The trust territories were granted independence, but they would receive substantial annual cash payments in return for renting out their military sovereignty to the United States. The grants, the theory went, would help them develop a self-sufficient economy. It did not turn out that way. It accounts for the majority of the gross domestic product of both countries. The state bureaucracy consumes most of the money and it is, in turn, the largest employer in both countries.
Families strive to land at least one member in a government job.
But it is largely a make-believe economy. Under the current arrangement, the grants will stop coming in 2001, and that has everyone frightened. We're doing everything we can to survive without help, but 15 years is not enough time to build a self-sufficient economy from scratch. The Marshallese capital is on Majuro, a delicate coral atoll perched around the circular rim of a long submerged and extinct volcano. Originally, dozens of sandy islets perched along the reef like the beads of an irregular pearl necklace.