Intertel; 54; American Samoa: Paradise Lost?

Friendly music for your listening pleasure from WUVUV, the boys of Pango Pango. Coming up now, number three in your all-request program. When I say I like to be identified as Samoan, I mean as an native Samoan, as a Samoan boy, who is interested in this culture and tradition, but concerned of good living and improved

ways of living. Thinking of the dollar is a good thing, because everybody needs a dollar, and it's nice to have a dollar alone, so that you can do what you want. Now for a long time, the Samoan people were neglected, one might say, or perhaps wisely left alone, I don't know. Their way of life has served them well far longer than the United States has been a nation, five or six times as long as we've been a nation. And now we're beginning to move in and make some visible changes in this society. Before introducing a way of life that brings frustrations, that brings desires that cannot be met, that creates appetites which cannot be satisfied, then I think we may be hurting these people.

Twenty-three hundred miles southwest of Hawaii, a territory governed by the United States. Although a tiny in sheltered society, American Samoans face questions confronting emerging peoples everywhere, in accepting the advances of the West, must they lose their traditional ways of life, how much must they change, and how fast, how willing are the Samoans to give up their kind of paradise for our kind of progress. In a remote village, eighty miles from American Samoans Main Island, life has thus far been only lightly touched by the outside world.

Everyone contributes his share to the family effort, and the family in turn looks after everyone. In this lush tropical climate, it's easy to grow food. The staple is tarot. In the future, overpopulation may put pressure on the food supply, but for the present, no one goes hungry. If the sea is calm, there is always the reef and beyond, for a wide variety of seafood.

Older people are treated with respect, and if they happen to be crippled or blind, they are cared for and remain active in family affairs. Younger children are looked after by their older sisters and brothers, or grandparents. There's a secure place for everyone. More than a generation ago, when anthropologist Margaret Mead visited these islands, she observed that Samoan culture might be able to survive indefinitely as it was if there was no outside

interference. For several decades since, the society here has continued to remain stable. People are satisfied, are deeply connected to far Samoa, the Samoan way of life. The spirit of cooperation, the pattern of work, is as it was. The changes are now coming, a different order of things, and with this, a new system of values. Some say the 20th century is coming too quickly to Samoa, that an ancient way of life, with its grace and beauty, will soon be an nostalgic memory. A Samoan proverb urges caution in moving ahead.

Catch the pigeon, but look out for the waves, who far Samoa be engulfed, or will it survive? The most striking change is television, being from the main island. It's bringing an image of the outside world to a people who have been remarkably content with the life they have known. We expect these people to adjust from a way of life that has existed for over a thousand years, a way of life that serve their purposes very well, to our own way of life. And we're trying to teach them that our own way of life is much better for them than theirs. The Samoans have made their choice between keeping themselves as Samoans of 102 or 100 years

ago and becoming a new Samoan. I think he has decided to become a new Samoan. I think the time to say whether we want the new ways or not is passed. That was the time when you, the white man, first came into contact with us for the Samoans. I think the choice was made right then and there. A first-rate harbored pangol pangol on the main island attracted the United States Navy to Samoa in the 19th century. In return for its use, a promise was made to look after the Samoan people. For decades, the Samoans were left pretty much to themselves until 1961 when for six years under Governor Rex Lee, the wheels of progress began to turn.

Symbolic of change was a tiny cable car that had put television towers on a mountaintop and now was ready to serve increasing numbers of tourists drawn to a blue-green paradise. The Samoan style resort hotel has become the distinguishing feature of the town which was the setting for Somerset Mom's story about Sadie Thompson. From a western point of view, exotic pangol pangol is losing its flavor. Here as everywhere, the native is inevitably going modern.

With the quickening pace of pangol pangol, the smiles are said to be less frequent. They have not disappeared. With no history of colonial exploitation, the Samoan has little reason to be unfriendly. But there is a culture clash, and outsider is in almost complete control. Governor Owen Aspinol, Jr., successor to Governor Lee. We started out this program, it went for about 350 women, something like that, and all

of a sudden it was dropped. The next thing I heard in the legislature was that we didn't need a family planning expert on the staff of the medical services department. Because of this, what I recognize to be unrest and uncertain in the minds of the Samoan chiefs, I ask for this particular meeting. In Samoan society, one listens politely, rarely asking the direct question. After Western influence, this has begun to change. After the past few years, the administration has not been able to convince the Samoan chiefs

that family planning might be an answer to the problem of overpopulation. However, interest in birth control is not altogether lacking. Samoan leaders may be wary of new ideas, but they have eagerly accepted the hardware of the 20th century. Sanitation is steadily being improved, reaching to families in Samoan's most remote villages.

