Saipan Politics

Photo from Saipan Tribune

When I say this photo on the front page of today's Saipan Tribune, my first thought was "why are these men smiling?" Don't they realize that the CNMI is in dire straits? Don't they have any sense of forboding? Aren't they the least bit concerned about the gravity of the situation?

I was at Java Joe's and chatting with Tina Sablan and Glen Hunter. Of course the Governor, Lieutenan Governor, Senators are smiling...they've just spent hours in a swank hotel.

Five hours of "leadership" meeting on the economy and they didn't have the good sense to use a government building? They had to go to a hotel? Who paid for that? Was there any bidding for this government expense or is our governor just friends with the hotel owners?

I really think the elected officials have completely lost touch with the realitiy on the ground. Their focus is on their own political hides.

Governor Fitial is a Republican again. This is his strategy for saving his political skin. (And writing a letter in support of Tom Delay, another "good" Republican."

The others are slapping each other on the back, grinning, "cooperating," and trying to convince themselves that they belong in the political fraternity where they can enjoy the perks of privilege.

What came out of the meeting? We have only a few details.

There will be $6.2 million pumped to travel agents to encourage tourism here. $100 paid for every tourist from Osaka and Nagoya during low peak times. Aren't all times low peak just now? Will this really be enough to stimulate travel? Are we going to get our money's worth? Can we afford it? This doesn't sound like a terrible idea, but how long can we buy our tourists? And what will the actual proposed legislation look like?

There was some mention of reprogramming funds and looking at "lapsed" federal grants. The first is always dangerous and usually means less control by the Legislature and more power to a Governor who has already abused his power repeatedly. The second shouldn't take a summit of leadership to consider. We apparently have federal money available to us for a number of projects that we have not spent, which Kilili has pointed out.

That's it...that's all we've been told so far.

While the governor is concerned about ending the austerity measures, no one is talking about the need for new thinking and lifetime commitment to austerity, to frugality, to a balanced budget.

No one is talking about cleaning up Saipan so tourists might better enjoy visiting. (Thanks is deserved by our Mayor who has at least addressed the roadkill problem.) No one is talking about small businesses--except to continue to fight minimum wage.

Our leaders continue to look for pie-in-the-sky solutions. They want the big kahuna to come in and give us money, no strings attached. That big kahuna could be casinos or crime and they wouldn't care, as long as the price was right. There is no thought for ethics, for principles or community values. And when any prospect appears that might look like the desired solution, there is an immediate blindness and unwillingness to look closely--just the usual grasping at straws.

None of them would recognize a real solution if it came up and bit them in the ass because a real solution would not mean money in their pockets; would not mean an immediate turn-around and super economic prosperity. A real solution would mean we'd have to work, to change, and to allow for gradual improvement.

We will continue to sink with this "leadership." They will continue to smile because they are clueless. As long as they can eat nice lunches and meet in luxury hotel rooms and be fawned over by people impressed with their position and power (big fish in a tiny fishbowl), they will remain out of touch with the reality in the community.

And that's a shame because they are also blind to the talents and resources of our people. The leadership might bash foreign workers when they're in the mood to cater to certain voters, but they don't really see the value of any of the people here--local, haole, and foreign. They are unaware of talents they can't recognize--like education, like visual or performing artistry, like the analytical/scientific mind, like the practical laborer. All they care about is whether they will continue to get elected and have money in their own pockets.

And so they are still smiling.

Approaching the CNMI's Problems

Hot days. A rainbow this morning in the western sky. A few scattered sulphur butterflies. And a travesty of cut-down trees along Beach Road at MHS. (sigh)
_________________________

The CNMI is in a deep, deep rut. We are facing payless paydays of government employees. The private sector is eating dirt and unable to even get to its knees. And the mood in the communities is bleak.

We have technological problems with water, sewer and utilities. We have a community college on academic probation and facing revocation of its accreditation again. We have a retirement system that has lost millions of dollars and given away perks and double dipping benefits and now can't pay its obligations to its members.

We have increasing crime but a criminal justice system that is riddled with flaws--police who forget about the use of warrants, prosecutors who fail to work with the police to get the evidence and then lose cases, worse yet--settle for puny crimes and miniscule sentences unrelated to the real crime, and worst--dismiss cases or face the court's dismissals instead of prosecuting them.

We have extreme and serious problems and no workable solutions on the table.

