Future of our people

The future of the indigenous people throughout the Pacific comes into sharper focus as the simple folks ponder dealing with China’s aggressive investment schemes at home.

It is happening here and in Tobi too where huge investments and infusion of new people and businesses have displaced local mom and pop stores in the business center. Do they care about our future or wellbeing?

The forced change isn’t necessarily huge. It’s humongous! It deals with the eventual displacement of a way of life from small family businesses to none, among others.

There’s also the uproar among locals and foreign workers retained at handsome salaries and wages who recently were told by their employer that their annual income would have to be adjusted downwards. Really? Such a move has resulted in locals abandoning their jobs. There goes assimilation into the local community. How then is the future of our people handled from this point on?

What went wrong? A lot is sandwiched in what I call the “elite culture” of elected and appointed officials establishing their teeny community wining and dining with their new bosses at some posh setting. They are now servile lapdogs.

In the process they impose distance and detachment against folks who placed them in office. They are too busy calculating their next paycheck from their rich new partners! Scary! Troubling, huh? This must be stopped dead on its track, immediately!

With the way the NMI has been wholesaled by local officials to filthy rich investors you could imagine our turning into complete lapdogs and slaves right here at home some five years down the road. Is this your vision of our future?

Strange answers…
There are issues that are easily answered. Others needed quick replies for the sake of it while still others needed verification to ensure accuracy.

Having listened to politicos, it’s easy discerning what’s up their sleeves struggling to explain issues. I mean if you’re struggling to explain an issue then it instantly shows your lack of clarity of understanding what’s at stake. Do I listen or force a pretentious smile of interest to your disoriented spout? Call it polite niceties!

Dissecting your position on casino is quite a task though riddled with suspicion on every corner. It turns into an interesting probe including whether you have any sense of vision and conviction to guard the long-term interest of your people. Or is your view limited to protecting your power and influence knowing “we the people” are no longer sheeple—not easily fooled—like sheep at a pasture. Those days are gone!

Who was it that said liars are easily caught? Coincidentally, it seems we’ve found a whole bunch of them seeking re-election or a shot at the misunderstood role of policymaking. Can any of you honestly answer why are you running for public office? What have you done or what are your professional credentials that qualify you as a policymaker? Or is your view of the role of policymaking limited to the empty joy of yelling “biba?” Like my grandson would spout, “Get real, lai!”

CUC: Serving two masters
CUC is mired in the marshland of disorientation where the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. And so the redundant narrative is repeated every so often including expressions like “unsatisfied” with the performance of its staff on fixing water leaks, etc.

All roads lead back to the obvious incompetence of the board planning basic infrastructure emplacement, repairing water leaks all over the island, all placed on head-on-collision when the board decided to descend into micromanaging the utility agency. This encourages full-blown confusion among technical and professional staff serving two masters: the board and division bosses. Very confusing and discouraging!

The genesis of the mounting mess is found in the board being so clueless what policymaking entails. It is further saddled by its lack of credentials on planning that includes installing the future needs of the islands’ on water and power. It is simply too busy traveling and collecting high per diem fees at the expense of ratepayers. Has the board done anything credible on policymaking?

Is it that difficult running the utility agency? Nah! Get rid of the clueless board and let someone with clear management disposition clean out the mess in 90 days. Have done it at DPL restoring integrity and accountability in the “management, use and disposition” of public land and funds accruing from lease of indigenous public land.

The mounting mess is in the lack of leadership and clarity among board members what policy formulation entails. And so there goes the choir singing Three Blind Mice leading the utility agency into Banzai Cliff. This can’t go on in perpetuity and not at the expense of ratepayers or the entire local economy crashing needlessly as a result of the lack of competency to plan the basic water and power needs of the island. Not very encouraging, is it?

Confused employees now answer to their immediate bosses and board members too. Despicably pathetic! But the new power to micromanage looks welcomed for a board so clueless of its fiduciary duty!

Camouflage outfit
There’s so much hype about the dime-a-dozen candidates vying for office. But we haven’t heard anything of substance. The anticipation is high but there’s little satisfaction. We look forward to a slugfest, e.g., Thrilla In Manila, but there’s only Oriya or fringe!

The guys and gals aren’t wearing regular clothing. Each has seen fit to don camouflage rags like Army Fatigue to skip houses quickly where hard questions may be asked of them. And so they’ve got Skip To My Lou down to an art. Wow! Everbody home?