“EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: A CASE STUDY OF URBANIZATION AND GLOBALIZATION IN EBEYE AND MAJURO”
Desmond Narain Doulatram APS 636: Culture & Society in the Contemporary Asia Pacific October 14, 2017
1 Abstract The purpose of this paper is to discuss the unique situation of two urban hubs that
house 74 percent of the population in the Marshall Islands of Oceania. One called Ebeye, often referred to as “The Slum of the Pacific,” and the other Majuro, often referred to as “Majuro Mejen Armij,” being, Majuro is the face and eyes of the people. At first glance, one sees pollution written in both Ebeye and Majuro where militarism and capitalism literally spell out MADE IN USA in the military dominated Asia Pacific region. The deplorable conditions on Ebeye and on certain parts of Majuro makes one wonder why the passive conformity to the great red, white, and blue who have these people treaty bound. Leading modernity theorist such as Foucault have argued through a historical Eurocentric lens that modernity involves a twin swiftly moving process centered on the constructs of truth and power. For Pacific states that are treaty bound and have inhabited a wealth of neocolonial legacies, it becomes increasingly apparent from experience why the effects of globalization are felt at their home fronts. This paper explores why there are various counter hegemonic strategies undergone in the urban centers of Ebeye and Majuro to nationalize efforts to repudiate ill informed notions of conformity and reassert the notion of camaraderie and joint collaborative effort, some under the guise of conformity, in a situational effort to improve ones self in the global arena based on obvious circumstance. It establishes the inevitable proposition of choosing an environment mentality based on sustainability as Foucault's art of "Governmentality." Key Words: Globalization, Contextualization, Resistance, Urbanization, Sustainable Development
2 Introduction For Pacific states such as the Marshall Islands that are treaty bound by the
Compact of Free Association and have inhabited a wealth of neocolonial legacies, first by Germany, then Japan, and finally USA; it becomes increasingly apparent from experience why the effects of globalization are felt at their home fronts. While truth is embedded in Foucault’s argument of the world operating under a dual nature, Pacific leaders such as Kabua have contextualized the global context to better suit their narrative stating that the latter half of the 20th century and early parts of the 21st century have been characterized by the “simultaneous operation of twin swiftly moving universal process where on one hand, there is evidence of the human capacity for wider affection and loyalty with constructive forces forging increasing interdependence and integration, while on the other hand, the fomentation of conflicts and persecution along religious, ethnic, gender, and political lines continue to thrive unabated indicating an entrenched mindset that puts ethnicity and nation state above all else frustrating efforts to universal peace and unity�1 thus leading oppressed regimes and peoples to resist using the UN system and regional blocs.2 This resistance is perfectly displayed in the unique situation of Ebeye and Majuro where citizens and urban dwellers actively and indirectly participate in the discourses that pioneer greater human equality using themselves as an object of comparison.3 However, to first acknowledge this resistance, which Appidurai calls the great irony, it is first best to understand the effects of globalization on these two cities and their inhabitants.4
3 Global Cities Majuro and Ebeye, by western standards fall flat in achieving the global city
definition standardized by global firms and corporations given its lack of infrastructure and institutional capacity being a Small Island Developing State largely dependent on foreign aid and assistance. However, these two cities represent what we today would call an informal global city reflecting man’s dying conscience. Ironically, unlike the formal global cities of New York and San Francisco, the urban hubs of Majuro and Ebeye, at 27,243 and 9,614 residents respectively, practically have no homeless population due to social safety nets of the extended family embedded in culture. Ebeye Island, in Kwajalein atoll where the US Ronald Reagan Test Site resides, has the highest population density in the Marshall Islands where 9,614 people, mostly children, live on just 0.12 square miles of land.5 When the United States took over Kwajalein atoll and removed its residents from what is today the Ronald Reagan Test Site, there was but fewer than sixteen people residing on Ebeye. At the advent of US military operations, this population spiked in light of people within the various 29 atoll and 5 single islands comprising the Marshall Islands seeking social mobility through job opportunities offered at this US military base. Indigenous Resistance Ebeye has a long history of active demonstration and sail ins prior to independence in 1986 where residents of Ebeye island were so successful that US officials got scared and cancelled a scheduled voting referendum that included the option of full independence on top of the Compact of Free Association voting option.6 The deplorable conditions of this so called slum reacts and resists through the concept of habitus where a culture of feudalism is used as a counter measure against American
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hegemony.7 Ebeye is largely feudal in nature with traditional leaders encompassing a large part in its politics using their own resources to provide when their own government located at the capital in Majuro cannot, due to financial constraints of transportation over a vast 180,000 square miles of open space, largely Pacific waters. 8 In the 1970s, worsening conditions included lack of sewer, running water, and shortage in electricity. The 21st century beginnings also marked this crazy trend where these same conditions despite appeals from Ebeye residents fell on deaf years to the American administration and to a struggling government from the capital city of Majuro where resources are further constrained by its geography and isolation.9 Majuro atoll, the capital city also fell victim to military operations in the form of the US Navy because of its lagoon that provided an excellent port for its ships.10 When the US moved the capital away from the former Japanese stronghold in Jaluit atoll, Majuro became the new capital and like Ebeye Island, people in large numbers flocked to the new capital city of Majuro for social mobility purposes in light of globalization dynamics of interdependence within the global community.11 Majuro atoll was formally connected by causeways and given a road in the 1960s12 when the largest road in Pacific Trust Territory Micronesia was installed by the U.S. Department of Interior followed by its international airport. Today, the capital city of Majuro is the second largest ship registry in the world and boasts the largest shark sanctuary despite its 3.75 square mile land area.13 This is the reality of Pacific nation states where their geography is largely water with the Marshall Islands being 99.99 percent water and only 0.01 percent land. This unique geography of atoll nations with an existing precedent of feudalistic inspired
