The American touch in Micronesia

The American touch in Micronesia by David Nevin

Micronesia is a vast oceanic area with only a few dots of islands hosting a small population. The location was valuable in World War II. After the War, America managed the territories. The management brought in vast amounts of money and many people with high ideals. Alas, this has done little to actually help the residents. US aid has become the primary economic driver. Education has advanced, but with the primary goal of getting high paying government jobs. The high wage rates end up chasing out potential domestic industry.

After World War II, Micronesia plodded along with benign neglect. Schools were set up on most of the islands. The communities provided their own school buildings. Micronesians teachers taught in the school. They had very little training, and didn't teach much of value. However, this served the subsistence society well. There was a singular "high school" for the whole area. This was taught in English because of the diversity of peoples. 

Then Micronesia has been hurt by US government intervention. The US wanted Micronesia to vote to become a US territory. It was thought that providing more money for education would help with this. Alas, the opposite took place. A bunch of foreign laborers came to build school buildings. Now the locals lost their "ownership" of the schools and demanded payment for taking care of it. American teachers were brought in to teach. They were also provided housing. This housing was better than the local housing, but not as good as military/diplomatic housing. The education was using curriculum from the US that had minimal applicability for the local population. There were almost no jobs outside the government for high school graduates. Even those studying vocational subjects were primarily seeking to teach the topics in the future, rather than practice what was learned. Later Peace Corps workers came in and made things even worse. They had radios that they would use to call for help when there were medical issues or other problems. This further caused issues with community and self reliance. The Peace Corps volunteers also identified issues and encouraged locals to file grievances with the government. These were often issus relative US standards and the response resulted in greater government dependency and further alienation of the populace.

Today, Micronesia has little native industry. It has been split up into multiple different entities, including a few independent countries and one US territory. There is free travel between the countries and the US. There is very little economic activity on the islands, with the government representing the bulk of the economy. Aid from the US still represents the primary income source. The US "guilt" for World War II has transformed a subsistance community to an impoverished government dependent one.