This is to post a question to the NMI residents. Do you think Rep. Tina Sablan should still run for office i.e. run for a second term?
Through the grapevine, the legislator's party is trying to convince Rep. Sablan to consider a second term that she has done a tremendous job so far. What do you think?
Has she gone tired of the challenges e.g. the alleged detractors up in the Legislature? Has she realized that she's been depriving herself the joy of youth in this world?
I once heard again through the juiciest grapevine that public officials encourage some community members not to take the vocal and youthful representative seriously. Some consider her the young Rep. Stanley T. who has been a "critic" or a watchful eye in the local government. However, some envision Rep. Sablan to be the next governor of the CNMI.
What could make the young legislator back down if not back out of the complexities to run a Commonwealth, if not a nation?
Lastly, is it Angelo Villagomez' turn to shine in politics?
144 comments:
Young Stanley Torres?
Your remarkable powers of misperception are matched only by your masterful butchery of the English language.
You are, however, to be congratulated on your exemplary representation of those personas described in the 'About this site' blurb at the bottom of your web page.
The effects of Lil's departure from the local blogosphere are really beginning to tell.
Oh yeah cause goose is a perfect example of stupid people in the cnmi.
Just tell me please!!!!
What has Tina Sablan done to deserve another term? We need to know what has she done to improve the lives of the ordinary people in the CNMI??
I challenge Tina to run again and I will bet anybody money that she will lose. She should wait until all the Outsiders become eligible to vote at which time she has a very good chance. As you know, she cares more for the "OUTSIDERS" than the people who actually voted her into office.
As for Angelo? Let him run and see. He might get up to second base for selling us out!
Tina is bright, tough, dedicated and capable.
Unfortunately, her soul has been captured by the feds and she has become one of the "pod people."
If someone could snap her out of that, she could accomplish great things.
Anyone have any idea why Kristi Eaton left the Tribune?
You are smoking crack if you compare Tina to Stanley or that cheesy magot Angelo.
We have such an untalented group running for Governor that it makes the NMI look ignorant across the board.
Tina would be a decent Governor or any other position.
Angelo? You must be joking.
Angelo should stop cleaning up the CNMI and creating world class marine protected areas! That only pisses people off!
This blog blows. The author of this post needs some remedial English courses at NMC.
yeah like the many local that can't speak and write grammatically correct English...this is a blog...go and read Perez-Hilton instead!
you cant stick to the topic anyway because you have no brains at all.
What NMC you kiddin' me? yeow...
Tina Sablan a young Stanley Torres? That's akin to calling Galvin Guerrero a young Ben Fitial.
James J. Benedetto would be a far better legislator than anyone else mentioned in this thread. I doubt he'd take the pay cut from being an AUSA, however.
Kristi Eaton got a better job on Guam (newscaster), which is what most of us should at least consider doing.
Jim Benedetto would be a great Governor for the CNMI, maybe he can run with Tina.
Is Angelo the kid that rides a moped with a dog and has the crazy Korean girl friend?
Who would be on top?
If you are going to put my name on your blog, the least you could is link to mine.
Run or RUNT? What does RUNT mean? Who English you?
Welcome to CNMI blogs, the dumbing down of America.
Who is writing for Saipan Middle Road anyhew? Perhaps they should consider getting a real job and that blogging doesn't pay the bills. Welcome to the real world Middle Road.
While people bitch about Governor Fitial they don't realize that he is the first governor to balance a budget and practice real austerity measures. Governor Fitial will win because he is the best man for the job. We need a steady hand at the tiller in this super typhoon caused by federalization and the raping of the CNMI by Uncle Sam.
trying to play on words there i guess...i think he/she meant grunt...
fitial-inos, you should be in the real world. get real with your masters you pup.
Runt = Run, T (Run Tina).
I don't think anyone is calling her a runt.
What's a four-letter word for a woman, ending in U-N-T?
Aunt.
The budget isn't balanced because they aren't paying the retirement fund.
fitial-inos 09 wrote:
"While people bitch about Governor Fitial they don't realize that he is the first governor to balance a budget"
TOO DAMN FUNNY!!!! UHMMM... I HATE TO BREAK IT TO YOU BUT YOUR GREAT HERO, FEETEAL, DID NOT PASS THE BUDGET. HE FRIGEN VETO'D IT!!! HA HA HA. DUMMY DUMMY.
THE LEGISLATURE OVERRODE HIS VETO AND PASSED IT.
BOTA YOUR FOOTIAL AND ENOS ALL YOU WANT DUMMY.
jeez, guys! I'm having too much fun with DOJ, but thanks for nearly giving me a heart attack, anyway.
Hello Blog People and Blog Authors,
Just want to correct a few things. The grapevine might have had a bit of static but there is no "legislator's party" unless you would consider myself a party of one :-). It was just me who decided to do the "Run, Tina, run" Facebook thing.
I can not answer the questions you posed to Tina regarding whether she is tired of challenges or feels she is depriving herself of the joys of life by being a Representative. Send her an email and maybe she can respond.
I can surely say that she has as of yet not made a decision on whether to run or not. Because of that I in my jaded and disheartened state simply put together this little Facebook effort to let her know that she has done well and I would love to see her continue what she has been doing.
I won't respond to the comparisons as I feel everyone can make any comparisons they choose to make.
If she opts not to run again it will not be looked at to me as her "backing down" but rather her putting time into further building herself up.
In the end the decision is solely hers as all of her decisions up until this point have always been.
Regards,
Glen
P.S. - Run, Jim, Run! :-)
Point taken...
thanks....
"While people bitch about Governor Fitial they don't realize that he is the first governor to balance a budget and practice real austerity measures."
You're kidding right?
When you borrow money, then never budget the money to pay off the debt, that's not considered a balanced budget anywhere except here in the CNMI.
When you cut most public services to bare-bone, then hire over 100 persons for mostly unnecessary jobs just so you can win the next election, that's not close to being considered austerity.
If Tina doesn't run again, it will be devastating towards achieving morality, honesty and openness in our local government.
The government does not depend on any one individual, but rather reflects who we are as a people. If we improve ourselves, the quality of our government will improve as well.
Maybe Tina should go to law school, and come back even more equipped than ever to facilitate social change.
The CNMI has a great problem with bullying and domestic violence, for instance.
Angelo would win if sea slugs and spotted owls could vote.
Tina would win if only white school teachers were allowed to vote.
Tina is a perfect example of a completely misdirected talent. She is smart, naive and ridiculously short sighted. She values open communication over actual legislative expertise and results. If reelected her constituents will continue to suffer with no representation, except for her blowhard grandstanding.
Tina is the only person in the hill right now with brains. If Tina does not run again we're stuck once more with brainless legislatures. Pass the law today amend it next week not happy following week amend again to the amendment, not happy again amend again to the amendment, again and again.
Not true.
Joe Camacho has shit for brains. They're shit, but they're still brains.
Tina is the best! As for 'results,' we surely don't need the kind we've gotten from the other legislators. They have abdicated all their powers to King Bentot, only coming out of their holes to spend more money we don't have. They are mostly cowards who can't or won't take on big issues like reforming CUC, CHC, the impending bankruptcy of the Retirement Fund, shutting down the stupid lawsuit against the feds, and making sure the people have safe drinking water. They passed a labor law despised by businesses and workers, can't seem to stop NMC from losing its accreditation, and turn a blind eye to every fly-by-night 'investment' scheme hatched by the gov and his cronies.
Tina delivers. She only acts in the public's interest. She refuses to operate in secrecy. She votes based on what she believes is practical and right, and she always tells us how she intends to vote,and why. If you want to talk to her , she answers her phone, returns calls, and will always listen patiently to your concerns. Those are the kind of results I am looking for.
There are no spotted owls in the CNMI, but the sea slug vote could be formidable if effectively organized.
Tina would make an excellent 2nd term politico IF she's able to learn from the mistakes she made during her first term. Foremost among those is her failure to appreciate that her efforts on behalf of non-resident labor are to the detriment of local citizens, the folks who placed her in office.
It may (or may not) be tragic, but short of ousting GMA, overturning the entire Philipine political system, expelling the Catholic Church from the PI and infusing billions of dollars into the Philipine economy there's really nothing she can do for them anyway.
She can however, do a lot for the local citizenry, though she may have a tougher time convincing them of it this time around. Brundage, a probable non-starter from Kagman, has come out strongly for local employment rights, an issue that appears to be gaining traction and could ripen for astute political plucking as election time nears. Tina would have a tough time addressing it after her very public stance in support of non-residents' rights early in her first term.
Efforts to improve alien workers' rights don't harm local workers. Improving the rights of one worker helps all workers, and improving alien workers' status benefits the CNMI.
Except when there is blatant discrimination going on against indigenous workers in favor of contract workers.
However, the U.S. is too lax in its enforcement of the law to station a single permanent, full-time EEOC attorney in the CNMI.
goose, the teacher and others:
why do you always have to bring up PI? CNMI is US soil & things around here should be discussed by US standards. what is going on in PI should not be a model for what should be happening here.
all of us here in the CNMI, regardless of place of origin, should be living the life that US democracy promise to offer everyone who believes in it.
i think discussions should be restricted to what should and should not be happening based on what americans preach as the democratic way to live.
should a pinoy who aspires to have a better life for himself and for his children be forever told to be content no matter what, just because life is better here than back home?
pinoys will always survive even under the toughest conditions back home, here, and anywhere else. it is true that you would see extreme poverty in PI, but pinoys still find ways to earn a living and one path is to go to other countries who need and welcome workers. we are here, because like anybody else we dream of better things than what we had and we find ways to achieve that dream. while here, on US soil, should we expect anything less than US way of life?
bad politicos and bad governance in PI do not reflect the character of the majority of its citizenry. we are nothing less than any other human being.