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sustainable livelihood has urged traditional leaders and conservative members of the populace in Majuro and on Ebeye to challenge Western institutions that fail to take into consideration the fragile eco-systems of coral atoll nations that literally need an enabling environment centered on “risk ethos.�14 With a population entirely composed of children and youth, given that 46 percent of all of the Marshall Islands is under the age of sixteen, can anyone blame the ambitious approaches to resistance undertaken through the medium of the urban hubs of Ebeye and Majuro? Mass migration to the United States of America is characteristic of Ebeye and Majuro residents seeking social mobility particularly when the idea of social mobility requires money, a fancy car and degree, own housing, and most importantly, an education to better navigate the anxieties of the new global order. This is highly characteristic of Marshallese people who have always been mobile as a culture of navigation where the integral network of voyaging to sustainably exploit resources from atoll to atoll and island to island was prevalent. 15 While 90 percent of the Marshall Islands remains environmentally savvy, 16 the urban centers of Ebeye and Majuro struggle to retain acceptable environmental standards due to its isolation from global polluters, lack of institutional and labor capacity, and being limited by strategic denial rights by the great red, white, and blue where the US has practically unlimited authority in denying any foreigners access to the Marshall Islands by exercising its defense veto should these foreigners appear threatening to US global security.17 This has led to active and indirect forms of resistance centered around the moral argument of equality told through a sustainable development lens where residents of Ebeye and Majuro have mastered the ability to weave Marshallese traditional wisdom and collective experience with modern
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science, introduced knowledge, and technology thus contributing to the common good to the Pacific region that is interconnected through the medium of the Pacific Ocean which occupies one third of space on Earth.18 Conclusion To conclude, one should not be surprised that the cities of Majuro and Ebeye have resisted negative globalization trends using cultural capital, environmental sustainability and climate action in the international scene through the UN System and regionalism as a guiding tool in coordinating priorities.
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Appidurai explains this indigenous
contextualization of resistance in light of globalization through his concept of “production of locality” where formation of community is based on context for contextualizing is meant to give primacy over other factors to better associate the group to their particular place thus allowing agency in various forums and programs where environmentalism for the sake of future generations has become Foucault’s art of governing for the global sake of sustainable development for all of the Asia Pacific.20 This place reflects the concept of space given that the Pacific Ocean encompasses one third of the world’s surface.21 This is why the capital city of Majuro, Marshall Islands acts as the Secretariat to the Parties to Nauru’s Agreement,22 is an active member of the regional bloc that is the Pacific Island Forum,23 is an active member of various CROP agencies,24 is a leader in climate action25 and wants a world free of nuclear weapons.26 This is the worldview the cities of Majuro and Ebeye have undertaken where a blue27 and green economy are necessary in the Asia Pacific region because of deplorable situations of urban hubs where a blatant disregard to the global environment is prevalent by global and economic super powers who have nuked, polluted, and exploited these centers under
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one sided deals that are constantly shifting to grant better equality.28 As Saskia states, there is a differentiation of cities29 and the colonized informal global cities of Ebeye and Majuro speak the tale of being controlled by the global firm and corporation that is Chief Uncle Sam30 where even the so called ship registry on Majuro abides by the US Coast Guard Qualship standards and is subjected to the bureaucratic controls of the International Maritime Organization and the International Registry Inc. based in Virginia, USA.31 Notes 1
Amata Kabua, “The Role of the Island Nations in the 21st Century: Statement by the Right Honorable President Amata Kabua, President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.” The Federation of Island Nations for World Peace. Tokyo, Japan. 16-18 June 1996. 2
John Pilger. “The Secrets of the Marshall Islands,” YouTube video, 32:47, from John Pilger’s film “The Coming War on China, posted by “Henry Lim,” December 26, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXvoRv-v9fg. 3
Ebeye traditional leaders imported former Majuro Senator and Majuro resident Tony deBrum as a senator for Kwajalein atoll who would lead a lawsuit, the Paris Agreement, and revived a historical narrative about how the Compact Agreement came to be as one of its leading negotiators. 4
Arjun Appidurai. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. (Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press), 1996. 178-198. 5
Please refer to Marshall Islands census report by late Honorable Tony Debrum which can be accessed via link: https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/migrated/oia/reports/upload/RMI-2011-Census-Summary-Reporton-Population-and-Housing.pdf 6
Hilda C. Heine and Julianne M. Walsh, Etto nan Raan Kein: A Marshall Islands History, (Honolulu: Bess Press, 2012).
