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> To eat and drink by the mast tip. The ucharm (bird) is the hardwood tip at the top of the canoe mast. The person to whom the idiom is applied is accused of thriving on gifts from other places. Particularly it may be applied to persons of a highranking village who rather expect that visitors in canoes from other villages will come provisioned with gifts-thus, those who watch for the canoes. Sometimes the idiom goes: Ngkora chad ra Oreor, "Like the man of Koror," with reference to the high ranking community of Koror in central Palau. |
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> Like the Bilimbi tree which, if not shaken, will not bear fruit. Applied to a person who does not fulfill their obligations without constant prodding or nagging. |
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> Though an ally, yet hostile? A fellow clan member, or an employee, who should be loyal, but is not |
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> Even though we fix our own betel-nut, we get burned. Chemachel is a "betelnut package" consisting of the seeded nut, the pepper leaf (kebui), and the lime (chaus). By applying too much lime to a "package" it is possible to burn one's mouth. Although this is sometimes done among young people to signal another secretly of sexual attraction, typically it happens accidentally. The idiom implies that everyone makes mistakes; it can't be helped. No matter how careful we are, we sometimes fail; we shouldn't be too sure or overconfident in ourselves. |
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> Firebrand politics extinguished with water. In a sense this is a response to "Fire brand politics," but it appears to be a fully developed technique none the less. It involves responding to anger with quiet calm and kind words. If it has a character of its own it would be called compromise. Buying the opponent off is approved. J. Useem names this strategy, but was perhaps unaware of the wider significance, For him the phrase pertained to "a small time official who use his authority for his own benefit but shrewdly avoids being detected by superiors." I think that most Palauan political leaders would agree that any political tactitian,knowingly using the strategy of his training, would expect to accomplish as much. |