*kalahi*
The EEOC doesn't need to station a FT attorney here, as its enforcement of Title VII and its other mandates has been effective and aggressive. The CNMI has, in years past, been responsible for almost half of the cases brought from the region including the CNMI, Guam and Hawaii. Other agencies should emulate what the EEOC has done in the CNMI, to see what efficient enforcement is all about.
The noni 2 up is a racist.
All I said is that PI grows people for export and explained the system that you are apparently proud of. Do you deny the farming aspect and are you to much coward to do something about it?
I think mother goo$e is a filipino contract worker he loves PI a lot.
mabuhay ka goo$e!!!
Goose,
"Foremost among those is her failure to appreciate that her efforts on behalf of non-resident labor are to the detriment of local citizens, the folks who placed her in office."
How on earth did you ocme up with this? What conditions have local citizens endured over the last 20+ years? Are they good conditions? Has our economic model been beneficial to local citizens in the labor force?
Tina's stance in this regard is so much more pro-local labor than any of the past leaders and present ones that are fighting to retain the guest worker program. I think it is extremely funny when people say she is anti-local for supporting ending the guest worker system and giving long term workers (5+ years) a pathway to citizenship. That is the most PRO US CITIZEN LABOR thing anyone could ever do.
Your logic is twisted. People talk of exporting labor from other countries like the PI, what of our labor? Our own kids are graduating and leaving for greener pastures in the United States Mainland, Hawaii, Guam, etc. We are experiencing an enormous brain drain in the CNMI and that is directly related to our reliance on low paid foreign workers and our bending over backwards for foreign investment rather than assisting with domestic and local investors. Why do we do this to ourselves?
Goose, you perpetuate the problem by making statements like I quoted above. There is no way you can logically make a case for the spin that you spew. Tina is and has been calling for an end to the CNMI guest worker system, she is also calling for the US to address some basic humanitarian concerns. As someone stated above when you help ANY worker you help ALL workers.
As Tina herself quoted in her Commonwealth Manifesto, "a rising tide lifts all boats."
To continue our tilted playing field would simply continue to harm our own local citizens. Brundige according to his statements and letters is a victim of OUR CNMI GUEST WORKER PROGRAM! The slew of letters to the editor over the last few days are also from local citizens that are victims of our locally controlled foreign guest worker program. This program has taken advantage of a loop hole in the Covenant. Thank god that a failsafe was written into the Covenant allowing that loop hole to be closed. A bit late but better NOW THAN NEVER.
PRO-LABOR!
PRO US CITIZEN LABOR!
ANTI CNMI GUEST WORKER PROGRAM!
Lets see so if leaders of the past believed as Tina believes and we never instituted the CNMI Guest Worker Program that we have in place now, where would we be today?
All worker positions would have to have been filled by locals and US citizens. WOW! so over the past 20+ years we would have been growing at a steady rate and business would have grown proportionally. WE HAD THE LARGEST POPULATION INCREASE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD WITHIN A SPAN OF 3 YEARS!!! This was due directly to our embracing low cost foreign labor. How ridiculous. Where is all the money from the Great Garment Industry? What a poor poor poor economic model. The even sadder thing is this has been tried and tested time and time again only to end with the same results we are seeing here in the CNMI.
Status quo has hurt local kids and Tina is trying to help clean up the garment factories economic mess.
She is one of the few members of the house who is not trying to cling to their own job as a primary goal.
just step back and look at the CNMI today.
who has owns almost 70% of all business in the CNMI? foreign owners.
who makes up almost 69% of the labor force? foreign workers.
we did it to ourselves. stop this madness and end the guest worker system and level the investor playing field so local us citizens can start up businesses and compete equally.
Ending the Guest Worker program in the CNMI will hurt who exactly?
Large Foreign owned businesses that rely on a majority of cheaply employed foreign labor.
Any business that employs local and US citizens will not be affected accept that now their competitors that were paying bottom of the barrel prices will have to pay a living wage to US citizens and thus level the playing field once and for all.
Will all business shut down? Hell no. Many of the crappy ones will. The ones that were only here to take advantage of cheap labor. People here still watch movies, eat food, drive cars, buy clothes, get haircuts, etc. Supply and demand.
Noni a few stops up- I'm not sure what the point of your rant is as your post largely supports my views and vicey versy.
But Tina's(and Kilili's) plan to 'solve' the problem by magically turning foreign workers into 'local' workers via CNMI citizenship would be devastating to folks of Northern Marianas descent, as their social, cultural and economic disenfranchisement will become complete and irreversible.
To propose ending the guest worker program by making the guests family members will only result in bloodless genocide for the locals, as all traces of whatever's left of their culture and ethnicity will be quickly pinoy-ified.
How is Tina cleaning up the mess left behind by the garment factories?
With your background as a Hawaiian of Filipino ancestry, g00$e, you certainly have basis to know what you're talking about.
While I, as a practicing Catholic who does so based on logic, reason, and ongoing study of my faith, see, e.g., Catholic World Report (well-written current events magazine addressing issues seldom covered in mainstream press), disagree with your views on the negative role of Catholicism in the Philippines, "breeding" human exports, [implied lack of] inherent dignity of each human person, etc., I do agree that you are spot on in your economic and social analysis of the consequence of granting a gratuitous path to citizenship to the guest workers in our midst -- no less than the cultural genocide of the indigenous inhabitants of the Northern Mariana Islands.
GOOSE:
YOU SAID: "But Tina's(and Kilili's) plan to 'solve' the problem by magically turning foreign workers into 'local' workers via CNMI citizenship would be devastating to folks of Northern Marianas descent, as their social, cultural and economic disenfranchisement will become complete and irreversible.
To propose ending the guest worker program by making the guests family members will only result in bloodless genocide for the locals, as all traces of whatever's left of their culture and ethnicity will be quickly pinoy-ified."
Are you kidding? How would this be devastating and lead to economic, social and cultural disenfranchisement? The guest workers in question are those that have lived here for 5+ years. They are already a part of the cultural and social fabric of our lives. Economically I already told you that it would be the exact opposite and local workforce would benefit.
When the local TT citizens signed off on the Covenant we all became US CITIZENS. That being said we are part of the United States of America. If any amount of US Citizens decided to come to the CNMI they could without restriction after the Covenant was signed... live here for 90 days ... register to vote and do so. So even when it comes to voting power Tina pushing for a pathway to citizenship does not change anything that curretnly exists.
If all the guest workers that have been here for 5+ years were in Hawaii working there under an H visa for the same period of time and then applied and got green cards and then came to Saipan... in 90 days they too could vote. NO DIFFERENCE. We can not turn away any US citizen from voting in the CNMI regardless of their ethnic background. GOTTA LOVE THE US. If you don't like that then push to BURN the Covenant or move to a place that limits voting to certain ethnicities.
If someone has moved to the CNMI and lived and worked and contributed to this island for 5, 10, 20+ years than they are a PART of this ISLAND. Your mentality is inline with Hitlers.
YOU SAID: How is Tina cleaning up the mess left behind by the garment factories?
The fact that you are saying "clean up the mess left behind" indicates that you realize that the Garments caused a mess.
That said, TINA IS ENSURING THAT WE DON'T CREATE THAT MESS AGAIN. Fitial, you and others that are not pushing with all your might to end the Guest worker program is leaving the door open to us "messing" up yet again... with peanut factories, fisheries, rebirth of military garment factories, etc.
Noni at 4:03pm (baka),
YOU SAID: "gratuitous path to citizenship to the guest workers in our midst --"
We are part of the US. Anywhere else that the US Flag flies people who have lived legally for 5+ years are granted a pathway to citizenship. Should never have been a difference here in the CNMI since we allow US Citizens, regardless of their ancestry the right to vote and run for office.
YOU SAID: "no less than the cultural genocide of the indigenous inhabitants of the Northern Mariana Islands."
Baka, you are not indigenous neither is Goose from what you point out. If that is the case are you top contributing to the cultural genocide of indigenous inhabitants of the NMI? Are all non-indigenous that are on these shores contributing to it? Are only the ones that can vote a threat of genocide culturally? What of their very presence (teaching, working alongside, living, etc with indigenous peoples).
Good god you two have major issues.
And Baka, please quit with the "holier-than-thou" crap and ...
GET YOUR ASS TO CHURCH!
"magically turning foreign workers into 'local' workers via CNMI citizenship would be devastating to folks of Northern Marianas descent, as their social, cultural and economic disenfranchisement will become complete and irreversible."
I guess Goose, Baka and all the other 'anything other than indigenous, NMD US citizens' have all been magically transformed into indigenous NMDs and therefor no longer pose a complete and irreversible threat to the the social, cultural and economical fabric of the INDIGENOUS NMD residents of the CNMI.
Wow, that must be a powerful magic wand that transformed BAKA from a Caucasian into a Carolinian. I want to be transformed into a MONGOLIAN... Genghis if possible.
