The 80 Percent Yachts

Despicable how politicians padded their wallets with an 80-percent salary hike while ignoring conditions of 14,000-plus employees literally struggling in the filthy swamp of poverty and below income levels.

How could you skip the needs of the majority who’re victims of your inability to ensure that their boats also float alongside your 80 percent yachts? Is it really that difficult sensing their poor familial conditions?

I’ve probed common sense or what’s known in logic as “initial apprehension” to figure out how you must have worked up the gall to ignore the fate of poor people you represent. I can’t find an iota of at least some legitimate rationale for your dastardly negligent decision.

While you munch on food you bought at grocery stores most others share family food stamps to make it through another day. You took care of yourself first while ignoring the people who deserve help the most. Must be nice earning $31,600 in additional income paid for by the people you ignored, right? A double royal screw?

Anyway, it should be a memorable year for incumbents and voters alike. Most of Da Boysis would take their final canoe ride into the sunset of “No Mas!” The voters would give itself the opportunity to bring the voice of “we the people” back to its rightful place. It’s the epitome of negligence if I’ve ever seen one!

Newcomers must have their plans ready for public review. We’d like to see plans to improve the poverty income and below levels of some 14,000 employees. Any clue what this beast entails and have you some realistic solution beyond tons of “biba?”

If you’re an incumbent please do the same. You have a responsibility to explain use of your favorite number 80! Isn’t there a method to raising salaries, e.g., Composite Price Index? Why the open omission? Anyway, it’s the end of your excursion to demagogic dump! No mas!

Family home? Under poverty and below conditions it’s mind boggling how these families fare paying for the first family home. If there is two income earners it may not be all that bad meeting this obligation.

But what if the sole income earner dies while paying monthly installments for the family home? The family faces a new reality—it can no longer afford paying the loan. The bank moves in and takes over the property forcing displacement of the entire family.

Owning a home is a must as taught to us by our forefathers. It’s proof that you are ready to begin your own family. Without it, you end up an island gypsy.

It’s a mind numbing experience having come close to it three decades ago. In the process I had to expose of yet another property to catch up with monthly installments. If it wasn’t for this break in between until I could land a job, I would have been homeless today too. Imagine the situation for the less poised, financially.

The issue requires attention collectively from all offices and agencies dealing with the fate of the indigenous people. There are realistic possibilities to assist those caught by the wraths of insufficient family income to handle paying for the first family home. I’ve seen it and it hurts the displacement of people I know on a one-on-one basis.

Blessing: Charisma is a highly elusive quality, if not, completely missing from naked perception. It pertains to a person’s natural ability to attract, charm, and influence people. Charisma is often said to be a “mysterious ineffable quality—you either have it or you don’t…”

I’ve seen other prominent qualities among politicos but this aspect requires real scrutiny to see its humbling presence. For instance, I watched a certain candidate shake hands with people in and around the canopy who came to listen. Measured against other candidates he lacked eloquence, didn’t say much, his Si Yuus Maase was longer than his speech.

But when the chips are down he garnered the most votes! It was his quiet strength that grabbed my attention. What was it that gravitated voters to him? It had to be charisma or his natural charm speaking the simple language of his people with truth.

A few have been endowed or given charisma from upstairs. I find this quality in Kilili and Mayor David Apatang. They’ve gone up against the best but prevail at day’s end. It’s from upstairs and when you don’t have it, it’s best to find something worth your while. It’s like the question: do you train leaders or isn’t this an innate ability or gift?