Customer Reviews

Navigating the Future: A Samoan Perspective on U.S.-Pacific Relations

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From this book I learned more about the territory, the Pacific region, the United States, and Faleomavaega. This man has worked toward a positive direction for American Samoa with regards to the Pacific and U.S. Much of the content of this book can still be applied today in the territory. For Samoans in the U.S. we all have ties back to Amerika Samoa in one way or another. This book covers a few of the issues that effect Samoa, compromising traditional cultural values and the influence of the modern world.

Few Americans know that the United States still owns a relic from the Age of Colonialism below the Equator, and that this "possession" is not faring so well after 101 years of benign neglect. Congressman Faleomavaega is a gifted writer. Few people could cram quite so much information into 142 pages and still have the result highly readable. But it's not a happy story when for 51 years the proud people of American Samoa had their Governor appointed by the US Navy, and then for another 26 years their Governor was always a personal friend of the Secretary of the Interior. Yet the author is basically an optimistic person, and he continually cites the many accomplishments of Asian and Pacific Island Americans, and the success of local initiatives in agricultural development, commercial policy, and educational achievement.

I was really surprised that a Member of Congress could endorse the pagan and gruesome Ritual of the Tatau. The current medical literature suggests that severe physical punishments during initiation rites can be life threatening. And then after such a persuasive plea for Americans to take Pacific policy seriously, the Congressman asks for only half a loaf. After 101 years of being required to be Americans, the people of American Samoa deserve Commonwealth or Statehood status. If their price for joining the Union is permanent protection of the Samoan tradition of communal property ownership, it is doubtful that very many Americans would object.