You racist bastards! Burn your US passports and go elsewhere please. I love the CNMI it is still a UNITED STATES COMMONWEALTH.
"With your background as a Hawaiian of Filipino ancestry, g00$e, you certainly have basis to know what you're talking about."
Man, I could go on all night! WTF is this? since when does your ethnic background determine your knowledge of any subject outright? GOD DAMN, BAKA you are a racist one... through and through... course I may not be as knowledgeable regarding racism as you... you certainly have the basis to know what your talking about when it comes to being a racist with your Caucasian background. HA HA HA!
to the nonis who keep raving about "cultural genocide" and "disenfranchisement" of the indigenous people of the cnmi:
1) what constitutes "cultural genocide"?
intermarriage between people of different cultures/ethnicities?
having children of mixed race/ethnicity?
allowing ALL citizens the right to participate in the political process regardless of race or ethnicity (also known as "democracy")?
believing (and acting on) the philosophy that all immigrants should be viewed as "future citizens" rather than commodities or units of labor? (teddy roosevelt was quite the maniac!)
2) "disenfranchisement" is the revocation or deprivation of person's (or people's) right to vote.
are u.s. citizens in any part of the nation "disenfranchised" when new u.s. citizens are born or naturalized?
are u.s. citizens of chamorro or carolinian descent "disenfranchised" if other u.s. citizens of other cultures or ethnicities vote in the cnmi?
do u.s. citizens of chamorro or carolinian descent "disenfranchise" other u.s. citizens when they move to the u.s. mainland and exercise their right to vote there?
if you are NOT a u.s. citizen of chamorro or carolinian descent and you live in the cnmi, should you refrain from voting out of "respect" for the indigenous cultures or out of fear of causing "genocide?"
3) are you on crack?
LOL
Noni directly above (5:05PM)
OMFG!!!! I am in seventh heaven.
YOU ARE TOO SPOT ON!
I tried in numerous posts to put in to words what you just did. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
There are two flaws in your logic.
As for being overwhelmed by mainlanders, that has not happened. Geography is the main reason.
The second is your use of the term "immigrant." The guest workers never had the right to stay here indefinitely.
At most, they had the right for their U.S.-born children to petition them here when they turned 21, if the children had adequate income.
Now what you propose to do is to change the rules in the middle of the game.
Previously, any changes through intermarriage and other demographic changes were part of a gradual, organic, sustainable process. It was a process respectful of the indigenous peoples of the CNMI, while still preserving the essential rights of all U.S. citizens residing in the Commonwealth, each of whom makes valuable contributions to our society.
What you are proposing is, with a stroke of a pen, to abrogate the natural, organic, sustainable process of cultural change and assimilation, and instead superimpose a massively overwhelming (in population terms) change, imposing a "superior" culture (numerically and with respect to historic educational and training advantages they have held).
It is the exact opposite of affirmative action. It would be a major setback to the hopes and dreams of those for whom the CNMI is their only homeland.
The Hungarians, Palauans, and Filipinos will always have a cultural center of gravity to keep the traditions alive. But if that of the CNMI is extinguished, it is gone forever. Just like what has almost happened in Hawaii.
to noni posting responses to baka & goose,
as we say within our "happy as always no matter what" group: atta boy, girl! atta girl, boy!
mwaah!
Good job, Glen Hunter!
By no means does the 5:36 PM post above mean to suggest that our hard-working contract workers are not making significant contributions to CNMI society.
But that does not entitle them to an aggressive hostile takeover of these islands. That would be an abuse of the hosts' generosity.
I'm sure many non-NMD U.S. citizens wish they could own "fee simple" land in the CNMI, and someday the U.S. citizens in the CNMI (all of them, under the U.S. constitution), may vote to change that. Until then, however, they abide by the rules in effect when they arrived. Many others prefer the low-rent status quo.
Likewise, no one blames the guest workers for doing everything they can to gain the right to immigrate, but it would be bad public policy due to the severely negative economic and cultural effects that would have on those who have lived here for generations.
The Covenant was not a suicide pact. A progressive, Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives would not seem inclined to do that to a discrete and insular minority. But then, a lot will depend on what Kilili does and says.
To noni above
The Covenant-as-suicide-pact meme reminds me of that scene in Blazing Saddles where Sheriff Bart holds a gun to his own head, saying "Don't move, or the n--ger gets it!" with Fitial as Sheriff Bart.
Hee hee... I'm starting to like this blog.
"severely negative economic and cultural effects that would have on those who have lived here for generations."
What are you talking about? You continue saying this but have yet to explain what difference the impact of a foreign worker that has stayed here in the CNMI for over 20 years has had versus a US mainlander with no NMD blood for the same period of time regarding economics and culture and social aspects. There is none. And if you give that foreign worker who has been here for 20 years a green card there is no change in the impact they will have on the island in terms of culture.
As for your argument about non NMDs not being able to own land but that may CHANGE, well isn't that exactly what is happening with guest workers living here for 20 years abiding by the law that said no pathway to citizenship and now they are trying the CHANGE that. No difference.
Peel away your nonsense arguments and at the heart and at its core your stance is solely based on racism.
A person who has been contributing to these islands for 5, 10, 15+ years has already impacted the society, culture and economy of the CNMI. Whether they have a foreign passport or US passport makes no difference. If you are so dead set on protecting the indigenous culture and society and economy then ship ever non-NMD off this island and keep all foreigners (including the US mainlanders) out!
Same argument for article XII. If you are so concerned about keeping land in its original NMD family lines than why did they ever allow land sales of any type or leases? They shouldn't have if they truly believed that land should remain with the family. But that is another subject all together.
In your haste to impugn with labels like “racism” you overlook several key distinctions.
You argue that a single Filipino, mainlander, [and Palauan] residing in the CNMI for 20 years each have the same influence on indigenous cultures.
Yet there are many more Pinoys than mainland US or FAS citizens, so the collective influence is much greater.
Also, there is much greater competition for working class and unskilled jobs from Filipinos (and to some extent FAS workers) than 50-state US citizens because of geographical propinquinty.
Furthermore, the haoles and Micronesians are and have been more likely to move on after a couple of decades. Those of the (Filipino) cultural majority are more likely to remain permanently because of their dominant numerical position, with all the social advantages that entails. This tendency is magnified to the extent conditions in their places of origin are worse than the CNMI, and would be exacerbated even further if Pinoys were a political voting majority.
Most of these workers would never have been admitted as “immigrants” under US law. Everyone, including themselves, agreed they would work here without the right to assume cultural and political dominance. That social bargain must not be unilaterally abrogated.
To the anonymous poster above:
What a racist!
Read what you wrote. Racist on so many levels.
Baka,
In your haste to remove the "racist" label you overlooked the fact that what you have scribbled in all of your comments on this post are... well... RACIST!
race and culture are two different things. a race of people can achieve anything but may be too culturally backward to do so.
as members of a race, individual filipinos are no different than anyone else.
they posses the same potential for intelligence, strength and ambition as anyone in the world.
unfortunately, the culture of begging has permeated their society and keeps a vast majority of them from improving their homeland.
hence the drive to move away.
that's not racist. that's a statement of culture.
We need to emulate President Obama's forthright discussion of race without degenerating into name-calling.
An obsession with attacking individual posters and labeling them bespeaks a lack of confidence in the merit of one's own position, or ingrained bullying behavior, or both.
Goose like to play with somebodys anger but he help plenty Filipinos and Chinese already. His big secret.
Glen Hunter is a bully with anger management issues who would love to know the identity of g00$e, so he could continue to indulge in his specialty of anonymous character assassination, having already taken out the cockroach.
I really loved the reference to Blazing Saddles.
I think a more suitable comparison would be Good ol' GB with the sidearm pointed at his wife's head and him saying, "Stop with the HOSTILE CULTURAL TAKEOVER or the green card carrying Filipina gets it!"
And maybe a second sidearm in his other hand aimed at himself and the lines "And if that don't end this HOSTILE, NON-ORGANIC, HIGH PACED CULTURAL & SOCIETAL TAKEOVER I'mma gonna put another one in the US PASSPORT HOLDING, NON-NMD's skull too!"
The same can be said for AS (aka: Goose).
Honestly and on a serious note: How the hell can you people read what you written and not have your stomaches turn at the sheer bigotry (sometimes as indicated above even hypocritical bigotry) you are spewing.
I remember the Chapel show skit that had Dave as the blind, black Klan Grand Wizard who was completely unaware that he, himself was black. He went around preaching under the robe about preserving the White Man's dominance. One day someone removed his hood and they told him HE was BLACK. He freaked out and went into seclusion. He divorced his wife because he stated, "she was a n**ger lover." So fitting for the situation we are seeing unfold before our eyes in the comments made on this blog about preserving indigenous culture of the area and hostile takeovers of that culture that will result from the issuance of green cards to individuals that have been out here living and contributing to society and culture for 5, 10, 20+ years.
"Anonymous said...
Glen Hunter is a bully with anger management issues who would love to know the identity of g00$e, so he could continue to indulge in his specialty of anonymous character assassination, having already taken out the cockroach."
The hypocrisy of this statement had me rolling on the floor. EMPHASIS ADDED to the above quote.
What a great display of the ANONYMOUS CHARACTER ASSASSINATION OF (not by) GLEN
HUNTER.
After reading the comments in this post it appears that Glen Hunter put his name to his comment and it didn't appear anywhere close to level of character assassination that you have just let loose.
