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China in Yap
Mar. 14th, 2013 01:23 pmIt's probably been well over year since I posted about an initial announcement of Chinese interest in developing an enormous resort complex on the Micronesian island of Yap. For a while it seemed like the chiefs on Yap were going to say no to this incredible intrusion into the Yapese social and economic fabric, but now one village has given the go ahead. I don't think anything has actually happened yet, but my brother has now found a story about resistance to the development: "Chinese Culture Clash on Yap". Some of the people interviewed are people we know. Carmen Mutgnuy was somebody my parents knew when we lived out there in the '60s, and Vincent Figir was the governor when I was out there with my brother's family and niece in 2002 and once offered us a ride home after a village dance.
It's horrifying and fascinating to watch this slow motion train wreck in action. As I said to my family in response to my brother forwarding article, it's not as though any foreign powers who have ruled the islands since the late nineteenth century have brought any happiness. But if the Chinese corporation develops the resort it envisions, the tourists will outnumber the natives, and as my mom pointed out, there won't be many Yapese who profit from it. The conundrum an island like Yap faces is that it has been forcibly inserted into a cash economy, and yet it doesn't have any products or raw resources that anybody wants to buy. Under the Americans, they've received cash in exchange for our right to use the islands as military bases. This money is going to dry up in the near future, because we are no longer planning to re-fight World War II, island by island. Maybe Chinese development is the only deal on offer now.
It's horrifying and fascinating to watch this slow motion train wreck in action. As I said to my family in response to my brother forwarding article, it's not as though any foreign powers who have ruled the islands since the late nineteenth century have brought any happiness. But if the Chinese corporation develops the resort it envisions, the tourists will outnumber the natives, and as my mom pointed out, there won't be many Yapese who profit from it. The conundrum an island like Yap faces is that it has been forcibly inserted into a cash economy, and yet it doesn't have any products or raw resources that anybody wants to buy. Under the Americans, they've received cash in exchange for our right to use the islands as military bases. This money is going to dry up in the near future, because we are no longer planning to re-fight World War II, island by island. Maybe Chinese development is the only deal on offer now.
