randy_byers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
randy_byers) wrote2007-05-09 06:31 pm
randy_byers) wrote2007-05-09 06:31 pm
Entry tags:
Death of a Statesman
My brother e-mailed me today with the news that John Mangefel died in April at age 75. Mangefel was a powerful figure on Yap and in Micronesia. When my family moved to Yap in 1966, he was Superintendent for Elementary Schools on the island, and thus my father -- a teacher and principal -- got to know him a little. In 1967, he was elected to the Congress of Micronesia, which was trying to figure out what the status of the islands would be after they had ceased to be a Trust Territory of the United Nations administered by the US (which was basically a figleaf status for US control of the islands after taking them from Japan in WWII, who had similarly taken control of them from Germany under a League of Nations Mandate after WWI.) Once the various island groups had cut their separate deals with the US, and Yap along with three other island states formed the Federated States of Micronesia, Mangefel helped write the constitution of the FSM and then was elected the first governor of Yap.
He was renowned for his satiric wit. I can't find the book now, but somewhere in my library (or more likely in my brother's) are some excerpts from a series of Letters from the Islands that he wrote and read in sessions of the Congress of Micronesia while in the heat of status negotiations with the US (which refused to allow any discussion of independence), and those excerpts were the first things that made me think this was somebody special, with a literary sense of humor that cut through all the crap. I wish I could see the whole letters, but I've never been able to track them down. The various notices of his death have frequently mentioned that at his inauguration as Governor, he wore a traditional Yapese loincloth -- called a thu -- and made a deadpan speech to the Western suit-wearing crowd that the tie should be outlawed on Yap. He called the tie "the most insidious evil perpetrated upon the people of Micronesia in the past 400 years" and called it "offensive to the morals of the people of Micronesia" and an article of clothing with "no redeeming social qualities."
You've got to love the sheer cheek of that (and it's absolute practicality on a tropical island), and people did love Mangefel and his lack of pretention. Another favorite story is about a time he showed up for dinner at the President of the FSM's house on Pohnpei dressed in a t-shirt and foam flipflops (called zoris on Yap) and was turned away by the guard. The President had to sent the guard out to fetch him back.
His most famous speech came at the Congress of Micronesia, where they were negotiating with US for monetary support (which for the FSM ended up being called the Compact of Free Association, which is a name, you'll agree, of great and double irony). I'm sure this process was frustrating and humiliating and boring and enraging. Mangefel was famous for being able to calm tempers with his humor, while still making substantive points. Here's part of what he said:
"At this time I wish to say a very few words about the present financial mire in which we find ourselves and the Trust Territory Government stuck.
"Since about two years ago, when the world shortage of gasoline, ping pong balls, toilet paper and other life essentials hit us in the face (so to speak), things have not been the same.
"In that short time world leaders have come and gone and others have emerged or have been replaced; nations have collapsed; millions of people have been killed by wars and starvation, and the TV program "Gunsmoke" has gone off the airwaves. Inflation, recession, and depression are now the watchwords, and financiers nervously take the pulse of the prime lending rates like vacationers waiting for spring, watching the movements of groundhogs.
"While all of these momentous events have taken place, we in Micronesia have suffered a lot, but done very little. For my part, I have made a number of important and reasonable recommendations, but no one has had the foresight -- or the temerity -- to follow them.
"Consequently we find ourselves in a messy state.
"As an example, we have just approved a salary plan on legal paper, which neither we in this Congress nor the U.S. Government can finance. Our grant fund appropriations have recently been cut. Scrounging from all available corners of our national pockets has just barely enabled our government to meet its payrolls, and funds slated for capital improvement projects are being transferred to cover operations which are supposed to support the capital improvement projects, the funds for which are being used for operations -- or something like that.
"I confess, Mr. President, I am somewhat at a loss as I ponder how all these problems could be solved. Even dipping into my betelnut basket yesterday and this morning did not provide me with any inspirations to share with my distinguished, and I am sure, equally befuddled colleagues. I searching my soul, the answer finally was revealed to me.
"In seeking solutions to our problems, we must consult with that higher administering authority, and His words, as promulgated in that ethereal order, the Good Book. The solution at hand, I now would like to highly recommend that the procedure I will shortly describe be followed before the convening of all cabinet meetings, all sessions of the Congress of Micronesia, all meetings of the House Appropriations, Senate Ways and Means Committees, Joint Committee on Program and Budget Planning, and be recited prior to any appearance of members of Congress before committees or members of the United States Congress, and those of the President's Office of Management and Budget.
"To close this preamble, I now will offer my solution. Furthermore, on order to appease our Senate and Journal Clerk's penchant for assigning a title and number to everything that we do, I have ventured to entitle the solution in the following manner:
"THE LORD'S PRAYER, SENATE DRAFT ONE AS AMENDED BY THE HUMBLE JOHN DE AVILA MANGEFEL
"Our Father, who art in Washington,
Hallowed be thy funds.
The Authorizations come, thy appropriations be done
In Saipan, as they are in the President’s Budget Office.
Give us this day our quarterly allotment,
And forgive us our overruns, as we forgive our deficits.
And lead us not into dependence, but deliver us from inflation
So ours will be the territory, and the power,
And the fiscal authority, forever ... Amen, Mr. President."
Amen, Mr. Mangefel. I never met him myself, unless I did as a kid. I thought I'd met him when I was out there last time in 2002. I was looking for Yapese stories and myths, and somebody suggested I got to the little library at the bottom of Alau hill and talk to Mangefel, who had long since retired from politics. I chatted to an elderly gent there, who was unable to help me, but it ended up it wasn't Mangefel but his brother.
