What Do You Do When a City Is More Overpopulated than the Biggest City in the World, but it Doesn't Have Any of the Resources?
Poverty in the Marshall Islands
One word. Overpopulation. Ebeye is known as "The Armpit of the Pacific". It earned this title for several reasons. Ebeye is known for its dense pollution that gets washed up onto the land because of rising sea levels. It's also known for its frequent power outages that can last up to two weeks, and its low, almost non-existent levels of clean water. But most of all, Ebeye is known for outranking New York in the number of people living per square mile. Whats wrong with that? There would be nothing wrong with that, except...
Ebeye is not even a mile long
Ebeye houses 10,000 people...and...
Ebeye is just one of the two-thirds of the country that lives on less than $1 a day.
Ebeye is not even a mile long
Ebeye houses 10,000 people...and...
Ebeye is just one of the two-thirds of the country that lives on less than $1 a day.
This is by far the most impoverished city and atoll in the Marshall Islands, and to make matters worse, it does not even receive half of the aid that the nearly uninhabited atolls of Bikini, Rongelap, Enewetak, and Utrik. People in Ebeye have to search for clean water, even though they are surrounded by nothing but water. Although there are thousands of houses in Ebeye, family members have to take turns sleeping, waiting outside for their turn in the tiny little dwelling made from pieces varying from driftwood to scrap metal. What is the cause of all of this poverty? Why does it have to happen? The answer to this is also one word: Inequality.
Looking at this, you would never guess that this place I just described was just a 30-minute boat ride away. The difference in standard of living is baffling; the location? Not quite so much...
This is the Kwajalien atoll; where mostly everyone speaks fluent English, and lives in an American middle-class neighborhood. No overcrowding here. People who have taken the ferry ride to the Ebeye atoll from Kwajalein say that the significantly difference in "scenery" is sickening. Americans that reside on Kwajalein for military purposes are able to turn a blind eye to the situations in Majuro and Ebeye, where pollution, overpopulation, and poverty seem to be the most prevalent, because they're view of the Marshalls is through an American-stained telescope. This picture is not the Marshall Islands.
The rest of the Marshall Islands looks a little more like this..
This is the Kwajalien atoll; where mostly everyone speaks fluent English, and lives in an American middle-class neighborhood. No overcrowding here. People who have taken the ferry ride to the Ebeye atoll from Kwajalein say that the significantly difference in "scenery" is sickening. Americans that reside on Kwajalein for military purposes are able to turn a blind eye to the situations in Majuro and Ebeye, where pollution, overpopulation, and poverty seem to be the most prevalent, because they're view of the Marshalls is through an American-stained telescope. This picture is not the Marshall Islands.
The rest of the Marshall Islands looks a little more like this..
Atlantis is Real!!....Kinda...
The country of the Marshall Islands is close to resembling the legendary city of Atlantis...and not in a good way. Almost completely made up of water itself, this country is in danger of sinking under the pressure of rising sea levels...which causes extreme pollution in overcrowded cities like Majuro and Ebeye. Rising sea levels create an atmosphere of abandonment, as is necessary. Cars will simply stop running due to excess salt water, so the Marshallese will just up and leave their vehicle, adding to the countless piles of trash on the atolls. Floating trash consumes the beach on Majuro, as you coannot even walk barefoot on the sandy shores for fear of cutting your foot open on shards of glass. Kids find entertainment in playing in the piles of abandoned trash that litters the shore-to-shore borders of the country's atolls. If a home is taken over, its time to build a new one out of what else? Floating trash.
The country of the Marshall Islands is close to resembling the legendary city of Atlantis...and not in a good way. Almost completely made up of water itself, this country is in danger of sinking under the pressure of rising sea levels...which causes extreme pollution in overcrowded cities like Majuro and Ebeye. Rising sea levels create an atmosphere of abandonment, as is necessary. Cars will simply stop running due to excess salt water, so the Marshallese will just up and leave their vehicle, adding to the countless piles of trash on the atolls. Floating trash consumes the beach on Majuro, as you coannot even walk barefoot on the sandy shores for fear of cutting your foot open on shards of glass. Kids find entertainment in playing in the piles of abandoned trash that litters the shore-to-shore borders of the country's atolls. If a home is taken over, its time to build a new one out of what else? Floating trash.
Faces of Poverty
"A Lost Generation"
Boom. That is how long it took to lose an entire generation of prior knowledge, skill, and way of life. Everything the Marshallese did after March 1, 1951 was the aftermath of the nuclear testing and fallout on the Bikini Atoll. Those who suffer from the aftermath are not simply the people who were born on the Marshall Islands after that day...but those who suffer the greatest are those who are barely celebrating their first decade of living. Among those who suffer the greatest are also those who are celebrating the last decades of their life...these are both people who are a part of the "lost generation"...they are the faces of poverty.
