Amata's Pacific Notebook: PICL Day THREE
May 09, 2007

Amata goes behind the scene at historic meeting of Pacific leaders

Reprinted from Samoa News
By Aumua Amata

WASHINGTON, DC (May 8, 2007). Today was a breather for most PICL attendees because the conference is in recess so leaders could spend the day at Congress. While the leaders were up visiting the Legislative Branch, this also provided me an opportunity to pause a moment to express appreciation--which I am sure is shared by all the delegates--for all hard work performed by officials at the U.S. Department of State and the East-West Center, the sponsors of the Conference.

Today was the perfect day for the leaders to travel to Capitol Hill. They were able to meet with a number of senior members of Congress, including House Mays and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY), Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), chairman of the House Asia-Pacific American Caucus.

What made the day particularly memorable, however, was that Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo (D) was able to get the House at long last to pass a bill authorizing the payment of damages to individuals on Guam who suffered during the Japanese occupation during World War II. The issue has been discussed for almost a quarter century with Congresswoman Bordallo achieving a victory that eluded her three predecessors. Nonetheless, she was quick to give them praise for laying the foundation and was gracious to invite former Guam Del. Ben Blaz (R) to witness the floor debate yesterday.

Bordallo's bill, passed today by a lopsided margin on a recorded vote, is a testament to her effectiveness in the short time she has been in Washington and demonstrates why the prestigious non-partisan website www.power.org ranked her the 177th most powerful member of the House out of 440 Members in their latest "power rankings." That is the highest ranking of any of the island delegates and a measure of her popularity with her colleagues and the respect they have for her.

The day ended with the traditional Pacific Night, where mild weather once again allowed the evening's events to be held out of doors in the beautiful courtyard of the National Geographic Building. President Bush was invited but understandably accepted Queen Elizabeth's invitation to dinner reciprocating for last night's white tie dinner at the White House.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi spoke during the program, as did Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and Hawaii Sen. Daniel Akaka. There were many others but our late arrival from another engagement prevented us from getting into the packed auditorium to listen to the speakers. I am sure Delegate Faleomavaega will report on the evening elsewhere in these pages. But it was not the speeches that drew everyone to Pacific Night, which over the years has grown into one of the most colorful events on the diplomatic circuit and is such a hot ticket security guards are engaged to keep out those without invitations.

What sets Pacific Night apart from other events is not only the island attire and island entertainment but also island food prepared by expatriate groups in Washington representing an array of Pacific cultures. In the past, I have prepared fai'ai pilikaki and palusami for the occasion but in a restructuring of the organizing committee, only government representatives have been serving as members. Regrettably, our Samoan cuisine was not represented at the food tables this year. Island groups also are invited to have display tables and, among the U.S. territories and freely associated states, I was disappointed only American Samoa was unrepresented in this way either.

Pacific Night grew out of an event my husband and I organized for the late Nauru President Hammer deRoburt in conjunction with the opening and dedication of Pacific House in 1988. The building, which has offices and residences, over the years hosted Washington offices for Guam, the Cook Islands, American Samoa and Nauru, plus the embassy of Papua New Guinea. In order to accommodate the President's wishes to be all inclusive for the opening, due to space limitations in the building we had to hold two events: a formal diplomatic opening dinner for official Washington on a Friday evening and an island style Pacific Night on Saturday evening. Island clubs in Washington supplied food, Nauru sponsored the beverages and entertainment and we had a party that rocked half the night.

It was such a success that within a few years, island embassies and offices resurrected the concept and turned it into an annual event that has become the highlight of the Pacific calendar in Washington every year.

Although I am sure President Bush enjoyed dining with the Queen again this evening just a few blocks from where we were, he would have had more fun with us.

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