Marianas people stand

We want to be a gecko on the wall and eavesdrop on Governors Calvo and Fitial’s conversations on unifying the Marianas Islands.

It was not too long ago when we were directing the affairs of the Marianas Resource Center at Oleai on Saipan for the United Methodist Church that we put words to the song Follow Me sang by the late John Denver, and encouraged the Chamolinian folks to stand tall. We adopted it to our San Vicente grade school audience, and we rewrote it for our Zhongguo students this past term. The song and its new lyrics replacing China’s geography with Marianas, goes:

Marianas people stand,
over the ocean, on the land;
from the north skies
to the island of Guahan.
Be the care we can be,
taotao tano und tasi;
we are able and
we want the world to know.

We’re going to tell the wondrous story
of all the things we’ve done;
victories we’ve won or lost
from the places where we’ve come.
Building tomorrow
with flame trees that we grow;
our people’s choice in deep resolve:
“We make this Earth our home.”

We’re going to call out everybody,
going to join the ones who’ll stand,
those who care to spend their lives
in the greening of this land.
Rights to all resources,
peace with justice we will hold;
the mighty acts of people’s power,
in our lives to behold.
 
We’re going to be the old creation,
to sing a brand new song.
A healthy people proud and free,
in caring, we are strong.
The people of this planet
will share our destiny;
our island’s power a gift to all,
the world’s humanity.
 
We’re going to tell the hopeful story
of all the things we’ll do;
victories we’ll win or lose
in the places where we’ll go.
Building the future
with flame trees that we grow,
our people’s choice in deep resolve:
“We make this Eaarth our home.”[/I]  
We lived in Guam in the early half of the ’80s and we had wondered then why we would continue to be a split Marianas when ethnically and historically, we are one entity.  But for the U.S.’ limited desire for a coaling station between Hawaii and the Philippines as it positioned itself for the China market, it only bought Guam after the Spanish-American War; it had no interest in the rest of the islands as they were not resource-rich, or, by Spain’s account, the State Department may not even have known that other islands existed. Our cynical view sees “divide and conquer” as strategy in order to have an external military that will preside over the internal affairs of the Marianas islands, and later, take a divergent direction from those of the rest of Micronesia.

Don Farrell’s new edition of his historical narrative of the area now comes in two volumes. Vol. One’s title is very telling: The history of the Mariana Islands to the Partition, in contrast to the earlier edition of the history of the Northern Mariana Islands. Vol. Two awaits publication.  Implied in the title is reunification.

The Republican Governors’ Fitial et Calvo tete-a-tete on remerging a single political entity vis-à-vis the U.S. government does not come as a surprise, though we would be happier were it done transparently in the open, and engage broader participation.

The Paracell and Spratley islands, and others in the South China Sea, were virtually ignored as a Qing dynasty domain until we discovered black gold under its continental shelf. Now Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan are jockeying for position to claim a part of the action, especially since crude gold supply is thought to have peaked already, or about to in this decade. 

If history were an indication, it is the Seven Sisters that really want to deprive China of its fields, and their 10-percent leavings of total gain from exploration and harvest, as is the case in the Philippines and Brunei, is insufficient to salve the sovereign pride of the countries involved.

There is good reason for the Marianas to get its house taga posts in good order. West of the Marianas Trench are minerals and possibly oil deposits.  There might just be treasures in them depths, and on them hills!  And China has no call at all.

So, Marianas people, stand!
[I] Vergara is a regular contributor to the Saipan Tribune’s Opinion Section.[/I]