Because the general health picture is considerably brightened, Samoan may be more of a paradise than it used to be. The entire world is changing, and the Samoan has just got to go along with him with the whole world and change a lot. He can continue to be a Samoan, but he will definitely be a different Samoan, while I mean he will be a Samoan who likes to drive a car, where he used to be able to enjoy walking one mile to work in the morning, now he likes to drive the car to work.

So he is going to lose the exercise he used to get from walking that mile. And he is the difference, Samoan. Well, I think in the next 30 years we are going to get more and more into the Western society way of living.

There is no choice, that is where we are heading. I view the change with regret, certainly, but on the other hand I realize too that the changes have got to be made, there is no question, but that we are moving forward. The tradition in Samoan society is that each individual gives to the chief, who in turn takes care of all the families for which he is responsible. In Pangol Pangol, the tradition is dying as more and more Samoans take government jobs or work in the fish canneries. Today's wage earner tends to hang on to most of his salary. The saving of money, a recent concept, increases the importance of the individual over the family. To look out for oneself is a trend that is gradually altering life under the old matai or family system.

One aspect of Samoan remains unaltered. The islands have one of the highest annual rainfalls of any area of the world. A recent hurricane caused extensive damage, destroying a large number of traditional homes called Follies. Rebuilding in the traditional style was out of the question, fetching a roof has become too costly, even in Samoan manhours. For those whose homes were damaged or lost, the United States offered to help finance the building of a hurricane-proof house designed to retain architectural features of the traditional Follies.

Samoans began to put up hurricane houses, while the foundations were solid. The financial structure was, sometimes, shaky. We'll go ahead and prove this loan for $5,000, but you're going to have to build your septic tank first, right? We'll go ahead and process the loan for you. Well, Chief, we have been friends for a long time, the same time I'm in business, you must remember this. The bank is going to extend to you an amount which is over $5,000. This is a lot of money, but the bank feels that this is the only way to improve housing in this area. Now, you're going to get a brand new house for you and your family. One thing I want to make it clear first before you leave the bank today is that this money

is allotted by the bank for your use to buy materials. There will be no buying or fear or food. This is only for material and cost. Now, the most important part at this point is for you to remember that this money has to be paid back to the bank. You understand that, Jim? Now, in case you fail to pay this back to the bank, it's going to be me, your friend, who will come back to you and ask you to come and talk to his business out again. My work as an outside loan collector forces me to explain to the Samoans that I'm there to help them, not to threaten them to help them educate themselves as to the idea when they borrowed money, they should pay back this money. So I considered my first visit to any individual as a missionary visit.

If there's any way we can help you, then this will clear your name and get your credit reference be all cleaned up. So when you have time this week, I hope that you will drop in the bank and see me so we could settle this matter. Okay? Yeah. Could I come tomorrow? Well, if you can, if you can bring some money tomorrow, I don't want to do that. Well, nobody has money. Now when I get out to villages, the most difficult thing that I have is because of the fact that I'm a Samoan and I feel a little bit embarrassed to face them because borrowing is an unusual thing to the natives. We live in such a way that you just ask a friend the next door for something and expect

that you don't pay this back to this friend. It's your holiday house. I have not experienced a case yet which I would consider a hopeless case. You know more or less the bank referred your name to me several times already because you borrowed money to fix this house up and you haven't paid a bit. Why can't you come and see me so we could get this settle? You know, last time I was here, I asked you to come and see me. You never come up. We loaned this money to you and you should come back and pay the money. Even you pay $10. Okay? Oh, yeah. Even $10. You come and bring the $10 and pay, but the money has to be paid back. Yeah, they do it. Now I'll come and come and see me so I could call the attorney. The attorney general's office in a range for a license for you to run pinkers every two

weeks and pay the money back to the bank. Can you do that? Yeah. Okay. You come up tomorrow and see me and see if I can get the attorney general approval license for pinker and you run pinker and you pay the money for the bank. You see a guy works in the bank. All they do is how much you're making and so forth so they just sign and walk out. And this idea of going out to the village and sit down with the ladies and tell them of their obligation, and it's very educational to all of them. I'm sure of that. We live in Samoa. Where is Samoa? Samoa is a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. The islands of Samoa are divided. A brave new world in Samoa. American Samoa, which is an American territory and a system of education to go with it. Okay. One, give me a shot.

