Traditional sailing canoe used for fishing and travel between the islands 

My friend in Wotje, writes to say they may close school early there and that she cannot come home for summer break.  She and her family are safe on their little island, as long as no one comes in and no one leaves.   There is no sheltering in place or masks.  The waves beat agains the shrinking shore line of the "ocean side" and the soft, blue lagoon gives life ease and grace on the "lagoon side."  In between people have their morning coffee and conversation in the town and children go to school.  Men harvest coconut to be picked up for coconut oil production in far away places.  The teenagers take bucket showers after school, in the hot island sun.  children, dogs, chickens and pigs escape the watch of care givers and run free.  Love songs drift from high school dorms over basketball and volley ball games until the dinner bell rings.

In my country, the poorest of our nation, the immigrants and undocumented refugees work in meat plants.  The Marsallesse, with there compact with the United States, are free to travel to the United States and work in its many slaughter houses and meat packing plants. All over the country, we send our newest immigrants to meat packing houses.  In this time of the coronavirus, they are considered essential services and the virus takes it toll.

Disease has always been hardest on trade routes.  Trade killed tens of thousands of North America's indigenous people.  It is then, no wonder that this virus, that breaks our hearts and tears our society apart followed trade routes.  That disease followed the need for gold, beaver pelts, oil and a never ending supply of inexpensive clothing.

The Marshal Islands and its people, have been occupied for hundreds of years; occupied and exploited to the point that true sustainability in the face of climate change would be hard.

Here is a brief pictorial tour of the occupations.

The Germans created a Treaty of Friendship in 1895.  At that time, there were about 15,000 people and each island was its own entity.  The Germans set up trading posts for coconut oil production.   This lasted until World War I/  The Germands also brought the first missionaries.




I am having a hard time downloading the other photos so it went like this.

After Germany, lost the war, the islands were given to Japan from 1914 to 1945, by the League of Nations.  They were suppose to educate them and provide health care and support their economic development.  They became war bases and wee used to attack Pearl Harbor.  The accounts of the Japanese treatment of some islands and their people is unbearable. 

Needless to say, Japan lost the war toad then the United Nations gave it to the United States to take care of.  The United States promptly used it to test nuclear weapons and build army bases.  Whatever their state of child well-being is a result of centuries of occupation and exploitation.

In the middle of a pandemic, it is hard to think much beyond ones own house an yard.  We are forced into a bubble but if one day someone reads this,know that this pandemic was most likely brought about by greed and foreign trade and the exploitation of our earth and all living things.  Will we come out of this, kinder and wiser or will we mount another huge assault on the earth ignorer to boost our economy.  

Will we let the seas rise around these small islands, forcing the people to flee and provide our country with a never ending source of meat.  Will we bemoan immigrants, without ever learning the long chain of their journey and our country's chapters in their lives.

Perhaps you will look up the Marshal Islands on a map and find them, there in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and know a tiny bit more of this beautiful, rich culture and know that their spirit of welcome is alive and well and strong.  Perhaps, instead of saying, "Ah, is that the place we tested nuclear bombs?" you can slo say, "Ah, aren't they the people with remarkable skill in navigating the sea?  Aren't they the place where people sing and dance in rhythm with the earth.  Ah, The Marshal Islands - a place worth fighting for  in our work for climate justice and peace and fair trade. "  

Ah, the Marshal islands, where the sun sets over the lagoon and the skeleton of ancient corals, crunch beneath your feet.  Ah, yes the Marshal islands a place both simple and complex.  I know a little about that place.  The children, like all children, ar the most beautiful in the world.