The elderly who once lived on any of the Rongelap, Utrik, Enewetak, and Bikini atolls were forced to move by the United States as a result of either accidental nuclear fallout or evacuation to conduct nuclear testing in those areas. These elderly were once younger moms and dads, trying to make a living which was almost assuredly by working with the land. Then, everything they knew was gone, and they were forced to adapt into a new way of life.
Bikini was known as one of the most lush and green atolls before the bombs destroyed the agricultural life there for six decades. On the atoll of Ebeye, however, there is not a trace of a coconut tree unless in an urbanized and overcrowded road. There is no grass, no bushes...no former trace of what these people once knew as their home atoll. It's like someone being forced to move from Maine to Manhattan...its going to take some adjustment, and cause some uncomfortable emotional detachment. The overall affect of this was that these people raised children in places that they had no idea how to live in themselves. This caused immense poverty...there weren't enough jobs for this new flood of poverty, and these Bikinians and those from other three atolls did not have the skill sets to make a living that was not agriculturally-based. So, a new round of poverty began...
Today...we see these effects come into place in a new and even more hazardous light. The descendants of those atomic bomb-ees are now faced with a problem- they have no idea how to make a living for themselves and they do not know how to be efficient with knowledge and resources. The United States has been providing compensation for so long that the number one listed source of income for the Marshallese is United States settlement funds that get distributed on a self-identification system. These little children will have grown up right around the time when this compesation is just about finished being given out, and they will not know what to do with no steady source of American money. This is why these children are called the lost generation...because their future is completely dependent on the back of another country, they are lost in their traditional ways labor-wise, and they do not know how to grow their own food in places like Ebeye and Majuro, where they've been raised comprimisingly. They are by no means lazy; they are just as their name states: lost. They really have nowhere else to go.
The elderly who once lived on any of the Rongelap, Utrik, Enewetak, and Bikini atolls were forced to move by the United States as a result of either accidental nuclear fallout or evacuation to conduct nuclear testing in those areas. These elderly were once younger moms and dads, trying to make a living which was almost assuredly by working with the land. Then, everything they knew was gone, and they were forced to adapt into a new way of life.
Bikini was known as one of the most lush and green atolls before the bombs destroyed the agricultural life there for six decades. On the atoll of Ebeye, however, there is not a trace of a coconut tree unless in an urbanized and overcrowded road. There is no grass, no bushes...no former trace of what these people once knew as their home atoll. It's like someone being forced to move from Maine to Manhattan...its going to take some adjustment, and cause some uncomfortable emotional detachment. The overall affect of this was that these people raised children in places that they had no idea how to live in themselves. This caused immense poverty...there weren't enough jobs for this new flood of poverty, and these Bikinians and those from other three atolls did not have the skill sets to make a living that was not agriculturally-based. So, a new round of poverty began...
Today...we see these effects come into place in a new and even more hazardous light. The descendants of those atomic bomb-ees are now faced with a problem- they have no idea how to make a living for themselves and they do not know how to be efficient with knowledge and resources. The United States has been providing compensation for so long that the number one listed source of income for the Marshallese is United States settlement funds that get distributed on a self-identification system. These little children will have grown up right around the time when this compesation is just about finished being given out, and they will not know what to do with no steady source of American money. This is why these children are called the lost generation...because their future is completely dependent on the back of another country, they are lost in their traditional ways labor-wise, and they do not know how to grow their own food in places like Ebeye and Majuro, where they've been raised comprimisingly. They are by no means lazy; they are just as their name states: lost. They really have nowhere else to go.
Faces of Wealth: They May Be Lost, but Noone is Frowning
Don't look rich? Well...the children of the Marshall Islands are actually a part of a country that has a secret treasure...them!
50% of the entire Marshallese population is under only 14 years old-that is a youthful demographic! Countless teachers, travelers, and bloggers have all expressed their concerns about this large chunk of the population being lost and uneducated on the only way of life that is currently suitable on the Marshall Islands...but they also comment on these children's liveliness. These are the happiest bunch of population boomers that have ever been photographed on the Marshall Islands. There is very very few pictures that I could find where a Marshallese native wasn't making a goofy face or giving a wide grin. These children are the jewel of the Marshall Islands, and maybe if they realize their potential, they could rehabilitate the Marshall Islands to full recovery of its proper name: paradise.
50% of the entire Marshallese population is under only 14 years old-that is a youthful demographic! Countless teachers, travelers, and bloggers have all expressed their concerns about this large chunk of the population being lost and uneducated on the only way of life that is currently suitable on the Marshall Islands...but they also comment on these children's liveliness. These are the happiest bunch of population boomers that have ever been photographed on the Marshall Islands. There is very very few pictures that I could find where a Marshallese native wasn't making a goofy face or giving a wide grin. These children are the jewel of the Marshall Islands, and maybe if they realize their potential, they could rehabilitate the Marshall Islands to full recovery of its proper name: paradise.