Our re-tread legislators peddle the same tired proposals--1) casinos (which have not brought prosperity to Tinian in a decade of operation; have already cost us money in Rota without profit); 2) hitting businesses for more (taking away qualifying certificates, increasing fees); or 3) begging for help from the Federal government, while we continue to strut and profess our indigenous rights and refuse to cooperate with them on immigration and federal enforcement of drug laws.

Most people in the community are impatient and only want money in their pockets (or as Zaldy Dandan reported earlier-the only kind of change people are interested in is the kind that jingles in their pocket).

So if and when elected officials "look" for solutions, they look for short-term, immediate "fixes" which do not address the underlying problems and only tend to delay and worsen the situation. Pension-obligation-bonds are an example. The idea is that we will borrow to "fix" the debt we owe...

Finding long-term solutions means examining what we've done wrong. Some people in the community view this analysis as "unpatriotic," meaning it's anti-CNMI. Others do not have the patience to sift through the details. Still others want to re-write the past and insist that known facts are actually something else. (For example denying the truth that the Department of Interior did consult with the Governor before issuing its report on alien labor.)

And unfortunately, long-term solutions provide no immediate remedy. The people vote out politicians (like Tina Sablan) looking for them, before such proposals can be put into effect or before their effect can be felt. And so we change course, losing ground in the process.

There is a solution. That solution: we need a shared vision of how to approach the problems.

We have spent so much time on thinking of where we want to go, and then we end up arguing about how to get there.

Instead, we need to focus on how we want to act; how we want to build our community; how we think we should engage with one another. We need an ETHIC, a shared ethic.

And that ethic must be based on moral values that support our cultures, all of them in their varied beauty.

We must find the Community Ethic that can nourish all of us, without placing any of us at the expense of others. We are in the same boat, and we will sink together unless we work together to save ourselves. Throwing some off the boat is not going to keep the boat from sinking. Obeying a captain who will share what little wealth is left with only his loyal followers is not going to keep the boat from sinking. Hoping for a miracle is not going to keep the boat from sinking.

God helps those who help themselves. And it is time we help ourselves.

My recommendations for our ethic:
We need an ethic that promotes industry, meaning work. There is value in labor. We need to promote this. We cannot promote the benefits of hard work if we cling to the notion of hand-outs, the gamble, the luck of the draw.

How this ethic might look applied to some of the issues we have before us: Casinos should be out because they promote the idea of easy winnings. Discretionary funds for politicians should be out because they are unrelated to work. Borrowing money (pension obligation bonds) should be off the table because we haven't yet tried to earn our way out of our problems. Immigration benefits should be handed out to those who worked a long time or are working now, but denied to those who got here, did little, and now are hoping for the lucky ticket. ALL government jobs should be civil service--based on competence and merit as demonstrated by competitive exams--and protected from political hiring and firing.

A work ethic includes getting paid on time. It includes a fair wage for work done, commensurate with the skill and level of the work. It includes reasonable profit for businesses and rational restrictions, taxes, and licensing.

A work ethic could re-balance the CNMI and keep the ship afloat.

Another possible ethic: Our ethic could be environmental harmony. We live in a beautiful place. The natural environment is our precious resource. Wasting or harming it is counter-productive to our own physical, psychological and emotional health. We ourselves must insist that everything we do is good for where we live.

We can do simple things like keeping our own yards and streets clean. (and yes--I have room for improvement here myself!) We can learn from Tinian and Rota and look to our elders who were especially neat and clean and handy with a broom. We can be grateful for the end to personal maids because it led us to be lazy about our own efforts at keeping our environment clean. We can return to our roots and make our environment cleaner.

At a local government level, there are many things we can insist on. Kill the rats. Amp up our Zoning Board to focus on environmental concerns and don't license what disturbs the beauty and calm of our islands. Insist that cars and buses have proper mufflers and stop spewing pollution into the air. And thank our current Saipan mayor for properly addressing the dead animal problem we had endured for years.

Our ocean is our legacy. We need to insist that everyone obey the fishing restrictions and respect protected areas. We need to reward the efforts of those in the community who are cleaning up our litter. We need to stop tour guides from encouraging our visitors to disobey regulations like feeding fish at Managaha.

We also should be promoting conservation and working with those outside the CNMI who do so, including federal agencies. We need to push for more action on the Marine Monument. We need to create a co-managed sanctuary with NOAA to get their education and other benefits here.

With an environmental ethic, we can build on programs in our community like CREES, and encourage our students to study science. We can promote eco-tourism and demote ideas like casinos. We can develop green business ventures. There is potential to save us from shipwreck and live in harmony with the world about us.

