Tom Raffapiy, born on Satawal, left for the US in his youth. He spent many years in the US Army, serving in Iraq and eventually earning the highest enlisted rank in the service. But that was only the beginning for Tom. He began a second career as businessman in a contracting firm, even as he designed his own house, complete with taro patch outside. Read More
Yota Oue, Xavier HS graduate and now sophomore at Fordham University, decided to accept an invitation to attend a black tie dinner in downtown Manhattan sponsored by the ?other” Xavier High School?the older and richer brother of our school in Chuuk. He and I met on the Fordham campus (after a little basketball, naturally) and headed downtown. Read More
You can never really go home, they say. If what they mean is that the landscape is forever changing, that is certainly true on Pohnpei. When I stopped off there for a few days after completing my work for the tourism study in Palau to follow up on some business matters, the place had indeed changed. The track at PICS was newly repaired, the tennis courts were in better shape than they had been in years, and the swimming pool was renovated?-all in preparation for the Micronesian Games held this past summer. Read More
Here we are in Palau, an island group with a per capita income four times higher than that of the rest of Micronesia. “The Land of Gold Chains and Fancy Watches” is what one of our Jesuit volunteer teachers used to call it some years ago. It?s a place that is on the map?-Darryl Hannah and JFK Jr. vacationed here 20 years ago, and the Survivor TV series was filmed here ten years ago. The country has been self-governing for only 35 years, but it has had two presidents who died violent deaths?-one who was assassinated and another who shot himself. It?s never exactly been Dullsville here in Palau. Where else, a friend once asked, could you strike up a serious conversation on current political affairs with a total stranger? Read More
Korea may seem an unlikely spot for mounting a crusade aimed at cultural preservation in the Pacific, but the UNESCO Center for the Asia Pacific Region happens to be located there. So it was that a handful of us from the Pacific met there in the traditional southern town of Jeonju. Did I say town? Jeonju is really a city with beautifully designed glass and steel buildings and a population bigger than my hometown (Buffalo). But it also is the home of a traditional Korean village, the palace of the emperors of the Chosun dynasty (who first came to power in the 14th century), and the burial place of the first Christian martyr in Korea. Read More
Milan… a three hour drive west from Minneapolis across the prairie… mile after mile of flat farmland with a train station and population center every now and then. Milan is a town of 300 people that runs perhaps four blocks in each direction. The current Chuukese population is 140, nearly all of them from the single island of Romanum. Read More
As a fellow of East-West Center, I was given the opportunity to give talks?and do so much more?for two weeks in Honolulu and on the Big Island in mid-March. It all began with five presentations to classes in Ethnic Studies and Pacific Island Studies at the University of Hawaii. Why the ethic bias against Micronesians in Hawaii these days? How were Japanese migrants to Micronesia treated before the war? Read More