Meritocracy, mediocrity, bankruptcy

The human brain is a jelly-like tissue, complicated in all its form and substance, wrapped inside our skull for, if I may bravely risk the unusual, “daily use.” But it is usually torn between simple intuition and the more complex work of figuring out the unintended consequences of any policy. The latter is a mounting problem on the islands among the elected elite.

Dizzying? Yes!

Sobering? No!

Perhaps we’re all worn out by bad tidings where we juggle the same figures hoping for different results. The only realistic answer (after each juggle) is uncertainty. We wish it were the good old days when life was simple. We wish and search for the contentment we once knew like the back of our hands. We wish that most folks here were gainfully employed full-time, capable of meeting familial obligations as happy campers. But this is pure wishful thinking to ease our troubled minds.

Meanwhile, we try to forcibly swallow the legacy of depravity handed to us by disoriented people at the helm, inebriated with borrowed power from governance.

The NMI has slowly devolved from “meritocracy” to “mediocrity” and now to “bankruptcy.” The dizzying degradation of the quality of life elicits frustration and anger from a community that now despises the honeyed words of politicians who say that with their help you can have your cake and eat it too. Perhaps they are so out of touch with reality as to fail perceiving that we’ve ripped and shredded their game plans since years ago.

I’m trying to muster the courage to admire their resiliency in irrelevancy. Admirable, though, the suspect biblical quality in their adolescent attitude that must have hailed from Judas Escariot.

Truth be told, we are right in the middle of a prolonged and protracted messy economic calm before the vicious and fatal superstorm pummels the entire archipelago. We’re right in the eye of the storm. Be prepared for such eventuality. A`Saina!

Dealing with pocketbook pain

My constantly revisiting the dire need for a socio-economic plan didn’t spin out of a vacuum. Take a quick glimpse at huge jobs destruction in private industries, prohibitive cost of utilities that forced the closure of a lot of small businesses, the huge revenue plunge, skyrocketing price of gasoline, the recent increase in home foreclosures and more are lined up in the horizon to meet the same fate, prohibitive cost of healthcare, and a woefully unhealthy economy where governance’s only sentiment of certainty is uncertainty.

Sadly, some six years ago I was enthusiastically optimistic that the administration’s agenda on “wealth and job creation” would rescue or quell any major shift, specifically the drain in investments. In fact, there was an air of bullishness from this group at the beginning of 2006.

Somehow, this concept was dropped when the administration decided to be confrontational with the feds. Sure, there were legitimate issues in its self-government lawsuit. But arrogance, rather than the more beneficial paradigm of fostering synergistic working relationships, predominated. Since then, everything took a nosedive as leadership quizzes how it got stuck in the mud of intransigence. It was a reckless turn that elicited the same reaction from across the Pacific Divide.

Faced with declining profits and uncertainty in local and federal regulatory climates, most foreign-owned businesses took to the jetways to places where they could turn in appreciable profits in their investments. We lost the once growth-bound business climate that came to a grinding halt. Revenues took a huge plunge and will continue declining as we crash into fiscal disaster.

We begin quizzing where this sinking canoe is headed as politicians, inebriated with power, engage in dismissive disposition of matters of state. Is there room for hope in the near-term or shall we coalesce and acquiesce with the elected elite and just let conditions drown in the deep sea of poverty? How much longer must governance endure unsolicited pocketbook pain? Hello, anybody home?

Taking stock of policies

We haven’t done our due diligence to determine what policies encourage or stifle business expansion, renovation, and investments. Without this information, we’d be second-guessing our future where ad hoc planning takes precedence over the benefit of the long thoughtful process. We ignore the fact that even a fish has a head, body, and tail. It swims forward, never backward.

Too, there are federal policies that have definitely worked against “wealth and jobs creation” to which both the administration and our Washington Office seem woefully quiet. But then this is the net result of political differences that have been given greater prominence over the fiduciary duties of the elected and appointed elites. Misguided!

Indeed, we’ve used ARRA funds to perk up wealth and jobs creation. But government doesn’t create jobs other than temporary employment. In other words, when projects are completed, so too are temporary jobs. In short, government doesn’t create lasting jobs. This is the purview of private industries.

Must establish true partnership

I’ve spent time digging why the largest group of businesses left the island. The quick assertion is simple: “It’s no longer profitable doing business here.” It is for this reason that I insist that we review our policies to see which ones did nothing but force businessmen to think with their feet. If we have to retain the services of business people with investment and financing credentials, then let’s do it.

We’ve seen the growth and subsequent serious contraction of businesses in the various states throughout the country. They’ve moved to states where taxes are low, regulations are few and positive, proactive state governments that assist with basic needs; and the enthusiasm between investors, state and private industries’ leaders to meet and ensure getting off on the right foot. Have we done something solid in this fashion to private industries here or did we just dismiss them with the usual view of “sink or swim”?

The non-existent working relationship between private industries and the local government is a tale of indifference by the latter. If leadership is supposed to spearhead economic recovery, perhaps leadership exists only in a vacuum, much to the dismay of what’s left in the private sector. The word of mouth travels quickly and this is especially true in business centers in nearby Japan and Asia. If leadership isn’t so keen, then we beg that you don’t drag the folks in the villages down with your indecision and inaction. Step aside and let those poised to lead do so, forthwith!

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Buddy Magoo thinks Kilili would run into a setback this election.

“He ran against people with real credentials and came out with a landslide victory,” his friend reminded him.

“Oh, yeah, no? He was strong and he has this, what do they call it, kuaresma? (he meant charisma),” quizzed my Buddy Magoo.