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.