The last samurai

The fuss over the role of Jiang Zemin, China’s last “paramount leader,” indicates that the CPC is not an 80-million-member party marching in tandem following orders. In China, intra-politics is a steady spice on the regular menu. Jiang Zemin at 88, in a readjustment process, will die in peace, though his reputation may not remain intact, similar to that of Mao and Deng before him.

Japan’s warfare technology modernizes and puts down a recalcitrant samurai in the movie of our title. After the noble warrior in the move is defeated (superbly played by Ken Watanabe), the young emperor asked an American soldier who fought with the samurai: “Tell me how he died.” Tom Cruise, who played the soldier, replies: “No, but I will tell you how he lived.”

(“Tell me how the Micronesian navigator and land tiller died?” The sailors gave up canoe and the Chinese, easy victims of homicide, replaced the tillers while the rest and the best were sunshine lured to The Casino!)

Living and dying are both sides of the same coin. I began a conscious journey into dying this year. That’s “physical” death when my 14 billion-year-old carbon returns to the universal pool, and my viruses are added to the gene bank. “Spirit” life is my conscious participation in the cessation of my cellular make-up, the end of a way of life, stoppage of a social pattern, the terminus of a group-promoted behavior.

At a conference on Saipan, I conversed with a Pohnpeian and a UH professor where I described my experience in Micronesia while living in Majuro in ‘82. I said that girls played snookers at a downtown pool hall in Pohnpei wearing nothing but bra. The Pohnpeian explained that girls were no longer allowed to parade bare in public places.

A Navy officer who heard our conversation told of a trip to the outer islands of Yap where the girls and boys were still innocently oblivious to the moral notion of attire to hide body parts not displayed in “civilized” society. In the tropical islands where one is endowed with melanin that allows for convenient exposure to the sun, there was no reluctance to bask in one’s birthday suit.

Sh*ft happens. The professor ranted against modernity vulgarizing islanders’ innocence. He probably viewed too many of Paul Gauguin faux romantic canvases depicting simple elegance in Polynesia. Gauguin’s primitive art did call attention to the artform of Africa, Micronesia and Native America after he oiled the virtues of Tahiti on canvas, so we thank him for that. 

The professor asked if anyone thought modern changes in the islands should be allowed. Duh. Like anyone can stop global change, and we are pleased to know that Club Med dispenses with the bra in its shores!

Myanmar was the last nation to shy from history’s mainstream, though now we know that gas had as much weight in the generals’ decision to keep a tight grip on the culture from the taint of modern influence. The DPRK has minerals but it is its Jurche self-reliant philosophy that keeps it isolated in the peninsula, railing against consumer avarice and consumptive greed south of Panmunjom.

Social structures are in the process of dying. The nation-state as a political entity is collapsing. Folks in smaller units are discovering the power of self-reliance. The CNMI can explore what this means if its kowtow stance to Uncle Sam’s uniformed demands on Pagan is to shift toward considering its interest. Similarly, in the Age of Obama, the U.S.’ misplaced imperial hegemony is best kept at bay.

China’s “one country, two systems” offers 55 ethnic minorities a chance beyond showcase display oddity. Meanwhile, states and military alliances are redrawn in the western Pacific where the CNMI holds strategic military purpose crafted by the U.S. more than half a century ago, to “ride” the disciplined passion of militant Japan in providing logistics in Korea and Vietnam, anchor the dollar in $eoul, and contain the alleged expansionist bent of Mao.

America is racist at the corner of Elm and Main, with color allowed behind service counters but dominantly lily-white in the manager’s closed doors. Micronesians dreaming of parity in Covenant live in illusion. The 1861-’65 U.S. Civil War avoided secession but left a nation divided; the struggle for civil rights was revived a century later, and 50 years after, Ferguson MO’s polarity reveals the continuing struggle for parity in diversity. We might even actually see Darren Wilson get away with murder!

Lincoln’s GOP dances a discordant do-si-do with Mitch McConnell and John Boehner to derail a President’s final two years. White southern Democrats voted Republican en masse in the midterm elections. We are not done vilifying the WH occupant yet, Obama’s resolve to stay the course notwithstanding.

The samurai influenced Japan’s code of ethics (bushido), but the warrior became a ronin, a sword-for-hire, now Tokyo’s lawyers. Yesterday is history, the future is mystery, but today is a gift; that’s why we call it “The Present”!