Nature and leisure

We cock our head when we hear discussions on ecotourism focused on economic gains from the activity rather than the significance of the tour to the persons involved, the hosts, and the guests. Tourists come and gawk, to look-see what is either marvelous or not ordinarily seen back home. Tourists are of an escaping mind set.

Travelers, on the other hand, engage and relate, being of eyes that sees the wonder and the awe in their common and ordinary surroundings, journey to other places prepared to experience the indigenous common and ordinary incidences of awe and wonder in their destinations. Unique geography, resident flora and fauna, historical memory of a place, but more importantly, the living authenticity of the resident population, invite unity in diversity.

Saipan’s historical memory is ebbing swiftly into the sunset. Enshrined primarily by Nippon’s loss in WWII, Nihongos gained affinity when Reagan “adjusted” the value of the dollar and increased the value of the ¥en, earning Japan a commercial welcome to the islands. They returned with intact heart and soul. Royals Akihito and Michiko, Teno (Emperor) of the Koshitsu (Imperial House) of the Yamato dynasty made a sudden 2005 visit. Father Hirohito was the reigning monarch at the height of Japan’s imperial adventure in Co-prosperity Sphere Asia in the second third of the 1900s.

Relegated as an outpost for covert operations in the early stages of the Cold War, the Marianas and the rest of Micronesia were catapulted to global stare when JFK noticed the discrepancy between State’s rhetoric toward decolonization and the Pentagon’s behavior in the TT of Micronesia. Thus began Marianas’ march toward political maturity and the exigencies of political choices.

Our current debate on Article 12 on land ownership is actually a quarrel over titles rather than usage, a recent invention from South Australia in the mid-1800 adopted by the rest of the world. Feudal Europe was royalty owned and lords granted stewardship of their patrimony to their liege. In one sense, nature in the Marianas is self-sustaining, relatively pristine save settled areas in Guahan, Rota, Tinian, and Saipan apportioned by colonial sovereign lords to individuals.

While Sir Robert Torrens created a legal accountability structure to stewardship of land, Chief Seattle aka Chief Washington, responding to Washington, D.C.’s proposal to buy native lands, allegedly responded realistically. Extant records may be embellishments of English translation and/or reports, but what is known of Chief Seattle and the ecological understanding of native Americans in the northwest is congruent with the content of the reported thoughts.

Briefly, the native understanding is that land do not belong to humans, rather, humans belong to the land. How can we sell what we do not own? he intones. In our case, an umbilical relationship exists between humankind and nature—land, sea, and sky—and all within it; applicable to both taotao tano (the people of the land) and taotao tasi (the people of the sea). The matrilineal ties of inheritance between mother and offspring stem directly from this umbilical understanding. Ownership is not the primary concern; stewardship is.

Travelers who are possible visitors to the Marianas come on the promise of an admixture of natural ambience and leisure. Travelers from China have Hainan to go to at half the cost, with options to go to the Zhongs’ autonomous Guangxi and its Lijiang (karst-lined Li river), and to the casino capital of the world, Aomen (Macao), for the gaming kind.

The majority of the Xhongguoren we get in the CNMI are low income folk trying to find a way to the U.S. at a cheaper rate but hardly the high rolling casino players our Rah-Rah boys ($500 mil p.a. revenue) are promoting, nor the high-end spenders who can afford to shop in Milan, Paris, New York, Tokyo, and Seoul.

Korea and Japan’s landscapes are basically manicured gardens sans the allure of wildlife. Though forests are not mono-cultured as those in ANZ, they are designed to be accessible in the same fashion as our grotto welcomes divers. Even the Korean island of Jeju-do, also a Nippon destination, is tame save for deep sea-diving to gather kelp.

The CNMI promises a low-cost option for Japanese and Korean travelers. Nature and leisure seekers may find the promise too well ahead of the reality, but the CNMI can transform this island chain into a real ecologically friendly destination. If only we learn to respect nature without constructing more Marpi poles.

People-friendly would be a good start too. But then, I can only speak as one who has been ripped off of two MacBooks, a Sony and a Nikon camera, and five bikes, so someone else will have to do that PR. But, we practice our island smile daily. Asiana’s flights are booked solid for a month. I am people-friendly, and I recycle my trash!