BC Cook
“THERE is nothing to do here. This island is not the home of our people. We have no past here and no future. We came when the military moved us and we will go when they say to go. But there is nowhere else to go, so we just wait to die here on Ebeye.”
By some counts it has the most people per square mile of any place in the Pacific, with more than 15,000 people crammed onto 80 acres of land. And it is a young group. Incredibly, over half the population is under the age of 18.
The pressure cooker of social disorder that is Ebeye was created during the Fifties when the United States tested nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands. In order to prevent exposure to radiation authorities moved many islanders to Ebeye, sparsely populated at the time, and offered them work at the nearby military base on Kwajelein. Good intentions but nothing went as planned.
Local residents resented the newcomers, the military jobs never materialized in the numbers promised, and housing always lagged behind demand. As the population grew from both immigration and procreation conditions got worse and worse.
There are few fish in the sea around Ebeye. The islanders fished out the reef long ago and runoff pollution from the island makes the surrounding water inhospitable for aquatic life. So the traditional food source is not available to the islanders.
In the last fifty years there have been serious outbreaks of cholera, dengue fever and tuberculosis. Because so many people are crowded into such a small space even polio and measles have appeared, even though the population has been inoculated for these.
Then there is the trash. 15,000 people generate a lot of trash and they don’t want to dump it in the lagoon and further poison the water so they just pile it up. There are huge mountains of stinky, miserable, fly-ridden filth everywhere. The smell of the island is unbearable for the newcomer.
Crime is out of control on Ebeye. Packs of juveniles with no hope and no incentive to behave roam the island looting and stealing, raping and plundering. The authorities are powerless to stop it. Young girls are raped by the score and there is nothing to do for them.
By now you would like to think about the silver lining to this dark cloud but there isn’t one. This ghetto of the Pacific must be liquidated. It cannot be fixed, and even if it could be, it should not be. The people of Ebeye must be given the means to move somewhere else. If their home islands are still not livable due to radiation, then perhaps they can be moved to the mainland, or another island with better prospects.
The people of Ebeye suffer in wretched conditions. Someone with the power to do something must take notice. Who will that be?
BC Cook, PhD lived on Saipan and has taught history for over 30 years. He is a director and historian at Sealark Exploration (sealarkexploration.org).
