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A perspective on the Pew proposal
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Posted on Oct 23 2008
To make an enlightened decision on the proposal by the Pew Charitable Trusts to create a national monument around the CNMI’s three northernmost islands of Maug, Asuncion, and Uracas, which includes about 115,000 square miles of ocean area, we should first look at this offer from a historical perspective.
Our ancestors knew that they owned the sea surrounding their islands. To them, any other conclusion was totally incomprehensible. They owned the sea because it was part of their physical environment, which dominated their lives. Nearly every aspect of life, especially in smaller islands, was influenced or controlled by the sea. The rhythm of life was dictated by the sea. Its turbulences told people when they could travel and when they cannot. It controlled the habits of fish and the habits of humans seeking them. The sea challenged people, it tested their character, and provided life with drama and meaning.
The only way one can understand how an islander feels about this world dominated by the sea is to adopt his perspective, to perceive life from this point of view. To an islander, one’s “territory” is its surface habitat, and the sea is an important a part of an islander’s surface habitat as is the land. In the mind of a traditional islander, there is no logical distinction between continental nations and islands in the allocation of the earth’s resources. They cannot understand the fairness of continental nations having rights in the resources of the sea of small islands but islanders having no rights in the land-based resources of continental nations.
To understand the resentment an islander feels at outsiders taking huge quantities of fish from his surrounding waters, one need only imagine how an American would feel if islanders were permitted to freely drill for oil in their backyard, without permission or payment of compensation. The territory and resources of small islands are largely aquatic. Rights in both categories of surface area exist equally in the minds of men and should therefore be equally respected.
[B]Juan Borja Tudela[/B] [I]Mayor of Saipan[/I]
