"Variety" Show

On Saturday evening I walked with Helen and Rohaizad to the basketball court on Sokehs Island for the community variety show.

I was expecting to be disappointed by people singing pop songs to a Casio beat, but I was unprepared for just HOW disappointed I was going to be.

It was a great set-up. The place was brightly lit and there were tents set up selling pop corn, sandwiches, soda and sakau. The stage was made of two tents with bed sheets serving as curtains. It was surrounded by Christmas lights. Very festive.

Everyone was there! Old people who had to be helped along, young people who stared at us (we were the only foreigners there) and every age in-between.

The first act was a group of young people dancing to a CD of hip-hop music.

The second act was a group of young people dancing to a CD of Bollywood music.

The third act was a group of young people dancing to a CD of Tahitian music.

That took an hour, which is when we left.

It made me so sad to see these young people – the torch-bearers of Micronesian culture – disregard it in favor of alien cultures.

It was ironic that they chose hip-hop, Bollywood and Tahitian music, because those are three examples of old musical traditions which have adapted and evolved in order to stay relevant in the contemporary world.

Such an evolution is not occurring in Micronesian music. Some folks occasionally try to preserve it, but I’ve seen no attempt to make it contemporary.

I thought that singing to a Casio beat was the most culturally depressing thing out here, but at least the folks were still singing. With this new “dance” craze, they have disregarded all sense of creativity.

It makes me think that my time here could be better spent in trying to rectify this situation in some small way.