There are other worthy ethics we could embrace. Kilili has been touting the value of education and critical thinking--critical meaning careful evaluation and judgment, not carping and negativism. (To my knowledge, he's the only political leader in generations who has approached our problems with a stated goal for a community ethic.)

This is a good value and one that could be a worthy Community Ethic. A commitment to education as an ethic can include promoting vocational education (and work); it can strengthen our basic institutions with reliance on facts and information; it can replace politics with reason. There is a chance to repair our ship with learning and knowledge.

Whatever ethic we choose, our ethic should direct us, and come before politics and greed and personal agendas.

Family ties
In the past, we have confused politics with our love of our family. Strong family loyalty and the ties of kinship are also an ethic. But we have gotten confused by this ethic. We have embraced teen pregnancies in the name of family, when this is not good for our teen children who are having babies or for the babies born to them. We have allowed our little children to stand on street corners and beg for money in the name of family--for politicians, for school organizations, for personal needs. We have overspent our personal budgets, digging ourselves into debt in the name of family obligations from funerals to birthdays. We have turned a blind eye to nepotism in government jobs because of our acceptance of "family first." We have even called on family to give us jobs, expecting ties of kinship to overbalance other considerations like education, experience, competence. We have voted family members into political office despite their poor past performances and lack of leadership skills. When we have so twisted our value in family that our practice no longer actually serves the benefit of the family, we are doing something wrong.

And our community is now in peril because we have failed to think through our actions and decisions. We have brought ourselves to this mess.

We need to re-think our ethic when it comes to family and how we practice this ethic. Family is an important value in our society and one that underlies all cultures. We should work for our families, but not at the expense of other values. We should ensure our children's safety and education. We should share our religious beliefs with our children and families. We should protect and enjoy our family units. But we should not distort our loyalty to family into a corruption that destroys our other ethics to hard work, the environment, education, and other worthy ethics like honesty and mutual respect.

In this time of strife and difficulty, we need to think harder. We need to decide. We need--not a plan of action, but--a shared value of HOW we want to build our future. And then we need to begin by letting those values and ethics direct our choices.

In Labor, On Labor

I've written an analysis about Jacinta Kaipat's latest ploy to have our CNMI Legislature enact hiring "benchmarks" to "prioritize" hiring U.S. citizens. It's posted at the MLSC blog, DAY IN COURT.

EDIT: Link now working. The link to the original Marianas Variety article in that post doesn't work just yet, but I'm trying to get that fixed. (You'd think it would be easy, but alas--computer issues today.)

The federalization of immigration brings with it a host of changes, including the need to change our thinking to equal opportunity, non-discriminatory employment practices. Obviously, some people are having a much harder time letting go of the past than others.

Eventually, though, I think we will have a community that is more self-sufficient than at present. I think we will have more opportunities for better jobs for everyone here. I hope that what foreign workers we have in the future will have rights and jobs that pay for the value of their services. This will all take some committment to free and fair enterprise.

If we build our community on values that embrace equality, freedom, environmental protection, and human dignity, we should be able to surface, breathe, and rescue ourselves from the current precarious, drowning situation we are now in. At least, that's what I hope and believe.

"Where Is Our Great Wall" said

This excellent comment was buried in one of the threads, and I think it deserves a lot more light of day.

I agree with you Jane regarding the romantisizing of our recent past. I left this island nearly 20 years ago and just recently returned.

I don't even see anything close to the Great Wall or the Pyramids (other than the empty GIG that was once a thriving disco that rivaled anything in the region). The La Fiesta was not dependent on cheap labor and has been empty for years while we had access to cheap labor.

What I did see upon returning has been eye opening and far from anything I would revel in and consider great development and a prosperous economy. I found destroyed reefs and barren lagoons (in comparison to 20+ years ago). I found empty shells of 30 plus garment warehouses. I found empty strip malls. I discovered that around 70% of those I grew up with and went to school out here with no longer live here. They have families elsewhere. I saw that nearly 90% of the waitstaff, front desk clerks, bartenders,etc were guest workers (I was a waiter 25 years ago and my pals were front desk and housekeeping). I noticed that all the Mom and Pop stores that had once been owned by me and my friends Moms and Pops were now owned by foreign investors. Diego's Mart, Pop's Store, Morgans Mini Mart, Carmen Safeway, Tenda Store, Aldan's Gas Station, Farmers Market, etc. Same with the bars and restaurants like Ship Ashore, House of Chang, Chamorro Village, Town & Country, Chamorro House, etc are all replaced with foreign owned businesses. I noticed the streets that used to be filled with Japanese Tourist were now empty. The golf courses designed 20 years ago by Jack Nicolas were now unkempt. The hotels that used to average 90% occupancy now ran at around 50%. The Jets that used to fly between here and Guam are now prop plans. Direct flights to Japan that used to fly in and out 3 times a day down to 2 twice a week.

