Clarification on land and culture

Someone refuted as wrong the assertion I had on land losing its historical traditional relationship with the local culture. Obviously, this was misunderstood and reinterpreted to suit the racially biased agenda that scaffolds hollow arguments on a discriminatory constitutional provision, namely Article 12.

If I may try again: Upon these islands was founded an agrarian community or farming as a “way of life” by our ancestors. It became a cultural tradition—farming the land for sustenance—since five centuries ago. We slowly moved away from it when we started working for the naval administration after the war and subsequently the TTG and now the NMIG. It set up the stage to slowly abandon traditional farming as a way of life. True or false?

We moved away from an agrarian way of life. So the tradition of farming founded upon our land gradually disappeared through the years. We need not belabor the point. Just ask yourself how many of our people are still farming fulltime? So we’ve lost the traditional use of land. Didn’t we morph into a money economy? Didn’t this change turn most family land into assets or commodity today? This was the material historical shift in point of my explanation, nothing else. How do you refute an historical material fact?

How interesting the point that land still remains the place of gathering and unity of families here. No qualms up that alley. It’s still true for most families with ranches or farms. I still farm the family place in As Perdido, having been raised among tall sweet corn, taro, tapioca, bananas, and sweet potatoes. Its traditional genesis hailed from our ancestors that once farmed these isles.

But family land has also become the very source of vicious family feuds, lawsuits, and disunity. The Superior Court is inundated with dockets or litigation on family feud we’ve never seen on television. I still hear siblings mouthing off against each other for disagreement over division of family land or equitable distribution of wealth resulting from it. The fight goes on as share for family members decrease and funneled into legal fees. There’s also the failure to distribute the shares of heirs that is still in court for resolution. This is how much we value land here!

Finally, if we aren’t ready to embrace the moral obligation inherent in “We the people” of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, then we must be two-headed hypocrites who have failed to understand our humanity. How humiliating our agility to receive U.S. taxpayers’ money, yet we instantly boast off fragility against assimilation and justice for fellow citizens. Is this right when viewed against Christianity in the islands that has been around for centuries? Didn’t we develop a sense of justice and what’s right? We have a lot of growing up to do, don’t we?

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Crash of local economy

The crash of the local economy was the result of three phenomena: 1). Global recession that took the wind out of the economies of scale we’ve relied upon for sustenance in tourism. 2). Loss of competitive edge derailed by the World Trade Organization lifting export quotas for garment products from China and other competing Asian countries. 3). The imposition of federal control of immigration and federal minimum wage. The combined negative effects have made investing on the islands “unprofitable.”

The issue though isn’t so much the drain of investments as much as what we’ve failed to do to mitigate the impending tsunami of foreign capital rushing out of our floodgates. Leadership decided to place their fiduciary obligation on automatic pilot and took a long snooze while our economic rooftop was on fire. We took assorted long bomb trips elsewhere except where it matters the most: Washington. We employed dismissive arrogance where tactful island style diplomacy would have netted better and greater synergistic working relationships with the feds.

Do I expect economic recovery soon? Not really. We’re still in a recession or vicious downward spiral heading to some abyss downstairs. Meanwhile, brace for worse conditions up ahead as we quiz, “Need it be this way?” It’s a sigh of hardship that would destroy most households here for at least a decade. If you feel bad about it, imagine the difficulty I had to swallow organizing my thoughts to pen this piece. No fun either! Not when the multitude would be cringing from apocalyptic hardship.

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Quick fixes?

A quick fix is now the new forte or mode of doing things among the elected elite on the hill, especially in the Covenant-dominated lower chamber. Most have used indistinct competency to forge shortsighted policies via legislation. Call it fuzzy logic or disorientation or both.

I can’t fathom policies approved to date that are so far removed from the deepening economic mess at home. There are the infamous bicycle regulations and prohibition of undergarments in the tourist sector in Garapan. I think a joint resolution from the upper chamber acquiescing such rarity in solid mediocrity (performance rating) ought to complete the equation.

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Ooops! The tent of unity is collapsing in GOP land. Is the wind of dissatisfaction turning into a slow powerful super storm? Well, the Covenant bunch isn’t sure how to sail side-by-side with its former captain. The second chief mate is acquiescing decisions by the former chief on separate ships via text messages. Gee! The stench from the colossus of disunity is unbearably dizzying.