Widespread apathy in SNAP Isles

Leadership paralysis: You try to make sense of the widespread apathy among the elected elite caught doing fuzzy math on the deepening economic mess at home. Einstein calls it “insanity”—juggling the same numbers hoping for different results—only to find the same derivatives all over again. It’s dysfunction all over.

Next year’s Christmas presents are already on the truck slated for delivery. It includes spikes on health premiums (45 percent), deductibles and medication (45 percent); increases in power bills, basic goods, gasoline, as salaries remain zero for the unemployed and stagnant for the underemployed. You need not sing Silent Night to gauge the angst of tired folks who could no longer navigate hardship in the villages. It’s a sad narrative all the way around treated with inconsequence by Da Boys.

The way forward is simple and resides in a single term—“leadership.” But this trait has sadly morphed into “followership.” So we follow the flock of goats headed toward the bankruptcy cliff to see what’s downstairs. Would a spindly tañgan tañgan root save the day or hasten the involuntary dive into oblivion?

The high cost of utilities rightfully belongs in the court of leadership. But most are dazed thus the persistent paralysis to do anything decisive. The local government can’t pay its $19 million CUC utility bills, scrambling for funds to meet paying the remittance under the retirement settlement agreement (pension obligation loan) and other big ticket items like health and education. It’s incurring a huge debt to pay a huge debt that piles up into a mountain of debts. Not very encouraging, is it?

Moreover, the impending skyrocketing increases combined with pension cut only bleeds the family pocketbooks. With hardship in every corner, is there hope for meaningful help ahead or do we prepare to endure more leadership paralysis? The vacuity of the voice of complacency that isn’t ready to lead our people to economic freedom and opportunities is deafeningly humiliating.

Retirement? Most elected officials wanted this program dead and so they slowly saddled it with more obligations to bleed it to death. DB and DC members have withdrawn their contributions quizzing, “What now?” Save your contributions as much as you can. No one is exempted from old age and the cost of healthcare when you head into the sunset. It’s a costly expense. I’m a living example of it who had to navigate a reduced pension pay and social security. No fun!

Social safety net: The decision to suspend 130 NAP recipients of food assistance for failing to find jobs is timely. This form of assistance is just a temporary pit stop until recipients find jobs to remain productive members of the community. Treating NAP as a permanent backstop is a lazy boy’s way out. Staying active and productive is a cultural pride since time immemorial.

Policy instability: In 1974, we voted by 78-plus percent for the Covenant Agreement. We were ready to embrace all that our great country stands for since 236 years ago.

Today, we vent frustrations emanating from paternalism to disparage the agreement, however a permanent arrangement. Woe! We shift gear quite instantly too, confirming that our attitude is as erratic as the weather. How do we buckle down to setting forth lasting and stable policies?

We know policies need major overhaul to reset our button on investments. But we treat such responsibility with a 10-foot pole, unsure where to begin. This complacency as the quality of life in the villages descends into the abyss of more misery. Troubling!

Plebiscite: When citizens place an issue on the ballot for disposition—plebiscite—it’s a clear expression of distrust in the Legislature’s ability to decide on issues with any sense of equilibrium. Thus it picks it up and rallies the rest of the community to vote for or against it. The electorate voted twice against casino, a decision glossed over by our half-cocked men of wisdom in the Legislature.

What is it in the public mandate you didn’t understand in the simple word “NO?” Why is it that some of you are asking opponents to present better alternatives to casino? Your turning into political dinosaurs speaks volumes why you’ve ignored preparing a fully thought-out socioeconomic plan to move the needle forward. You only showed how well you’ve honed your instant soba mindset. Have you voluntarily fossilized your nimble mind?

Looking ahead: Indeed, an island economy is as simple as it is complex. Simple if traditional farming remains the means of family support in this archipelago. For centuries, our ancestors have learned to live with a resource-poor group of islands, farming and fishing.

We’ve moved away from subsistence farming and fishing, especially after World War II by working for the service industry in both sectors—private and public. Herein lies the complexity of life on the islands, where the means of traditional food production has slowly faded into the ash heap of history. We no longer farm but rely on the fickle tourism industry as the Holy Grail of funds for jobs and services.

Interesting that when the economy tanks significantly, we return to farming and fishing to supplement dietary needs, cushioned by food assistance from NAP. Life has turned into real misery, forcing hundreds of families to relocate elsewhere. Can’t pin down negligence locally that triggered the exodus of foreign capital (investments) from the NMI. Policies?

This as mediocrity sinks all boats. We ask: so what’s in our future? Well, your legislators are out exploring the golden skies and spanning the globe, completely ignoring that their government is broke! Isn’t this a vicious form of anarchy prompted by more negligence from leadership?

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