LMAO!!!
Of course Glen Hunter is a rabid Tina Sablan fan. He is porkin' her after all.
Of course he enjoys character assassination, he has none of his own and wants to bring others down to that same level so he doesn't feel so uncomfy.
There you go, LMAO above. That should make you giggle even more.
Other than those who wrongly and publicly accuse other named individuals of racism, the true racism in this thread is displayed by those who don't consider the Republic of the Philippines to be a worthy location to live a wonderful life, least of all by U.S. citizen children of guest worker parents.
The CNMI is not the be-all and end-all of economic opportunity. Especially when its policy makers and would-be policy makers ignore fundamental principles of economics.
Noni @ 12:26PM,
You seem to be terribly jealous. Again, the only anonymous character assassination appears to be coming from you.
LMAO!!!
Is the hostile takeover you folks are warning us of taking place via marriage between Foreign Nationals and US Citizens presently located in the CNMI?
Oh my!
Sound the sirens--- this just in--- FITIAL is also part of the hostile takeover of CNMI culture and society!
LMAO!!! said "LMAO!!!"
Jealous, yes, I would like to be porkin' her myself.
LMAO!!!
How CNMI social discourse has fallen. Thank you all!
Turning to the thread topic, Angelo Villagomez is PIO for the new Democrat party. Run, Justo, Run!
Applicability of the INA to immediate relatives is covered by Covenant Section 506(c). No, that's not the hostile takeover; that's gradual, natural, organic, and with full consent of all concerned.
The CNMI permanent residency program was withdrawn in 1981, and the Legislature's power to increase the class of non-aliens in 1985, for a reason. The people have spoken, and will speak again.
No Malacañang on Saipan. No foreign takeover! NO to Tina Sablan and Glen Hunter!
I am alarmed by some of the comments above, which are phrased (sometimes subtly, and sometimes not-so-subtly) to inflame feelings of xenophobia, cultural tension, and yes, racism.
Take these statements by nonis above:
"I do agree that you are spot on in your economic and social analysis of the consequence of granting a gratuitous path to citizenship to the guest workers in our midst -- no less than the cultural genocide of the indigenous inhabitants of the Northern Mariana Islands."
"Likewise, no one blames the guest workers for doing everything they can to gain the right to immigrate, but it would be bad public policy due to the severely negative economic and cultural effects that would have on those who have lived here for generations."
**
“Gratuitous” means “unjustified,” “unwarranted,” and “unearned.”
What makes the peaceful, totally nonviolent appeal for permanent residency and a pathway to citizenship for long-term CNMI guest workers “gratuitous?”
Let me guess: because “it was never promised to them?”
Slaves were never “promised” the right to be free men and women. Women were never “promised” the right to vote. The people of the Northern Mariana Islands were never “promised” self-government, a political union with the United States, U.S. citizenship, or permanent control over immigration. Laws change as societies change. And unjust laws and systems only change when people finally open their eyes to the injustice before them and say, “Enough.” And then actually do something about it.
According to MLK, Jr: “An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself… A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law.”
And also, “Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application.”
The CNMI guest worker system is an unjust system created and perpetuated by unjust laws. Attempting to frame a defense of that fundamentally unjust system around a totally inflammatory and illogical lie – i.e, that a pathway to citizenship for long-term guest workers would lead to “cultural genocide” (whatever that means, it still has not yet been defined, not even by the United Nations!) of indigenous people, or “severely negative economic and cultural effects” – does not make the unjust system more just, or the lie more true. And all that really does, as far as I can tell, is seek to fan the flames of cultural/racial intolerance, scapegoating, suspicion, and fear. Why?
What “cultural genocide,” what “severely negative economic and cultural effects,” would result from granting people who are already here, and have been here for decades, the right to stay here with their families (many of whom include people of indigenous descent, and all kinds of other descents too, by the way) and to access a pathway to full U.S. citizenship so they can finally participate in a political process that affects them, too?
Here are two more offensive noni statements:
“By no means does the 5:36 PM post above mean to suggest that our hard-working contract workers are not making significant contributions to CNMI society. But that does not entitle them to an aggressive hostile takeover of these islands. That would be an abuse of the hosts' generosity.”
“Previously, any changes through intermarriage and other demographic changes were part of a gradual, organic, sustainable process. It was a process respectful of the indigenous peoples of the CNMI, while still preserving the essential rights of all U.S. citizens residing in the Commonwealth, each of whom makes valuable contributions to our society."
**
What is this “respect” of which you speak, noni? What is a "natural" and "organic" process? How “gradual” should it be to suit you? Who is taking over, exactly? What are they taking over, exactly? And who is deciding what is "natural" and "organic" versus what is “aggressive” and “hostile”?
To return to MLK, Jr., I can't help but be reminded of his criticism of the “white moderate” who “is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a more ‘convenient season.’ ”
The nonis who insist that long-term guest workers follow their particular vision of a “gradual, organic, sustainable process,” and who would call the peaceful and nonviolent petition for improved immigration status “aggressive” and “hostile,” prefer order to justice, negative peace to positive peace, and their own convenient timetable for badly-needed immigration reform.
As for the descriptors often applied to long-term guest workers seeking improved status and a better life(“disrespectful,” “aggressive,” “hostile,” etc.), the wisdom of MLK, Jr. once again proves to be profoundly relevant:
“Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with an its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.”
Hold up the mirror to yourselves, nonis, and you might find the true source of disrespect, aggression, and hostility staring right back at you.
Enough.
guest workers in the cnmi are not slaves but they are not citizens.
just because a laborer temporarily relocates to foreign country on a temporary work assignment (which is what they're doing) doesn't mean that he or she should be granted the right to vote, own land or dictate immigration laws.
i think it's great that visiting workers have contributed to the local economy, but they did so by design.
that some have volunteered their non-contractual time to aid the cnmi is wonderful, though not expected.
This seem like a good place to raise the distinction between "passive resistance" (in the sense of nonviolent action for political or social change) and "passive aggression" (in the sense of casting oneself as the victim of another as a means of defeating and supplanting the other).
Your comments, `Enough,` are based on several false premises.
You equate the condition of the CNMI`s guest workers to slavery. In doing so, you demean the noble work that they do, and their free will in choosing to live and work in na Islas Marianas.
You insult their homelands by implying that their return, with their families, would be an `injustice.`
You speak of nonviolence, but you advocate the imposition of law, enforced by the full might of the state, in opposition to the will of those who are the indigenous inhabitants of the CNMI, the very people the Covenant was supposed to benefit.
What you are advocating is little different than granting permission for a foreign country to take over an Indian reservation. The power is still there, but following the American Indian wars (and, here, the Spanish-Chamorro war, World War II, and Camp Susupe), the indigenous people have accepted that armed struggle is futile. That does not mean we have to accept our subjugation peacefully!
You have the audacity to describe as `just` the forcible removal from an entire people of controlling their own destiny? And, yes, to be clear, if the U.S. imposes a foreign political and cultural take-over of the CNMI, it will indeed by by force of law, not because those of Northern Marianas Descent have chosen it.
There are none so blind as those who will not see. You can analogize to slavery, women`s rights, and civil rights all you want -- but you are generously bestowing this feel-good largesse at the expense of the indigenous!
This proposed mass citizenship is nothing more than the rape of the Marianas. One can`t know the motives of those who would simply tread upon the Chamorros and Refaluwasch, but there is undoubtedly a sense of misplaced guilt toward the guest workers.
Fine. Make them whole. Pay each `abused, indentured` worker (this term seems to be applied to every single person from abroad who worked here) $10,000 or $20,000 or whatever is `just.`
But don`t steal the patrimony of na Islas Marianas from those to whom it belongs! Haven`t we as a country learned enough from what we did to the Native Americans?
Must we revisit this evil on the NMDs, too?
No amount of selective quotation from individual, inarticulate commenters can change wrong into right.
If it has not occurred to you in full what the consequence of your racist scheme is, redolent of South Africa in taking away political power, land, and ultimately culture itself, from its rightful possessors, you need to develop some empathy.
Again, give the guest workers whatever is fair, but not, not, not at the expense of the NMDs.
No foreign takeover of the CNMI!
No betrayal of trust.
Honor the Covenant.
MLK would not for a second have countenanced the theft of the CNMI by the sudden mass `gift` of U.S. citizenship so as to steal from a poor and oppressed indigenous minority their only homeland.
That is truly Enough.
Holy crap what a load of bull from JDR above.
My god are we this backwards in our thinking?
Dude, if you truly feel and believe what you have written, why than have you allowed so many non-NMDs to enter the commonwealth and take up residence? Why have you allowed foreigners to raise your children? Why have you allowed non-NMDs to counsel your leaders? Why have you allowed intermarriage? Why did you sign off on the Covenant a political union with the United States a document that stated that they would be our sovereign?
you asked, "Haven`t we as a country learned enough from what we did to the Native Americans?"
I have asked haven't we learned enough from slavery & women's rights.
Who are you protecting when you allow a massive amount of foreigners to stay and coexist on your land but withhold basic rights? If you feel this strongly than why allow outsiders entry? Why make a pact with the US? Why not close your borders. Eliminate outside interference. Protect your culture from outside influence. throw out the US form of government and the agreement to abide by the US Constitution.
