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Eni the World Traveler

Here's Our Man

Is this the image we want to project to the world?  So disrespectful that he looks like he is attanding a pajama party, not a high-level international conference.  And click here to see what they thought of him over there.

Let’s get back to business

I would like to call a truce between Congressman Faleomavaega and myself in the current war of words we are waging. I have raised some important points regarding our economic future that are being obscured in rhetoric about the value of our cannery workers. As far as I can see Faleomavaega and I are in agreement that they are valuable workers, okay? Enough said about that. Let’s not squabble over rhetorical devices.

Mommy, I want to be a fish cleaner

Eni, do you realize that your support of the so called ASPIRE bill is tantamount to the 1950s attitudes of Van Camp as you describe in your testimony? You too are, in essence, saying that your people are incapable of doing anything beyond cleaning fish. You want to preserve the fish cleaning jobs at the expense of the younger generation that might find much better opportunities if you were capable of thinking outside the fish box.

Nowhere in your testimony, or the testimony of any other participant in the hearings on ASPIRE, is there any reference to improving the rights and conditions of the common worker in American Samoa. Even after more than 50 years, the attitude remains that of keeping wages low at the total exclusion of improving the lives of our young people.

It’s all about profits and advantages for the fleets and canneries. Those big businesses as well as the support businesses in American Samoa all derive their economic opportunities at the expense of the common worker.

Minimum Wage Petition

The private sector has taken an active role in attempting to regain the right of the people of American Samoa to make decisions locally about minimum wage rates.  This is the most important ingredient in the petition now being circulated.

Although we have written several letters, made many public comments and presented salient information on this subject, it has become apparent that Washington simply does not care about the economic woes of this little island territory.  A deaf ear has been turned to all our attempts to get a reasonable analysis of the problems created by the new minimum wage law.  This is true at all levels of the Washington bureaucracy.  We are hoping the President of the United States will take just a moment to review this matter and take appropriate action.