The Guam Dichotomy

It is hard to imagine a place short of Eden embellished more in natural beauty than Guam. Emerald mountains rising out of the blue Pacific Ocean, ringed in coral reefs and beaches teaming with life. The tropical forests are saturated with flowering fauna of white, yellow, blue, red and seemingly every shade of purple. Take for example the Hyacinth, a tree of shiny dark green leaves laden with clumps of flowers. Each blooms appears to be a spark of sunshine in-and-of-itself, starting with a bright yellow core that fades rapidly into white pedals so pure they may be the raw material for celestial robing.

Appreciating the creation that is Guam is hard though. Neighborhoods transform rapidly from palatial gated estate-like homes to shacks saturated with the castoff remnants of years of socioeconomic squalor. At times the island's beauty can seem virtually obscured by the overwhelming volume of household trash, rusting appliances and junk cars. What appears to be symptomatic of sloth and exhaustive environmental disregard is probably more rooted in civic disconnect and political corruption. The Guam EPA struggles with charges of mis-allocation of Federal funding and the removal of it's top administrator under a cloud of suspicion. This purely bureaucratic machine appears to hamper the removal of offending refuse more than facilitating it. Attempts to implement recycling programs are thwarted by arbitrarily implemented regulations just when the process becomes profitable. Hopefully the island will slowly become cleaner as a municipally run recycling program has just begun to gear up and the potential for privateers to thrive may become more viable as the bureaucracy is dissolved.

When you get past the initial discomfort elicited by the debris of civilization and realize that the stark contrast does not belong in this place, Guam is a fantastically beautiful place.