A Need To Know

Freshening breezes and some real rain (a downpour Sunday night/Monday morning and some passing cloudbursts since). Could be the approach of rainy season.
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With the arrest of Angel Jess Santos, one of the alleged perpetrators of the rape of the Kagman girl, there's been a demand for more information, more accountability on what's being done by law enforcement here in Saipan. The other two alleged perpetrators remain at large. We have heard nothing yet on arrests for the rape of the girl in CK. We are waiting on other cases, too.

There is no internet access to the names on the sex offender registry; DPS only posts general information about this supposed enforcement tool. Wendy discusses the need for this to be made public and available to all in a recent blog post. We should be demanding better response from our DPS on this.

Without the registry, it's hard for the public to keep track.

This would be an excellent topic for a series of articles by the newspapers. They could list the names of all arrested for sex abuse, sexual molestation, statutory rape, rape and assaults with intent to molest or rape--by year, giving the charges made. They could let us know who was convicted, what cases are still pending, and what cases are over without convictions. They could let us know if cases were mishandled or dropped or dismissed. They could do a study of sentences handed out to those convicted. They could tell us who's still in jail and who is out--and what role parole played in the release of sex offenders. They could focus on sex abuse of minors. Or they could feature different types of sex abuse each day. We've got plenty to go around here in Saipan.

They could talk with experts about what parents and teachers should do to teach their sons to respect girls and women; what they should do to help girls stay safe and demand the respect they are entitled to.

They could talk with CHC officials about what a victim may experience once at the hospital. And tell us if the rumors that there are no unexpired DNA kits in Saipan is true or not. Besides getting evidence and taking care of physical injuries, what help is available to the victim?

There's a good start on the names of Saipan's pedophiles and alleged perpetrators/pedophiles at the Isa Drive blog. It only included 52 names. In April 2009, DPS said they had 122 names on their sex offender registry.

But we need investigative journalism. The 4th estate is essential to preserve our liberty. And being able to be a child and be free from molestation, to be a teen and walk to and from school without being raped, these are are essential aspects of liberty.

If you start clicking on the names from Isa Drive's blog, you'll find many, many of them are reports of arrest; if you try to find out what happened (do a search on the newspaper archives, e.g.), you get nothing. The newspapers are reporting arrests, and not following up.

It also seems that Isa Drive's list omits some names including Angel Palacios, Salden Manuel and Daniel Johnny, Denmar Malabanan, Geoffrey K. Cabreraand Michael J. Dodd (although he's left the CNMI).

And another news report from 2007 told us about two sex offenders from Guam who moved to the CNMI and failed to register. This is why we need a sex offender's registry. We the public can't keep track. We don't know who was convicted; we don't know who is still here and who has left; we don't know who has moved here from elsewhere.

And we need to know. Before more bad things happen.

Free Thespian Showcase Tonight

FREE SHOW! Please come.



Besides the play, the Team CNMI Thespians will present their individual event pieces for their competitions in tonight's showcase.

(Nice write-up in the Variety.)

Bad News, Good News

Morning birdsong. The scent of plumeria in full bloom (just in time for graduation leis). Flame trees turning from orange to green.
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Bad News: Another high school student assaulted. This time a teenaged girl on her way to morning classes at Kagman High School. I don't know the extent of the assault, except that the girl was taken to the hospital. Although this crime happened yesterday (Tuesday) morning, it was not on last night's news and is not reported in today's papers. My Kagman staff were discussing it this morning. One suspect was apparently brought in and released already. Another is being sought.

(EDIT: There is talk that the situation is like that of the girl in CK--a white pick-up truck, bashed on the head, raped. I haven't been able to verify.)

It's becoming extremely worrisome when teenaged girls are attacked in daylight near their schools, in public places.

It's also troublesome when the news isn't promptly reported.

(Thursday Edit: Now reported in the Marianas Variety and Saipan Tribune. Not much information released by the DPS, though.)
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Good News: Also about students. Fifteen area students from grades 6 through 12 will once again be attending the International Thespian Festival at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. They will attend workshops and plays, participate in college and scholarship auditions, compete in individual events and stage their own one act production of Pullman Car Hiawatha by Thornton Wilder.

They will showcase the stage play and their individual competition pieces (which also include technical theatre presentations in costume design, scenic design, and film) Thursday, June 17 at 7 PM at the American Memorial Park auditorium. The community is invited to support these students by coming to watch. The show is free.