For the first time, television is being used not as a supplement, but as the principle means of instruction. Samoa is south of the equator. These are small... Before television was introduced, the low level of Samoan education symbolized America's lack of concern for the islands. In one-room schoolhouses, children were struggling to learn English from teachers who could barely speak it themselves. Learning could not go far without English, since there are relatively few books in Samoan. It was primitive education for a simple society, and some observers thought it best to leave them alone. A complete rebuilding of the school system involved risks. Children might move ahead too swiftly, soon to be out of touch with less educated parents. State side educators might unknowingly introduce their own foreign values, such as individual

initiative to Samoan children. The cultural gap has been offset by the fact that Samoans here are, after all, Americans and deeply patriotic. Roy Cobb, Director of Education. Suddenly, when he came here, felt that he had a mission, a job to help the Americans Samoans move as rapidly as possible, and he felt that in order to do that, that the core of this must be education. What was thought of and planned was primarily for the Americans Samoan. This was a local situation, but it had implications from the very beginning for all of the developing world.

If this could be done successfully here in the tropics, in an area that several landmasses with distance, then it had possibilities for other areas where a second language was important. English as a second language is essential to gain access to the world's knowledge, technical or otherwise. One feature of the educational television system is that the outsiders can eventually leave, and the native people can run at themselves. The system is, by far, the most complete in any of the world's underdeveloped areas. Assistant Director of Education, Bill Dale. Our present population is approximately, school population is approximately 8,000, but it could just as easily serve 80,000 or 8,000. The use of technology allowed us to break a vicious cycle at most of the emerging countries face, and that is poorly educated teachers, doing a poor job in the classroom, producing

poor students who are not adequately prepared, who then go on to become teachers and so on and so on, with the use of television and a handful of highly specialized teachers. We can break this cycle because we can dramatically improve the quality of instruction for the present generation of school children, and at the same time, carry on an intensive, in-service teacher training program to improve the skills and knowledge of the indigenous classroom teachers. In the first, I was not with this television system, I didn't like it, I thought, how can a TV set or a machine like that teach the students?

Right now, I kind of creed to it, it has some tremendous result, it's helping the someone student to speak the English very well. It depends on the classroom teacher. When we look at the model of the Earth now, we know that it's a sphere. Some of the success of the system thus far might be traced to the way some Owen children grow up. To ought to respect authority very early, they do as they are told, pay attention to television and the teacher, and to learning English far more rapidly than ever before. But this very attitude of acceptance may stand in the way of independent thinking.

This western goal of education is alien to a culture that expects children to be obedient to serve, not to question one's elders. Working together for the benefit of the family or the village is a Samoan custom that has been helpful to the school. But not all Samoan customs are in harmony with the recent changes. Under the surface, there are deep commitments to ancient ways, a graduate of the University of Hawaii, high chief for Emoano. The serving of Kava, a drink for chiefs, a ceremony dramatizing rank and prestige.

The Xi ha fi ha its Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Hi, Chief Oyma Onor feels the threat of foreign ideas to the structure of Samoan society. The apex of the society are the chiefs, the Matai.

High rank is based on family connections, ability and selection by other chiefs. The Matai look after and are served by their families. Acts of vast hospitality guarantee the position of a high chief. The more people who enjoy your generosity, the greater your prestige in the community. Chief Oyma Onor's feast is to celebrate his being selected as a district governor. The family takes pride in serving the chief. If the chief meets with good fortune, the family will share on it. The type of gift, its size, the manner in which it is presented.

