Comunidad del pacífico en perspectiva - Volumen 2

LA COMUNIDAD DEL PAciFlOO EN PERSPECTIVA ¡ F. Orrego Vicuña blems with the latter notwithstanding and present economics- or politics-caused famines aside, dIese and other applications of mo– dern medicine have made life in certain regions of the tropics very tolerable indeed. Take, for example, the State of Hawaii which in Íts early history was heavily ravaged by disease; it has now the highest life expectancy in the United States, 70 years on the average for males and 73 for females. Another island, Easter Island, the site of this conference, expe– rienced a collapse of its hígh culture, most likely due to its popula– tion exceeding the carrying capacity of its resource base. While one may observe that population control can be exercised by many means, those that modern woman and man have at their disposal are more effective and benign than those of old. Whether or not they and best health and medical practices will be applied ís not only a question of income, technícal infrastructure, level of develop– ment, and the like, but prominently one of polítical will to invent appropriate social organizations. for the task. 3. C o N e L u S ION Reviewing the points raised in this article, we see that the Pacific has shrunk, that material and energy resources on or near islands and in or near rim countries are not scarce, that movements of pe 0- pIe, goods, and ideas are easier now than they were in the past, and that they will be easier still. Pacific development will be assisted by new resource potentials here touched upon and by use of resouree– associated and other new technologíes. We may find, though, that the Pacific peoples will adopt of these resource use potentials and technologies only those that help them on the political and econo· mie paths they choose. It is implied in these choiees that there should arise an imaginative blend of sorne of the old and sorne of the new, but it will not be easy to decide nation-by-nation or region– by-regíon what of the old to retain and what of the new to adopt. (Similar thoughts were expressed independently by Cleveland and Abdel Rahman in a paper for UNCSTD, Vienna, August 1979.) The path to such decisions may well be straightened by having available both short- and 10ng-range assessments of teehnology. 144