Out Sick

Mangoes and mangoes and mangoes and avocados, too. A hint of coolness in the morning air today, after stifling heat.
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I've been too sick to think, much less post a blog entry. There's a cold (cough, congestion, exhaustion) going around Saipan. It seems wrong to get sick like this in Saipan, where it's warm and sunny year-round. Just wrong...

Numbers 15:13

All the native-born shall make these offerings in the same way, whenever they present a sweet-smelling oblation to the Lord. Likewise, in any future generation, any alien residing with you permanently or for a time, who present a
sweet-smelling oblation to the Lord, shall do as you do. There is but one rule for you, and for the resident alien, a perpetual rule for all your descendents. Before the Lord, you and the alien are alike, with the same law and the same application of it for the alien residing among you as for yourselves.

Another Manta Band Concert

Slight mist this morning, and half-a-rainbow in the southwest sky.
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The Commitment to Citizenship

On Friday, May 21, the evening moon was a faint crescent low in the western sky. By Monday, May 24 it was a cheshire cat smile. There's a floral smell on the air--ylang ylang? The Flame Trees are not hinting now--they are screaming their brilliant oranges and reds and the island appears to be in flames. It's still dry and there are actual fires at times--one Friday night behind Price Costco; another more recently in Chalan Kiya with choking smoke blanketing the highways. And it's mango season. Tons of mangoes-ripening so quickly they're going to waste.

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The discussions in the community, the rally, the comments on the Variety, and William H. Stewart's recent editorials in the Tribune have been mushing around in my brain. When I read Bill's first editorial part, I thought he might be headed where I have been going in my thinking. He's doing a great job and setting out important facts to consider in understanding the situation.

Bill Stewart's column is excellent reading.
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3,
Part 4,

Part 5 will likely be in Friday's edition.
Update:
Part 5

From part 1:

Now almost a quarter century after citizenship was bestowed upon qualified islanders by presidential order it should be kept in mind that at that time some people of the Northern Marianas, unlike other nationalities seeking U.S. citizenship, were not required to possess comprehensive knowledge of American history or appreciation of the principles of democracy as most Americans perceive them to be. Most foreigners seeking U.S. citizenship must study a variety of subjects related to American history, pass an examination, and swear an oath of allegiance. This was not required of the people of the Northern Marianas.

...

...It is probably safe to state that some people of the Northern Marianas did not clearly understand what they voted to support when the plebiscite was held in June 1975 to accept a negotiated Covenant with the United States. Certainly they were aware of some of the tangible benefits that would flow from the U. S. Treasury such as better health care, social security, educational assistance, etc.

However, there was probably little knowledge or appreciation of the extent of the full ramifications of an association with the American judicial system and the federal bureaucracy with its myriad of laws and regulatory agencies administering everything from environmental protection to occupational health and safety in the work place.

This is the take-off point for my thinking lately. When I first came to Saipan, I remember one Chamorro woman saying to me that now that she had electricity and a refrigerator, the Americans could leave. Her point of view at that time was that America was only supposed to be in the CNMI to provide support, but not for any other purpose. America was the great big free store, where you could go for what you wanted, and then leave when you got it. The NMI's relationship with the US has been colored by this type of perception.

Americans for the most part understand that citizenship is both a benefit and a commitment. In the states, there are populist movements against the federal government because it is huge and monolithic and reaches into private lives. These movements, however, are usually fringe efforts--like the unabomber and the cult movement of the extreme fundamentalist latter day saints. The current challenge by Arizona to the US on the immigration issue is also a bit of a fringe movement--although it is an entire state government, it is only one state of 50. (And note that Arizona's efforts cannot be seen as an indigenous rights movement, however. It's more like an Aryan brotherhood movement, like the Nazis. Stop and interrogate any brown person. It has gone so far as to outlaw ethnic studies, including studies of Native American cultures--the very people who are indigenous to the region.) Most American communities/states, large businesses, and a vast array of citizens have spoken against the Arizona laws. The commitment to the US Constitution and the core American value of equality is part of the bedrock of America--at times very imperfectly practiced, but still the goal.

The NMI population chose to become US citizens, too. Our local population has had no problem with some of the commitments of this citizenship. For example, CNMI young men register for the military and join voluntarily in great numbers proportionate to the population.