Where is our great wall? We had none. 30 years ago we could have built something great.

We had geographic edge with Japan only 2 hours away. We had great resorts and golf courses that were maintained and rivaled those in other areas of the pacific. We had relationships with agents and airlines that secured set routes and put us int he position to be the HUB for the Pacific region. We had locally run businesses and local workers at all levels that kept the money in our economy and didn't funnel it all out. We had a solid foundation birthed of the Covenant to maintain all of this and grow to be prosperous.

What happened?

We got greedy and we got led by some terribly short sighted leaders.

Our downfall is not to blamed on federalization of immigration. It is blamed on our own doing. We embraced garment. We spent millions on lobbyist. We exploited foreign labor and used guest workers to replace local labor rather than filling gaps and instead replaced our local workforce. We pulled in foreign businesses at the expense of local entrepreneurship. We doled out public land to foreign investors instead of catering to local investors. Our leaders did this because they could negotiate kickbacks and become middlemen in the schemes. Do land swaps and make millions overnight.

3 days ago the federal government took control of immigration in the CNMI; 27 years ago we destroyed this economy.

December 1, 2009 2:11 PM

I like this comment, not because it starts out by agreeing with me, but because of the specifics. It makes me sad, though, to contemplate the lost opportunities. Still hoping that--yes, we can--make it right.

Blue Print for the CNMI

Ed Propst's recent post at Marianas Pride includes this bit:

Beautiful beaches. Pristine waters (no red flags please). Friendly locals. Clean buildings. Friendly, consistent laws for investors. Promotion of eco-tourism ...Why can't our leaders understand the basic building blocks of tourism???

I want to add my own thoughts to this excellent start.

Beautiful beaches.
No litter. Sufficient trash bins that are emptied regularly. Bike/walking paths that link all of the beaches and that are kept in good repair, with working lights at night. Bike patrolling police officers. Pala palas, concrete picnic tables and benches, and occasionaly restrooms that are maintained in good working order. (Personally, I don't actually mind graffiti, so long as it isn't racist, pornographic, ugly or vulgar, so I don't add that to my short list.)

Pristine waters, and I would add, teeming with healthy marine life in a balanced eco-system.
Strong enforcement by sufficient numbers of well-qualified, educated and trained marine protection officers. An end to tour guides who encourage our tourists to buy little hot dogs and other food to feed the fishies. Balance of our tourist interests in diving and "seeing" marine life with our local interests in fishing derbies and personal consumption. (I think we're doing this now, but accidentally, not intentionally.)

Friendly locals.
Bring back cultural Fridays. Put an end to price-gouging--allow competition in the taxi industry, for example. Encourage a return to the small stands selling leis and mwar-mwars; promote more local crafts.

Clean buildings, clean roads.
Zoning that simply requires clean frontage on the roads, trimmed grass, a neat look. And then also no more road kill! Let's require licenses for ALL animals (yes, even chickens and pigs, etc.). The license fee can be very low, but the purpose is to make people accountable. We'd need more enforcement officers (dog catchers!) and an animal control shelter (dog pound) for strays, but better this than more painful death on the highways. And on the subject of roads, let's make sure we have a sewer system, and drainage system that works. AND SIDEWALKS. We need sidewalks everywhere. And then we'll see more pedestrian traffic, and more tourists.

Friendly, consistent laws for investors.
Well, for everyone! One of the least friendly kinds of law is the one that is built on corruption and graft. We need more prosecution of fraudulent procurement practices. We need fewer sole source deals. We need open government. (And you'll notice I don't say we need an end to Article XII. Right now, investors of non-NMI descent can get 55 year leases. If we start promoting small businesses--as Ed mentions, the backbone of healthy local economies--we can feel confident that 55 years is not an unreasonable length of time for a business life, and sufficient to encourage investment at the level we need.)

Promotion of eco-tourism.
We've been handed a golden opportunity with the declaration of the Marianas Trench Marine Monument. Now we need to be pushing the federal government to make good on this potential. (Imho, that also means we need to go for what would be best in the LONG run, and that means NOAA Sanctuaries as the lead agency for the monument.) We also need to protect and promote our cultural sites--our latte stones and caves. And we could take a note from Hawaii, where the PUBLIC LIBRARY is an agency that promotes their tourism industry, with short-term library cards for tourists, with tons of informational brochures on the cultures and history of the islands, and more.