You want the best of all worlds. We are not a people taken by force by the US. We were not forced into joining this great nation. We do so by majority of our vote. WE opted as a whole to become US CITIZENS.
If the foreign workers in the CNMI have US citizenship or not there is no change in the amount of their influence on our islands.
Right now any amount of non-indigenous US citizens can enter the CNMI. They can run for office. They can vote. They can stay or go as they please. You try and defend NMDs with the argument that is based on misguided rationale -- the argument that the above is not true. That somehow NMDs are protected under the current political union with the USA from that type of dominate outside interference. This is not true. We are not protected and the interference when coming from Non-NMDs that are US citizens is not an outside influence. We are all US citizens.
If a guest worker has been residing in the CNMI for 10 years legally and they have been granted a pathway to citizenship and they become a citizens than that does not change anything when compared to a foreigner who gains US citizenship the same way in Guam or Hawaii and then comes to the CNMI.
When NMDs or other US citizens marry foreigners they also can become US citizens and they have. They also live in the CNMI.
Who made you the judge of what type of outside influence is okay and what is not?
Citizenship granted to a foreigner through Marriage to a US Citizen in the CNMI = OKAY BY YOU
Migration of US Citizens to the CNMI regardless of ethnicity = OKAY BY YOU
Non-NMDs born and becoming US citizens in the CNMI = OKAY BY YOU
Long term guest workers who have lived in the CNMI for 5, 10, 20+ years legally, working in the CNMI community, teaching CNMI kids, attending CNMI churches and hanging out at CNMI events gaining a pathway to US citizenship = HELL NO!!! NOT ON MY ISLAND!! OVER MY DEAD BODY!!
Where is the logic? It does not exist.
If you feel and think that what you wrote above is the truth than you must close up the borders, burn your US PASSPORT, send out all foreign and non-NMDs from our lands and demand independence from a government that believes as a tenant ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.
Hitler also was threatened greatly by cultural genocide...history has show what his solution to that threat was.
Dave Duke, KKK leader also has warned of cultural genocide and we have seen how that group has dealt with it.
ENOUGH!
You can not have it both ways.
They also said that Abraham Lincoln was attempting to "change our social structure" and "change our economy" by ending slavery?
And a while back on Fox News, former senator Rick Santorum told Greta Van Susteren that the Republican party “has to stand up for conservative principles.” They have to support the “patrimony” against “a guy named Barack Obama” who wants to upend “our social structure”.
We now have the guy up top saying that we need to uphold the patrimony of the NMDs.
Will we ever learn?
Here is a great article(emphasis added):
Italian councillors accused of racism for Indian kebab shop ban
Councillors in the Tuscan town of Lucca have been accused of racism after banning Indian restaurants or kebab shops from opening up.
The edict has been passed by the right-wing Popolo della Liberta party headed by Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister whose councillors want to see more traditional Italian dishes being served, banishing anything else.
Filippo Candelise, a Lucca councillor, was quoted by the Scotsman as saying: “To accuse us of racism is outrageous. All we are doing is protecting he culinary patrimony of the town.”
- source ANI
Whoa, there, Ms. Bargain Keeper.
Speaking of false premises, when did I ever “equate” the condition of the CNMI’s guest workers to slavery?
Please point out exactly where, and if you can’t, then please acknowledge that you have either misread me, misspoken, or outright deliberately distorted what I actually said.
I checked and rechecked, and as far as I can tell, the only reference to slavery that I made was to point out that laws do change as societies change, though "promises" for change were never made.
CNMI guest workers are not all “slaves” by virtue of being guest workers. However, some guest workers in the CNMI have indeed worked under coercive circumstances without ever getting paid for their labor. This would generally be considered a form of slavery or at least indentured servitude. I will go out on a limb here and call the condition of working under coercion without getting paid "unjust."
Injustices are more likely to arise out of systems that create significant imbalances in power, discourage people from complaining when they are being mistreated, and limit their presence to a temporary-yet-long-term basis, without the possibility of permanent status or full political rights in the future.
Such is the CNMI guest worker program – it creates conditions that make it easy to abuse people and people have indeed been abused in various ways and different degrees. And when you have a local government that has failed to prevent such abuses, or even to take effective action against them time and time again, or worse that has a record of actually punishing the victims of abuse through deportations, threats, denials of temporary work authorizations, etc. then you have is a local government that is shamefully complicit in a system that is inherently unjust.
Yes, I said it again: “unjust.” I guess I am just audacious like that.
if that was john del rosario, then that is the first time i agree with him. he's otherwise an idiot, but he's on the money where the guest workers are concerned.
...but again, otherwise he's still an idiot.
No idea who it is but perhaps I am reading something different than what you are reading. The "enough" poster and the comments after "bargain keeper" and in response to him/her seem to make more sense and more of a case than the "this is my island" nonsense that "bargain keeper" stated.
I fail to understand the logic behind NMDs that share Bargain Keeper's mindset when it comes to being okay with US citizens that are not indigenous and their rights to vote and run for office in the CNMI and control our CNMI destiny and that of guest workers who have lived and worked legally in our community for 5, 10, 15, 20 + years.
Why is one okay and the other is not in the eyes of an indigenous person like Bargain Keeper?
I don't understand. Some have said geography keeps the number of US citizens that are non-NMD in the CNMI down. That doesn't hold water. Matter of fact the person that said that was a Non-NMD US Citizen with a Foreign wife (on a path towards gaining US citizenship) and currently residing in the CNMI and working here.
One said it was okay because non-NMD US citizens don't stay in the CNMI for that long. Is this a real argument? What is it based on? I thought it was Jim A from the Chamber that said if you give a Guest Worker a green card he GUARANTEES that they will leave the CNMI.
Does it matter... There is no difference. If you feel the way Bargain Keeper feels and think he is "spot on" than burn your US passports, chase out all non-indigenous people and toss out the Covenant and rewrite a new CNMI Constitution.
More gems in Ms. Bargain Keeper's post:
“What you are advocating is little different than granting permission for a foreign country to take over an Indian reservation.”
“You speak of nonviolence, but you advocate the imposition of law, enforced by the full might of the state, in opposition to the will of those who are the indigenous inhabitants of the CNMI, the very people the Covenant was supposed to benefit.”
“And, yes, to be clear, if the U.S. imposes a foreign political and cultural take-over of the CNMI, it will indeed by by force of law, not because those of Northern Marianas Descent have chosen it.”
*
Who are the indigenous inhabitants, Ms. Bargain Keeper, and who made you their spokesperson? And what exactly are you advocating?
Are you suggesting that it should only be up to NMDs to decide whether or not U.S. permanent residency and a pathway to citizenship should be granted to guest workers living in the CNMI?
In other words, if NMDs “choose” to support permanent residency and citizenship for long-term guest workers (say, through a plebiscite of some sort), you would be ok with it?
Or would that still amount to a “foreign political and cultural takeover”?
Another delightful tidbit: you describe the proposal to grant a pathway to citizenship for long-term guest workers as “nothing more than the rape of the Marianas.”
Really? "Rape?" How so? If U.S. Congress chooses to grant green cards to long-term guest workers and every single one of them chose to leave the Marianas all at once (say, because they couldn’t take the appalling ignorance and racism of certain self-proclaimed “indigenous” spokespersons), would the Marianas still be “raped?”
Are you suggesting that every single foreign worker (except for the ones who were lucky enough to marry Chamorros and Carolinians, of course) should be immediately repatriated with their families (U.S. citizen children too?) to their countries of origin?
Or should they be allowed to stay as long as their services are needed? Is that the “bargain” you wish to keep, Ms. Bargain Keeper? But if they are allowed to stay for any period of time, would you still consider that “rape?” Or is it only “rape” if they might someday be granted some security in their status or --gasp, worse! -- someday be allowed to vote?
"Honor the Covenant," indeed.
The people of the Northern Marianas freely voted to become part of the United States. Our Covenant included the agreement that U.S. immigration law could someday be applied to the CNMI through an act of Congress. U.S. immigration law provides for pathways to permanent residency and citizenship and has in the past authorized one-time grants of green cards/citizenship to certain groups of people in particular places under particular circumstances (for example, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the CNMI).
True to the terms of the Covenant, that act of Congress has happened, and federal immigration law will apply come Nov 28. Another act of Congress is underway that is likely to mean sweeping immigration reforms that could also include improved status for the CNMI’s guest workers.
In your view, Ms. Bargain Keeper, are the people of the Northern Marianas now victims of the Covenant we freely endorsed? Are we also victims of U.S. Congress? Should our feelings of victimization be heightened by any acts of U.S. Congress to grant to a group of people living in the CNMI something that we ourselves do not have the power to grant, something that was in fact granted to us by another act of Congress some 25 years ago? Should we feel “raped” by the United States government for granting citizenship to us? Or should we only feel “raped” at the prospect of others becoming citizens in this American commonwealth?
Or maybe we should reject these misplaced and misguided feelings of victimization that you and others seem to embrace?
Maybe we are not victims at all?
And maybe most of the guest workers are not, either.
The extreme hypotheticals and arguments of Enough (Glen Hunter) about Hitler, and quibbling about word choice do not validate the proposal of him and Tina for a special Act of Congress giving citizenship to guest workers. A national bill is another matter.
there's nothing wrong with wanting a better way of life, but the guest workers are going about it the wrong way by demanding it.
