Let’s talk stories, braddah!

The inaugural revelry should ring with high decibels on Monday on Capital Hill. This as a query at the village level is asked: With significant revenue losses, would austerity, reduction in force or loan be implemented anytime soon to see us through the deepening economic depression?

Let’s see what happens by March of this year. By then reality should kick-in full bore! It’s a tough cookie to crack requiring major paradigm shift in spending habit. It isn’t all milk and honey. There’s definitely trouble ahead, fiscally.

Be that as it may, I wanted to discuss something other than the usual dish of misguided disposition of issues against “we the people.” So I veered into beachfront properties of the indigenous people leased out dirt cheap.

When in doubt, check out the lease of Laulau Bay land to Kumho under impeached former governor Benigno R. Fitial. The only beneficiary was Fitial!

Our properties are used for hotel development since the late ‘60s. If you look around today, there’s nothing left and more the reason we should hold on to keeping whatever we have left for posterity.

Moreover, who defines the “need” for more hotel rooms? Isn’t the unintended consequence one of creating more jobs for foreigners over locals? Why the Field of Dreams in perpetuity? NMDs, do I hear your voice?

Let’s slam the brakes or impose a moratorium on hotel development at least for a decade. It provides good breathing room to reset our buttons. I’m pro-growth, not wild over-growth! Don’t we have a right to weigh in on this issue?

Caution: 1K-curve ahead
The denial of renewal of some 193 permits by USCIS for Tinian Dynasty has subtle messages most political geniuses have missed by oceans apart.

I think it’s a way of the feds reminding us that we can’t have major activities where the military sets up shop. It’s a geopolitical issue that has flown over our heads. Don’t you think so?

Furthermore, it is ludicrous for senators from Tinian to attempt reducing the role of U.S. Homeland Security via a local law. It’s called the supremacy of laws inherent under the Covenant Agreement. Please, I have sufficient fodder for comedy for the rest of 2015!

Finally, we wanted a grand casino for Saipan that would require some 5,000 to 9,000 foreign workers. Wasn’t there a federal mandate to end foreign workers here in the next five years? I think it’s time that we begin doing real time due diligence to see the forest for the trees. Humiliating!

Indigenous who?
I don’t know if we’ve found the term “indigenous” a good word to romanticize heedlessly or the superficial intellectual hip it showers upon disoriented “indigents” who utter it or both.

We must be so enamored by it thus the establishment of Indigenous Affairs, Carolinian Affairs, Women’s Affairs and Community and Cultural Affairs. Wow! What an accomplishment!

But notice that there are more offices dealing with our affairs than fully thought-out plans and programs to advance the wellbeing of the indigenous people over the last 36 years? Sterling, huh?

Its use has been employed as political launch pad even for irrelevant political dinosaurs that brave walking around with old problems in suspect “new” hope with nothing innovative or decent to offer responsibly.

We toot our horns about indigenous rights to self-government yet there’s the irony of having done nothing to responsibly ensure its solvency and efficacy! It’s bankrupt! Is this your definition of a responsible indigenous self-government? Or does it feel good doing the perfect indigenous screw against your very own? Where’s the sense of responsibility in your citizenship as indigenous folks? Where’s the truth in all the empty spouts about indigenous rights to self-government?

This issue needs greater organization and framework for discussion beyond political launch pad for brain dead political dinosaurs. I’ve been keen on this score given how quickly planned meaningful discussions have devolved into greed for power at our expense.

Now, take an ocular review how clueless political dinosaurs have obviously failed to restart fossilized career. Nice try! But then we also need occasional laughter as the guys and gals turn themselves into cheap laughing stock we use as fodder for comedy in coffee shops.

The issue has presented an even more serious query: How morally committed are you in advancing the rights of the indigenous people beyond empty political punditry? It would be interesting exploring such vital query to see through sure-footed indigenous prism what’s up their sleeves. Shall we listen even to a perceptual wise man of the village? The issue in its raw form requires vision, leadership, and integrity. We must make consistency a forte to avoid the humiliating double talk. Enough of the BS already!