New revenue needed now, not later

Today’s Saipan Tribune reported that I said Azmar would need 5,200 employees during the first six months of operation. That number is so absurd that I am sure most readers will assume that it is a typo, other than the mysterious wonder boy from San Francisco and the idiot who dreamed up the pozzolan profit ‘check-list.’ I do not.

I stated very clearly that Azmar would need fifty to one hundred employees during the first six months of operation. That number is both logical and realistic.

However, whatever number of locals Azmar might have been able to employ on Saipan and Pagan is now a moot point. The Tribune has done such an excellent job of publishing unfounded, uncorroborated opposition statements that it has successfully helped send Mr. Moore home hat in hand and the CNMI may have lost yet another needed investor. The people that the Tribune really hurt aren’t the former residents of Pagan who won’t be getting the $3.5 million Mr. Moore offered in his pro forma as part of his permit application, but the people of Rota, Tinian and Saipan. Read the Tribune’s own headlines. The CNMI is broke. The public health, public education and public safety of our people are in jeopardy. Just ask the Secretary of Health, the Commissioner of Education and the Secretary of Public Safety what will happen to their budgets in light of declining revenues. Undoubtedly, they do not have an ‘agupa amigo’ attitude.

The local vendors and service industry operators who were hoping to see a much needed new cash flow source have had their hopes dashed, again. They are crying for a new source of funds now, not ‘maybe’ a month from now. Apparently, the Tribune and the people of Pagan will not appreciate this reality until the garment industry crashes next year as the new World Trade Agreement takes effect and the river of dollars that once flowed from the garment industry dries up. The Tribune should easily be able to concoct that story, albeit with ludicrous ‘typos.’ Just ask Richard Pierce or Bill Stewart what the effect will be on the CNMI economy as the garment factories start closing their doors and their nonresident employees begin vacating their premises and going home.

Considering that people around the world are reading our daily papers, especially potential pozzolan buyers, it is hard to predict how other potential investors will react to this latest snub. It is certainly clear that they are asking the question, “Is the CNMI a business-wise community?”

Don A. Farrell
Marpo Heights, Tinian