There is a lot more we could be doing, but if we did even some of this, we'd be heading in the right direction. It's also about not going off on irrelevant and harmful tangents.

It's all about where we start. But since we could be/should be getting some of the Recovery Act money, let's push for expenditures for these kinds of programs.

226. Penny Wise and Pound Wise

Here are my two ideas for how the CNMI could save some money:

Penny wise (and eco-friendly). STOP sending out memos for every "delegation of authority."
Literally reams of paper every month are used to send around to every government office whatever delegation of authority is happening.

Mr. High and Mighty, secretary of the stupid department, "will be off-island on official business from" this irrelevant date to that nonsensical date. During Mr. High and Mighty's absence, Mr. Muckety Muck will be acting secretary of the stupid department.

Do we not know about e-mail?

Pound wise. STOP fighting federalization. We've been spending large on lobbying, and now we're talking about litigation? We don't need to spend money on litigation. Lawyers are expensive. We have little chance of succeeding through court, and there are better uses for the funds.

And STOP the spending on lobbying.

Are we still paying $15,000/month to Oldaker, Biden, and Belair? Or did we stop after 1 year of payments, having stupidly renewed the first 6 month contract? In 2007 alone, we --the CNMI-- spent $160,000 on this lobbying firm! Not to mention the $60,000 we spent on subsidiary lobbying by Sandler, Travis, and Rosenberg! There's more great information at the Center for Responsive Politics, including reports on the issues these lobbyists worked on for the CNMI (immigration and trade).

And Governor Fitial said in his State of the Commonwealth message that U.S. Congressmen/Senators in Washington, D.C. don't know about the CNMI. What are we getting for all that money?

Does anyone know if we're still paying lobbyists? Is there a way to stop this insanity?

148. FYI-Saipan Casino Act

One last --easy-- post on the Saipan Casino Act initiative.

EDIT: I haven't found the Saipan Casino Initiative on-line and can't link to it. But if you want a copy, let me know. I'm willing to make a few copies and pass them along.

ON REGULATING CASINOS
At the debate, I complained that there was nothing in the bill that provided for INDEPENDENT regulators. Paduna said I was wrong (well, he SHOUTED that I was wrong, wrong, wrong). See if you can find any of these things:

1. a requirement that the commissioners NOT have any interest in the license-holder, casino operators or other gambling/casino interests.

2. a requirement that the commissioners NOT come directly from employment at the casinos.

3. a requirement that the commissioners NOT be able to go directly from their job as commissioners into the casino industry.

4. a requirement that the commissioners NOT have close family members with an interest in the license-holder, casino operators or other gambling/casino intersts.

5. a requirement that the commissioners NOT have close family members working in the
casino industry.


You won't. The SCA would invite the casino industry into Saipan WITHOUT INDEPENDENT REGULATION. And without independent regulation, the casino industry will be more likely to be corrupt, have illegal and unethical practices, and fail to pay over the benefits we're supposed to reap.


ON THE SCA'S MONOPOLY
At the debate, the pro side insisted the Saipan Casino Act does not create a monopoly. They did this in two ways--1) saying because all indigenous could buy a share in the license-holder, there was no monopoloy; and 2) saying the indigenous compnay was only a "regulatory" monopoly.

1. See if you can find anyplace in the the SCA that permits a second company of all indigenous people to hold a separate license and operate casinos in competition to the first license-holder's casinos.

2. See if you can find anyplace in the SCA that says the indigenous company that will hold the license will be for regulation only and not for profit.

The SCA will grant THE EXCLUSIVE, and perpetual, PRIVILEGE by law to one and only one investment company for the license to operate casinos in Saipan. The company will be a business operating FOR PROFIT. This is a monopoly.

Monopolies do not have the usual market forces to help keep them in line. So not only will there be no independent regulation of the casino industry in Saipan, there will not even be market forces operating to make sure the casinos stay above-board.


AN END TO THE POKER ARCADES
There seems to be a growing notion that the appearance of casinos in Saipan would end the proliferation and prominence of poker arcades in our community. I'm not really sure how this is supposed to happen. (It was repeated over and over that casinos would be well-lit and our local people wouldn't go in there. I'm not sure the reasoning behind that analysis, either, but it would be inconsistent with the idea that demand for the poker-machines would be diverted to the casinos.) The closure of poker arcades hasn't happened in Tinian.

