The Zoo Theorists

Today, I would like to direct our local people’s attention to an article most of us would probably never bother to read on our own. The article is entitled “The right to a family environment in Pacific Island cultures,” and it was written by Mr. Clifford R. O’Donnel, a faculty member at the University of Hawaii, Psychology Department. The article was published in “The International Journal of Children’s Rights” (Volume 3: 87-99, 1995).

I bring this article to our indigenous people’s attention because of a disturbing passage concerning our very own CNMI. On page 94 of the article, Mr. O’Donnel highlights the CNMI’s relative prosperity vis-à-vis the rest of Micronesia. “The Chamorro people are . . . embracing the cash economy,” writes O’Donnel. “Tourism and the garment industry are booming . . . Japanese are investing in new business developments . . .,” etc.

At the end of Mr. O’Donnel’s listing of our progress and prosperity, he condescendingly writes, “Will they [the Chamorros and Carolinians] hate themselves in the morning.?”

Did you get that, folks? Will we hate ourselves in the morning? Now what could be more arrogant and patronizing than that sort of rhetorical question?

We love ourselves, Mr. O’Donnel. We love the progress that we have made. We are proud of our islands–proud of the enormous strides that we have made over the past 20 to 30 years, since our Covenant agreement with the United States was signed.

What sort of question was that–will we hate ourselves in the morning? Is O’Donnel actually suggesting that our embrace of economic growth and development basically amounts to some sort of a reckless, drunken binge that will only lead to a hangover in the morning?

Who are these outside liberals to set limits on our economic growth and development? Who are they to protect ourselves from ourselves? Who are they to look down on us for pursuing the best that this world has to offer in terms of prosperity, higher standards of living, and overall progress itself?

The liberal Zoo theorists of this world apparently hate the CNMI for being successful. They probably want us to be poor. They probably want us to abandon our guest labor force and our relatively free market economy.

The liberal Zoo Theorists evidently want us to be quaint little brown islanders dependent on the Peace Corps, the U.S. Federal welfare state, and UNESCO or some other U.N.-type agency for support. These racist Zoo theorists think of Pacific Islanders as a kind of endangered species desperately in need of cultural protection against the “ruthless onslaught of Westernization.” In a sense, they want to keep us down by leaving prosperous modern economies to developed nations only.

Well, you all know what we should think of that–&^%@!

Biba Marianas!

Strictly a personal view. Charles Reyes Jr. is a regular columnist of Saipan Tribune. Mr. Reyes may be reached at charlesraves@hotmail.com