “that I could talk to the Apollo crew on the moon easier than you can talk from Saipan to Guam on the telephone — and that’s the problem of Micronesia.”’ It was an apt point for the time. Past U.S. neglect and shortcomings in this central Pacific area we administer through our Interior Department under United Nations mandate have been well documented. Part of this has involved poor communications, including even from Trust Territory headquarters on Saipan to the nearby separate U.S. territory of Guam, the major communication and economic center in this part of the Pacific. Also noted in the last couple of
Micronesia: The Truk-Ponape Decompression
Honolulu August 15, 1969 Some of the best advice I received before going to Micronesia was from a Hawaii friend who frequently visits that vast spread of ocean and tiny islands the United States rules under United Nations mandate as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands: “See a couple of the outside island districts before going into the political thing in Saipan,” he said. “And don’t act too much like a newsman. Relax at first, and let the feeling and issues come to you.” That was part of the preface for a month of travel around a central Pacific area larger than the U.S. mainland. Before it ended, I found myself riding in President Nixon’s motorcade on the separate island-territory of Guam, covering the Congress of Micronesia, pursuing interviews, and doing other things a newsman does. Still the initial decompression in the Truk and Ponape districts of the Trust Territory served well: for not only is it virtually impossible to get a daily newspaper, I also found it possible to go without
Life Can Be Funny as a Crutch
Advertiser Editorial Page Editor Sometime in coming weeks, I expect to shed the crutches that have helped me move about since I smashed my right knee in an auto accident in Fiji last year. It will be a happy day because the total experience has not really been fun. Still there are moments, even little compensations, which I shall look back upon. First off, I’ll have to shed what I call the helpless woman complex. For not only do people do things for those with crutches (bring coffee, give you special seats, etc.) you come to expect such things. At first when little old ladies and I came to a door at the same time, I was surprised that they held it to let me pass. Now I glare at them until they do. On a recent Mainland trip, the airlines let me board first and gave me special consideration in seating. From now on I plan to bring crutches every time I fly. (Still that’s nothing compared to what Pan Am did when