Wrestling with flights

There are flights of sort that are very unsettling because of their magnitude in losses for both the industry affected and the CNMI coffers. It includes severe reduction of flights out of Japan to the CNMI. The domino effect triggered the downsizing of inter-island air services. And, there’s the flight of our children as we wrestle with severe economic disaster at home.

The reduction of air service from various cities in Japan has brought tourism here to its knees. Less inter-island flights have also placed commerce and domestic travel at a virtual standstill. The flight of our children is now at the mercy of a scholarship program also adversely affected by the economic meltdown.

The huge spike in oil prices has dealt the airline industry huge losses to the tune of $400 million per day on a worldwide basis. Carriers had to cut out destinations where it has experienced substantial revenue losses. It means the traveling public has done very little hopping between airports.

Recently, Delta had to cut out additional major hubs across the country. Japan Airlines did the same that involved terminating thousands of employees worldwide. It even shut down its CNMI operations and reduced its operations in Guam and Hawaii.

In the case of Delta, it is especially “acute because the airline operates in most of the small airports that receive a total of almost $200 million in federal subsidies to maintain air service under the Essential Air Service program. The subsidies are scheduled to expire in 2013 unless revived by Congress. Delta acquired many of those small-city markets in the Midwest when it merged with Northwest Airlines.

The CNMI has reportedly lost about $77.2 million and $204.4 million annually in direct and indirect economic opportunities for its Japan market. It’s a huge financial vacuum to fill that awaits innovation to gradually return tourism to normalcy as we used to know. Definitely this is easier said than done, but we had our chance to improve upon what we used to have years ago. Instead, there was the lackadaisical attitude punctuated with pomp and circumstance intoning “que sera, sera.”

Students on scholarship must venture into other financial aid programs available in the U.S. Looking into this opportunity and securing minimum requirements ought to erase reliance on funds you can never rely on these days. It takes out the worries about paying for apartments and tuition on time. Too, there are more bad tidings in the impending fiscal year in so far as revenue generation is concerned. So it’s best to explore what’s available near you.

Japanese travelers are especially sensitive to negative shifts in the local and global markets. About a decade or so ago, the Asian financial flu forced most folks to stay closer to home. The recent triple disasters in Fukushima did the same thing on the traveling public. Flight reductions have definitely worked against the local tourism industry. It’s something to ponder as we plan the economic future of these isles.

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Toying with geopolitics

It’s fun rummaging through geopolitical materials that include a personal outline of complex issues, who did what to whom, the subsequent measures taken through diplomatic channels, what was discussed, meeting aborted due to serious disagreements or agreements reached, and the consequence of bold moves where international diplomacy nearly failed.

I suppose I relish my role as an armchair diplomat sitting under a lemon tree second-guessing resultant answers among G-5, G-8 and other Gs, including ASEAN and other regional bodies in convention centers somewhere near and far. I’d plow through economic views from the best minds in the global village. Some have admitted how wrong they were on issues they have preached for the last 40 years on global economics and financing. And I was like, “Hell, what changed your mind, sir” or “what was it that you missed on a substantive basis?”

Then I came across a book written by a renowned journalist who decided to quit the reportorial or editorial scene so he could venture into the real world to figure out what has changed in paradigms that most people at the helm have missed altogether. Specifically, how did the Taliban demonstrate power on the last day of the 30-day war as if it was the first? What was it that they have learned that most professors in laboratories across the globe haven’t been able to grasp in an effort to find real answers?

A lot of the materials discussed by the journalist are above a nimble islander’s mind. I mean he’s reduced technological advances and global warfare into simple answers we’ve ignored for so long. He discovered why even our enemies have succeeded in running down the best strategies we’ve organized among the so-called laboratory experts and professors in situation or war rooms. And the enemies’ strategists live among targeted societies in the Middle East.

Startling the discovery of new paradigms that eventually became geopolitical strategies now followed to the letter. We finally parroted their way of doing small and big wars. Recently, we heard the announcement that al-Qaida would soon be destroyed permanently. Or that global recovery is protracted or would be delayed. I tried to relate these paradigms to local conditions. But there’s nothing up that alley as to be so profoundly embarrassing. Not when the illustrious so-called “elected” have simply opted to dish out arrogance as their sporty trophy.

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Need for foundations

Retired and experienced experts have informally discussed the need to work on the establishment of a quasi research or independent foundation for the NMI. Its purpose is to assist both branches of government in their policy-making efforts especially on socio-economic issues.

The research should put into perspective most issues before they are translated into policy matters. It gives the prospective author a fully rounded conception and understanding of the issue before him as he works committee rooms to move his legislation.

But this undertaking would require lots of money, time and energy. We want to ensure that we retain the services of real credentialed experts, not just any expert out in the streets. Will keep you posted on this matter in that we have to have some seed funds to get it off the ground.

The final product in policy-making ought to be a plus for all. It encourages sure-footed legislation premised on a set of researched and real facts, not perceptual facts.