Bargain Keeper is right. You criticize him for wanting "the best of all worlds." Of course he does, and what's wrong with that? You act as if it's impossible to have the best of all worlds, and wrong to want it, but that's only your own shortness of vision revealing itself.
The CNMI HAS the best of all worlds. Unlike Guam, which has US citizenship but not self-government, or the Free Associated States, which have self-government but not US citizenship, we have a full measure of BOTH. There is no choice that must be made between the two. There is no need for anyone to go out and burn their passports.
Reject the lie that we must be either an isolated independent state or a dependent subject territory! That is a mental rut born of a century of nation-state ideology. There are alternatives, and we have created one of them.
So Bargain Keeper is right?
So he doesn't want his indigenous brothers and sisters to be "taken over" or "raped" and he wants everyone to "honor the Covenant"?
Lets see... so it is okay for any non-indigenous, non-NMD, US citizen to vote or run for office in the CNMI? That Honors the Covenant. The best of both worlds? That protects the indigenous? That protects the NMDs?
However, according to Bargain Keeper, it is not okay for FILIPINOs who have lived int he CNMI for a hell of a long time and lived side by side NMDs and indigenous to be granted US citizenship and vote here or perhaps run for office? That is a take over? That is hostile? That is aggressive? That is against the NMDs? That is attacking the indigenous?
No, cactus, Bargain Keeper is not right... unless of course you think blatant racism and bigotry is right! No other way to slice it.
If he/she was true to his argument than no one from outside, no non-nmd, no non-indigenous would be able to vote and run for office in the CNMI.
You can not have it both ways. You can not say you want US citizenship yet want to protect the indigenous people by ensuring "outsiders" don't "aggressively takeover" the CNMI by voting and holding office.
Correct me if I am wrong. Isn't that the fear? That "these people", these guest workers will be given a pathway to citizenship and then "these people" will gain US citizenship and then "these people" will be able to vote in the CNMI.
If that isn't the fear than what is?
It is not about "these people" having an impact on society and culture. That is hogwash. "These people" do have an impact and did have an impact and will have an impact on our CNMI society and culture. Anyone that has lived out here for 5, 10, 15, 20+ years had an impact in some way on our culture and society.
So the fear is that "these people" may be afforded all the luxuries that any other US citizens would be afforded. That "these people" may gain full rights and be franchised in the CNMI.
Cactus, Bargain Keeper, Goose and anyone else that has argued the giving long term guest workers a pathway to US citizenship is equated to a "hostile takeover of the indigenous peoples and their cultures" need to step back and truly look at what you are saying and try and see that your finding are based solely on the ethnicity of the guest workers.
Our system out here in the CNMI has create a two tiered society. The bottom tier being the disenfranchised guest workers. They are not treated as equals. They are not treated as future citizens.
This has warped people like Bargain Keeper's view of guest workers. They look on them as less than human. They fear them ever getting equal rights... no matter how long they stay on US soil and contribute to the CNMI economically, socially and culturally.
The indigenous of these islands do not have full control of the government that was set up by the Covenant. All US CITIZENS have full control of this government. Don't hide behind a lie that pretends that this is not true and speak of "hostile takeovers" by non-indigenous people in an attempt to keep people from gaining rights.
Hey Cactus- where ya been? I was beginning to wonder if you'd joined the legions who have abandoned the Rock.
Uh... have you?
Oh and . . . so many references to MLK, racism and bigotry.
I don't know but I suspect MLK would understand clearly that the quickest, most efficient method to get on the receiving end of racism and bigotry is to invade somebody's island and usurp their culture, society, language and economy. Labeling the exercise a 'quest for a better life' won't help any, especially as the locals come to understand that your presence degrades their chances for a better life.
Racism? Bigotry? Call it what you want, economics is what it all comes down to. And the fact is there are a lot of locals on the receiving end of both in the private economy here.
Just read this on Wendy Dormal's blog and thought it fit here well too:
Did you have the same mindset when the Federal Government was working with the TT government and the CNMI residents to form a partnership with the US government. Were you repulsed by the fact that US taxpayer money and time and resources were being spent to help people that were not "current Americans" at that time?
Did it turn your stomach when the Covenant was signed and a pathway to direct US Citizenship was opened for all TT Citizens in the CNMI at that time.
Did you scream bloody murder when President Reagan made good on one of the Covenant Promises and sent a fax granting US citizenship to the people of the CNMI?
Or is that all a different story...because the thousands that received US Citizenships, Carte Blanche, in accordance with the Covenant Agreement (a pact entered into by non-US Citizens through direct communication and negotiation with the US Citizen federal officials) were not FILIPINOS?
Goose,
"invade somebody's island and usurp their culture, society, language and economy. "
What?
Now the guest workers invaded Saipan?!
Or are you speaking of the US invasion and the Covenant allowing non-NMD and non-indigenous a say so in how the CNMI is run?
Please clarify.
Goose:
While your at it can you expand on this statement too:
Labeling the exercise a 'quest for a better life' won't help any, especially as the locals come to understand that your presence degrades their chances for a better life.
Who's presence? Guest workers who invaded or US citizen non-indigenous who invaded?
Goose,
Last one regarding your comment, I swear. Can you answer the question regarding this part:
Racism? Bigotry? Call it what you want, economics is what it all comes down to. And the fact is there are a lot of locals on the receiving end of both in the private economy here.
Locals on the receiving end of Racism and Bigotry from who? US Citizen Non-NMDs or Foreign Guest Workers?
And while your at it what defines a "Local" in your view?
- A blood quantum of Chamorro or Carolinian ancestry?
- US Citizenship coupled with months or years living in the CNMI? (if so how long)
- Simply length of time one has resided in the CNMI. (again how long)
- Owning Property here in the CNMI.
- If your parents lived here.
- If you were born in the CNMI.
- living and working legally in the CNMI for a certain length of time. (how long)
- Some other reason
I would love to know what you think makes an individual a Local in the CNMI.
Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. I've just been mostly hanging around Wendy's site lately. This is the first good rhubarb on Middle Road is ages.
The term "two-tiered society" has been turning up a lot here, but in fact we've got at least four distinct tiers:
Tier 1: NMI Descent. Can live and work without restriction, vote, and own land.
Tier 2: Non-NMD US Citizens. Can live and work without restriction and vote, but cannot own land. (All children born here are at least Tier 2.)
Tier 3: Free Associated Micronesians. Can live and work without restriction, but not vote or own land. (Immediate relatives of Tiers 1, 2 and 3 are also in this tier.)
Tier 4: Contract Workers. Can live and work here, but only pursuant to a contract, and only for so long as it lasts.
Now might I have done this all differently, given the choice? Probably. My own inclination would be to establish an NMI-citizenship status, including all the rights of Tier 1, which NMI Descents would acquire at birth, but which people of the other tiers could acquire upon meeting certain qualifications, strict enough but not too strict, of which length of residency would be one, but not the only one.
But it was not my call to make. That call belonged to the people of Tier 1, and I cannot say that the choices they made were outrageous, or even unreasonable, particularly when I consider that they were under no obligation to let any of the rest of us live, work, or come here at all.
Cactus (aka BB),
Wow, your only response to all that has been written is, "I think there are more tiers than two." ?!
I think I can break it down to at least 13 tiers. How on earth does that have any bearing whatsoever on long time foreign workers and supporters petitioning for citizenship?
" particularly when I consider that they were under no obligation to let any of the rest of us live, work, or come here at all.
And no one was obligated to give THEM ( i assume you mean indigenous people of the CNMI) US citizenship.
Vote for John "Bolis" Gonzales and he will solve all of our problems.
Kalili and Tina are all worthless Sablans.
"And no one was obligated to give THEM ( i assume you mean indigenous people of the CNMI) US citizenship."
True. I suppose that's why, out of reciprocity, they gave an especially generous status to other US citizens here (see "Tier 2" above).
"I suppose that's why, out of reciprocity, they gave an especially generous status to other US citizens here"
Just no way that they would reciprocate a bit of their thanks for the mass US citizenship being granted all of us by either assisting others in similar positions gain similar citizenship or at the bare least not attacking them for attempting to gain the same citizenship?
If you follow the thinking and the logic you are putting forth than you would have to believe that ANY outside influence other than that of returning indigenous people would be frown upon and must be fought against. That would include the outside influence on our culture, society and economy from Tier 2 (as you put it) peoples.
How come speaking out in support of local rights evokes such fiercely emotional backlash?
Cactus' observations regarding the choices made by First Tier folks are interesting in view of the economic and social consequences they have produced. Can the First Tier be broken down to the 'Big Families' and 'Everybody Else', with the former making the decisions and the latter suffering the consequences?
Are the Tans, who largely created the whole system, a tier unto themselves- a sort of Uber Tier?
As I stated... you can break it down into an infinite number of tiers that does not address the issue that has been brought up. That is issue is the long term guest workers asking for citizenship.
Look at the question you are asking:
How come speaking out in support of local rights evokes such fiercely emotional backlash?
What local rights are you talking about? It is you and people that share your mindset that are creating a fierce emotional backlash towards guest workers and their advocates (comprised of all tiers that cactus mentioned) who are simply requesting US citizenship. Citizenship that the local government can not give under any circumstance. Citizenship that only the Federal Government can give. Citizenship that would be afforded them if they were anywhere else that the US Flag flies and that will be afforded future foreigners in their positions (having legally stayed in the CNMI for over 5 years) who live in the CNMI after the Federal Government takes over immigration in November.
