Defending the land

If you want the Chamorros and Carolinians to include you, then you got to call yourself a Chamorro and be one in defending our land.

I am one of you whose parents are not Chamorro. My mother was a half Korean and my father was Korean. And believe me I was discriminated, alienated, and abused. But that did not stop me from claiming my identity as a Chamorro Korean. My father got his U.S. passport when he was 70 years old. He was a scientist who contributed so much to building the economy, which I never knew, until many of his clients who became successful told me.

One thing he taught me was to respect others and you will be respected. He always told me this, “You’re the one who is educated, and why you don’t understand.” Well, now I understand.

To those who are talking about racism and discrimination. That is a practice all over the world. About corruption and human trafficking, those too are being practiced in other big countries and are worse than here.

The CNMI was once a beautiful, friendly, and peaceful place. Today it is changing very fast, because of the influence of different cultures and the lack of education among our leaders. They say that our leaders are responsible for the corruption and other unconstitutional practice, well guess what? The Chamorros that I knew back then are not like that. They don’t know prostitution, abuse of authority, or understand the constitution well enough to practice and explain to our people. That is until we imported help to develop our economy, and they hired experts to give advice, build infrastructure, roads, airport, hospital, power plants, etc. These advisors not only advise but also taught our leaders other ways of making money that led to corruption and the destruction of the economy. Look at the Philippines, many whom I know are telling me that their place has changed, their place was not like that before, until they invited investors with different cultures and beliefs. They too are struggling and are being accused of corruption. But are they the ones who started it?

All of us are seeking hope for a better CNMI, better living, and if we continue accusing each other or labeling each other, later on we are all going to end up like every other nation. Rather than fight who is right, or wrong, if you’re born and raised here, then you should call yourself a Chamorro. You need to include yourself as one. Because many of the Chamorros here are descendants of Filipinos, Koreans, Japanese, Germans, and Chinese, but they don’t say that they are Filipinos and Koreans, but call themselves Chamorro Filipino or Chamorro Korean.

Instead of accusing our leaders of corruption let us help them make the CNMI a better and safer place to live. Forgive and you shall be forgiven. From this day forward we the descendants of different nations will be the next CNMI generation. Let us join as one in defending our land that is so tiny compared to that of the United States.