I passed up BBQ at the assistant attorney general of American Samoa's house for solitude and the change to put some thoughts down. The last eight days have been a whirlwind of arts, conversations, yacht club activities, and hiking. We brought a good bit of cultural baggage to American Samoa: images of a filthy, unsafe harbor dominated by canneries, a Polynesian culture wiped out by a welfare state, and a stalwart religious atmosphere that took no prisoners. What we have found is vastly more complicated and enchanting, a graceful and raw and fluid society of extraordinary warmth and structure which is quite appealing. In fact, just yesterday we met a delightful family from Olympia who were ready to live overseas and show their two children some other realities. Hmmm. Not the place that first comes to mind, but...
Pago Pago harbor is majestic with rain forests looming overhead. The two canneries do spread out on one part of the extensive shoreline and do release the pressure boilers periodically which smell like, well, canneries. Del Monte has sold Starkist to a Korean concern. The paper publishes lists of beaches where one should not swim. We were specifically asked not to anchor at exquisite protected bays on the north island coast "to protect what we have left", and a variety of habitat restoration projects are underway. At the dock is a trading schooner, doing well on the inter-island runs because of low fuel costs. Upon check-in, the port captain noted the Biblical name of our boat and said "You must be religious" and additionally discussed the Iraq war, which he supports and where he has two sons. Younger Samoan men have told us that although their older brothers had gone into the army in great numbers, they themselves were disenchanted.The main city shore is a narrow band of sewing shops, mercantile stores, one hotel, government offices and social services (how odd to see a peeling WIC sign saying "Breastfeeding Is the Best Start"), wharves, water treatment plant, failed convention center, and mini-marts. The latter sell an diabetogenic variety of baked goods which immediately coat the brown paper bag with a sheen of oil. My favorite is a cinnamon roll style dough without sugar or raisins but with two almost hard-boiled eggs tucked in the folds and bacon and cheese layered on top. Posters about domestic violence, drugs, and safe sex are here and there and raise questions. I am told that they have the strictest drug laws here in the US and what problems there are typically arise from outsiders. As well, the word of mouth is that the teen pregnancy rate and HIV rate are low. The current lieutenant governor is under indictment for irregular contracting; the FBI came by plane and took him in the middle of the night. His acts are not unusual and he was back presiding over the festival under a different name. Governmental corruption does not appear to be unusual and interestingly he is on the ticket for the current election.
There is essentially very little tourism here. Fa'a Samoa (the Samoan Way) filters what is accepted of Western ways and products. Nice trucks. The social structure is built around the aiga, a large extended family that can number in the thousands, and the matai (chief) controls family lands. A small percentage of land, that was freehold at the time of the treaty in 1900, remains freehold. This single fact of community land ownership strikes me as the core of the nature of this "unincorporated and unorganized" (a legal term) territory of the US. Unlike Hawaii, for instance, where the loss of land seeded profound animosity and cultural suffering, the Samoans know where they live and that it is theirs. They rent many houses to Western Samoans who work in the canneries. The many financial benefits of being a territory are recognized. Even when there are community criticisms of, for example, the running of the hospital, it is still true that after paying $10 to register at the LBJ Tropical Medical Center, care is 100% free to all--and that means all. One candidate for governor is running on a platform of government first, culture second to serve the people, so the mix is assuredly complicated.
While novelists like Albert Wendt may write novels like Pouliuli which depicts an elderly man so fatigued of the complex interrelationships and manipulative behavior of the aiga that he decides to act insane, it remains "just what we do". There is an interplay of values which seems to lead to resolution rather than being locked behind political barricades on hot-button topics. As visitors, it is often confusing. The guidebook says do nothing on Sunday (no beach, no laundry on the boat) but the laundromat is open and full of Samoans. The best example of conflict resolution that I saw involved condoms. After the Paulau Pacific Arts Festival in 2004 there was a three-fold increase in sexually transmitted infections on the island. The Secretariat of the Pacific Community HIV and STI Section and the Samoan committee decided to distribute 2000 backpacks with male and female condoms and factual information on HIV/STIs to the performers. The Catholic bishop made critical comments and the Congregational Christian Church, which housed many participants at their temple, asked that the condoms not be distributed on their temple site. Fala Leasiolagi, the owner of the nearby Island stop and Go, was asked by the medical director of the Dept. of Health to distribute condoms for free at his store. He saw it as a business opportunity to bring people in, but now plans to start selling them normally. He thought the whole thing was "no big deal". He gave the newspaper a description of who came in to pick up samples worthy of a shoeleather epidemiologist. An organizing committee member with who I spoke about this de-escalating process was both supportive of the church and the business man. "That's just how we work here".