The marine monument

I am writing this in support of Lino Olopai’s letter to the editor the other day.

If someone had asked me what I thought of the marine monument, I would have said, “It sounds like a nice thing to do. What do Lino and the other permanent inhabitants of these islands think of the idea?”

It seems only right to simply ask them if they have any desire for a marine monument that will require them to give up ownership of so much of their birthright. Oh yeah, and no one else is giving up their land or possessions in the deal…just you!

If I may, what my friend Lino is experiencing is “The Oppression of the Good Intention”.

If you watch closely, the one common thread that runs through the well-intentioned action is the desire to “save the world” as long as someone else pays the bill, or sacrifices the land.

I’ve learned not to ask anyone to do something that I wouldn’t do, or to sacrifice what I wouldn’t sacrifice. That certainly tempers my enthusiasm to do good for those not asking for it.

I have a lot of personal experience with the consequences of this sort of thing. I witnessed this growing up in Micronesia, and with the Navajo and Choctaw Indians on the U.S. mainland.

The Indians were the “victims” of good intentions (and some bad intentions), and will forever deal with the consequences of naively allowing others to take care of them and their land.

The American government sold the American Indians on the benefits of working with the whites, and then broke every treaty they ever signed. Trust us, we’re with the government!

I am continually reminded of the admonition, “Anytime the government gives you anything, it was yours in the first place.” The missionaries that came from the mainland to “save” the Hawaiians from themselves never asked them if they wanted to be saved, they just assumed. After all, why wouldn’t someone who lives in Paradise, with no disease before the haoles came, with plentiful food, abundant wildlife, and magnificent weather not want to be saved by someone that couldn’t even speak their language and had no idea of their customs and traditions?

The oppression of the good intention (or maybe we should call it the “ignorant intention”) robbed the Hawaiians of their land, to the point that they became waifs in their own land. The missionaries that came to “save” them somehow ended up owning all the land.

Today you still see angry Hawaiians living on the beach because they can’t afford a house…in their own land.

This is why I’ve never argued with Article 12 on Saipan. Lino mentioned that a great deal of promises were made to gain acceptance of the deal. I’m glad that Lino has noticed (and others should take note), that if all of the sales pitches came true we would all be rich and have no problems…not one!

Anytime someone starts telling you how much this or that is going to save you, make you rich, cure your warts, etc., etc., etc., don’t just walk away—run away! What they’re telling you is a well-intentioned lie designed to get your money, land, or whatever is in question.

Now I’m not really accusing anyone of lying or being dishonest, just handling it badly. As so often happens, a lot of thought goes into the sales effort, but little thought goes into what happens after the sale.

Remember the words of Albert Einstein, “As we solve one problem we invariably create another”,,,and Saipan has seen it’s share of these problems.

Unfortunately, the “salesmen” of the marine monument don’t have to live with the results as they “solve this problem.” They can sit around, drinking wine, patting themselves in the back, and telling each other what a good job they did saving this spot of the world for future generations, while sitting in the mainland. Too bad they didn’t ask Lino and his generation.

It would have been a wonderful, respectful, caring thing to do and probably wouldn’t have affected the outcome at all…but will always be a stain on the monument.

Hopefully I’m wrong, but Lino, I wouldn’t wait too long for the U.S. government to give the land back to the CNMI, or for the people of the CNMI to revel in the too many promised benefits.
[B] Ed Tudor, DVM[/B] [I]Sadog Tasi, Saipan[/I]