Sunday Morning

Sunday morning. The island is quiet but for the chirping, clicking, cawing of geckos and birds and insects amid the palm trees and jungle undergrowth. A rooster screeches on the other side of the lagoon setting up a call-and-response with roosters all around the narrow body of water. A car passes. Two young girls walk by in red t-shirts and brightly patterned lava lavas, the handwoven sarong that women wear here. A man walks by, head bent over his phone. A small truck stops and a mother and her two daughters who are walking down the road are offered a ride. They climb into the bed of the truck and it drives off. Families are preparing to go to church where they will pray, gossip, chew betel and spit the juice into the dusty gravel beside the road.

After work on Friday, the town clears out as the men and women who work in the government offices drive out to their villages where community responsibilities are tended to until they return Monday morning. Those who stay in town for the weekend go to the Pine Bar on the opposite side of the lagoon beginning around 9pm where drinking and loud music and dancing goes on until past 3am.  There is a noise ordinance but the police ignore it even when someone calls to complain.

A group of Chinese men and one woman were seen on a nearby beach yesterday. They sent a drone into the air over the land that is leased to a Chinese developer who built the beachfront hotel. Ninety-eight percent of the land is privately owned by local families and never sold, only leased to private enterprises. The remaining 2% is owned by the government. It is widely known that the Chinese intend to develop this island for their own purposes.

Gambling is illegal in China so the authorities and developers are pushing into other nations from Burma to Thailand, Indonesia to Micronesia and beyond, erecting massive hotels and casinos built and staffed by Chinese. In a remote, pristine area of Burma, the Chinese have announced their intention to build thirty hotels and a casino for the tourists that will arrive on charter flights from the mainland.

Not long ago, a woman from China met with local business owners at the Chamber of Commerce and told the assembled group that this place reminded her of China twenty years ago. She painted a rosy riches-for-all picture of the economic development possibilities here where the inhabitants have come to rely on the United States agreement that brings millions dollars into the four states of Micronesia to support government jobs, the main employer. The agreement is up for renewal again in 2023. Yap is up for grabs. The Chinese are hovering, providing millions of dollars in “grants” for infrastructure improvements and upgrading buildings at the sports complex in preparation for the 2018 Micronesia Games. As the meeting broke up, an Australian woman who is working with the Chamber of Commerce asked one of the business owners what he felt about the optimistic, flattering presentation. He responded that he had heard it all before, many times; that it was not to be believed.

Promises of better economic opportunities for the local residents never come to pass despite the photos and words projected onto screens during meetings with government officials, village chiefs and business leaders.  There is no trickle down to the local economy.

A few Chinese visitors suddenly appeared one afternoon last week at one of the small hotels beside the lagoon and began asking blunt, intrusive questions of the American owner about doing business on the island. She did not answer their questions. People are wary. They see what has happened on the nearby island of Palau where the Chinese have opened up hotels to house the hundreds of tourists flown in every week. Garbage lines the streets as Chinese tourists toss trash out of car windows or discard of wrappers, bottles and cans while walking down the street. Loud hawking and spitting are also common public occurrences.  The endangered coral reef is being destroyed by inexperienced divers and snorkelers who stand on it while taking selfies; they push and shove, talk loudly and demand immediate service in the restaurants with no regard for the local culture. Thankfully, the other islands throughout this region are observing and learning and making decisions based on the problems faced by Palau.

Out beyond the reef, seven Chinese fishing boats appeared late this past week to troll the area with long drag lines that sweep everything into their nets. Fish, sharks, turtles, lobsters. It all ends up in the nets as they rape the surrounding ocean of this important source of food and take it back to Guam or wherever they discharge the catch. The governor gave them permission to come into the harbor to refuel but no one can get close enough to the dock to observe what they are doing. Barricades and security personnel are preventing entry to the normally open area. Now we hear another thirteen boats will join them over the next few days.

Other than angry words and concern expressed among the inhabitants, there seems to be no recourse for this creeping invasion, the most recent in a long history of invasions, which is already changing life in this fragile, susceptible, quiet place. But for now it is Sunday morning. All is quiet save for the sounds of the jungle.