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Ultimately, the responsibility is ours

 

Live from Saipan By Zaldy Dandan
Live from Saipan By Zaldy Dandan

Saipan — In its third year in office, the Palacios administration is going all in on its favored “strategy” for economic recovery: begging for money from the feds and scolding anyone who dares call it begging.


The administration, which once denounced the ports authority for hiring a lobbyist, has hired a lobbyist, and is pursuing the resumption of the 902 talks with the White House. 902 refers to the section of the Covenant that provides for “consultations” between the governments of the CNMI and the U.S. “on all matters affecting the relationship between them.”


The CNMI administration believes that, right now, the foremost matter affecting the islands’ relationship with the U.S. is the Commonwealth’s dire need for federal funding — tens of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars.


Why? Because, to paraphrase the CNMI governor, the feds “could do anything.”


In any case, there are a lot of folks here who believe that their Covenant with the U.S. obligates the feds — i.e., federal taxpayers — to raise the living standards of the people of the CNMI through direct funding assistance.

However, precisely because the CNMI is under the U.S. flag, opportunities for individual growth abound in the Commonwealth even today when its economy is in the gutter. As a U.S. citizen here, you don’t need to “seize opportunities.” They are practically delivered to your door like packages from Amazon.com.


As a U.S. citizen, a child born here is entitled to medical care, nutrition and other forms of (mostly federal) government assistance. That child will be provided with 12 years of free education in the public school system and, afterward, can enroll at the local community college practically for “free,” thanks to a slew of scholarship programs. Or he can learn a trade or two at the local technical institute, again with the government covering his tuition. He can also apply to a U.S. college or university, including Ivy League schools.


A mark of a prosperous society is the availability of healthcare and education to everyone who needs them. That holds true here in the CNMI, mainly because it is part of the U.S.


The islands’ lone hospital, CHCC, is federally certified, including its medical staff, and provides treatment to anyone, regardless of the person’s ability to pay.


The public schools and their teaching staff are federally accredited. They have adequate, if not excellent, facilities. Many of their students are academically outstanding. Many of their alumni have become upstanding citizens and professionals here or in the states.


The roads and infrastructure in the CNMI are a tremendous improvement from what they were during the Trust Territory era. We have law and order, due process and a reliable justice system. The safety net is pretty extensive in the welfare state that is the CNMI. Elections are always peaceful, orderly and credible. And you can expect voters to, now and then, kick the bums out.


The people here, moreover, care for the environment. Cleanup campaigns are never short on volunteers. We live in clean and green islands.

 

Some of those who are unhappy with certain aspects of life here often compare the CNMI to the Third World, but that’s only because they have not been born in the Third World, and have never grown up or tried to raise a family or deal with the government there. In other words, they have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about as any CNMI resident who is originally from the Third World would attest.


The CNMI, incidentally, is home to various cultures and ethnicities, and they all get along.


All of this became possible and is a reality in the Northern Marianas because it is “in political union” with the U.S. — the country that, all over the world, a lot of people “hate,” including, and especially, those who want to move to the U.S.


The CNMI’s Covenant with the U.S. is, generally speaking, a remarkable success. It has allowed the local people to exercise self-government, through which they have achieved economic development while availing themselves of various forms of federal government assistance provided to their fellow Americans in the states.

Sure, the local economy is in a slump, and certain federal laws and rules are not helping. But as U.S. citizens, the local people can reach out to the powers that be in Washington, D.C., and lobby for better, more reasonable laws and rules — or they can simply move somewhere else in their big great nation. In America, hope is not a wish whispered to the wind, but a promise to oneself that, more often than not, can be fulfilled.


I guess what I’m saying is that the U.S. “obligation” under the Covenant doesn’t extend to covering the consequences of the poor decisions we make as individuals. But in the land of second—and even third or fourth—chances, the U.S. gives us the opportunity to try again and do better, if we truly want to.


This reminds me of something then-Gov. Froilan C. Tenorio once said in the 1990s during a local Fourth of July celebration (known here as Liberation Day): “It is not America’s vices we should imitate, but its virtues.”

 

Zaldy Dandan is editor of the CNMI’s oldest — and only remaining — newspaper, Marianas Variety. His fourth book, “If He Isn’t Insane Then He Should Be: Stories & Poems from Saipan,” is available on amazon.com/.

 

The opinions expressed here are solely the author's and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Pacific Island Times.



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