Downtown Koror is beginning to feel like a resort town. Going out to eat is expensive. There are more food options. The roads are good, traffic is bad. The cars are newer and in better shape. There are luxury brands plying the roads.
Island hopping and hopping islands
W hen I was a child, going to the Rock Islands was work, collecting firewood, catching fish so we had food. It wasn? t for fun.
Of course I? m paraphrasing from memory. I was having lunch with a co-worker. He was probably 20 years older than me, sharing a memory that was completely inconsistent with any trip to the Rock Islands I ever experienced. My discovery of the Rock Islands, now a World Heritage Site, was on a friend? s boat, hauling food, snorkels, and unhealthy amount of beer.
To outsiders, the islands of Micronesia can seem a single entity. Beginning in the 1940s, both the United States and the new-born United Nations took such a view, grouping the widespread cluster into the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and not entirely sure what to do about them.
As everyone familiar with the region can attest, each of the island jurisdictions, while sharing many obvious similarities, are quite distinct, culturally, politically, and economically. Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, after all, are US territories, and the political relationship between each of the jurisdictions and the US, while structured along the same lines, is nuanced.
Over the past year, living in Chuuk, after telling others that I used to live in Palau, many have said,? Oh, well Chuuk is very different.?( To which my muttered reply is? No kidding, I? m the one living here.?) I? ve spent the past few weeks in Palau, where I have not been in several years. The differences, both between other parts of Micronesia, and the Palau of a decade ago, are striking.
Consider lagoons. Palau? s Rock Islands are a unique formation, small, clustered together in sheltered shallow waters. The Rock Islands at this point are a recreation zone. A trip to the Rock Islands is fun. Diving, snorkeling, smearing sand
on your skin at the Milky Way, kayaking through protected coves. Shiny twin-engine dive boats holding 20 people. Sailboats moored near restaurants. Visits from yachts, and the occasional celebrity.
Chuuk Lagoon is a different creature. Over half of Chuuk State? s population lives on lagoon or outer islands, rather than the main island of Weno. The lagoon is a work site; the boats, working skiffs. Many people commute to Weno everyday for work( often at a loss after paying for fuel). The skiffs are battered, the engines older and louder. Instead of divers on vacation they carry bags of rice and workers returning home. The islands are populated, larger, and further apart. The current is stronger, the waves higher, the water deeper. It? s not open ocean, but not for the uninitiated boater. There are certainly recreational opportunities; the ghosts of the Imperial Japanese Navy line the lagoon, casualties of Operation Hailstone. Chuuk Lagoon can be unforgiving; it claimed the state? s first governor.
The differences are more pronounced on land. Chuuk is among the least developed areas of the islands. Palau is among the most developed. Palau has a visible presence of foreign non-governmental organizations, visiting delegations of various professions, a US military Civic Action Team. While Palau certainly has need of such services, there are many other areas with a greater need, and the cynic in me suspects that NGOs are more interested in Palau because it is, undisputedly, a nicer place to regularly travel to.
Other apparent changes in Palau? For starters, it gets a lot more attention on the world stage, due in no small part to better representation during the Compact negotiation process, which in part helped to create more economic stability than is the case in other freely associated states.
The influx of Chinese money, followed by tourists, is well known at this point, as is China? s
Downtown Koror is beginning to feel like a resort town. Going out to eat is expensive. There are more food options. The roads are good, traffic is bad. The cars are newer and in better shape. There are luxury brands plying the roads.
objectives in America? s extended backyard. Less apparent is whether real economic growth is occurring. A pervasive danger in tourism-based economy is the creation of a parallel economy, where foreigners( and a select few locals) thrive and locals( or imported labor) starve. The old adage,? do you work in a hotel where you can? t afford to stay? comes to mind.
The changes in Palau are apparent. Downtown Koror is beginning to feel like a resort town. Going out to eat is expensive. There are more food options. The roads are good, traffic is bad. The cars are newer and in better shape. There are luxury brands plying the roads.
Foreign investment can be a powerful tool, but it? s important to understand the difference between foreign investment and foreign spending.
Gabriel currently lives in Chuuk, Micronesia, where he works for a regional NGO. He likes to write about the world disorder, and If he ever gets enough bandwidth, his blog, the sunburnchronicles, will be fully functioning. Send feedback to Gabrieljmccoard @ hotmail. com.
25