As investors talk of leaving

At a cocktail/dinner reception, there was the usual cross section of public and biz luminaries exchanging felicitations and views. It included the mundane like the cooler than normal tropical weather to blizzards in the northeast and earthquakes in Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

I stood at a corner sizing up key players whose businesses have served collectively as the engine of the local economy. A quiet echo kept repeating a message, “the economy sputtering to death.” I quietly wondered what must have been going through their minds as their investments consistently contract. Specifically, how much longer could they take major losses before they head out the jetways?

If the CNMI is no longer a profitable investment venue, would the balance of investors stick around a bit longer or would they deploy to nearby Asian countries where other key investors are flocking? The exit of Japan and Continental Airlines sucked out the wind of the local tourism industry big time. Nothing was ever the same since then. It sent a signal that the islands’ flavor for investment was saturated, similar to desert land during a prolonged drought season.

Over the next hour, I heard deep sighs of planned business closures and relocation, though not sure of the timeline. But there’s a definite move to deploy elsewhere. I could picture a business “killing fields” as the place turns into ghost towns of sort. The net effect of more business closures would be devastating. Manufacturing is history! Investment confidence is also history!

What’s left and how do we deal with the impending bankruptcy never before seen in our developmental history? What would it take to recalibrate rebuilding burned bridges with the feds and major investors from Japan and nearby Asian countries? Even a quick glance across the Pacific Divide shows that federal funds are dwindling and all state governments have cut expenditures, given the snail-like progress on economic recovery.

Medicaid assistance has ended for all states that put heavy fiscal pressure on state governments. Although the federal government is required to pick up the costs for people newly eligible for the program, many who are now eligible but not enrolled are expected to be drawn-in and states must shoulder part of those costs. More fiscal pressure is ahead for the CNMI as it navigates huge decreases in its revenue source while colliding with far less help from the feds that is mandated to cut national deficit now at $15 trillion.

During dinner, a friend from a nearby country said his government and ours are the same, “Do nothing!” I kidded him that doing nothing is itself a concept of work Chamorro and Bwibwi style. (Laughter). Definitely, the future looks woefully bleak, according to prisms of businessmen here struggling to stay afloat.

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Working with what we had

Though I rely on a powerful dosage of hope to move about every break of dawn, the bad tidings you hear in the community sometime dims it to near total darkness. I would pull out of it saying it isn’t the end of the world. Must endure blinding darkness before welcoming brighter tomorrows.

Gratifying though seeing families meet more often than usual. The matriarch or patriarch, parents or oldest sibling makes it a point to engage in familial discussions with individual family members before day’s end. It is here where he or she learns who needs help most muddling through these lean times. Call it communal obligation. The rest would pitch in generously.

It makes the moral duty of the oldest in the family a difficult challenge. Even if he or she were down to her last $10 with planned expenditure, more often than not he’d martyr himself to help siblings most in need. No worries! It is happening now in almost every island clan. And the giving to the needy is more satisfying and valuable a trophy than anything else in our lifetime.

Yes, I’d share what little I have with siblings, children, and grandchildren. There’s no greater satisfaction than the spiritual thought and value system of helping your fellow man. I’d gladly give for I know the pain of families suffering from abject poverty and destitution. I’ve lived it! Therefore, I know every inch of that road as a young kid more than 50 years ago.

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Through the years, I’ve spent time with friends at their houses in nearby villages. I mull the similar conditions our families face daily. I’d join them on a trip to the farm as they feed the farm animals and gather harvests to take home at dusk. They also collect firewood for mom’s old stove. It was humbling what they go through daily, things that we also do at the farm when we head there after school.

The more physically fit would go coconut crab hunting at night and return before the wee hours of the morning with 100-lb sacks loaded with delicacies. Either that or head out to the beach at sunset and help master fishermen pull fishnets. It was a simple life far removed from the demands of a modern Northern Marianas community where you even have to have a master insurance for all insurance contracts.

We once forgave as good Christians. Today we settle differences-from family land distribution to auto-accidents-in a court of law. We have become a mercilessly litigious community. Problem solving among community members was never like this before. Is it the macho attitude that we relish and not the harmony we need to nurture for life after infractions? Harmony, the old-fashioned way must have slowly receded with the tide of “in your face” change.

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Delrosario is a regular contributor to the Saipan Tribune’s Opinion Section.