Return of the APC Era

It used to be that every illness here was treated with APC, a long time ago. Be it tuberculosis, cancer, heart attack and stroke, chronic diabetes or headaches—the APC is it!

I mention the APC Era in that it seems to be making a comeback in different form. For instance, the significant reduction in revenue generation gone Deep South has its own APC—casino! Though the big boys refuse admission of a huge budgetary shortfall of nearly $150 million they have their own Holy Grail or APC too. It still is casino!

To ensure that locals keep silent on a brewing storm against the new gambling industry it was fed another APC—millions of dollars for utility vouchers from a casino firm. Unfortunately, it seems that the bottle of APC-casino is now more than half empty. Could we get a refill, please?

APC-casino isn’t what IT was perceived to be. Of course, anything done in haste turns to waste! The NMI is broke or bankrupt. Has anyone seen our bottle of APC-casino lately? PSS, CHC, and CUC need some financial medication!

The fiscal crisis of the NMI is far more complicated than confused spouts from the “solutions driven” team. The lieutenant governor’s sophomoric whistle about poverty while hinting to raiding MPLT funds is a direct and clear admission of the bankruptcy of the NMI government. The Constitution calls for investments! I’m not fixated on this issue for political purposes. Screw the political ramifications. But it’s a serious one most have ignored. Imagine it hits villagers, if not, already!

Why did you allow a single casino license? Would not another license give an additional $30 million for a total of $60 million annually? It’s oxymoronic that you contributed to poverty and even have the audacity to speak about it?

If you’re concerned about opportunities for locals to eradicate poverty, didn’t Best Sunshine just hire 40 foreigners as card dealers and placed front page in one of the local papers? What does this hiring translate into in your definition of opportunities? Doesn’t it mean 40 less jobs for locals? So you subscribe to creating jobs for more foreigners over your very own? Why insulate your BSI at the expense of our people? You simply have answered your own sophomoric riddle in the process!

This as the 51 percent under poverty level income quiz what’s next while literally struggling to make ends meet? The economy doesn’t support high wages while cost of living skyrockets. No wonder it’s a struggle for most folks!

Any realistic answers amidst 14 years of stagnant salaries—family income stayed the same—all these years? The pain in the villages isn’t going away anytime soon. In fact, it’ll get worse by the day. Root out the very foundation of poverty—corruption in government!

Culture: Our Ship of Hope
I’ve paced our 37-year journey, specifically why is this tiny paradise so tangled up in the steady sinking of its quality of life?

They say tourism is good but while visitor numbers increase, revenues have decreased by as much as $40 million. It has gone the other way!

Then came casino. Even the APC itself is found to be the wrong prescription for a Stage 4 economic cancer that has spread all over.

Indeed, through the years we’ve also neglected the one foundation that has brought us this far—our cultural tradition—the foundation of any society. But it seems we’ve become so fashionably materialistic as to easily fall sway to wholesaling our integrity in the name of promoting social conscience and responsibility. Wow! Nice try!

It’s the biblical equivalence of Abel and Cain. Peddlers don’t have a conscience to see that this is exactly their single destructive mission. Obviously, they couldn’t care less for as long as they receive hefty pay from the firm set to use a different approach to culture in our eventual destruction. Why would they barter our heritage?

It won’t work and it would be very sad if one day the loss of tradition turns us into strangers right here at home. We’re headed that way now. It’s a dangerous journey!

Our cultural tradition is our only Ship of Hope dealing with the challenges of this century. It should take us into education where our children learn survival skills.

Said author Felix Montemayor about the importance of culture, “Both reason and experience tells, and history conclusively confirms and attests, that a nation built on a purely materialistic foundation cannot long endure and sooner or later collapses on its shaky, sandy, foundations.” Montemayor was a famous philosopher in the Philippines who’s written more than 12 books on various issues in philosophy. It’s time to retreat and reassess our journey with a sure-footed navigator!

Dysfunctional government
You quiz why has the NMI government failed to improve the quality of life in the islands. Many folks feel the government is bloated, which takes away millions of dollars for salaries when they should be earmarked for meaningful programs.

A lot of political hires push the same set of papers daily looking busy. Their alleged services simply fail to improve life in the villages. Welcome to the “do-nothing” troops!

This is the cream of the crop in terms of wages and salaries. It’s the most unproductive sector of the NMI collecting loots from taxes we pay. Did you get that, Ladrones?

Across the street are alleged policymakers who are basically clueless what their fiduciary duties entail. Ever heard any realistic idea how to improve the economy other than their Lazarus Package—casino? None!

Next, there’s the panty law and a vicious intramural debate why the hotel district should have a single road. These as the quality of life or our standard of living deteriorates right smack in the deepening 14-year economic depression. How would these airheads spur opportunities when half the time they’re clueless?