A tale of misery

With a browbeaten face, my friend tries to figure out the deepening misery in what’s supposed to be the “paradise” of all who live in this golden archipelago. He was hoping for a less political discussion just so he understands what went wrong in recent past that landed most people in fatal or subterranean economic misery.

Is it in deceptive and regressive provincialism that doesn’t provide answers to the more substantive issues? Is it in the politics of self-destruction, openly boasting nepotism at the expense of the wellbeing of the less politically connected? Is it in the poor quality of leadership that has problems with reading comprehension and perception, therefore the humiliating disconnect with issues of significance? Is it in the disconnection of mind and heart, mouth shooting off without engaging the brain? Is it in the obvious lack of commitment to fulfill fiduciary responsibility?

It’s mind-boggling the apathy that leaves humanity in the back seat. There’s the troubling separation from reality altogether.

It’s obvious the chain reaction of failure of recent past that continues torching every corner of the CNMI. It sends everyone reeling and pining for answers, hurting from the ravages of hardship. Now the captain and his crew are standing on the bow of their rescue boat, yelling at the iceberg. It’s misery taking its most virulent assault because leadership has simply failed grandly too.

Meeting reality: My friend’s retirement pay was reduced to zero when the new health premium kicked in. He still must cough up about $1,000 for deductible upon renewal and deal with a 40-percent increase in medication cost. This unwelcome addition draining his meager income as he maps out increases in power bills and basic commodities. What has leadership done to our already decimated income from the 25 percent cut?

Said he: “Sounds almost embarrassing but I now must divide a can of tuna into three meals in order to stretch what’s left in food items in the kitchen. Our source of light at night has been a single 40-watt light bulb and even that may have to be dimmed completely.” His observation and the hardship he has to endure are found in nearly every household Marianas-wide. It’s really tough going as we head off apoplectic quizzing what else lies ahead.

Are we not paying dearly for politicians’ fear, disorientation, inaction, and indecision on the dire need to privatize CUC so a competent firm could fix the mess before we begin experiencing rolling blackouts? Must we continue paying unaffordable power rates as a result of politicians’ complicity to CUC’s incompetence?

Election year: Familial economic misery is one tough issue to bluff with the usual “biba” and the chancy regurgitation of the failed “better times.” If you haven’t done anything of substance to rein in wealth and jobs creation, your trip to the mound this year would be difficult, it not completely futile. In other words, you’ve dimmed the economic light (kandet) of families as a result of your inaction. We are also ready to turn off the kandet of your political career permanently.

You’ve failed to bring the livelihood of the multitude into a bright new morning or dawn of hope. The collateral damage is real and it’s next to impossible juggling what’s left in the family pocketbooks to meet obligations. I’m sure you know by heart the lyrical high price of your inaction and obvious apathy. Listen to the villagers for you will hear their true sentiments! It isn’t very encouraging for incumbents either.

Politics of nepotism

Years ago, Rota was well on its way to fostering economic opportunities, but this was gradually decimated or destroyed by the politics of nepotism. There was a tyrant who killed entrepreneurship hailing from others in the community. In other words, if the family isn’t into it, the venture is basically a dead fish in the water.

But this has slowly faded into history when the tyrant left the scene and his understudy was soundly defeated in his re-election bid. It slammed open the floodgates of economic opportunities for everybody! It’s a good beginning! It grants ordinary citizens the opportunity to look forward to a bright new morning. People have basically taken back what’s theirs: their island and their future!

Farming reached unprecedented level with help from real technical experts from the School of Tropical Agriculture, University of Tokyo. Shipping was doing well, moving goods to and from the island. Both were destroyed when the politics of nepotism forced both farming and shipping from moving forward. Rota is where it is today, struggling to rebuild a once strong bridge traveled by all. Slow the process may be, it would reach its aspired goal for everyone in the next couple of years.

The statist government is history. Rota is free!

Stop the bleeding now!

The CNMI must learn to domesticate spending on spending. For instance, there are 53 major offices in government, discounting those downstairs and a useless bicameral Legislature.

It’s time we privatize CUC, CHC, half of PSS, CPA and all offices competing with private industries. Serious realignment is also an imperative assignment. It’s a savings of more than $80 million annually taxpayers need not deal with paying for royal inefficiencies in the public sector.

Have services improved with more than 2,000 government drone workers? Are taxpayers getting their money’s worth with redundancy and inefficiency? A lot of the inefficiency is rooted in the political promotion of employees definitely lacking knowledge-based qualifications in areas they are assigned to.

For instance, if you’re an executive secretary or human resource manager, do you have the academic competence and professional (with industrial level competency) wherewithal for your unearned lucrative job? There’s a gulf of difference between education and experience. It becomes highly critical that this political contagion is stopped dead on its track so it isn’t encouraged in perpetuity at the expense of taxpayers!