This week’s special

Gosh, I have lots of choices of topics today for a heck of a letter to the editor. Slam CUC! The governor’s lawsuit vs. federal immigration! Federal immigration itself! Washington representative! Marine monument proposal! Never a dull moment in the CNMI. Slamming CUC again is akin to hitting a deaf person with a hammer because he cannot hear. CUC has hearing; it just chooses not to hear. Kind of like the governor. I say just let the FBI sort out that mess.

So I will hack about the recent letter to the editor from Mr. James Davies (Saipan Tribune, Sept. 23). His letter “A Pew Solution to the Problem” is this week’s special. It appears that now, since the writers of the CNMI Constitution have come forward and embraced the monument as fully within the intent of Article 14 of that document, opponents have now chosen to discredit the messenger, Pew. That said and now placed aside, let’s look at Mr. Davies’ question: “In what way will the future generations benefit from this by closing off these natural resources?” First, the monument will not close any natural resources. It will keep other people from eating those resources into extinction. And since it is such a small speck of the world’s oceans, you can still have your fish sandwiches. Second, eco-tourism is not make believe. Worldwide it is a billion-dollar industry and growing rapidly. There are now bloodless safaris in Africa, polar bear watching tours in Churchill Canada, whale watching trips in Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. And that is just the West Coast! There are eco-tours to the Arctic and Antarctica. There are rainforest tours in Latin and South America where tourist actually go from tree canopy to tree canopy 60 to 100 feet off of the ground! Then there are all those nature shows on TV. Nobody pays money to look at dead animals or dead fish. People are making money by not killing their natural resources. Do not forget the scuba diving tourists here in the CNMI. They pay good money to come look at the reefs and fish. Think about this, if you sell someone a fish to eat, you can only sell it once. When they come and pay to take pictures of that fish, you can use that same fish over and over again! The fish just gets bigger! And like eco-tourists everywhere, they also spend money on transportation, hotels, restaurants, food, beer, sunscreen and even junk souvenirs. And all those businesses pay taxes on that income. Money, Mr. Davies, that is one benefit to the CNMI from the monument.

To use your analogy, Disneyland was not built overnight. There were years of planning before construction was ever started. Then there were years of actual construction. And then they close the gates everyday to those who want in for free. Everyone else pays to enter. Just like they would have to pay to enter the northern islands. Building eco-tourism in the CNMI will take years. I think that MVA would take exception to your statement that “people already know we are here.” Yes, I am sure that many people know that of CNMI’s garment industry’s labor abuses—real imaginary. We need to change that image and that will not be done overnight.

Why the heck would you want Pew to come in and buy tour boats, build a world-class school of oceanography, or otherwise operate our eco-tourism industry? That is a real slap in the face to businessmen here in the CNMI. There are experienced tour companies here that would be happy to start the ball rolling where there is a demand for their services. They are not about to turn down the new opportunity for increased revenues. They have both the money and expertise. I am sure local businessmen would rather not have Pew involved in our eco-tourism. The whole idea is to generate money for the CNMI, not Pew. The NMC can always hit up Pew or even the feds for a possible grant for some sort of marine research facility at a later date.

With the proposed marine monument, Pew has offered the people of the CNMI an option and a hand to help them pull themselves out of their current economic pit. It took years to dig that pit. It will take years of planning and work to get out of it. Pew has brought the option to the table, now it is up to the people of the CNMI to help themselves out of their pit. Nobody else can do that for us.