7/28/2010

Hey everyone, happy Tuesday. Here we go again.

So today was a very important day for my office. Today Representative Faleomavaega hosted a hearing for the Congressional Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment, for which he is the chairman, to discuss Americas response to the Copenhagen Accord. First off if you don't already know the Copenhagen Accord is a non legally binding agreement signed by the United States, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa; and endorsed by the majority of the European Union including Great Britain, to make an effort to end climate change. While the document itself is crazy long there are some note worthy points. For instance the accord sets a world goal of raising 100 billion dollars, each year, from 2010 to 2012 to help developing counties create clean energy sources. Also the signing countries pledge to continue their endorsement of the Kyoto Protocol. Similarly each signing nation must pledge to raise 30 billion dollars from 2010 to 2012 for new and additional resources. One final point is that each nation is required to recognize that climate change is a real scientific issue that affects today's economic and ecological future.

So as I was saying, Representative Faleomavaega was hosting a hearing today on the topic of appropriations for the 130 plus billion dollars to be pledged to climate change issues. Without getting into the details of the hearing, it consisted of a panel of Representatives having face time with "subject matter experts" in order for them to gain a better understanding as to the reasons for appropriating this money at some later point in time. In an effort to create healthy debate on the issues and insure a better understanding of the topic this hearing continued on for roughly two hours. Now instead of talking about the mountain of issues that were discussed today I will be breaking this topic up between at least two days. So tomorrow there will be another topic concerning climate change that was discussed at this hearing.

As for today I want to talk about the economic issues of climate change. Specifically I want to discuss how developed countries are to respond, economically, to the changing energy market. What I mean exactly is that since most developed nations have their own sources of energy, whether it be clean or not, the real need for clean energy is coming from those nations who are now developing that need. One Representative made a point today that while it is the U.S. who has dedicated more federal and private funds into the development of new "greener" sources of energy, it is China who is utilizing the energy needs of the undeveloped world to create a source of income. The Representative went on to note that the reason for hesitation in financing green technologies or developments is risk. He identified that it is the lack of an energy market in this country, which has been decreasing for the past two years; the first time since world war II, that has prevented a greater drive for development. So todays question is, what should the U.S. do to compete with China, and all the other developed nations for that matter, to secure a clean energy market?

Question:

How should the U.S. compete with China, and the rest of the developed, world for a clean energy market?

Hey guys well its Monday and time for another blog.

This weekend I had the honor to attend an aiga of one of the local Samoan churches, here in Virginia. In traditional Samoan, the word "aiga" (ai-ing-a) literally means family. However, these days, aiga is also used to describe the event when a church family comes together to celebrate the Samoan culture. In most cases aigas includes lots of traditional food, dances, and music; but most of all they generally include a special guest speaker. In the case for this weekend, his excellency Ali'ioaiga Feturi Elisaia the Ambassador to the United States, Canada, and the United Nations representing the independent state of Samoa graced us with his thoughts on Samoan culture. While I do enjoy going to aigas, many Samoans will tell you that often these speeches are boringly similar. So it was to my surprise when the Ambassador's speech was unlike any I had heard before. He described the Samoan culture as an evolving and adaptive system that lives not in any one authority but in the many different people that make up the Samoan community. He stressed the importance of a core set of values that are not meant to hinder the development of the people but to maintain a road to salvation. Both the Ambassador and the Pastor warned that while culture is a means of maintaining community, it is not impervious to sin. So like that of many peoples, Samoan culture is not perfect.

Question:

If culture is vulnerable to corruption, and there is not any one authority on pure culture. How does one maintain a true sense of "Fa'a Samoan" or any other traditional way of life?

7/20/10-7/22/10

Hey guys glad you made it to my first blog ever. So I’m really excited and nervous to be sharing my experiences with all of you but hey here it goes.

Yesterday was my first day of work in the Congressional office of American Samoa, and I have to tell you, I had a blast. Well before I go on I have to tell you that I actually went into the office last Friday to introduce myself and fill out some paper work. However instead of simply visiting the office I was invited to attend a luncheon with the Representative along with all of the other interns. So while yesterday was my first official day in the office it was not my first time meeting with all the staff in the office. Now continuing with yesterday, I spent the majority of the day in a training session for the capital building. As an intern in the office of American Samoan, one of my duties is to provide tours of the capital building for guests of the representative. After my capital training I returned to the office for a surprise birthday party for the office desk host, Hana.

After celebrating Hana’s birthday with all of the staff myself and one other intern, Patrick, were requested to provide representative Faleomavaega with an update on H.R. 02314, aka the "Akaka Bill". Now if you don’t already know H.R. 02314 is a very controversial bill and has actually been on the floor for a very long time, almost 10 years now. The main idea of the Akaka Bill is that the U.S. government would reconstruct and recognize the independent governing body of the native Hawaiian people. Originally the concept was that native Hawaiians living in Hawai’i would be allowed to establish their own government and commerce on lands appropriated to them by the U.S. government. Some of you may now be asking, “Since when did native Hawaiians want independence?” or “Why would native Hawaiians want to be separated from the United States?” Since I would rather not go into the entire history of the U.S. – Hawaiian relationship I will provide a detailed summary.

