SACRAMENTO — What does Micronesia, a chain of steamy, impoverished islands in the far South Pacific, hold for a powerful, cosmopolitan, liberal, feminist from Los Angeles like state Sen. Diane Watson?
The nation of 607 islands--perched almost on the equator and with names such as Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae--is so remote that it takes 22 hours by air from Los Angeles to reach the capital of Kolonia.
For the Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday July 8, 1998 Home Edition Part A Page 3 Metro Desk 1 inches; 32 words Type of Material: Correction
Micronesia ambassador--A June 29 story in The Times about the nomination of state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) as the American ambassador to Micronesia misidentified the country's location. It is in the North Pacific.
Television from the outside is limited and delayed; there are no daily newspapers or movie theaters; an evening out might consist of supper at a diner.
"People don't know about Micronesia because they cannot find it on the map," said Watson, who is President Clinton's newly nominated ambassador to the former trust territory known as the Federated States of Micronesia, population 107,000.
Originally, Watson had sought appointment as ambassador to South Africa. It didn't work out. Neither did a foreign posting in Lesotho, another African country, or in Bermuda.
Watson better be prepared for dramatic lifestyle and cultural changes in Micronesia, says her predecessor, former Ambassador March Fong Eu, a retired California secretary of state, who resigned from the post two years ago.
"You don't have all the excitement of what you have in California," Eu said, noting that "I just made myself keep busy. I kept busy in the [Embassy] garden and raising chickens."
Although Eu indicated that there is no overload of official duties, she said Watson will take over at an important time because the United States intends to end its financial support of the nation.
Micronesians are doing their best to become self-sufficient, Eu said, but "it is going to be very difficult. They don't have the resources to do it."
At 64 and prohibited by term limits from running again for the office that she has held for 20 years, Watson wants a new career as a diplomat.
Now that she has Clinton's nomination, she must stand for confirmation by conservative Chairman Jesse Helms and his Foreign Relations Committee and then by the full Senate. A spokesman for the Foreign Relations Committee did not return calls about Watson's nomination.
"I'm looking forward to the challenge of confirmation," said Watson, who in 1978 became the first African American woman elected to the state Senate.
She said she is preparing for Helms, a powerful North Carolina Republican who earlier this year had sunk Clinton's nomination of Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld to be ambassador to Mexico.
