Had we done the thing right…

The economic doom-and-gloom has crash-landed into households everywhere. It’s so disorienting it’s hard making sense what the beastly contraption is all about. “Dalai ‘ste!” or its equivalent of a hellish hole is the most famous daily mouthwash everywhere.
This as the “promise” troops begin surveying the campaign trail to either make more false promises or regurgitate old irrelevant ones. Some of the guys must be suffering from mental atrophy—when the brain malfunctions—incapable of discerning the concept of time and motion. Sorry, there’s no room here for euphemism or polite niceties!

For a government that is financially impotent (bankrupt) circling the over $1-billion debt wagon, shall we hear solid answers from individual candidates of their plans? How do you solve the 25-percent cut in pension pay, fatal spike in health premiums, the disruptive every-other-full-moon increase in power bills and impending prices spike of basic food items? No matter your stripe, we need rock solid answers to resolve the growing fiscal mess at home.

Rota was recently declared an emergency for the scarcity of imported food items and another bout with increase in the price of basic food commodities. Is there an answer from the incumbent governor on this score and others treading the campaign trail? It’s bad tidings all around for any political trade horse, especially incumbents.

Perhaps the most damning culprit in the economic dystopia—where nothing works—is the lack of vision and spiritual leadership to move and guide the multitude out of the misery of abject familial poverty. Everybody had been and continues to sleep on the switchboard though it’s been ringing like mad, not all night but all these years. Humiliating, isn’t it?

Was it really hard moving the needle of proactivity to begin reining in policies that foster equitable and timely strides at “jobs and wealth creation” so we eventually land on the even playing field of economic prosperity? Or was suspect leadership so enamored with its mediocre performance it finds it devastating parting with mañana?

The lachrymose performance is humiliating, especially when one has the gall to slug it out once more in the public arena. Don’t you think voters know by heart what their issues are under suspect leadership then and now? Eh, we weren’t born yesterday lai. Had leadership done things right as well as the right thing, this mess would have been far less egregious.

Spouting ‘self-government’

We move in and out of this issue with lame impunity. This is because we know the humiliating tearful performance strengthening our democratic institution protracted process may be.

Give the voters a 1,000 percent loud and clear kudos for their performance last mid-term election, clearly rebuking the steady growth of a statist (dictatorial) government here. No sir! We remain faithful to a government of laws, not of men.

After impeaching the former governor for lack of transparency, the same boys did the same thing, fast tracking casino legislation without public scrutiny even after it was shot down twice. This is sheer arrogance and hypocrisy, imposing transparency on others but skipping it quickly when navigating casino legislation through its chamber. So much for missing a familiar street: integrity. It’s lunacy in all its moronic and adolescent behavior!

As we inch our way in the dark alleys of self-government, there are lessons to be learned forthwith, including learning to keep our “true north” in truth and integrity. There’s no room for vacillation even if it’s politically advantageous. It’s such a small government nailed to its coffin of scarcity of resources. Is there anybody among you willing to take the high road, difficult as it may be?

With bankruptcy, we circle the wagon of indecision, time and again, refusing to take powerful strides to reduce the useless bicameral Legislature down to a six-member unicameral system. Why spend $4.8 million annually on policies that simply avoid fixing the economic mess?

The scattershot arrangement or disarrangement today isn’t helping the indigenous people. A strong sense of organization is a must to set the stage for authoritative undertakings via workable programs in the edification of the livelihood of our people. This is the missing aspect of all the disoriented discussion on indigenous rights. Like someone said, let’s do things right by doing the right thing, now!

Local issues with federal implications

There are local matters with federal implications. It simply means matters at home that require working with appropriate federal officials or agencies on anything from the scandalous and failed Obamacare to pathway to citizenship.

Sen. Francisco Cruz and Rep. Trenton Conner must step up to the plate on these issues, including probing the use of presidential proclamations seizing the three islands up north that rightfully are indigenous islands.

Or are they also sleeping on the switchboard, hoping they could squeak through as permanent members of the “Do-Nothing” troops? These and other issues merit serious and critical review and the two guys can’t simply dismiss them resting on their laurels, di ba?

Military needs for land and other issues require continuous work in progress so we know what’s coming down the pike. It’s a matter of encouraging assimilation and constructive partnership henceforth. It’s more positive strides for the island and its people.

***

As investors move into Rota and Tinian to invest and improve upon the casino industry in progressive strides, local leadership and investors were caught off guard when senators from their islands voted for Saipan casino.
The action of pro-Saipan casino Sens. Victor Hokog, Francisco Borja, and Joaquin Borja did nothing but derail the confidence of investors in the only industry on both islands. Maybe the senators have divine vision for emplacing investment instability back home?