In search of realistic answers

Spent time peeping into emerging issues that need critical and thoughtful review. I’m interested to know what is and isn’t, including likely consequences. There are several on the table that merit healthy discussion and resolution.

Poverty: We’ve heard completely misguided speeches about poverty that fails to address its root cause. It moved into useless panaceas as temporary scaffold like the confused discussion on economic self-sufficiency.

A bad or depressed economy won’t help poverty stricken folks at all. It only exacerbates or makes their miserable lives worse! Misguided rhetoric won’t solve it. Not by a long shot.

The other definite familial scourge is stagnant wages and salaries, the crowned by-product of a bad economy doubled down by a clueless bunch on the hill. Eh, this is going for 14 years now under toxic Republican charge, true?

The use of casino against the indigenous people is as perplexing as it is appalling. A recent news item in the Wall Street Journal had this to say:

“Despite the recent success that gaming has brought to some Indian tribes, most of Indian country remains shockingly poor. This condition reflects the historic policies of the U.S. government that were designed to destroy tribal economies and induce Indian political subjugation.”

On that side of the Pacific Divide it’s the destruction of traditional economy and dominance. Though the U.S. isn’t pushing such policy here the goal is the same—bankrupting everybody! It’s subjugation or political control and dominance after which we all turn slaves of rich casino owners begging how high do we jump, whimsically. Do we drive our people into total poverty?

Leadership: There’s none up this alley, though there’s tons of “followership” everywhere you go! At day’s end, the absence of leadership only sinks the standard of living of villagers. Our men of wisdom on imperial Capital Hill have decided to ride the high tide of apathy and negligence. A world famous visionary once said that the “the acid test of success is in performance, not promises.”

Military plans: Our neighbor to the south is benefitting tremendously from what a Polynesian sister calls “militourism.” It’s the complementary combination of tourism and the military between Hawaii, Guam and the NMI.

Activists have had sour relations with the military for the destruction of the last indigenous government just to accommodate the military and rich sugar industry owners from the U.S. mainland. There’s the history of violent land taking at the expense of Polynesians.

The NMI has the Covenant agreement to rely on in terms of any military buildup here. Pagan, though, isn’t part of the military land inherent under the agreement. It means negotiations that must include an approved plan and budget from the U.S. Congress.

Meanwhile, the legal battle in Japan has begun over the buildup at Henoko in northern Okinawa. A former governor severed any further construction of the new base. Prime Minister Abe says “security” is the purview of the national government of Japan.

Stagnancy: Fourteen years of zero increase in salaries and wages is way too long a leadership neglect to endure while everything else skyrockets. Solutions driven? I have heard sputtering of an old jalopy driven out of the mud of poverty but solution isn’t part of the equation.

Is abject poverty the legacy of this administration? How long could we sit as huge sponge absorbing all the excesses of the “do-nothing” troops from imperial Capital Hill? Sorry, didn’t mean to poke your eye!

Diversification: The NMI must work on diversifying its economy beyond the fickle tourism industry. It must work overtime to factor in farming and fishing. This would require a plan of economic integration in diversification. Farming must be pushed several notches up including fishing. We all should draw lessons on such vicious experience like the effect of the Asian crisis here on tourism in recent years. Thus it makes imperative that we look beyond our deformed noses.

Land leases: A moratorium on land leases for development should be placed on hold for the next 10 years. It grants the NMI time to scrounge for money to fulfill its obligation in the emplacement of basic infrastructure. It gives people at the helm time to mull over a highly relevant query we’ve ignored for nearly four decades: Development for whom? What’s our role in future planned investments? Would we again be reduced to just cogs?

No more? In 1993 we told Congress “no more” grant funds. This year we’re pacing the Capitol and Pennsylvania Avenue to see if we could get “more” funds. Lucky there’s MPLT whose funds we would raid to pay for costs regular funding can’t cover.

It was a proud moment in our developmental history. The economy was humming with a thriving tourism and apparel industries that encouraged growth in other sectors. This was dashed as to force our looking into pension obligation bonds. It’s an indirect admission that the NMI is hard up for cash.

Indigenous: When people use the term “indigenous” it raises my two ears quizzing who else dares use it to spout unbridled radical rhetoric that feeds the ego but denies our people real assistance. It’s a sad tale that means we must begin morphing into reality check. It requires major shift in lingo too.

The answers to the self-inflicted miseries are right before our naked eyes. Spouting you must shove aside and begin using the more humble sense of listening. You need to hear in clear fashion the yearning of your people searching for real answers in familial economics. This needs to be done for we’ve rendered a whole of “nothing” all these years. No more platitudes, please! Felis noche buena!