Ignoring ‘We the people’

Casino gambling is the Holy Grail for inept minds convinced it’s the single cure-all to the significant decline in revenues here. Not only is it riddled with pipedream answers but proponents completely ignored and trashed public sentiment against it after two plebiscites when voters simply said “no.”

Is casino industry the realistic substitute or is this proposal another ill-conceived two-headed corn snake, scattershot at best and riddled with more queries than answers? Though redundant, perhaps there’s a need to reiterate voters decision on this issue so proponents understand their hollow and shallow proposal. They are:

1). The people have voted twice to effectively kill the measure in a plebiscite. It should dawn on legislators that “we the people” took it away from you for a reason: We no longer trust placing it at your feet. “We the people” soundly rebuked your incompetence via a plebiscite. Obviously, you failed to hear that we no longer trust your judgment on this matter. How could you’ve glossed over the voice of “we the people” who said “no” twice? Such suspect courage is at its most delusional level.

2). You only saw the “glitz and glamour” of casino, completely ignoring the flip side to it. It deals with the Trojan horse of socio-economic ills and disruption that would slowly chisel its way into the lives of the indigenous people who’d fall victims to human frailties. It includes battle with drugs, prostitution, loss of family house and land, health, murder, loss of family values, among others. Did you thoroughly give these issues critical review or did you simply look the other way?

3). The clear voice of “we the people” is ignored altogether as though it’s just another fly by cotton ball you dust off your shirt and tie. Why would you work against the clear will of “we the people?” Is there anything you know about casino that we’re ignorant about? Don’t you think we’ve delved into both sides of the issue before concluding that it’s not a sustainable industry? Do we have the basic infrastructure (wealthy people) to support the industry? What percentage of the local population are millionaires? Isn’t it true that the CNMI has become SNAP Isles?

4). Japan is on its way to approving casino as part of its thriving tourism industry. It’s equipped with 26 million multimillionaires (known as infrastructure) most capable of supporting the industry when it is established. The combined heavy competition from Macau and Japan would simply pummel our pull-out-of-the-hat casino industry Marianas-wide. The two countries are very wealthy and could afford big time casinos, unlike the CNMI inching its way in the dark alleys of bankruptcy. Macau is even moving toward catering to the ultra-wealthy with lavish gifts and services unheard of the world over.

5). It would be interesting to see the House committee report citing the economic model used to justify projected revenue generation. What are the credentials of the experts who provided the research work and was it sufficiently extensive covering all aspects “we the people” need to know? What’s the source and derivative of the projected revenue and is it a realistic calculation? Or was it haphazardly prepared and designed to blur the real issues on social ills?

6). Who’s going to move in and dump $40 million in a venue that has recently been christened America’s newest “Welfare State?” Against empirical data, is it still your infinite wisdom that casino is a sustainable industry here? Has it worked on Tinian and Rota?

What about the harmonious perpetuation of our peoplehood via institutions like the church, culture, tradition, education, respect, integrity, marriage, and our freedom of choice? Why are you so disconnected from these time-honored institutions? Appalling the NMD-only mindset (ethnic hegemony) while allowing for more dilution? Must define what it is that you want and quit shooting from the hip!

There are legislators who’ve taken the convenient exit, turning their inadequacies to opponents insisting for answers. Humiliating your turning political dinosaurs and you’ve never even sought for a socio-economic plan—a blueprint—to move the needle of growth forward? Missed it, huh?

Evidently, I served as commissioner of the Gambling Commission in 1979. My lifetime experience on this issue grants me the opportunity to view it with meaning and context focused on preventing the repeat of history. Keep criminal elements from corrupting public officials permanently. It’s ugly!

Time Magazine picks Catholic pontiff Pope Francis as its Person of the Year, beating President Obama, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and other top honorees.

“Rarely has a new player on the world stage captured so much attention so quickly,” said Time managing editor Nancy Gibbs Wednesday. “In his nine months in office, he has placed himself at the very center of the central conversations of our time: about wealth and poverty, fairness and justice, transparency, modernity, globalization, the role of women, the nature of marriage, the temptations of power.”

Gibbs pointed out that the 76-year-old Pope has “no army or weapons, no kingdom beyond a tight fist of land in the middle of Rome, but with the immense wealth and weight of history behind, to throw down a challenge.” The Pope’s message is also spreading to people beyond the church, said Gibbs.

“When he kisses the face of a disfigured man or washes the feet of a Muslim woman, the image resonates far beyond the boundaries of the Catholic Church,” Gibbs wrote in a piece explaining the magazine’s selection.

The most successful economies of scale share something in common: each has a globally renowned university at the center, guiding growth and development of the entire country.

The University of Hawaii has done exceedingly well partaking in the overall growth and development of the Aloha State. The University of Guam has become the center of higher learning for the entire Micronesian region and continues to expand. NMC?