Where’s our honey and milk?

To understand the pulse of the community on issues, there’s no greater place than to visit the simple folks in their villages and engage them in casual conversations.

You’d hear truthful expressions straight from the heart, e.g., what keeps them going or what has derailed them from normal family life.

It’s a treat listening to Tan Maria and Tun Jose. Their time-honored words of wisdom were refreshingly humbling. I notice that each is gripped with fear, needs, dreams, and suspicious of the term “promise” coming from forked tongued politicians.

The elderly speak admonishing of the gradual loss of indigenous religious culture. While our community remains predominantly Catholic perhaps our observation of religious obligation has shifted more to the permissive side. Theirs was powerfully strict or call it conservative.

The younger crowd especially the recently settled with new families in our community are upset at the lack of real opportunities to forge ahead. The absence of training or continuing education has forced them into a corner yawning for that scarce opportunity at skills acquisition. Have we been negligent on this score? After a while, I could hear harps of filthy politics infested with corruption translating into hardship in households everywhere.

Topping the list is stagnant wages—no increase in salaries for over 20 years—while families struggle with inflation or cost of basic goods increasing yearly. Having lived in poverty instantly rings a bell what families must be going through living paycheck to paycheck or advancing two paychecks via charges at a village grocery store nearby. The hardship is vicious and the gathering isn’t fitting for a politician. The scrutiny is merciless!

The best we’ve heard from imperial Capital Hill was a speech about poverty in the islands. Well, excuse me sir! Your lack of leadership has further sunk most families into the hellish hole of abject poverty. More vacuous speeches aren’t going to change such condition found all over the archipelago.

Though we have a lot of Medicaid recipients there’s the deductible families must pay anywhere $1,000-$2,000 per year depending upon family size. It’s a healthcare cost most people can’t afford to fork out at the counter. What about those immediately above the threshold of federal poverty income level? Disposable income is zip!

Some noted that they too have tasted milk and honey and look forward to receiving a salary increase of $2,500 per month—the same freebie senators have given themselves recently. It pans out to $30,000 per year “we could use to ease difficult family economics today”.

It’s a good query to level against the nimble mind of Senate President Francisco Borja and cabal. Did the evil geniuses forget we could read and understand our materials too? Did they forget that the villagers are immune to inflation—cost of living—skyrocketing? Anyway, Borja is up for re-election. Let’s see if he could improve upon this by granting all employees the same increase he and cabal are now pocketing. It’s $2,500 per month, sir!

The issue goes beyond the politics of purchasing guard dogs and slaves on imperial Capital Hill. Those prepping for re-election could boldly recycle failed promises only to find critical public anger for sliding into corrupt politics. Well, seeking re-election or validation is boldly wrong too!

Demise of Chamorro Lingo

Though I have written in the vernacular for years, there’s that fearful intuition of the eventual demise of the Chamorro language. A recent study asserts that when the written language isn’t taught for a generation it eventually dies. Most folks the world over prefer learning English to polish up in a lingo or what’s known as the global business language. The NMI is no exception!

At least I’ve learned to write it with proper syntax and context so it retains simplicity and clarity for readers. The use of journalistic discipline keeps it simple so I never have to engage the KISS concept. A journalistic experience makes this a natural part of the process.

Also struggled with spelling—phonetics vs. orthographic—finally deciding to stick to what I was taught in primary school embracing Spanish, the foundation of the written Chamorro. It was simpler and didn’t require one too many trips to the mound of doing it right by writing it right!

Most importantly, your piece should be simple and easy to understand. That Chamorro is a very poor language in terms of descriptive verbs and concepts makes it even more vital that you explain them as simply as you can. If the reader can’t understand it then you, the writer, have failed!

The eventual death of our native tongue would happen in less than two decades. This is cushioned or given credence by some 90 percent of Chamorro households now speaking English from dawn to dusk, daily. Brace for it. Internment is inevitable!

Advancing Mullah! Though this government is under water financially, admirable the braggadocio cabal displaying business as usual on imperial Capital Hill. I have a suspicion Ralphy and Victory might be successful advancing some $20 million from BSI. Isn’t an advance a tale of heavy fiscal stress in the coffers of the local government?

If there exist leadership then it would have dawned on people at the helm to revisit investments to see if reliance on exogenous investments that have taken an exodus the very culprit of the deepening condition today. Is there a way out of this mess so it isn’t given a repeat of history?

Indeed, we constantly return to traditional farming and fishing when we fall flat on our face, seriously injured. While resiliency is never in short supply, ideas to move the goal post are lagging way behind. That we keep returning is a tale that it has and continues to work. Isn’t this sufficient a reason to revisit it with a sense of confidence and purpose?