All symbolize the importance of the man who gives, as well as the one who receives. The system of chiefs, acting in behalf of families, continues to provide order in Samoan life. Just as within a Samoan family, each person knows his place and feels secure. A chief in any meeting knows exactly where he stands in relation to other chiefs. Always yielding to those of higher rank. In this spirit, most leaders tend to accept United States leadership for the island.

I am indeed happy to be with you here today. Not only because this is the first Western district meeting under high chief Oyma Onor, but also because every event like this. There are a few questioners. District governor Oyma Onor is one of them. I would like us to be independent, complete from the United States. I want the United States to be aware that treat us very fine from the very beginning, but still they are holding the complete control of the whole island here. And this is what I don't like. We want to do our business the way we want it. A lot of outside customs and many new ideas from not only from American, but from other parts of the world. Bringing it to the island that's influenced our Samoan customs.

They think they are trying to influence for the better, but I don't think so. So we are at the outside influence of our way of living, like teaching students in school to eat American way. I don't believe in that myself, because when they come to school, they eat like, along it, like Americans. When they go home, they eat fasa more. And I don't think it's right. They will not continue eating the same way like the American teaching in school. When they come home, they eat fasa more. The way we eat with fingers is our way of eating. We have to clean our heads before we eat.

And that's the way we are taught to eat. And I don't want to take in any other foreign way of eating. Stuffy Chief Banuha said that they think he is boring to him and many other guys watching Watching TV is this type of picture that should have shown it through the television. Western and all these murder cases and the parents are worried about that type of movie. I find out that people of Americans are more, also people of our village. They really like the cowboy picture and all those western movies.

Well, I was eight, five thousand bucks, you were just getting yourself killed. Maybe I'll make you pay for the chance you took out. Why sure? Why not? He deserves it. Baby. Where is it at? Well, he got his hands on one of those guns, he would have killed me. When somebody in the picture mentioned a word like kill, and then they saw the man kill somebody, and they learned English from that.

Our people and all the youth of our village, they really like to see us kind of. Because it's new to our people, they haven't seen that before. I think if you have gone around and asked all of a sudden whether they changed, because the change was forced upon them or whether they changed because they wanted to change, I think a lot of would have been their answer. It used to be a good old life, but along with it there were many, many difficulties. And then came the white man and someone saw that, in many ways, the white man's way of doing things was easy, simple, and he just adapted them. Perhaps a far greater westernizing influence than anything learned in school,

is the fact that Samoa is now on an international air route. For once isolated people, Samoans are going places, often to the states where there are no obstacles to a visit or a permanent stay. As visitors arrive, the possibility opens up for a measure of financial independence from the United States. Official policy in Samoa has aimed at preventing exploitation of the islands at the expense of the people. One long-standing safeguard bars non-Samoans from buying land here, and a recent development is Samoan's stock ownership in the new hotel. Still, there are problems in maintaining Samoan dignity and pride in the face of new pressures. We have learned great things to make sure that you get everything purely Samoans, any Samoans. My special guest is Mr. Joe Bona, who I'm sure some of you know, who certainly knows.

Joe Bona, a tour director in Pango Pango, talks to schoolchildren. Hi, Joe. How did you do, Dan? Glad to be here. I think everyone realizes that the policy of the government over here is to make tourism the most important and the number one industry on this island. I want my wife to be with a handsome man once in her life. I think if the people here have their big white smiles all the time, you know, give it up and I think people will like to come here. I think this would make the tourist sort of have the feeling that he's one of us, that he'd like to stay with us, and most important of all to spend his money here because without his money I wouldn't be in a job and a lot of others wouldn't be in a job.

I'd say that's number one requirement is keep your smiles. In other words, for instance, the schoolchildren keep smiling because it does get you somewhere particularly with tourists. It brings them over here. It gets them to stay here a little longer. The student can be very helpful there to make the tourist feel welcome. That is when the visitor asks the questions, the children should be ready and when they answer their questions they shouldn't answer with a big frown, you know. This makes things not too good. They should answer with a smile as the Polynesian are famous for. A Polynesian person is famous for being happy, you know. And I think this is what we should always give to our visitors. Are there any openings for people in the tourist industry?

Definitely don't. There's big openings in the tourist industry for any person really that's interested. Cheef Josuneer is director of tourism. When you speak about tourism, it's almost not almost with the dollar sign. And you talk to anybody anywhere in the world and tourism means dollars, right away.