So, Goose, how come speaking out in support of and requesting for US Citizenship to be granted to guest workers who have lived in the CNMI for more than 5 years evokes such fiercely emotional backlash from yourself, cactus, non-indigenous US Citizens in the CNMI and some other people (many of which were granted US citizenship in a very similar way --- mass citizenship via facsimile)?
Goose,
Local Rights do not include the right to determine who becomes a US Citizen.
The fierce resistance is coming from a minority of outspoken groups.
The fierce resistance is coming from you and a small group of others like you who believe that the indigenous people of these islands can decide who becomes a US Citizen. This is not the case and never has been (no broken deals here).
The fierce resistance is also coming from a small group of non-indigenous, US Citizens and Foreign Investors who are in the CNMI and are deathly afraid that they will lose access to their low paid foreign workers.
The fierce resistance is also coming from the few people that have just realized that the Covenant does not have a fail safe in place to keep a large group of non-indigenous, US Citizens from totally taking over all governmental elected positions and then determining the political and economical fate of these islands.
No matter how fierce the resistance from those few groups none of them can change the outcome to suit their needs unless they destroy the Covenant.
And, Goose, there are a slew of questions that you may have overlooked in earlier comments in this thread (scroll up). Any chance you could answer a few of them?
I, in turn, am open to answering any question you pose me.
I don't want to assume that you may be too fiercely emotional to answer those questions? I mean, they were only questions I had that were trying to get better clarity regarding the fierce emotional comments that you posted.
You guys are bunch of goddam crybabies!
WAH! WAH! WAH!
Tina won't solve our problems. Not Kilili, Juan Pan, Galvin, HP/HA, the Feds, the Chinese, Koreans, your uncle or auntie, or even a CNMI govt full of the most honest vestal virgins of the highest moral order.
Pick up yourselves up by your fuckin zori straps and be the citizens govt is supposed to serve. Educate yourself, speak for yourself, protect yourself from danger and -well- yourself from endangering others including yourself. Make your own mistakes even if it means learning truth the hard way.
Im sick and tired of you armchair emperors with your shit like ,"Gee you know what these islands need is..." and then start going around looking for votes, petition signatures, and support for something even the idea originator doesnt fully understand.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ok im done
To 6:03 PM Noni,
John is the brightest young leader in the CNMI and he can get our problems solved if you support him in 2010.
VOTE JG in 2010; Vote Fitial/Inos in 2009.
he's not bright, he's shiny. just remember his miserable performance at the delegate debate.
To 4 not johns:
You are just not bright enough to understand debate strategy. Too bad.
Anony- actually I was referring to local employment rights. Sorry, should have been clearer. Your response contains some valid points, but the citizenship issue is a whole different matter.
As to the motivation behind my comments- I've seen qualified local folks denied employment in favor of lesser skilled non-residents by non-resident managers and HR people. These include an electrician, a network engineer, highly experienced hotel manager, a cook, and a skilled and experienced heavy equipment mechanic. I also know locals (and a Caucasian American woman) employed in the hospitality industry here that have been severely discriminated against by non-resident co-workers, supervisors and management. Several lost their jobs and income, falling on very hard times.
It happens all the time, actually appears to be increasing with the continued economic decline. It's a very real problem, and its victims lack the support that the non-residents enjoy.
i understand shitty debate strategy, that's for sure. that's because i majored in johnanomics.
look, if it was such a great debate strategy, why didn't he win? of course he didn't win the election, but he didn't even win the debate.
sarah palin had the same strategy and she ended up looking like just as much of a tool as john did.
john actually had my support and vote before the debate but he totally lost myself and countless others at the fiesta resort that night.
i don't know if you're john or robert or ed manibusan, but you've got to be one of them because nobody else would argue that his was winning debate strategy.
whomever you are, i'll offer a bit of advice for next time: know your audience.
you lost them last time.
sorry g00$e, but there isn't one highly skilled local hotel manager on saipan.
don't tell me you're talking about mr. camacho...
No, she wasn't from a big name family. She's gone back to San Francisco.
Goose,
the only way to fix the problems that you have pointed out (problems you have to admit have come about due to our own local control of immigration and our own implementation of a special CNMI only guest worker program) would be to end the CNMI guest worker program. to stop our reliance and the availability we have to secure low cost foreign guest workers.
If you believe what you have stated in your last comment than why would you ever have stated this:
Foremost among those is her (tina's) failure to appreciate that her efforts on behalf of non-resident labor are to the detriment of local citizens, the folks who placed her in office.
tina and others that share her mindset are and have been calling for an immediate end to the CNMI guest worker program.
ending the program will address the major problems that you have just pointed out.
there will be side effects to abruptly halting the guest worker system. one is the fact that we do have individuals that have been in the CNMI for as many as 25 years working legally as guest workers. they honestly consider this place home. they did not invade the CNMI they were sought out and brought over by businessmen in the CNMI. they probably never intended to stay here in the CNMI for so long a period of time. but they were renewed year after year and although it was never a "deal" that they would be here for that long a period of time, it has been the case and our local government allowed it and our local businesses encouraged it.
some of these individuals feel that they have put in enough time in our islands to perhaps afford them the ability to stay permanently in our islands. some of them have lived int eh CNMI longer than they ever lived in the country they came from. after working here for over 5, 10, 20+ years one can say that they are local (you may not. i do). whatever the case they have every right (whether you agree with it or not) to ask to have a different status applied to them at a local level or request for US citizenship at a federal level.
i personally think they should gain a pathway to citizenship. you may think different. in the end it will be the federal governments decision... not because of federal takeover of immigration but because they are the only ones that could ever grant that type of request.
the truth of the matter is that the guest worker program in the CNMI needs to end. it is a faulty system that caused major problems. i look on workers that have been here for long periods of time as locals and i think they should be afforded the same "local employment rights". i think that in all honestly there should not be any difference in rights of any employees based on ethnicity. the guest worker program here in the CNMI created the various classes of employees and the varied rights. that needs to end.
if it ends and all foreign guest workers are forced to leave it will be a sad byproduct for those who have been here for many many years. but at the end of the day it still needs to occur.
tina has attempted (through drafting of local legislation) to create a cnmi permanent residency status for long term guest workers to address this at a local level after ending the guest worker program. that would take away the tilted table that enables the problems you stated from continuing to occur. granting of US citizenship to long term guest workers would also have the same effect.
if either of these paths are implemented than businesses would not have a "renewal" process anymore. businesses would not have access to new cheap foreign labor. all labor could move freely throughout the CNMI and all labor would be on a level field. the cheap foreign labor that businesses are currently dependent on rather than "local" or globally based US citizen labor would cease to exist.
the cheap foreign guest worker who has been manning the hotel management position for the last 20 years (renewal after renewal) and making $4.05 an hour would now have the ability to opt to apply at other hotels on island and perhaps across the globe in order to obtain a better paying position for the same type of work. if his current employer did not try to keep him on by offering a more competitive or realistic wage and benefit package they would probably lose that worker. the position would than have to be filled by anyone else that could legally work in the CNMI. the position could never be filled again by a low paid foreign guest worker (they would no longer exist).
the only person on the hill that has honestly fought openly for US citizen workers (regardless of ethnicity) in the CNMI is tina. she is openly calling for an ending of the CNMI guest worker program. her attempts to secure permanent status in the CNMI for long term guest works that had been out here for more than 5 or 10 years is strictly a humanitarian request. how someone can look on those two thing taken together and arrive at the idea that she is anti-local is beyond me.
if the guest worker program continues the workers that have been out here for 5 or 10 + years will still be out here and the problems you mentioned above will continue.
why there is so much animosity towards her and others helping long term guest workers secure citizenship surprises me. every reason under the sun is given but none of them are honest reasons based on factual logic. they are fierce emotional arguments primarily based on the ethnicity of those that are requesting to continue doing what our own local government has allowed them to do in the CNMI for the 30 years.
read the local labor law that was passed 2 years ago. is that pro-local (US citizen) labor? no it is not. tina marched against that. read the editorials coming out int he paper they attest to the fact that it is detrimental to local US employees.
federal takeover of immigration and a transition to end our guest worker program, is that anti-local labor? no.
ending the guest worker program at a local level and granting permanent resident status to long term guest workers in the CNMI, is that anti-local? no.
we need to look at the big picture and find a long term solution. band aid attempts to fix the CNMI guest worker program or trying to mold the guest worker program to be less anti-local labor will not work.
ENOUGH.
roach motel,
sorry g00$e, but there isn't one highly skilled local hotel manager on saipan.
it must have been a very hard task you achieved in interviewing all the individuals currently on saipan to come to that conclusion. have you ever thought of opening a manpower company or applying for head of HR?
dumbass.
also goose i would venture to guess that roach motel guy is not a non-resident worker. i am totally guessing though and i could be wrong. maybe a better way of combating the idea that all non-resident workers in HR and non-resident co-workers, supervisors and management. are discriminating against local US Citizen labor is to simply talk to members of the Chamber of Commerce. Talk to member of HANMI. I have and these business owners, managers and other executives are primarily US Citizens and they have all spoken as solid unified groups in opposition to ending the Guest Worker program in the CNMI. I have spoken to individual members that have stated directly and publicly that local workers are not qualified or as skilled and reliable as foreign guest workers. They have made similar discriminatory remarks that Roach Motel has made and even more pointed ones.