1. Find someplace in the SCA that changes our poker-machine laws.


AND UNTOLD RICHES FOR ALL
One of the lures of the casino industry is the promise of wealth. But the casino industry does not create wealth--it doesn't take some natural resource and make it into a valuable product. It just packages gambling as fun and redistributes existing wealth. For the casino industry to "generate" income, people have to lose. The entire casino industry is premised on this simple fact. The machines and tables and games are all set up so that there are consistently more losers than winners.

One of the myths of the casino promise is that wealthy people play at the casinos and lose income they can afford to do without. This myth isn't entire false, which is why it is so attractive. There are wealthy people who play games at casinos and lose big money.

Will those wealthy people choose to gamble at casinos on Saipan or Tinian, rather than Macau or Singapore? I mean, really, if you were wealthy, where would you choose? I love Saipan and all of the CNMI, and I love it the way it is. I can't see casinos and neon-light as an improvement. And I can't see us ever getting to the point of being legitimately competitive with Macau and Singapore for those wealthy gamblers.

And then there are the others, not so wealthy gamblers, losing money at casinos that they can't afford. These might be tourists or residents. They might be our soldiers and sailors stationed on Guam. Casino income is a reverse or regressive tax--taking money from those most desperate to try their luck.

And while casino owners and operators usually make profits (with the notable exception of the Tinian Dynasty), people in the community don't necessarily see an improved lifestyle. This is reflected in the increase in bankruptcies in communities with casinos. This is reflected in the fact that Las Vegas has the highest rate of home mortgage foreclosures in the country right now, and a depressed housing market.

Just be sure you realize there's NO GUARANTEE in the Saipan Casino Act.


A BETTER WAY
Proponents of the SCA hype casinos as "the only alternative" that Saipan has to get out of the economic slump. This is a lie. Other communities in the past--going back for centuries--have had times where they faced economic hardship. They didn't have to turn to casinos to recover. We don't either.

And just because other communities have chosen to have casinos is no reason for us to do the same. We aren't lemmings. We have a unique culture and beauty that we can develop.

We should work on building the community, rather than just building the economy. The community encompasses economic aspects, but it looks at the larger picture and works from there. I agree with Tina Sablan that we need honest government and an investment in our people and culture as a basis for promoting our fledgling economy. We should stop looking for the one-trick pony to ride (like the garment industry, EDIT-a certain kind of tourist-EDIT, casinos) and start promoting initiatives by our resident population for small and medium-sized enterprises that will build a solid base for happy community life.

124. About Debt, the Economy,Larry Lee Hillblom and cheap, tasteless humor

Here's an interesting article from the Washington Post. "Maxxed-Out Man" Scurlock Right on the Money

It tells about the looming crisis in the credit industry, and for all Americans, and touts a movie that aired in March 2007 (now available on DVD) where Scurlock predicted problems that are now starting to be seen.

The last paragraph on page 3, though, is especially interesting to those of us in the CNMI. This movie mogul has a "next" project--on Larry Lee Hillblom, his death, and the paternity suit/probate fall-out. Now that's going to be an interesting movie!


(Thanks to Dan MacMeekin for the heads-up.)

And while we're on movies, here's a "movie" poster that's circulating. Found it at WryttenWyrd's blog. Provenance unknown. That would be cheap, tasteless humor.

123. Exodus--Saipan-style

Has anyone else noticed how empty Saipan is feeling? The roads are much less crowded than just a few months ago. Stores and restaurants are empty. It feels like half of the people have left. Although I understand the schools are still over-crowded, I've heard from at least one person that enrollment is down in some of them, too.

I know families who have left, families who have sent their kids to the U.S., and more who are talking about leaving.

The reality of the out-migration is staggering.

69. Saipan and the CNMI's Economic Woes

Here's what they're hearing about us in D.C.

TestimonyFromGAO The written report is from Jeannette Franzel, Director of Financial Management at the GAO. The testimony is given to the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs (Natural Resources Committee) in the House of Representatives.

Pete A. says our declining economy is a shame. Variety4/23/07 And the committee members and others asked questions, commented, and looked for solutions, as reported here. But what I find most notable and what I completely believe is the assessment that the CNMI has repeatedly failed to achieve responsible financial accountability.

And it is this lack of competence that adds to my strong opposition to casinos and gambling in the CNMI. We couldn't handle the watchdog responsibilities. Same for nuclear power plants here. We can't manage clean audit reports about our taxes, our capital assets, our utilities.

Before we take on bigger challenges, we need to learn the basics.