Rep. Tina Sablan talks to the hundreds of people gathered for a peaceful rally to call on the US government to step into the power crisis on Saipan. 
Young, old, brown, black, white, yellow join Wednesday night's peaceful rally calling for "reliable and affordable" power for all.
Using a candlelight, Rep. Tina Sablan, one of the leaders of the peaceful rally, reads a prayer for those affected by power outages while the crowd gathers near the stage holding candles and cellphones.
Need they say more?
Businessman Robert Russell, left, shares his experiences about power outages while protest leader Ed Propst listens.
27 comments:
Reading by candlelight. An all-too-familiar site on Saipan these days.
What did lkocals read to before fire?
Electricity
excellent photos!
I like the photo with the little boy with the sign "Catastrophic Utility Conspiracy". Now, did he write that?
Here's an (almost) complete list of what protesters had to say:
C - Commonwealth
U - Useless
C - Corporation
C - Cut
U - Utility
C - Cost
Humanitarian crisis on U.S. soil. Federal action now.
Stop CUC. Privatization is the answer.
Federal intervention now
Get rid of blackouts. We need help!
We don't want to live in darkness.
I'm scared of darkness. We need light. Answer please!
Get us out this darkness
Affordable, reliable power for us all
Intervention today for a better tomorrow
First federalize then privatize
Forget federalization!
Forget CUC!
Stop looking to others to solve YOUR problem!
Everyone should be accountable to the ENVIRONMENT!
GO GREEN!
Find your own solution!
For around $7,000.00 you can go solar. In two to five years (depending on your resources) you would pay off your loan and not have any CUC bills, AND you would be promoting the protection of our ENVIRONMENT!!! (that we all live in)
Forget the oil companies!
The electric car is coming back, diesel cars that can convert to biofuel are available!
GO GREEN!
It irks me to no end to hear people say they should be fixing the old generators. NO they shouldn't, they should dump the whole piece and GO GREEN!!!
Good idea on going green...except there are some people making that much in an entire year.
There was also:
C-Corrpution
U-Using
C-Contracts
Edwin Propst's rally was a failure. Mere “hundreds” of complainers, counting unemployed guest workers and high school students promised “extra credit” for attending, do not speak for the CNMI.
What bothers me most about the naysayers is their stubborn insistence on appointing a “receiver” and “federalizing” CUC into the Federal Utilities Corporation (FUC), in the complete and total absence of any legal authority to do so.
Pete A. and Edwin P. want to create a FUC under the DHS Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), ignoring plain differences between local and federal emergency statutes and regulations. Compare N.M.I. Const. art. III, § 10 and 3 CMC §§ 5111-42 with 42 U.S.C. §§ 5121 - 5206 and 44 C.F.R., Parts 0 to 399 (emergency management and assistance). See also 3 CMC § 5111(c):
“The Commonwealth Legislature finds that: Due, however, to the limited land area of these small islands, disasters frequently occur which may be of insufficient magnitude to warrant being designated by the President as an “emergency” or a “major disaster” as defined within the provisions of U.S. Disaster Relief Act (42 U.S.C. § 5121 et seq.), and may, therefore, be of insufficient severity to warrant direct assistance from the federal government to the Commonwealth;”
3 CMC § 5111(c).
The federalizers’ easily demolished straw-man argument about man-made versus natural disasters is not the problem.
There is no Federal Utilities Corporation anywhere in the whole United States! Do we need a special FUC for Saipan?! No! And the FUC-ers are practicing law without a license.
FEMA will not run our FUC for 25 years -- that is no one's idea of an ongoing emergency. 25-year FUC?! I can guarantee that FEMA is not in the FUC business.
If you really want a FUC you would need a special FUC law from Washington, DC. I would never vote for a Delegate who would try to give us a FUC. But if we get someone like Pete A. who is so into “federalizing,” he may try to FUC us despite the clear opposition of our executive and legislative branches, and our people.
This is a CNMI problem caused by CNMI mis-management. Solve it ourselves. Keep the FUC away!
Federal law enforcement, however, is always welcome. Send the perps away where the sun don't shine, so that our FUC nightmare never becomes reality.
Be a doer, not a talker!
No FUC, no way, no how!
Biba si Antonio S. Muna!
Biba Marianas!
Biba CUC!
FUC you.
Federal Utilities Corporation (FUC) said...
"Edwin Propst's rally was a failure. Mere “hundreds” of complainers, counting unemployed guest workers and high school students promised “extra credit” for attending, do not speak for the CNMI".
There were several students present and I assume they were there for their own reasons. I will tell you who did USE BRIBED CHILDREN for his own political motives. At the now famous December 7, 2007 Unity March, the Governors wife tried to organize a Christmas Parade at the same time as the Unity March. The Fitial funded march headed south on Beach Rd. toward the Unity throng. That march had 38 elementary students holding a bag of candy with 11 adults, provided you count the police escorts.
We took pictures of the anti-Unity marchers if you would like verification. Wendy may have posted them as well.
Ed and Tina's rally was a success. All movements start small. The first Guala Rai march(famous for "go home" signs along the route) last year had about 600, the second (thats the one that one that the church board would not allow workers on the property so it was moved across the street and Donna Christiansen showed up...I wonder who thought to invite her)had 3500, and of course the Unity March had 8 to 10k by conservative estimates.
Do you think the Govs naysayers think about our marches now?
The “naysayers” are Edwin P. and his three- to four-hundred FUC advocates.
;-)
Try two hundred.
Woot! All that pre-rally revolutionary propaganda -- radio shows, blog posts, word of mouth encouragement to attend.
All that striving and straining.
And what did we get?
A little FUC fart.
LOL.
To Saipan blogger....
You are right "some people make that in a year" HOWEVER
If the people who can, the ones with resources to make the switch,do and the numbers increase...those people will be off the grid....not giving their hard earned money to CUC, which is basically the government, right.....then the government has to face the fact they can not keep subsidizing all the welfare CUC bills without the support of all.
it is one way to go Green for the world but ALSO force the government here to do something, like go green also!
Self-help. Hear, hear!
Be a doer, not a talker.
End these formal and informal (illegal) subsidies.
My best guess is that there were about 500 people there.
yes about 500
more important than the number was the great mix of people who showed up. locals, haoles, blacks, asian contract workers
And even more important than the ethnicity or number of dupes is the fact that there is no legal basis whatsoever for a twenty-five year Federal Utilities Corporation receivership.
Privatize now!
would privatizing CUC solve the problem or would create more?
FUC vs PUC (privatized utilities corp.)?
The latter acronym has already been claimed by the Public Utilities Commission.
ie. "formal and informal (illegal) subsidies"
Thank you for the hear, hear!
However, I have to disagree with ending formal subsidies, but not illegal subsidies. It is my opinion, that we as a society have moral obligations to support the poor and sick.
I do not mind that my hard earned money goes to support those less fortunate than myself, HOWEVER I do mind and object to my hard earned money being senselessly wasted, unethically/illegally used, and immorally used, as the current government is doing with our payments!
Where is the accountability? Thank you for all those like Ed and Tina (I mention them as they are the spear-heads) that are publicly questioning these leaders (or should we be calling them 'evil doers')
GO GREEN!
FUC vs PRUC
Would it be better if CUC buys its own brand new generators than rent for half million a month? it's costly now but it will save us money in the long run.
The ability of CUC to borrow like a normal company is limited by the Constitution and the legislature.
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