The Island of the Colorblind and the Cycad Island

The Island of the Colorblind and the Cycad Island by Oliver Sacks

Rare genetic traits may become prominent in isolated populations with significant intermarriage. Deafness became common in Martha's Vineyard thanks to two founders that had a recessive gene. In Micronesia, there is an island (Pingelap) many people are achronotopes. This trait occurred due to a population bottleneck. Colorblindness can be a nerve or a an eye issue. In Micronesia, the colorblind have difficulty seeing during the day, but actually have a better ability to see at night. The book also explores cycads. These seeds are fairly poisonous. However, are consumed after processing to remove the poison. Could this result in some neurological problems? The book covers some interesting topics, but it wanders a bit, with parts travel, genetic and neurological.

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.

Micronesia: Island Wilderness

Micronesia: Island Wilderness by Kenneth Brower

This is a coffee table book with a few pictures from Micronesia and some prose. The prose is somewhat random. There are a few quotes that have a bit to do with Micronesia. There is also a bit about parkland and desires for parks and battle with the military for land on Guam. Then there are a few essays centered around the voyage of a ship through the islands and a seaman's quest for Marijuana. It ends up as a very random amalgamation that give you a rough idea of what the islands mean to a few people.

Oceanic Mythology: The Myths of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia

Oceanic Mythology: The Myths of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia by Roslyn Poignant

This book explores myths of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia and Australia. It includes a large number of pictures and photos and seems to be geared towards a popular audience. However, the text is very dry and academic. Rather than a telling of myths, it is an anthropological study of the mythology of the cultures with some details of the myths tied in. The photos may somewhat relate to the myths, but often just tangentially. Some common features for the myths are explored. It is a pretty dry book. 

Many of the societies were decimated before their culture was documented. How much of these stories had already tied in the encounters with the Europeans? Is it most often those in the least desirable areas that are still around? Are these representative? How were these part of worship versus stories like our super hero stories? It is difficult to tell today.

The People in the Trees: A Novel

The People in the Trees: A Novel by Hanya Yanagihara

A scientist goes with a group to explore a population in a remote Micronesian island. He keeps an open mind as he observes some peculiar practices. The people claim to have lived to be extremely old. They don't wear clothes and have some peculiar sexual practices. When somebody turns 60 they undergo a strange ceremony that involves killing and eating most of a turtle themselves.

The scientist later observes that people can live to be 100s of years old, yet lose some of their mental capacity. He takes turtle samples back to study. When feeding them to mice, the mice can live over three times their normal lifespan. However, beyond three times their lifespan, they start to act strangely. He publishes the results. This sets off a pharmaceutical stampede for the island. The island is pretty much destroyed and the turtle population eradicated in pursuit of the fountain of youth. The people end up moving to a neighboring island where they adopt more western habits, such as wearing clothes, eating spam and drinking.

The scientist's life took a similar turn. After his study was replicated, he achieved renown in his field. He eventually received a Nobel prize. When returning to the island he felt sympathy for the natives and would adopt or orphans or children that parents no longer wanted. He enjoyed the comfort of the children. He wanted children, but he did not want a spouse. He eventually had a few dozen children. One of the boys continually acted up and caused trouble for him. Eventually, the boy led charges against the scientist, resulting in the scientist being imprisoned. (He feels upset that his brother supported the boy - even as his brother had a boyfriend a fraction of his age.) In a postscript, a very disturbing account of the scientist raping one of his kids is included with implication that this was not a unique occurance.

The book is told as a scientific monograph assembled by a third party. The friend of the scientist provides accounts as well as personal footnotes in the story. On the audiobook different narrators handle the different parts -with one being harder to understanding the other.

Island of the Sequined Love Nun

Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore

This book has it all: Cannibals, Cargo Cults and a stolen 747. A pilot tries to go for a job on an island. Things don't go exactly as planned. He discovers that they are a "cargo cult" that worships a pilot and a "goddess" (who was originally a pinup painted on a plane.) A Japanese group has discovered that they are a great source for organ harvesting, and has used their "religion" to help harvest the organs. The pilot manages to still an airplane and fly them away. It is some zany comedy set in some obscure islands.

A Beginner's Guide to Paradise: A True Story for Dreamers, Drifters, and Other Fugitives from the Ordinary

Alex Sheshunoff headed up a mid-tier startup during the dot-com boom. He tired of this and decided to head out to a tropical paradise. He bounced around a few remote Pacific islands. He finds his future wife and builds a house. The book details his adventures.

He chose to first go to Yap, an island in Micronesia. This is well off the beaten path. But he one-upped himself and went off to the island of Pig. This gets even more remote. I had trouble finding any details of this online. Had to go down to some details to find it existed as part of Ulithi atoll. But even here, it was shown as an uninhabited island. There was another island there that did seem similar to the island. Was that it? There were a few people there. Men lived in a men hut. He talked with a chief to determine if he could come to the island (and gifted some cigarettes.) The island had a dress code of nothing more than a grass skirt - for everybody.  Somehow it was very traditional, yet addicted to cigarettes. Talk about the wrong bit of modernity.

Guam was perhaps the most "modern" island that he visited. The others ranged from off the beaten path to really off the beaten path. The book covers a great deal of time in Palau. It was there that he met his eventual wife. Later he decided he wanted to build a house on a remote island. This required some negotiations with the residents. (Foreigners are not allowed to own land, but must get permission from the landowners to build there. The land is "controlled" by all the family.) The author recruited some friends and worked on building a house. The last chunk of the book details this experience. (As a quick denomont, he later mentioned that the house was mostly destroyed in a storm.)

After the island experience, he moved back to the US where they raised a family and lived a more "normal" Ameircan life.