What is your location?

I live in Koblerville, the street behind Hannam Supermarket, and my house is next to the pink plumeria tree. This is an example of a street address on Saipan. Is this legitimately the most efficient way of identifying your location? No. Valuable time and precious resources are squandered explaining where you live and figuring out where businesses are located.

Every place in the world should have an address. However, on our island, we do not have an address. People may believe that it is unnecessary for Saipan to have an address for every section of the island because it is only about 12 miles long and five miles wide. Although it is a small island, having an address will create an opportunity for efficiency, especially during emergencies.

If you were to drive from the northern tip to the southern tip, that’s about two hours of driving. One’s life can depend on that two hours. Because there is no specific information to describe a location, one may experience the moment of death while the ambulance struggles to find that location. What would only take about 30 minutes can end up taking more than an hour. In case of emergencies, our island should establish the system of naming each place with a specific number for anyone to easily identify. If we develop this system, people who are anticipating for the ambulance to arrive in their area will not have to constantly answer their phones trying to explain the directions of their location.

This problem not only applies to life emergencies but also emergencies of starvation. When the pizza man is delivering the food, how long does it usually take? From my experience, it takes more than two hours for the pizza man to arrive at my location. The system of delivery is made for the convenience of the customer, but is it genuinely convenient for the people of Saipan? I believe that, for most people on Saipan, picking up the pizza themselves will waste less time and increase the customer satisfaction. This issue is preventing people from utilizing an efficient way of receiving their food as well as preventing the company that provides the delivery service from earning tips.

I am indicating an issue that people may not consider a problem, and I am proposing a solution that is applicable to anyone living in a place without an address to identify their location. By developing a system that identifies each building on this island, we will be able to prevent pain from starvation and injuries. Thankfully, our island has a name for most roads. The only thing that our island is lacking are specific addresses of each place. Allowing people to utilize this system will make our island a better place to live. Saipan will become more modernized and more convenient.

Ruth Park
Afetna, San Antonio