CRUISE VIGNETTES 18 , Enna G

STORES AND BUSINESS ON TRUK
It didn’t appear there was much of anything for anyone to do. We saw no factories or businesses, other than food and general merchandise stores, and we were told that the soil would not grow food crops. Apparently nothing for them to do except spend their welfare money in one of the several stores. The airport and the hotel, were proof there was some tourist business.

Years ago, people on these islands spent their time fishing and gathering coconuts. Now that the US is in charge, it would be considered mean to make them follow that diet, so everything and everybody is on welfare. They did finally stop the import of beer, and other such things. We were told that if anyone on the ship took any alcohol to shore, they could be in a lot of trouble.

CARGO
The MS Enna G exists to deliver supplies to islands like the ones we are visiting, along with supplying a fine vacation trip for a few tourists. The ship had a lot of telephone poles, containers of food, a few police cars, and other things not normally found on a South Pacific Island. A ship’s officer told us that sometimes when they arrived at an island, they found the container of food they left two months ago is still in the container, rotting away. No one got around to taking care of it.

NEWSPAPER
In the local newspaper it said, “We are caught between the Coca Cola can and the Coconut tree.” That does seem to describe the problem. They don’t want to live like their ancestors did, and there is not much chance for them to live like people on the mainland.

JAPANESE MILITARY MEMORIAL
A memorial to the Japanese Army/Navy was just being built, and was to be dedicated in a few weeks. At the airport there were airplanes from Continental Airlines, who at that time, flew all over this part of the world.

We did see the legislative buildings, but we are not sure just what happened there. The US is responsible for many of these islands, but they do permit a certain amount of local control, and we think they do have an elected legislature.