The Samoan Aidscape: Situated Knowledge and Multiple Realities of Japan’S Foreign Aid to Sāmoa
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THE SAMOAN AIDSCAPE: SITUATED KNOWLEDGE AND MULTIPLE REALITIES OF JAPAN’S FOREIGN AID TO SĀMOA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN GEOGRAPHY DECEMBER 2012 By Masami Tsujita Dissertation Committee: Mary G. McDonald, Chairperson Krisnawati Suryanata Murray Chapman John F. Mayer Terence Wesley-Smith © Copyright 2012 By Masami Tsujita ii I would like to dedicate this dissertation to all who work at the forefront of the battle called “development,” believing genuinely that foreign aid can possibly bring better opportunities to people with fewer choices to achieve their life goals and dreams. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is an accumulation of wisdom and support from the people I encountered along the way. My deepest and most humble gratitude extends to my chair and academic advisor of 11 years, Mary G. McDonald. Her patience and consideration, generously given time for intellectual guidance, words of encouragement, and numerous letters of support have sustained me during this long journey. Without Mary as my advisor, I would not have been able to complete this dissertation. I would like to extend my deep appreciation to the rest of my dissertation committee members, Krisnawati Suryanata, Terence Wesley-Smith, Lasei Fepulea‘i John F. Mayer, and Murray Chapman. Thank you, Krisna, for your thought-provoking seminars and insightful comments on my papers. The ways in which you frame the world have greatly helped improved my naïve view of development; Terence, your tangible instructions, constructive critiques, and passion for issues around the development of the Pacific Islands inspired me to study further; John, your openness and reverence for fa‘aSāmoa have been an indispensable source of encouragement for me to continue studying the people and place other than my own; Murray, thank you for your mentoring with detailed instructions to clear confusions and obstacles in becoming a geographer. Now that I, your last student, have finished, I hope you can finally enjoy your retirement not only in theory but also in reality. Lastly, thanks to Brian Murton, the 6th member of my initial committee, for sharing generously your time and knowledge throughout my course work. I am thankful to the great support I received from faculty and staff of Department of Geography at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Special thanks go to our successive chairs and graduate chairs, Mark Ridgley, Ross Sutherland, and Matthew McGranaghan, for continued financial support through teaching assistantships, lectureships, and departmental grants, and for many letters of support for my student visa. To Uluwehi Allen and Kathy Yamane, mahalo for administrative support and always giving me a helping hand. I have been blessed with institutional support that provided funding for my field research and dissertation writing. I would like to gratefully acknowledge the SEED office at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa for successive funding for seven years through the Mildred Towle Scholarship for International Students. Many thanks to funding from the American Association of University Women Pacific Fellowship as well as Research iv Grants, Dai Ho Chun Graduate Scholarship, University of Hawai‘i Arts & Science Advisory Council Award, University of Hawai‘i Graduate Student Organization Travel Grants, Center for Japanese Studies at University of Hawai‘i Graduate Student Travel Awards, and William P. Lebra Memorial Scholarship. In the field, I received immense support from numerous individuals and families. My most sincere and warmest appreciation goes to Fe‘esago George and Rosita Fepulea‘i, and Maiava Pusi Endemann for their hospitality, parent-like guidance, protection, and limitless alofa during my fieldwork in Sāmoa in 2006 and onward. I would like to thank Hideno Kobayashi for arranging my interview with former JICA president and Juliet Nanai Boon for helping me collect survey sheets at National University of Sāmoa. I also thank Etsuko Okishita for helping me conduct surveys at Yazaki EDS Sāmoa. Fa‘afetai Sara Retzlaff and Laena Lafaitele Hermansen for their friendship and insights into Savai‘i life. Many thanks to all my research participants for sharing their lifeworld stories with me. In Hawai‘i, Sāmoa, and Japan, I am blessed with many friends who have contributed one way or another to this journey. To my Geography colleagues Leslie McLees, Bruce Lindquist, Chris Castagna, Ricardo Gonzalez, Yoshitaka Miyake, Jacqui Evans, Kanako Uchino, and Jean Evers, thanks for your support and insights into geography. To my friends in Hawai‘i, ‘Iwalani & Adrian Akina, Myoung-ja Hwa, Loau Luafata Simanu- Klutz, Tina Tauasosi-Posiulai, Yuka & Arthur Canilao, Miwa & Mike Muromoto, Sa‘ili Duchess Steffany, Yōko Nojima, Miwako Yanagisawa, and Yōko Watanabe, mahalo for your aloha and being part of my sunny and rainy days in Hawai‘i. My special thanks must go