7
This is displayed by Paramount Chieftain Imata Kabua and Kwajalein Senator Iroij Mike Kabua.
8
These resources can include financial through the MUORA, cultural capital given their social positioning in the Marshallese hierarchy, and property given their property rights. This was told to the author by the sitting Deputy Chief Secretary of Ebeye being Ms. Abacca Anjain-Maddison who is also a nuclear refugee from Rongelap and is a well-known anti-nuclear activist with high profile participation with the winners of 2017 Nobel peace prize ICAN where she delivered testimony at the conclusion of the recent Nuclear Ban Treaty. 9
Unlike the US administration, Japan was able to achieve a favorable balance of trade in the Marshalls largely due to transportation subsidies from the Japanese government.
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10 Hilda C. Heine and Julianne M. Walsh, Etto nan Raan Kein: A Marshall Islands History, (Honolulu: Bess Press, 2012).
11
Ibid.
12Department
of State. Fifteenth Annual Report To the United Nations On the Administration of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (July 1, 1961 to June 30, 1962), 163.
13
This is in light of the fact that 80-90 percent of global trade is carried by sea.
14
Ekberg describes the concept of “risk ethos” as the development of a collective risk identity and the formation of communities united by an increasing vulnerability to risks. In the Marshall Islands case, it’s a depleting environment due to climate change, the nuclear age, and unsustainable development. 15Hilda
Heine, 2004. “’Tuwaak Bwe Elimaajnono’ Perspectives and Voices: A Multiple Case Study of Successful Marshallese Immigrant High School Students In the United States.” (PhD diss., University of Southern California, 2004), 93. 16
Deborah Manase-Barker (UN Deputy Permanent Representative) in discussion with Author, 7
July 2017.
17
This was clearly made evident when the US denied Japanese aid to the Marshall Islands in the form of satellite equipment that would have sped up and improved communication in the Marshall Islands. Fortunately, US through the compact, have given Majuro and Ebeye an underwater fiber optic cable to improve internet communications solidifying further virtual communities on social media and improving disaster response. 18
Lisa Friedman. “Tony de Brum, Voice of Pacific Islands on Climate Change, Dies at 72.” New York Times. 22 August 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/world/tony-de-brum-dead-climatechange-advocate.html 19
Dame Meg Taylor “A Sea of Islands: How a Regional Group of Pacific States is Working to Achieve SDG 14.” UN Chronicle, Volume LIV Nos. 1 & 2 May 2017. 20
Arjun Appidurai. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. (Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press), 1996.
21
Palaita, David Ga’oupu. “Vāsā (Ocean) —The Space that is Sacred: Pacific Islanders in Higher Education.” (PhD diss. University of California, Berkeley, 2015). 22 See WWF Fact Sheet on Party to Nauru’s Agreement: http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/factsheet_7.pdf 23 See Pacific Island Forum Tweet: https://mobile.twitter.com/ForumSEC/status/968976578817347584
24
See Council for Regional Organizations in the Pacific (CROP) Agencies: http://www.forumsec.org/pages.cfm/about-us/our-partners/crop/?printerfriendly=true
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25 Doyle, Alister. “Marshall Islands first to ratify global HFC greenhouse pact.” Reuters. 28 Feb 2017. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-hfc-idUSKBN1670IN.
26
See Formal Address of President Hilda C. Heine on 2018 Nuclear Victims Day: https://www.facebook.com/PresidentOfficeRMI/posts/2008168549456213 27
World Bank Group. The Potential of the Blue Economy: Increasing Long-Term benefits of the Sustainable Use of Marine Resources for Small Island Developing States and Coastal Least Developed Countries. Washington D.C.: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank, 2017.
28
Tony Debrum. “Acting Locally and Globally to Pressure the Capitals: What the US Owes the Marshall Islands.” Speech at St. John’s University. New York City, New York. September 20, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPPyQPfFTBs. 29 Saskia,
Sassen. “The Specialisation of Global Cities.” Interview at South Asian Institute at Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. September 20, 2014. https://vimeo.com/193594094.
30
Chief Uncle Sam or Iroij Uncle Sam is a nickname President Amata Kabua gave the U.S Government because of how the U.S. literally became the new Chief of the atolls particularly for Bikini through imperialism during the Nuclear Testing Period. It’s a sarcastic nickname to paint reference to how the U.S. Government literally became the new Chief Executive by depriving the original Chiefs of their own land. See page 23-24 of Jack Tobin’s The Bikini People, Past, and Present: https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10524/23032 31
Margot Gibbs. “The tax-free shipping company that took control a country’s UN mission.” Climate Home. June 7, 2017. http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/07/06/tax-free-shipping-companytook-control-countrys-un-mission/.
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Appendix A
Figure 1: Iroij Lajidrik Jeimata Kabua & Family (Chief of Eaninmeto). Courtesy of Fr. Erdland
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