‘Village council’ nixes ‘cannery expansion’ on Asuncion

After hearing from a host of “experts” ranging from archeologists to water treatment managers, the “Asuncion village council” voted down the proposed expansion of the SWK Cannery by a count of 6-3 last Friday, citing environmental and cultural concerns that they believe would negatively affect the island.

“Cannery representatives” met with a large contingency of “islanders from Asuncion” at the Saipan International School and explained that their plan to expand the facility was meant to capitalize on the increased awareness of dolphin-free tuna in the United States. If given the go ahead, SWK would have provided jobs to the 40 people who remain unemployed on the island, tapped into an underground water lens, and doubled the cannery’s tuna output.

While several groups acknowledged the benefits that the island would enjoy as a result of the increased productivity of the plant, a majority of the community was not in full agreement, and felt that the expansion was not in Asuncion’s best interests.

Several groups raised fears that there would be an increase in pollution and a shortage of fresh water on the island, while others speculated that there would be an elevated probability of earthquakes and thus risk damage to the “ruins” of the “12th century Buddhist colony.”

One of the objections from the “Tourism Board” was that the cannery “would make the island more like a city, and if Asuncion was to become more modernized then less people would be attracted to the island.”

While SWK representatives did their best to answer the concerns of the community, the council was swayed by the reports given by those who opposed the project.

In all actuality, the island of Asuncion is uninhabited, and there is neither a village council nor a cannery. Instead, the cannery expansion was part of weeklong project that was the brainchild of SIS Science teacher Marie Lamkin entitled “Mayhem in Asuncion Island.”

After letting the students select the island, they were divided into groups and tasked to research job specific data that would be used to support their argument for or against the “cannery expansion.”

The groups of erstwhile islanders made up the village elders, village youth, biologists, civil engineers, archeologists, fishery biologists, economists, farmers, geologists, hydraulic engineers, limnologists, hydrologists, mechanical engineers, tourist board members, water treatment managers, and social science analysts.

Each group consisted of a student from each of the 6th, 7th , and 8th grades, while the village council was made up of the entire ninth grade class, and the cannery representatives, of the 10th graders.

The project was the first of its kind to combine all of the disciplines with the different grade levels at the school, and Lamkin said that once she briefed the classes about the basics, the students were responsible for working together to come to a conclusion.

“I left most of the project open to the students. I didn’t give them any specifics. That’s when they really started to think about the positive and negative aspects of the proposition,” she said.

The “inhabitants of Asuncion” scoured the Internet for information, and even tapped CNMI government officials for their expert opinions. The students were so focused on the trans-discipline activity that Lamkin noticed a pleasant side effect in her classroom.

“I was telling my husband that I had 35 students in my class doing research and it was quieter than when I held a regular class with 20.”

SIS Headmaster Dr. Dale Jenkins said that while the children had a unique experience during the past week, the hard work and efforts of the teachers was not to be overlooked.

“This was a chance for the students to see their teachers working together in a different light. It really was a tribute to the teachers who put themselves out on a limb. You had teachers talking about subject matter that they haven’t had to deal with for some time.”

After the decision of the council was made final, the floor was opened to the students and teachers to ask each other questions and to discuss the factors that ultimately provided the basis for their votes.

A poll of all of the students in attendance revealed that they were opposed to the hypothetical cannery expansion by a count of 30 to 19, with some 13 students undecided.