A candidate for governor in American Samoa says the territory is more like a third world country, than part of the richest and most powerful nation on earth.
Utu Abe Malae, the outgoing president of the government owned Development Bank of American Samoa, says he has been visiting villages away from Pago Pago and has found many people live in squalor.
He says he wants a middle class lifestyle for the people of American Samoa, with enough food on the table, decent homes, good transportation, families able to afford the good things for their children and to send them to college.
He says the middle class is the backbone of any economy.
