Fiddling with empty spouts

Whenever we slam out filthy foot into our mouth, we scream it’s bloody time we secure our rights to self-government. We do it with pomposity wrapped in ignorance and disorientation.

Unfortunately, it’s a worn-out trick now crawling lamely near trash bins all over. Perhaps it’s better that we measure our filthy foot to see if it still fits our big mouth, the latter usually done without engaging the brain. Humiliating, huh?

Somehow we keep nursing the folly that someone would come around to clean up after our mess. Nah! A full-blown bankruptcy looms ahead. Let’s see indigenous spout about self-government. Let’s see your mantle dealing with it. Self-government begins with the self by owning up to our responsibilities first and foremost.

Another sleepwalk in grand mañana? Eh, without a plan and emplacement of basic infrastructure for billions of investment waiting for soft landing somewhere, there’s nothing up that alley other than an air bridge that should be included in the Guinness Book of World Records.

But I remain guardedly hopeful only if we deal resolutely with the challenges before us. Anyway, let’s digress to something we could smile about, if not, ponder with nostalgia.

Stampu!
Admirable the courage and efforts of our elderly learning English after the dust of World War II settled down. It was quite a transition from Japanese to English, you know, “John-san” to “John, sir!”

The Japanese era turned into nostalgic discussions when most everything grown, caught or manufactured here before WWII was sold to feed the larger population in Japan. No more! A sentimental “sayonara” is what’s left while welcoming, in its place, “food stampu—stamps!”
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Heck plant: Today we produce far less than pre-WWII level that instantly turns into excess so we feed Me, Myself and I and our extended family, the pigs. We simply refused an organized “diversified farming” method to ensure produce are available all year round. Thus, the flood of eggplants, cucumber, and other produce everywhere most harvest season.

Perhaps this explains why there’s no constructive policy on farming and fishing: Stubborn inability to see the forest for the trees! It’s an anomaly that remains stagnant or fossilized in some fear of sort. It’s mired in the scarcity mentality. With flood of certain produce, an aunt said, “John, too much heck plant (eggplant) and kakalamba (cucumber)”.
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Raisu: The old folks pulled out of the olden Japanese era into Americana but came away with what has been and still is staple food—raisu (rye-soo) or rice. It’s no longer the one harvested in marshlands here but in 50-lb sacks all the way from California (CalRose).

Unfortunately, raisu and relaksu (relaxation) or couch potato culture has led the indigenous population down the pathway to Type II diabetes. Hmmm! We’ve made progress from “raisu” to “daialasisu”—dialysis. Over three hundred of our own go through the system weekly, an alarming number.
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Stagnancy: The near-generational stagnant salaries and wages here started turning into permanent fixture in our living room. In fact, it has been fossilized into a broken record of “stagnancy, stagnancy, stagnancy.”

The deepening mess started nearly 20 years ago when the feds took over immigration. It instantly shut down the $2.1 billion apparel industry that left the local economy crippled to this day. Coupled with local negligence, what’s there to expect other than disorientation?

It simply means we must retreat and reassess what the feds did and what it is that we’ve failed on our side of the Pacific Divide. Unless this is fully understood with clarity, including real time protocol, ours is the constant crash found in our yearly experience with the fickle tourism industry.

It’s not hard discerning that the tourism industry is at the mercy of events in Japan and Asia, e.g., the subsequent slowdown of the global economy triggered by huge drop in the price of crude oil. The lack of anchor investment places our livelihood constantly on the edge of economic nihilism.

It’s fine to declare the economy has started improving in expected rosy inaugural prose. But the real test is in the take-home pay of employees. Has there been marked improvement? If not, then the assertion is one of colossal idle talk you can’t take to the bank. Do we slide into the usual inertia of mañana once more?

Macau diversification
China’s President Xi Jinping has started purging corruption in Macau, freezing funds for mainland high rollers and arresting the head of the largest prostitution ring last week. It also ordered Macau to begin economic diversification beyond casino.

The triad’s junket tour is basically history and all the glitz and glamour of casino are headed into the sunset. Take a critical look at the implications of the latest mandate from President Xi.