Amata's Pacific Notebook: BREAD AND CIRCUSES
January 10, 2008

by Aumua Amata
Reprinted from Samoa News

Except for the privileged few who actually could be in New Orleans, I - like virtually every other Samoan on the planet who had access to a television - was glued to my set on New Year's Day to watch the University of Hawaii play the University of Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Because the Rainbow Warriors are the only team playing big time American college football anywhere in the Pacific Ocean, many of us always have rooted for them over the years. However, this year was especially significant for a number of reasons.

Going into the bowl season, UH was the only undefeated team left in the country; this was the first time the Warriors were invited to participate in the Bowl Championship Series; there was an extraordinary number of Samoans on the team; and the team has made a special point of paying tribute to our Polynesian heritage, complete with a pre-game ha'a or haka, play-calling in the Samoan language and students leading the team's cheering section dressed like ancient Polynesian warriors.

With just a quick glance at the roster, anyone could spot all the Samoan names and, even if the hometowns listed in many cases were in Hawaii and California, the names belonged to families still well represented here in the islands. But we were even better represented than would have been apparent to the untrained sports fan's eye, because some of our Samoan players carry names of European or Asian origin (such as Purcell, Hisatake and Ah Soon) that long since have been absorbed into our culture.

Regrettably, our heroes found themselves matched against a Georgia team that believed it should have been in the national championship game; they clearly wanted to make that point at the Sugar Bowl and gave us a pretty good thumping to prove it. Nevertheless, I was so proud of our UH team, Samoans and non-Samoans alike, who gave it their very best right up to the final whistle and upheld both their honor and ours.

The good news is that now the University of Hawaii has moved to a new level of collegiate football competition, our most talented high school players have another option to consider if they believe they have the skills eventually to go on to a professional football career. The multi-million dollar Sugar Bowl payout to UH will enable the athletic department to upgrade facilities and develop a first class recruiting program. One TV analyst reported the team's recruiting budget last year was only $50,000--not enough to allow head coach June Jones to budget even a single Mainland recruiting trip.

Even though Coach Jones on Monday announced he was leaving UH for Southern Methodist University in Dallas, I am sure with more resources, his successor will head this way. And I certainly hope the June Jones Football Academy scheduled for here this summer will go ahead as planned. That is an important way to showcase our talented youngsters. But it also raises another point I want to make.

As much as I applaud the UH team and particularly the Samoan players, and join others in congratulating the two Samoan professional players, Lofa Tatupu and Troy Polamalu, who recently were named to the Pro Bowl, it is also important that we place football in its proper context. Yes, perhaps some of those youngsters on the Sugar Bowl team will wind up in the NFL, but most will not. It is important that all of us who are parents teach our children, yes, to hone their physical skills but then apply them towards achieving the higher education they will need to compete in our increasingly complex world, where no society can survive in isolation.

Football should be seen as a means to an end, not an end unto itself. It is not a matter, as some have suggested, of athletes choosing football over rugby because football is where the money is, but rather guiding our children realistically to prepare themselves for life and to use all the talents they possess make meaningful contributions to society. Remember that Al Lolotai, the first Samoan ever to play in the NFL, who returned to American Samoa where he had a long and much appreciated career as an educator after his football and wrestling days were over. However, for every Al Lolotai, there are many others who have done the same thing without passing through the NFL first and they deserve just as much applause.

A young Samoan woman who was raised in the San Francisco Bay area and is now in college there recently e-mailed me in frustration to ask if there were any way we might showcase our people for more than just their athleticism. I responded that she was doing it: getting an advanced education so that someday she could add her skill set into the mix. At some point, I told her, she needed to think about how she could contribute that skill set to our people and offer a pair of shoulders for others to stand on.

A long-time Samoan educator recently made much the same point to me when she expressed concern that we sometimes over-emphasize the athletic achievements of our people at the expense of other, real achievements outside the world of sports, which are under-reported and under-acknowledged. Both women make an important point.

Make no mistake about it. We should have first-class facilities for our athletes so our student athletes can hone their skills to their highest level. But this must not come at the expense of or be given higher priority by the government than to providing educators all the essential tools they need to have to find, develop and hone the skills of all our students, from the chemistry labs to the playing fields. Our children watch closely for signals from their parents and other adults send on priorities. And the politicians watch, too.

In the latter days of the Roman Empire in the late first and early second centuries, the poet Juvenal wrote that the population was satisfied to have panem et circenses (bread and circuses), even if it meant sacrificing other things, including individual liberty. Over the centuries the phrase that has come to stand for any government's effort to divert the public's attention from genuine, unsolved societal problems by providing the people plenty of food and entertainment (i.e. bread and circuses).

We must not allow ourselves to fall into the trap of thinking that by celebrating the successes of our athletes on the football field we can make our problems go away. Yes, we should bask in their accomplishments but not raise false expectations that glory on the gridiron is the ticket to lifelong security and productivity.

The native Chamorro people of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are not particularly noted for producing football players, but the University of Hawaii is their major regional college, too, so I am sure they cheered for the Rainbow Warriors as loudly as we did. Moreover, it would have come as no surprise to me to have learned that Guam Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo, of whom I have written admiringly in the past, was in the Superdome stands for the game.

However, I could not help but notice in the Guam media on New Year's Day that a bi-partisan, dozen-member Congressional Delegation led by no less than House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and the House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) was on the island that day, with Hoyer saying "(we) came to Guam at the urging of Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo." With a beaming Bordallo at his side, Hoyer went on to tell KUAM-TV news: "I don't think there's one of us here, Republican or Democrat, that has not had the opportunity to spend hours with your congresswoman learning about the challenges and learning about the partnership that is necessary to make sure we overcome those challenges [of Guam's needs] successfully."

Congresswoman Bordallo undoubtedly had the clout to get a premium seat at the Sugar Bowl but, even if there were Guamanians on the team, I rather doubt she would have made that a higher priority than steering a major congressional delegation to Guam on New Year's Day and being there to receive them. The visit of that delegation, which the local press described as one of the most important in Guam's history, undoubtedly will pay legislative dividends in 2008 and beyond towards meeting Guam's critical needs. No bread and circuses for Madeleine.

Although the delegation's itinerary out of Washington reportedly did not include any other territories, the group did make a stop here for a couple of hours yesterday on the way home from Australia and New Zealand. I wish it could have been longer. The bowl games are over.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments. Call me at 699-9609 or e-mail Amata.aumua@gmail.com.

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