to my roommate of six years Miwako Watanabe for your patience, generosity, and hours and hours of conversations. I really miss our cozy living room of Kahoaloha Lane #606! To my oldest friends in Japan, Miki Kishishita, Kaoru Akamatsu, and Masako Uesaka, arigatou for your continued support. To my dearest girl friends in Sāmoa, Tautala Suisala, Lili Malietoa Lam, and Laura M. Fepulea‘i, fa‘afetai lava for your friendship and acts of encouragement. You all have inspired me to write about the contemporary Samoan women who have wisdom to juggle tradition and modernity and carve their own developmental path. I also thank their families, Papali‘itele Maiava Tavita Suisala and children in Auckland, Endemann families in Maluafou and Sālei‘a, Seiuli James Lam and children in Lotopa, and Gerard Williams and Fepulea‘i families in v Apia. I thank very much Jackie Fa‘asisila for proofreading my entire dissertation and editing with insightful comments. Malo lava! I am grateful to the management of Yazaki EDS Sāmoa, especially President Takashi Ikeda, Vice President Shūji Tange, and Factory Manager Norimasa Watanabe for understanding and kind support on the completion of my study in Hawai‘i. I would like to express my gratitude to my Church families, Pastor Saku Kuroda and Yasuko Kuroda and friends in Makiki Christian Church in Honolulu, Pastor Jon Yamazaki and Setsuko Yamazaki of Aloha Bible Church, Pastor Semisi Lafi and Faletua Lucilla Ann Marie Lafi of Voice of Christ Vaitele-uta, Pastor Tia Filipo Sefo and Faletua Rosina Sefo of Voice of Christ Sālei‘a, Pastor Sueyasu Ōmiya and Nobuko Ōmiya and members of Reformed Church of Christ in Japan Ōsaka Church for their prayers and spiritual support. Special thanks to the members of my mini church group in Makiki, and my sisters in Christ, Yūko Stender and Rieko Tielu for continued prayers and encouragement through the Word of God. Lastly and most respectfully, I thank my families who have been supporting me all the way. I am indeed indebted to the Esera family in Vaitele-uta in Sāmoa. Take Kitiona, Kattrina, Peleimoana, Epenesa, Lafi, and Herman, without your prayers and presence in this family, I would not have been able to get through the toughest stage of completing the dissertation. I am gratefully blessed with my sisters in Japan, Sayuri Miyake and Dr. Miki Tsujita Kyūtoku, and their families Katsuhiko Miyake, Dr. Shigeo Kyūtoku, Ray, and Yūki who have been great supporters of my academic endeavor and sources of joy in my life. I am looking forward to holding our family get-together soon, now that I have more time! My greatest gratitude goes to my parents, Dr. Momosuke Tsujita and Takako Tsujita, who have supported me throughout my life. I deeply thank you two for your unconditional love for your prodigal daughter and not giving up on me. Because of your love, support, and presence, I have completed the highest degree of academia I could not have imagined during my hippie days. It is now my turn to return you two a favor. Otō-san and Okā-san, hontōni arigatō, yatto owatta yo!! Finally, I thank my husband Fa‘aso‘o Levusi Levi for who you are. Now we can start the new chapter of our life together. vi ABSTRACT This study is a postmodern geography of foreign aid that explores the Aidscape – multiple realities of aid seen, experienced, and talked about from the viewpoints of donors, recipients, and observers at different scales. It focuses on the flow of bilateral aid from Japan to Sāmoa, an independent nation in the Pacific Islands region. In this dissertation, I ask whether foreign aid merely promotes dependency of recipients when its multidimensional impacts are taken into consideration. Among academic observers, critical aid studies view foreign aid as furthering dependency assuming that aid primarily facilitates the donor’s interests while undermining the economy, social fabric, and accountability of recipients. Many academic studies debate whether aid is inherently incapable of assisting the development of recipients due to the world system that defines the donor-recipient relation. These views have predicted for some decades now that MIRAB (migration, remittance, aid, and bureaucracy) societies like Sāmoa would continue to struggle with chronic dependency on aid. My study moves beyond this scope of analysis and explores the complexity and interconnectedness of the impacts of aid holistically with the original idea of Aidscape. Borrowing ideas from Appadurai’s “-scape” and Soja’s concept of Thirdspace, I coined the term Aidscape to conceptualize foreign aid as a spatial practice that produces culturally hybrid, politically connected, and socially reflexive space composed of constantly changing realities in both lived and imaginary worlds. I use the human geographical concepts of situated knowledge and lifeworld to explore the multiplicity of accounts of aid constituting the Aidscape. With these concepts, the study explores the Samoan Aidscape of aid impacts in overlapping but disjunctive physical, mental, and vii social spaces at international, national and grassroots levels.