Internet shutdown

The CNMI’s business center came to total paralysis last week when the Internet system shut down completely. It goes to show how indelibly we’re reliant upon modern technology in the conduct of daily business. It was sheer chaos on all fronts. Literally, everything stopped!

Paralysis was doubled down by our inability to access timely weather updates on a superstorm approaching the island. We were trapped in fear, quizzing whether Nangka was headed directly toward us and when would it make landfall? Information on the storm’s status came a bit too late. This was all attributable to the system’s massive failure.

Does IT&E have a more reliable backup system? I mean it has had the 2008 experience, plus free use of public land. What did it do to ensure its antiquated relics are up and running within the hour when its main system crashes into total blackout? The NMI can’t afford another fatal or farcical tango with an unreliable system!

The massive costs incurred on both sectors definitely warrant serious review to bringing in another cable company or provider. Healthy competition is good for business and consumers as well. Even more vital is the provision of a reliable communications system. IT&E has proven otherwise!

The blackout has resulted in dire economic conditions with losses in the millions for the travel industry and others. Would there be reimbursements from IT&E for such losses?

Finally, though a shock to most folks Marianas-wide, there’s also the upside of the Internet total shutter: it granted parents and kids an opportunity to revisit each other in real time conversations for the first time in as many years or since the arrival of iPhones and iPads.

Indigenous culture

It is said that culture provides edification or improvements in the livelihood of a people. In other words, it serves as the foundation where the indigenous people draw their strengths and overall improvements. Has our culture helped us in this fashion? If the answer is in the affirmative or negative, could you explain your view? I wish to secure realistic answers.

The one issue that remains unanswered is the origin of the Chamorro. I know the Carolinian part of my ancestry. I don’t know anything about my Chamorro origin. It’s a seesaw discussion that never gets anywhere. Are we Malaysians, Indonesians, Filipinos, Singaporeans or a combination of all of the above?

For as long as this issue isn’t resolved with finality, the spirit of Chamorros deeply yearns or longs to find home. We haven’t found home as yet. Our lives are analogous to the bird known locally as “Payaya`,” a fowl that floats endlessly before and after vicious storms. And so it seems that we’ve been floating for the last 500 years, never able to plant our feet on planet Earth.

“First, culture is almost identical to people or nation, as in French or other cultures. Second, culture refers to art, music, literature, educational television, certain kinds of movies—in short, everything that is uplifting and edifying, as opposed to commerce.

“The link is that culture is what makes possible, on a high level, the rich social life that constitutes a people, their customs, styles, tastes, festivals, rituals, gods—all that binds individuals into a group with roots, in a community in which they think and will generally, with a people a moral unity, and the individual united within himself. A culture is a work of art, of which the fine arts are the sublime expression.

“In all of us there is a hunger marrow deeply rooted searching for who we are and where we came from. Without this enriching knowledge there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness.

It’s an issue, like most other issues of significance, we’ve opted to ignore or sleepwalk in grand mañana. Is this why we seem transient or nomadic in the way we make decisions, usually far removed from any sense of permanence? Take another look in that pinning it down with finality could enable us to reset our ripped sails once more and move out of the harbor of emptiness with confidence.

The debate on this score is similar to understanding “home” and a “place.” My professional job may take me to Dallas or Paris—a place—but Saipan remains home. I may sail away from its shores but this isle is home for me and kids forever!