FIELD NOTES - from Karie's Journal

"I LOVE my new relatives, so helpful, so generous. Though extremely poor, they'll happily share their last tin of sardines. Three years later, I get the picture (and it's depressing). My timid in-laws are dying. They are not seen. They are not heard. They do not matter. They do not count. Due to the armed guards and strict rules, they live in an atmosphere that resembles a prison camp. My dream of bringing our children, Cody & Asiarita to their ancestral home, the island of their Ilokano grandparents is dying. I'm anxious to get off the island. I want to go home. But how? There are no boats. I'm worried. Will Violeta and I ever get off the island? As for my poor relatives, they have no choice. I now understand their dilemma. Elder Sibing Balbag explained it: "Because we are illiterate, we can't get a job anywhere. When we go to the mainland, we are ridiculed and humiliated. So we live out our lives on Fuga and try to work our small farms. It's a hard life. For decades we have been controlled. We are not free."

MORE NOTES - "I sit here in the doorway of Aunty Dura's hut, a tiny hut on stilts, in the serene village of Mudoc. It's crowded in Dura's cute little hut. The roof a thatched covering of grass. The hardwood floor (roughly 10 feet by 14 feet) is polished and clean. No thongs or shoes allowed in here. Because the natives are not allowed to build huts, up to 16 family members (four generations) sleep on this floor. Outside, the earth is reddish-brown, parched and cracked like a barren wasteland floor. Little brown feet, copper coloured like the ground, appear with giggles. A dozen shy scantily clad village kids, all with runny noses, have succumbed to curiosity. So cute, they gather round me barefooted on the ground. What a picture! Their sweet brown feet bespeak a harmony with the earth."

GLORIA ARROYO - Her face appears on Fuga. She dreams to visit Fuga? MORE NOTES - "I walk out into the yard, away from Aunty Dura's hut. I turn and look back at the outer wooden walls, dark clapboards weathered, sun bleached and mottled with spots like a leopard. Tacked to the front door is a HUGE yellow and blue poster. A celebrity poster? It's the life-sized portrait photo of a beautiful, 30-ish, benevolent looking Filipina. Is she a movie star? Nope. The poster reads: "Gloria Arroyo for Vice President" (Gloria Arroyo is now President of the Philippines, and she's apparently sympathetic to the timid Fugans: Read about Arroyo's "dream to visit Fuga" in the Philippines Inquirer:

. . . Back to Aunty Dura - "Born on Fuga back in the healthy days (60 years ago), Dura married young, and over the next 30 years gave birth to 11 kids (not all of them survived). She says, "My mom and dad had 14 children. I had only 11". A beautiful woman, the sister of Violeta's handsome father, Dura like all the other Fugans is a survivor. What has she survived? Decades of extreme hardship. The Marcos regime. The executions of her relatives. The deaths of her babies. The decimation of the fish stocks. When I think of Aunty Dura, her slim rugged beauty and all she's endured, my mind flashes on an association: Dura stands for Durable!"

DECIMATING THE FISH STOCKS - THE DYING ECOLOGY Dynamite Fishing 101 - "One good blast gives all the fish you need" The technique was explained by a primary school teacher in Claveria: "Once the goggled diver below spots a large enough number of fish, usually at a depth of 50 meters, he immediately surfaces to the banca and climbs in. A 20 pound pail of dynamite, complete with blasting cap and a fuse inside a plastic tube, is lit and pushed overboard. With only a minute to get out of harm's way, they speed off a short distance and moor. After the deafening blast and hundred-foot plume have subsided, they motor back to the location. The explosion kills everything. The diver goes back down and gathers all the bigger fish, on a good day as much as a ton. One good blast gives you all the fish you need. Then it's off to the fish markets."

EXPLOSIVE NOTES - from Karie's journal -"Awakened in the wee hours by the frightening "Bang!-Bang!-Bang!" of M-16s being fired. Fired in a rapid succession! Deafening shots. Cracking the peaceful morning air sixty feet from where I sleep. Full of fear, I lay still. I'm afraid to move or look outside. . . . Within 24 hours, I've heard machine guns fired in the dark, and powerful explosions off shore. Seven times today I heard the low rumbling "Fa-womph!" Then I'd look out over Musa Bay and see an outrigger moored. Weird. First you see the gigantic white plume of spray. It goes straight up in the air in silence. Then, a few seconds later, you hear the rumble, the "Fa-womp!" from the underwater explosion."

DYNAMITE FISHING - VS - THE TRADITIONAL RULE OF HAND Respected elder Sibing Balbag, born on Fuga in 1922, explains: "Before the dynamite fishing, which began just after World War II, a few young men would go out for a few hours and come back with 150 lobsters. Now you're lucky to find one or two. Fifty years ago our waters were full of fish. There were tons of big fish. So we never took the little fish. We always obeyed the "rule of hand". We took only fish bigger than your hand. But now there are no fish as big as your hand. The only fish left are tiny ones, the size of two fingers. Dynamite fishing has killed everything. It's killed the fish, the octopus, the lobsters, the sea birds and the coral reefs. It's killing the natives too. That's why old people and children are hungry on Fuga. Dynamite fishing is illegal, but it goes on every day. There are no police here to enforce the law. The police are eight hours away in Aparri and they have to come all the way by boat." Garnier asked the Elder: "Who is doing all the dynamite fishing?" Balbag's answer: "Fishermen from the mainland in motor boats." Garnier said, "Not the Fuga natives?" The Elder said, "No. Not the natives. We are not allowed to have a boat with a motor." When Garnier asked why they were not allowed to have a motorboat , the sensitive old man hesitated. His eyes grew watery. After a very long pause he said:"Money is more powerful than life." The Elder said no more.

THE BRUNDTLAND REPORT - a plea for the prompt restoration of traditional land and resource rights to the world's remaining indigenous and tribal peoples: "Their survival has depended upon their ecological awareness and adaptation . . . These communities are the repositories of vast accumulations of traditional knowledge and experience that links humanity with its ancient origins. Their disappearance is a loss for the larger society, which could learn a great deal from their traditional skills in sustainably managing very complex ecological systems" (from The 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development).