Reflecting on 2004

A New Year is approaching and like most people I think it is important to reflect on the past year in hopes of creating better conditions in the year to come. There are many things to be thankful for and there are just as many things to hope for in the coming year. There are several things I want to reflect on in hope that the New Year will bring about some new perspectives and solutions.

The minimum wage proposal to create a dual pay scale with the local people being paid higher than other U.S. citizens and alien workers lacks wisdom and it completely goes against the expectations of equality in our American society. I can understand the need for a form of affirmative action to assure jobs for locals but creating a “bias” pay scale is ridiculous. The ideology of local people being different when it comes to economic and political activities has created an “invisible” demarcation line that divides the very fabric of the CNMI – the people. With only 29 percent of the people in the CNMI being local, it would be prudent to exercise the wisdom offered by the feds to find a way to raise everyone’s pay.

We must stop trying to mix culture and government. The feds support cultural preservation but they leave cultural matters to the various ethnic groups and we should do the same. If there is true concern about the preservation of the local culture then create a mechanism (a school) with a government system (curriculum) to preserve the culture like Hawaii—but please stop creating these double and triple standards in our society. Wisdom dictates that “your attitude will determine your altitude” and as long as there is a demarcation line between the local people of the CNMI and the other people in the CNMI, it will be like a dead weight and the local people nor others in the CNMI will not fly high enough to reach prosperity in the CNMI—all or none.

I also hope our leaders will stop playing politics with their own people by promoting bias issues that are focused on the local population. The locals vs. all others issue is an attitude that must change. The ideology that locals are supreme or sole beneficiaries of the “American Dream” in the Marianas contradicts the expectations of the U.S. Constitution, the American people and the American government that was chosen by the local people. Many locals also don’t agree with these “dual standards” in the CNMI that are primarily being promoted by the leaders and not the community. If we continue to promote and build up this “NMI decent vs. other Americans” – we will be setting the course for a “meltdown” sometime in the future and it won’t be a pretty sight. Especially with only 29 percent of the people being locals vs. 71 percent that are not. Other U.S. citizens have lived and contributed just as much to the CNMI as any local person and in many cases more—plus the fact that the present standards for indigenous status won’t be feasibly applicable in 100 years or less. Wisdom tells me that we must start working towards equality now before equality becomes a “demand” by those who are not local. In his wisdom, Israel Zangwell said in 1908, “America is God’s crucible, the great melting pot where all the races of men are melting and reforming”—the CNMI is no exception.

When it comes to the economy, I’m still waiting for wisdom to expose itself because we aren’t exercising any wisdom when it comes to solving our money woes once and for all. There are all kinds of brilliant methodologies surfacing from a part-time Legislature to a reduction in employees to “cut cost” but I’m still waiting to see some real wisdom and vision that will bring in new revenues (money) to the CNMI. The federal government has pumped over $200 billion into the CNMI and we still have only the same two industries that were started over 27 years ago—too much dependency and too little efficiency. The wisdom of economic growth is the “planning” and everyone knows we don’t even have a plan for economic growth in the CNMI after 27 years or more—a course needs to be set in 2005. The feds have tried for years to get us to look into our own future and consider what we are doing and not doing, however, their admonishments were not accepted for what they really were—“wisdom”. But if we spend half the time we’ve been spending on “cost cutting” and spend some time creating a plan for economic growth, we will be much better off in the years to come – but “you got to want it (prosperity)” and maybe we just don’t want prosperity bad enough yet! But I would like to offer a bit of wisdom for the New Year, “failure to plan becomes a plan for failure.”

The Paseo De Marianas has been on my mind because every time I pass it there are no people! The mall is a great idea but “where is the beef” or the attraction(s). We turned the street into a walkway and we forgot to put the entertainment back on the mall, which really helped to make a big difference. Denying access by car and not putting anything on the mall to attract the tourist and citizens is no plan at all.

Presently, the mall is more of a “solicitation mall” than a shopping mall. The bill by Rep. Joseph DL Guerrero is a great start but Garapan really needs some redistricting work done by the Legislature to place the appropriate shops and services on the mall for the best results—we call it governing by providing a governance system for the mall’s success. We should also be mindful that most of the tourist “excuse” all the dust and gravel in Garapan that does not make for a pretty sight, until the restoration process is completed—that is, if we want them to return.

If we are to live up to the true meaning of the mall’s name, then the mall should reflect all the cultures of the Marianas by having entertainment every day and night as you will see in all international locations. There should be a daily and continuous rotation of Japanese, Chamorro, Korean, Carolinian, Filipino and Chinese culture and entertainment going on at the mall both day and night. I’m sure the Marianas Visitors Authority can’t pay for all this entertainment and that’s where citizenship and entrepreneurship come into play. If wisdom tells us “it takes a village to raise a child,” than we should know that it would take the leaders and the entire community to make the mall a complete success. Wisdom tells me that if the community can organize to stop economic progress why not organize to create economic prosperity?

The millions lost in poker revenues and the theft of garments is a “no-brainer.” It really doesn’t take wisdom, just plain common sense to figure out that if we are being cheated out of $7 million a year that we need to pay someone a reasonable amount to assure that it doesn’t happen again. It is examples like this which support claims that the government doesn’t know what its doing. This would never happen in the private sector and we don’t need wisdom to know why it happened with the government—politics. When the Finance Department informed the Legislature of the missing money, the Legislature should have written a resolution right then on the floor asking the governor to hire someone to account for the accurate collection of the funds and to have the Department of Public Safety “crack down” on the stolen garments. After all, the governor is responsible for collecting revenues and carrying out the law and its obvious the law is being broken. But I’m sure the governor is already on this because I’m sure the average person that is aware of these losses can use common sense on this issue and forget the wisdom.

We have so much to be thankful for in 2004 but we must also keep hope alive for a better 2005. This letter and the next part were inspired by that desire for improvements in the year to come and I hope that I have opened a few eyes to a different and better way of dealing with the challenges that face the Commonwealth in 2005. I only want to offer one peace of wisdom and that is, the CNMI is a little fish and the big fish eat all the little fish, so I hope the message gets across as to what really needs to be done to improve the quality of government and life in the CNMI for 2005—Part II tomorrow. One people, one direction.

Ambrose Bennett
Kagman