But our local population has not always embraced American values. It is confusing to understand these values, because the NMI negotiated for some important exceptions. We have an exception to American constitutional protections for trial by jury (although we have jury trials, we draw the line in a different place as to when the "right" is triggered). We have an exception regarding ownership of land. (Article XII limits long-term interests to US citizens of NMI descent only). We have an exception to the fundamental "one man, one vote" rule. (Our Senate is apportioned like the US Senate, but we only have 3 islands, and 2 have very small populations, so we have a guaranteed rule by the minority).

If these exceptions can exist within the American system, is it any wonder our local population does not embrace other values, values they would want an exception for as well. The most significant of these is equality. The local population wants to be top dog in the CNMI. They want to hold on to their hegemony. This is "their" place and as indigenous, they want not only "local government" but local government that secures to them the goods and benefits they want and denies to other people in the community those same things.

They want to have a foreign workforce legally present for decades; a labor force that can be paid extremely low wages; and one that can be permanently excluded from all political rights.

The CNMI Governor wants to have complete control over who is prosecuted, who is let out of jail, who is searched, who is free from search. He does not want federal law enforcement DEA to act on an indictment of a local police officer; he doesn't want federal officials to search incoming passengers; he wants to be told ahead of time when federal officials will arrest his driver. And it isn't only this governor. Before him, for example, our local governors didn't want the US auditing expenditures and taxes.

And what is misunderstood is how these actions, these goals violate American values.

When the CNMI opted for the Covenant, they opted not only for the benefits of association with the US but for the commitments to citizenship as well. And this is the rub. There is tension between the local way of thinking and of doing things and the American values embedded in our Constitution.

When our local population reached out to grab the brass ring of American citizenship, they may not have realized that it was only available with the entire package of commitments. The continuing undercurrent of discontent and malicious (and usually false) accusations against the US government all come back to that first decision. By choosing US citizenship, by choosing to have the US be sovereign (as is specifically stated in the Covenant), by accepting the application of much of the US Constitution and the process for legislation by US Congress over the CNMI, the local population here set its course. And now it is beginning to see that the course is not entirely or even mostly within their control. The CNMI is on board the US ship; it may be able to arrange its room however it wants, but the ship is going in the direction that the US decides.

I feel for those in the local community who find this scary and alarming. They don't want equality. They didn't realize what equality would mean. They didn't realize when they voted in the plebiscite that equality would mean the possibility existed of other "non-locals" out-voting them in their elections. They weren't prepared for the change. And now they don't accept the change.

They want to protect and favor their own population. They weren't prepared for the US to enforce laws against high-ranking locals; they rankle at the US enforcing its laws at all.

They think of what they have negotiated away--some of their island land; all of the submerged lands; control over so much. And they take the benefits for granted, an entitlement now. So all they can do is keep asking for more at the same time they complain about the federal government stepping on their rights.

There is a lesson in this for the foreign workers.

When I went to the rally in support of long-term status for the foreign workers here, I was disgusted with some of the things that happened. No one in the massive crowd sang the US national anthem except for the few US citizens. None of the wannabes bothered, perhaps didn't know the words, and didn't particularly show respect.

These foreign workers want to be granted status and some want to stay in the CNMI. Yet the CNMI national anthem performance was a sorry thing. I found it extremely offensive that the organizers did not provide the right music to the students who sang the CNMI national anthem (the version they provided had changing tempos and the students didn't know what to do); the organizers didn't know how or when to stop the music (and cut it off in mid point); and then the emcee was so ignorant he didn't realize that the Carolinian verse had already been sung (he said something like and now we'll have the Carolinian anthem). In fact the emcee was so ignorant he didn't realize that there is no "Carolinian anthem"--there is only one CNMI national anthem and it has verses in both Chamorro and Carolinian.

If our foreign workers want to be US citizens, they, too must come to realize that this is a commitment and not just a benefit. The foreign workers should start a dialogue with our local population so they don't also make the same mistakes and later regret it.

Because becoming a US citizen requires that you stop being a citizen of another place. (Edit: yes, I know about dual citizenship...) You can practice your religion freely. You can speak your language, but you will also have to learn English properly. You can eat your ethnic foods and wear your ethnic clothes. You can even hold to some of your ethnic beliefs and pride. But you will be expected to also adopt and practice some core American values.

For our foreign workers, you need to know that sexism will have to end. The male prerogative is allowed in the home, but not the workplace. Free-wheeling enterprise is restricted by a myriad of laws-from business licensing to tax filing to employment laws, etc. There are rules and laws about almost everything.

And you must also understand that your children will be more American than you are, and in a few generations they will hardly (if at all) identify with your country of origin and ethnicity.