Francis X. Hezel, SJ – Page 24

Making Sense of This and That

Pardon the self-promotion, but University of Hawai?i Press has just announced that my new book has just hit the streets. Don?t expect to see it on the New York Times best-seller list anytime soon. The title, Making Sense of Micronesia, is precisely what the book tries to do. As the blurb puts it:

Why are islanders so lavishly generous with food and material possessions but so guarded with information? Why do these people, unfailingly polite for the most part, laugh openly when others embarrass themselves? What does a smile mean to an islander? What might a sudden lapse into silence signify? These questions are common in encounters with an unfamiliar Pacific Island culture. Making Sense of Micronesia is intended for westerners who find themselves in contact with Micronesians?as teachers, social workers, health?care providers, or simply as friends?and are puzzled by their island ways. Read More

The Missing Micronesians

Last year at this time, a group of us had just begun our survey of the ?missing Micronesians,? as one of the MicSem videos put it: those people from FSM who had left their islands to find a home abroad. On this blog, some months ago, I posted a few paragraphs on the results of the survey. ?The full report of the survey is available through the FSM National Government, and within a few months the East-West Center should be publishing a monograph on the subject. Read More

Bridging the Xavier-Sapuk Gap

I’ve been back in Chuuk for the past week as part of an effort to push education reform there. Toward the end of the week, I found myself back at Xavier High School–the place where I was first introduced to the islands just 50 years ago. Xavier is also the new home for the MicSem library. So this trip was something of a sentimental journey for me.

But the flow of memories took some strange turns. Barely an hour after my arrival at Xavier, a man came up and introduced himself as Basilio, one of the workmen at the school. When I told him that I was once director of the school, he said that he remembered me at that time. I asked him how long he had been working at Xavier. ?Six years,? he said. ?Not far enough back,? I replied, ?I was director long before then, during the 1970s.? He smiled but insisted that he knew me long before he began working with the school. ?Don?t you remember?? he said. ?I was the guy you tackled and arrested when I was drunk one day.? Read More

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Meet @Collis – the man behind Microlancer. [INTERVIEW] http://t.co/9VZ7bTZ9YL

— Microlancer (@MicrolancerBeta) January 28, 2014

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I?hadn’t?seen a movie in months and had almost forgotten how films can be a tonic for the spirit. Earlier this week it was ?Gangster Squad,? set in Los Angeles in the late ?40s when gangs first threatened to steal the soul of the city. I suppose you could have put the underground police squad, fighting against big odds to undermine Mickey Cohen, the mob boss who wanted to own everything, on horses and given them cowboy hats. The Magnificent Seven (for those old enough to remember them) ride again. It was good against evil. ?Good? in this case was a team of war vets and other prickly individuals who decided that they?didn’t?want to see their city lost. Sometimes we need those white and black hats, if only to reassure ourselves that there are still causes worth losing life and family for.

But tonight?s movie, the musical ?Les Miserables,? was more than a pick-me-up.? For me it was the confirmation of a vocation. Read More

Christmas on Guam

After all those years in Micronesia, I fancied myself an old hand in Christmas devotions: incensing the manager scene in church, and especially presenting the infant to people after mass for them to venerate.? But never anywhere have I seen this as often as I have during the past week. In Pohnpei and Chuuk, we honored the old Spanish practice of presenting the image of the infant Jesus to those who attended the Christmas masses.? People would come up in long lines to kiss the infant after mass, leaving an offering in the basket nearby if they were so moved.? But this island has taken the veneration to a whole new level.? In one church Read More

Author - Francis X. Hezel, SJ