Before U.S. citizens moved to Hawai’i, it was territory of Great Britain. Under the leadership of Great Britain Hawai’i established themselves as a well developed and well governed nation. The government of Hawai’i resembled that of Great Britain of the time with a King and Queen, who followed in the Hawaiian Chiefly line, and a parliament, which consisted of tribal chiefs. After receiving their independence from Great Britain U.S. citizens began to immigrate to Hawai’i, however the islands were still recognized as a sovereign nation by the majority of the western world including the United States. While these immigrants were not allowed to own land, they were allowed to establish businesses and homes. After some time the U.S. citizens in Hawai’i wanted to push the islands into joining the Union as the 50^th state. However the sovereign Kingdom of Hawai’i was not in agreeance with the immigrant’s desires. In response, the U.S. citizens living in Hawai’i staged a well planned coup d’état of the native government, led by one Lorrin Thurston, on January 17^th 1893. The coup d’état revolved around tricking the U.S. Marines into imprisoning the Hawaiian government in the royal palace, under the cover that they, and their property, were threatened by the native people. Their efforts were assisted by John L. Stevens, the U.S. Government Minister to the Kingdom of Hawai’i. After the rapid approval of annexation; actually the fastest annexation in U.S. history, President Grover Cleveland fired Mr. Stevens and put out a report noting the illegal taking of the Hawaiian Islands. Then in 1993 President Bill Clinton signed a formal letter of apology from the United States to the people of Hawai’i for the illegal annexation of their land. In the end it was not the native people of Hawai’i who pushed the annexation of Hawai’i but the minority American settlers.

For many, the dethroning of Queen Liliuokalani and the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands is the largest breach in human rights and sovereign society relations committed by the United States. Since that time the Hawaiian people have been treated with such a lack of concern by the U.S. that it can only be recognized as neglect. Today Hawaiian women have the highest rate of breast cancer in the world and the people as a whole suffer the highest level of poverty. Of all the “public” land in Hawai’i, native Hawaiians only own rights to some 11% of it. In response to these injustices Senator Daniel Akaka, half Hawaiian and half Chinese, of Hawai’i has proposed H.R. 02314, and bills similar to it, since the year 2000. H.R. 02314 will reestablish the Kingdom of Hawai'i with similar restrictions as the Native American tribes of the continental U.S., without the gambling rights. Today the major debate among constituents is, “Should the native people of Hawai’i support H.R. 02314 and essentially become the "Pacific Indians," with their own separate part of Hawai’i, or should the natives seek full reparations and independence from the United States?”

Ok now it’s your turn. Please respond to my prompt and if you would like further information on the history of Hawai’i please don’t hesitate to ask or check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Hawaii#The_overthrow.

Question: “Should the people of Hawai’i become the “pacific Indians” with their own separate part of Hawai’i, or should the natives seek full reparations and independence from the United States?”

Welcome

Talofa lava, Hafa Adai, Malo e lelei, hello and welcome to my blog. If you don’t know, my name is Harrison Togia and this is a space where I will be posting my daily insights and experiences while interning with the congressman from the U.S. territory of American Samoa, Eni Faleomavaega. So the idea of this blog is; every day I will create a post discussing one, or more, of the issues that I have encountered that day in the office. Now some discussion topics will last more than one day, but each blog will end with a different question, for which I will ask you to respond to with your ideas or opinions on the matter. I ask that you refrain from using curse words or fowl language in your blogs as well as not using them as a platform to attack or put down other people’s ideas. Thank you for your participation and enjoy.

So before we begin, in case you don't already know, I would like to give you all some info as to who I am and why I have created this blog. First off my name is Harrison Togia and I was born and raised in Tacoma Washington. In 2007 I graduated from Washington High School and I am now studying mechanical engineering at the University of Washington. While my first passion has and always will be engineering, I have recently become increasingly interested in political social justice issues regarding the pacific islands. Over the past year I have taken a number of classes focused on topics such as decolonization, community empowerment, environmental injustices, and cultural diaspora related to Pacific Islands. These classes, along with my professors, have inspired me to take a more active role in political issues concerning the Pacific Islands, specifically American Samoa. My Grandfather and his family immigrated from the islands of American Samoa in search of a better life. Now, a generation later, I look to use the gifts of education and representation that my family has worked so hard to afford me and share my fortune with the people of the Pacific. However I am not full Samoan, I am also a quarter Black and a quarter German, so while my intentions target the Pacific Islands my goals are to help all people with my work. A mixture of my developing goals and personal drive have led me to where I am today, which is interning in the Congressional office of Representative Eni Faleomavaega of American Samoa. From this internship I hope to gain a better understanding of the political system of the United, of the political strength of the Pacific Islands in the United States, and of the manner in which political progress is made.

Now that you know a little bit about me let’s get going on our little journey.