Not that I was worthy to fetch his betelnut, but I felt a pang at the news today because now I'll never get to hear his wit and wisdom in person. He was a true character, and a shrewd observer of the political realities on Yap and in Micronesia. With the death of Petrus Tun a few years ago, Yap has lost two of its greatest leaders in times of change. Who will stand so tall for the small islands now?
He was renowned for his satiric wit. I can't find the book now, but somewhere in my library (or more likely in my brother's) are some excerpts from a series of Letters from the Islands that he wrote and read in sessions of the Congress of Micronesia while in the heat of status negotiations with the US (which refused to allow any discussion of independence), and those excerpts were the first things that made me think this was somebody special, with a literary sense of humor that cut through all the crap. I wish I could see the whole letters, but I've never been able to track them down. The various notices of his death have frequently mentioned that at his inauguration as Governor, he wore a traditional Yapese loincloth -- called a thu -- and made a deadpan speech to the Western suit-wearing crowd that the tie should be outlawed on Yap. He called the tie "the most insidious evil perpetrated upon the people of Micronesia in the past 400 years" and called it "offensive to the morals of the people of Micronesia" and an article of clothing with "no redeeming social qualities."
You've got to love the sheer cheek of that (and it's absolute practicality on a tropical island), and people did love Mangefel and his lack of pretention. Another favorite story is about a time he showed up for dinner at the President of the FSM's house on Pohnpei dressed in a t-shirt and foam flipflops (called zoris on Yap) and was turned away by the guard. The President had to sent the guard out to fetch him back.
His most famous speech came at the Congress of Micronesia, where they were negotiating with US for monetary support (which for the FSM ended up being called the Compact of Free Association, which is a name, you'll agree, of great and double irony). I'm sure this process was frustrating and humiliating and boring and enraging. Mangefel was famous for being able to calm tempers with his humor, while still making substantive points. Here's part of what he said:
"At this time I wish to say a very few words about the present financial mire in which we find ourselves and the Trust Territory Government stuck.
"Since about two years ago, when the world shortage of gasoline, ping pong balls, toilet paper and other life essentials hit us in the face (so to speak), things have not been the same.
"In that short time world leaders have come and gone and others have emerged or have been replaced; nations have collapsed; millions of people have been killed by wars and starvation, and the TV program "Gunsmoke" has gone off the airwaves. Inflation, recession, and depression are now the watchwords, and financiers nervously take the pulse of the prime lending rates like vacationers waiting for spring, watching the movements of groundhogs.
"While all of these momentous events have taken place, we in Micronesia have suffered a lot, but done very little. For my part, I have made a number of important and reasonable recommendations, but no one has had the foresight -- or the temerity -- to follow them.
"Consequently we find ourselves in a messy state.
"As an example, we have just approved a salary plan on legal paper, which neither we in this Congress nor the U.S. Government can finance. Our grant fund appropriations have recently been cut. Scrounging from all available corners of our national pockets has just barely enabled our government to meet its payrolls, and funds slated for capital improvement projects are being transferred to cover operations which are supposed to support the capital improvement projects, the funds for which are being used for operations -- or something like that.
"I confess, Mr. President, I am somewhat at a loss as I ponder how all these problems could be solved. Even dipping into my betelnut basket yesterday and this morning did not provide me with any inspirations to share with my distinguished, and I am sure, equally befuddled colleagues. I searching my soul, the answer finally was revealed to me.
"In seeking solutions to our problems, we must consult with that higher administering authority, and His words, as promulgated in that ethereal order, the Good Book. The solution at hand, I now would like to highly recommend that the procedure I will shortly describe be followed before the convening of all cabinet meetings, all sessions of the Congress of Micronesia, all meetings of the House Appropriations, Senate Ways and Means Committees, Joint Committee on Program and Budget Planning, and be recited prior to any appearance of members of Congress before committees or members of the United States Congress, and those of the President's Office of Management and Budget.
"To close this preamble, I now will offer my solution. Furthermore, on order to appease our Senate and Journal Clerk's penchant for assigning a title and number to everything that we do, I have ventured to entitle the solution in the following manner:
"THE LORD'S PRAYER, SENATE DRAFT ONE AS AMENDED BY THE HUMBLE JOHN DE AVILA MANGEFEL
"Our Father, who art in Washington,
Hallowed be thy funds.
The Authorizations come, thy appropriations be done
In Saipan, as they are in the President’s Budget Office.
Give us this day our quarterly allotment,
And forgive us our overruns, as we forgive our deficits.
And lead us not into dependence, but deliver us from inflation
So ours will be the territory, and the power,
And the fiscal authority, forever ... Amen, Mr. President."
Amen, Mr. Mangefel. I never met him myself, unless I did as a kid. I thought I'd met him when I was out there last time in 2002. I was looking for Yapese stories and myths, and somebody suggested I got to the little library at the bottom of Alau hill and talk to Mangefel, who had long since retired from politics. I chatted to an elderly gent there, who was unable to help me, but it ended up it wasn't Mangefel but his brother.
Not that I was worthy to fetch his betelnut, but I felt a pang at the news today because now I'll never get to hear his wit and wisdom in person. He was a true character, and a shrewd observer of the political realities on Yap and in Micronesia. With the death of Petrus Tun a few years ago, Yap has lost two of its greatest leaders in times of change. Who will stand so tall for the small islands now?