40 years of slavery for God’s CNMI people

It is common knowledge that the overwhelming majority of people in the CNMI are Christians and it is truly amazing when you think about the 40-year deal for the casino that will make the CNMI people a slave to the Casino on Saipan for the next 40 years. A similar fate was placed upon the Israelites who wondered in the desert for 40 years as punishment. FYI if you don’t know the story, after being freed from slavery under Pharaoh the Israelites chose to worship a Golden Cow in the desert while Moses went up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments from God. Well, the Israelites were forced to wonder in the desert for 40 years for worshiping a statue so what do you think is going to happen to all of us for the next 40 years praising a casino as our only economic salvation?

The governor and his crew have committed all of us without our permission to a 40-year plan that will make the Israelites worshiping a statue in the desert look like a child’s birthday party. I don’t think retirees or those who voted for the casino bill realize what kind of burden they have placed on the people of the CNMI. Yes we get $30 million for retirees and $15 million more each year that will also go to retirees and it will be at least three to four years before we see any additional funding from the casino.

FYI voters, the CNMI is going to spend a lot of millions, more than the $15 million we will get, to set up the Best Sunshine Resort and Casino operations. We are going to be slaves to Best Sunshine for a long time which is why they can afford to give away ten million for our power bills. The CNMI is going to have to provide power which will require millions of investment from our pockets. The CNMI is going to have to provide water, roads and sewer which will require millions from our pockets. The CNMI is going to have to pay for more DPS operations. The CNMI will pay millions for the Government’s staff that will monitor the casino operations to make sure we are not cheated.  The CNMI will pay for all the support services to help broken families and gambling addicts and the list goes on but I think readers get the point—we will be slaves to Best Sunshine! To make it worse we still don’t have the slightest idea of how much revenues we can even expect after paying for all these improvements and changes.

Not only do we have to set up and pay for the improvements in our infrastructure, DPS operations, government & public support services and accountability staffing for our share, we also have to maintain them for free like slaves for Best Sunshine over the next 40 years. When you add up all these cost the 15 million a year is not even close to being enough especially when most of the $15 million will go to the retirees. These examples are exactly why many cities refuse casinos saying casinos are more trouble than they are worth.

God has been giving us clues all along but we keep ignoring them and now the handwriting is on the all literally in the 40 years of slavery we face which is another Biblical story about God warning us. This casino mess is just another example of why I keep telling readers that if we don’t learn our lessons from history we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes.

PS: There is never a free lunch and we are going to pay so voters would be wise to look seriously at the alternatives offered by the Democrats and forget the popularity contest between the three GOP candidates. If you truly want to see something new, different, and better happening in the CNMI vote Democrat especially if you want to be happy!

Ambrose M Bennett
Kagman