Dawning realization

The most troubling issue is the dawning realization that we can’t get there from here—wherever that may be—and we know it by heart, too! Troubling, isn’t it? Political punditry aside, what’s your honest assessment of the state of the CNMI?

It’s difficult ignoring first-hand experience of hard familial suffering at home, so widespread throughout the archipelago. It’s bad all around as the multitude yearn for answers, any answer!

The fiscal crisis and chaos hasn’t been of any help to families juggling pennies, nickels, and dimes to make ends meet. This isn’t “perceptual” reality but “real” reality, fully embedded in family pocketbooks counted and recounted daily and usually aborted in frustration.

You listen to politicians who, again, spout tired promises or redundancy. You quiz if they have any conception at all of the term “percipience” and “vision.” But they’ve conveniently placed buffers (incompetence) between themselves and villagers.

Troubling the messy and chaotic economy that has generated less than $135 million. Take away a third of the total for retirees and the balance is spread to other sectors. But the cumulative deficit started several years before federal immigration control took effect. Nobody had any inkling of its unintended consequences.

Retirees would see their 25 percent soon, if not already. But then what happens this October? It’s back to square one once more or 75 percent. Is there money even for this purpose?

It’s confusing for the unwary, frustrating for those who understand the primary setback that has landed the NMI in the marshland of bankruptcy. Understandably, the surge of frustration skyrockets as families revisit juggling what’s left in their pocketbooks. Some 80 cents per dollar is usually gone by the time they begin counting pennies.

There’s the reasoned belief that this is the result of the lack of a comprehensive plan or blueprint that addresses key issues of the islands. “When there’s no plan then it’s obvious there are no set goals to plan for compromising the need for objectives or the means to attain such goals,” said a fully honed local professional. “Everything is on helter-skelter basis.”

“These include the amalgam of healthcare issues, education, and the local economy,” he said, adding, “It takes real time leadership, organization, fully researched materials from real experts, deliberative discussions, definition, and subsequent decision by leadership.” “As it is, there’s nothing but a huge and powerful vacuum that sinks our ship right at the peak of a huge fiscal storm.”

“Do we yell at the iceberg atop a rescue boat?” he asked, sighing. Perhaps it’s the only thing to do, though we may have to learn how to yell louder. The fiscal chaos is further exacerbated by our insatiable love for instant gratification over the painful, though more lasting, solutions. A long vacation or relocation is just about the only next best thing for the multitude.

I’m sure incumbents find this reality the hardest wild nut to chew. One can’t justify it and even a sincere effort would elicit quiet though powerful rebuke for doing nothing to alleviate the living misery among the multitude. It needs a miracle! This would have to be the dawning reality of life in this hellish hole. Did someone say paradise?

Issues of substance
NMC needs to analyze and explain the 90 percent of students who failed its entrance exam recently. First, it must look within to determine if its test had been upgraded and updated for relevancy or has it remained nearly three decades old?

In its analysis, it would be good to find out if students are in the top or lower 50 percent. How many are locals and what high school did they come from? You see the goal isn’t to vilify PSS while glorifying NMC but to buckle down to providing academic assistance or quality instructions for those who are potentially college material.

NMC has also suffered heavily from nursing students who hardly pass the NCLEX exam. It needs to retract to figure out the beast. Otherwise, the purported syllabus turns a total waste on everybody!

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It seems so far away in another world but it’s right at our front door! Revenue generation has receded into a measly $134 million. Our needs are upwards of $250 million.

If you were outside looking in, you’d never understand the self-inflicted fiscal monstrosity. Conversely, if you’re inside looking out you can never explain it either. As a bystander, you quiz how far would this lunacy persist in the midst of a rumbling fiscal volcano nearby.

Calamari time!
Something was poking at my toe. It was a teeny mouse with the inscription “squidproquo” on his forehead. He waved at me apologizing, “Sorry, I was supposed to ‘tiptoe’ so I wouldn’t be a bother.”

Appalling his failed explanation of “tiptoe” as to ignore that he did nothing but confirm his actual use of it hiding behind the alias “squidproquo.” He’s fearful of putting a name to his diatribe, a tale of his shady character. How about showing me some real coconuts? Why resort to adolescency, casting aspersions?

Obviously, he ignores the fact that CUC has been placed under consent decree by the federal district court. Moreover, he ignores the significant implications of the court order. I’m sure he’d happily acknowledge that consent decree was imposed signaling CUC’s incompetency. That it is in fiscal crisis in perpetuity rolls out the carpet for a federal takeover of the utility agency. Sorry!

Ah, don’t employ the insinuation of the race card. It doesn’t matter to me what your pigmentation is or whether you’re a haole, braole, or chaole. Stick fact-checked arguments. It boggles the mind why now the federal takeover of CUC? I suppose Uncle Sam isn’t ready for more wasteful spending of hard earned U.S. and local taxpayers money, right? Eh, why not morph into a hermit crab shell. It’s a better hiding place! I’ll help you make the transfer so you don’t injure your behind.