A couple of suggestions

To the MHS students at the library on July 3

To the students and teachers attending the orientation session at the JKPL Thursday morning, it may have sounded like a good idea to learn about EBSCO, but for those that don’t know what EBSCO is, it is a pay site that gives you access to 11,000 sites to get information for a variety of subjects. For those that don’t know, YouTube gives you billions and billions of videos about everything on EBSCO and more, much more, for free. I heard that the CNMI and the former TT islands pay this company $50,000 a year for this service. Forgive me for calling someone stupid, but, someone is stupid. I report, you decide.

NMTI, what do you think of this?

There are a thousand or more grown men and women here without a high school diploma that can’t get work in the CNMI because businesses require it. Many of these men and women have been working in jobs like culinary, masonry, carpentry, wiring, and HVAC, auto and diesel mechanics and so on for 10 to 30 years. Since your instructors are U.S. certified, why can’t you just charge them $50 and let them show the instructors their stuff. If they are competent, they get a certificate of competency. It doesn’t make any difference if they can’t use it in Guam or any place else. These people live here and that’s where they want to work, but can’t, just because they lack a piece of paper. It’s time our government started taking care of our people.

While I’m on NMTI, trying to run a technical/vocational school without incorporating touch screen tablets is insane. NMTI CEO Agnes McPhetres mentioned she wants to put up a technical library. Another insane idea. Everything is on YouTube and its everywhere and it’s free. NMTI needs a general manager who knows about technology and trade schools. CNMI government, stop trying to reinvent the wheel. It’s already been invented and all we have to do is go to YouTube and every problem and every solution to every situation that has or will ever come up in the CNMI is in there. And it doesn’t require a committee or a commission or consultant. It’s free. Think back to January 1978 when the first CNMI constitutional government was installed. The governor was Carlos Camacho, a medical doctor. Now imagine if one of his first thought was, “We will need a hospital that will require doctors so we will send five of our brightest scholars off every year to medical school, all expenses paid, including lodging, food, a car where necessary, and enough spending money so they can treat their colleagues to dinner and drinks once a week. After a few years we will have three to five real doctors coming back every year to the CNMI to work in our hospital for 10 years, at a decent salary, or whatever time frame the Legislature stipulated.” Imagine CHC today. What if he said, “Maybe we should do this for CUC also”? A lot of what if’s but we need education, so people, all the people, can make intelligent choices.

Ignorance is bliss for some

Hi Ray, I ran into Frank the other day. We’ve been friends since my first day here in 1979 at the Royal Taga. I was never a teacher but most of the rest of my biography is correct. You say that during the TT time there was no freedom but people were happy. LOL. They were leaving for greener pastures then as they are now. You still have only as much freedom as your leaders give you. Have you been to Palau lately? They have the same inept, corrupt, unresponsive government we have here. The only difference is that they don’t have the feds looking over their shoulder. The gap between the haves and the have-nots is just as great but they don’t have public assistance like the CNMI, where 50 percent or more of the population is getting some form of assistance a direct result of our politicians eliminating the middle class. We have rich and poor, no in between. Now, I agree 100 percent with you that the CNMI needs to move on but this being an election year, I see we have the same old, recycled, family connected people running for office. We need term limits and age limits. No one over 40 can run for office. The world is changing every two to three years now. If you check YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, you will only find two or three of the 20 or so candidates on any of them. Ridiculous in 2014. My goal is to change PSS, their curriculum, their focus and their direction. If you have any ideas I’d love to discuss them, please email me. garydubrall@gmail.com.

To the lady I talked to at the Minatchom Atdao

I asked you if Gov. Eloy Inos was talking about the 25 percent retirees lost and the casino and you told me no. The Marianas Variety said he was. I said it was a ploy to use the retirees. You asked what business it was of mine and what right do I have to “come here and tell us how to fix our problems.” I said you sound like a PSS graduate and you said, why don’t I go fix PSS. To answer these questions I will just say this. I have the same rights on Saipan as you do, assuming you carry a U.S. passport, and I am talking to students daily, writing letters daily, and informing everyone I meet that PSS needs to listen to the students and start adapting their curriculum to 2014 needs.

Governor, it’s still a scam

In both papers, the headlines shouted out, “Inos: No to amending license” and “Clash of views on licenses.” You say, again, and again and again, it’s the only way for retirees to get their full retirement. Hotel occupancy has been running about 75 percent on existing rooms and there are still over 1,000 rooms in boarded-up hotels that can be opened when the need arises, and there are another 600 rooms in proposed new hotels. If these were open now, occupancy would be 50 percent, which is not enough to run a tourist industry. You and I know that it will be 20 years before those 2,000 rooms are ever built. Do the smart thing, governor, and just put everything on hold for fouronths until the people of the CNMI decide the issue. I also suggest you take some online courses to bring your accounting skills up to date. When you do, why not inform the good people of the CNMI just what the status of our finances really are, in simple terms we can understand? It’s also your fiduciary responsibility as chief executive.

Gary DuBrall
Chalan Piao, Saipan