We realize this and we're trying to do our best to educate our people so that while they are benefiting dollar-wise, they're not losing too much, too fast of the real things that are of greatness, valid to the someone people. I don't care about tourists, I don't care about my land and my people. Hi Chi Fuima Ono, along with being district governor, works for an American-owned fish cannery. He believes that the United States could better help the Samoans by financing a new fishing industry in which the Samoans would be the fisherman. The fleets presently doing this work come from nationalist China, Korea, and Japan. Chi Fuima Ono reasons that if the modern Samoan can be trained to repair television equipment, he can certainly be trained for deep water fishing. The number one resources here in the island is the water.

We get tons and tons of fish there waiting for us and this is the only way we can be independent. Samoans are being encouraged to do more fishing for local consumption close to their shores. In the government program, opposed by Chi Fuima Ono. For the benefit of your program, I would like to recommend very strongly to spend most of your time on a deep water fishing. This is the future of this island. The only two places that we can go to for the future natural resource of this island is the land and the sea. There is nothing here. We don't have nothing here. Let me add something there, district governor. When the canteries first opened their doors for business. We thought that the Samoan people, the Samoan young men, would go to sea ships and bring in the tuna that was necessary for the canteries. We tried everything possible to get the Samoans to go out to do this deep-line fishing which is necessary to get the fish in this area.

Now, it was obvious that the Samoans wanted nothing to do with going to sea for 30 or 45 or 60 days. They wanted to be home at night. So this is exactly the reason that the Koreans, South Koreans, the Chinese and the Japanese have such a foothold in our industry here and the territory. I don't agree with you on the ground that you said that people don't like to go fishing for a long time. Samoan have been going out fishing for a month on a raw boat. I mean, on 30 days on a raw boat. So you have to get the right kind of people and they can be trained and to be a line fisherman and they will bring in fishing that will help the economy of the island here. Now, we all know the stages of growth. We know that a child must learn to crawl before he can walk. A child must learn to walk before he can fly. Meaning no disrespect. I would like to compare the Samoan fishing industry at present to the child of this problem.

To do the type of deep water fishing you're talking about requires an economy somewhat more advanced than the one that we have now. It is going to require larger boats. It is going to require more capital to invest. So therefore, I say before we go into this, why don't we first develop the near-shore resources to the point where they can meet the demands of the public? I claim that people in the United States have sent down here and they said that we should start as a baby. We should start out to walk and finally we build ourselves to a mature person. That is stupid. If the child will not allow to start doing things that she can do, that child will remain baby. The other parents, they don't want her to. They don't want their child to climb at this age. They might break their necks. And I think this is the wrong attitude. People said it's late. It's kind of late to start on our own, but never too late to start a wise move.

Like we should develop our own selves to a point that in the near future will be supporting our own selves. Chief Fuyma Ono, whether or not his idea is feasible, he speaks for many of the world over who want help so they can help themselves. But he is a lone voice here on islands that are in the main untroubled. For Westernization has seemed to make life better without too much sacrifice of Samoan customs. There are more choices if not more genuine and lasting satisfaction.

For the present, the Samoan chooses easily. Something old, something new. Balancing with typical Polynesian poise between two worlds. I don't think you can say that something is lost here. I think you should say that something is given up and returned for something else. In other words, I don't want it to be said that Samoan has lost something and gained nothing in return.

The question now is how fast and how well we can adapt Samoan to be able to keep up with the pace. With education, the horizon will grow wider, choices will become more varied and eventually children will begin to question. Then, for better or worse, Samoa will be part of the mainstream of the 20th century and lost forever will be the paradise that was or may have been. Samoa will be part of the mainstream of the 20th century and lost forever will be the paradise that was or may have been returned for something else. Samoa will be part of the mainstream of the 20th century and lost forever will be the paradise that was or may have been returned for something else.

Samoa will be part of the mainstream of the 20th century and lost forever will be the paradise that was or may have been returned for something else. This is NET, the public television network. Samoa will be part of the mainstream of the 20th century and lost forever will be the paradise that was or may have been returned for something else.

Samoa will be part of the mainstream of the 20th century and lost forever will be the paradise that was or may have been returned for something else. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.