Let us not fool ourselves into believing that local workers not finding jobs locally is a fault of non-resident workers discriminating against them. It is a fault of highly discrimanatory hiring practices employed by owners of the businesses (Foreign owned and majority US Citizen owned). discriminatory hiring practices that our local government condones.
Part 1, Part 2 and Anony at 10:47-
The logic, focus and overall quality of your response is unassailable.
But please note that g00$e is not a real person. People have actually prayed for him (or claimed to anyway), and even threatened to kill him and his family (Jewish Kahane blog) but 'he' is only a cyber persona. Cynicism, sarcasm and a perfect willingness to gleefully butcher people's sacred cows are what he's all about.
But today I'm proud of him. He was instrumental in bringing forth your quality response and in doing so has actually made a meaningful contribution to the local social discourse.
So anyway... what do you think? Should Tina run or what?
there hasn't been a local hotel manager here on saipan and there likely never will be in the near future.
why? because the foreign owners want their staff in place to secure their investments.
the local people in the management system won't run the hotels until they take the trade seriously and get a degree in hotel management.
enter nmc...
but the local college doesn't offer a four-year degree in hotel management.
too bad, because it's not like there aren't people who could do the job.
the problem is that once they would leave saipan to get their hotel management degree they'd stay somewhere that would pay them better on the mainland.
so yes, i know that there isn't one qualified local on saipan with the right background to manage one of saipan's major hotels.
i challenge you to name one.
just one...
and no, i don't want to hear about someone who held down a local government job for 20 years and retired from it.
they need a degree in hotel management.
William hunter
major hotel, i said major hotel.
while william might do a fine job managing a staff of 15 front desk clerks and housekeepers at the aquarius beach tower, you can't seriously mean that he's ready to be the general manager for one of saipan's full service properties.
if you truly believe that william is ready to be the general manager for the hyatt, fiesta or pacific islands club then you're kidding yourself.
that's not to say that he couldn't do it one day but he is not highly qualified to so so today...which is what i was asking.
and i said local, by which i mean nmd.
I believe in you, William!
you believe in burgers and fries
Ray Cruz was making a pretty good go of it at the Palms before Mustafa was brought out of retirement.
To: 4 not johns
You and kalili are coming down in 2010.
FYI: Howard, Deanne and Lynn are doing more in DC than Kalili or his staff. Kalili is just riding on the backs of the Governor's volunteers. Do you really think that kalili loves the CNMI more than these three people who volunteer their time and effort because of their love for the CNMI?
Governor Fitial knows that if JG had been elected, as he will in 2010, he will not need for these people to sacrifice their time for the CNMI. Instead of hiring these effective people, kalili just hires children of his political supporters (yes, Juan Santiago, Beck Lizama, Liling Reyes). What can they do better than Lynn Knight? Nada.
As for the debate, what makes you think you are better at debates thank former Judge Ed, former AG Bob and John, a Truman Scholar?
Many people think that Kalili is mistaken for his stance on federalization. Governor Fitial is right that the CNMI needs a good economy and workers, not more citizens.
Vote Fitial/Inos in 2009. Vote JG in 2010.
Glen Hunter ideology . . . .
Citizenship that would be afforded them if they were anywhere else that the US Flag flies and that will be afforded future foreigners in their positions (having legally stayed in the CNMI for over 5 years) who live in the CNMI after the Federal Government takes over immigration in November.
This is another "big lie," that 5, 10, or 25 as a guest worker automatically entitles one to citizenship in the host country. This is not US law, and certainly not international law. Check OWWA statistics.
One of the reasons for federalization was precisely because the US did not control who came here. A large number are relatives and crony-employees of the employers, just another scam to get around the rules.
Giving retroactive citizenship would reward disrespect for the law, just like some other imports from the Philippines -- marches, "peaceful" protests, inflammatory letters and editorials, Ed Propstian/ Ron Hodgian calls for "revolution," federal employees surreptitiously advocating for "social change," legislators who lead protests instead of legislate, etc.
Look at what's happening in P.I. now, with Cha-Cha, Con-Ass, and all the rest. There is little respect for the law. Even Glen Hunter has this fundamental misunderstanding, as when he repeatedly argues that "Fitial is the law!"
That is exactly the Philippine-style understanding of the rule of law that we do not want. It is not about racism, or keeping the worker down. It is about changing the rules mid-stream, to the perpetual disadvantage of the indigenous inhabitants of the NMI.
The Rule of Law must be preserved!
No unilateral demographic change!
Because of its size and geographical position, the CNMI will have a long-term need for outside labor. It does not have a need for a culture-changing overwhelming number of immigrants. That is a big difference, caused by the fundamentals of economics, that the would-be status changers do not understand.
As anyone with children could attest, sometimes being "nice" to them is not in their, or society's, long-term best interests.
What the CNMI needs more than ever is typified by Heinz's 2005 slogan after a term of Juan Nekai's abysmal corruption:
Follow the rules!
This applies now more than ever, to status change and so much more.
"As for the debate, what makes you think you are better at debates thank former Judge Ed, former AG Bob and John, a Truman Scholar?"
because obviously they've never won a debate before.
it's pointless to defend their strategy because it didn't work. in fact, it sucked.
john would completely agree with me had he took the time to speak with people during the intermissions instead of hanging around his three string pullers at the front of the hibiscus hall.
maybe they had a good strategy, but john screwed it up on the big night.
i swear, i threw up in my mouth a little bit each time john answered the question with one of his own question.
john anderson could've said, "candidate, how do you feel about the color blue?" and john gonzalez would've followed with, "the question is, what color underwear does my mother put out for me on wednesdays?"
john gonzalez can be well spoken but it doesn't work if his foot is lodged in his mouth.
do i like him? yes. do i think he will do his best if elected? yes. do i believe he can do the job? i don't know anymore.
john was serving as someone else's mouthpiece and his strategy bombed worse than babauta's "pretty darn good" statement.
you've got some work, big guy. ed manibusan is great too, but he's better suited to "fore" on the golf course than "four" as in term years for john.
a little advice john, be yourself and you might just win an election next time around.
be who you are, not who you are not.
the people like you (well, not the people you hammered about their homesteads), so tell them what you want to do.
and please, please, please don't say the same damn things (verbatim for cryin out loud!!!) that you spewed on the campaign trail.
yes, your platform should stay the same but buy a freakin thesaurus and shake up your vocabulary.
and why did you shake the mwarmwar? that is part of who you are. people identify you with that traditional headpiece.
at least they do in public.
for chrissakes, you said that you'd wear that everyday on capital hill but you can't even wear it at the debate?
whose advice was that?
admit it, you were wrong. that's what babauta is going to have to do if he's going to win the primary and you're going to have to do so (at least to yourself) if you're going to win any election.
To Filipinization of Saipan (aka G. Baka),
If that is Glen Hunter's Ideology and you are combating his mindset with your lame arguments then damn, I think we should nominate Glen Hunter as AG.
I honestly don't even know where to begin. Let me start with saying that I am glad you reached your vacation destination safely and that you were able to secure internet access and access to dictionary.com and thesaurus.com and the OWWA website.
Too bad you did not surf over to the USCIS.gov website. You may have been a bit enlightened. But perhaps not. We know how you like to interpret the law. You ignore the parts that you don't like and accentuate those that suit your need. I think the saying is, "Even the devil can quote the bible to suit his needs."
Just so you are clear, I personally believe (as I have stated in the comments prior) that long term guest workers (5+ years legally working and residing in the CNMI) should be granted a pathway to US citizenship.
As for the reasons for the federal government finally taking over immigration, I believe that there is no one single reason and this was not something that was decided on a whim. Legislation floated about the halls of US Congress for many years before it finally (and thankfully) passed in 2008.
----
Not that it matters all that much, but I may as well kick while I am here. Sure they have marches and protests in the Philippines, but can I clue you in on another place that has had a bit of a history of marches and demonstrations, and was even founded after a Revolution? It is a place called America. God bless it.
As for federal employees advocating for social change -- I did not know advocating for social change was against the law. (However, if you were knowledgeable about a law-breaking federal employee, I hope you followed the rule of law and contacted the proper authorities.) Perhaps you once again simply turned a blind eye to certain words and phrases in the law in order to conclude that it was illegal. Surf over to the website for C.O.F.E. (Coalition of Federal Employees). This is a group of federal employees nationwide whose motto is "Social Action for Public Accountability." Maybe you should report them and have them shut down.
Now on to legislators who protest --- it is fairly commonplace in the United States for legislators to get involved in social movements. Heck, many times that is what got them elected. But isn’t your statement a case of the pot calling the kettle black? I would much rather have our elected officials protesting certain things than have our Acting AG wasting enormous amounts of time blogging and vacationing and then turning around and crying that he has no time to do the job that he is being paid taxpayer money to do.
And just so you are clear on this matter -- I believe the statement that was made on numerous occasions was that Fitial claimed to be “the Rule." That was taken from an actual statement made by Fitial while he was Speaker of the House (“I am the Rule”), which is on record if you care to dig it up. You like to state that the Rule of Law must be followed. You also like to say that the Rule of Law must be preserved. I have said before and I will say it again that I don't doubt your sincerity in these statements. I do want to point out though as I did before, what you are following and preserving is Fitial, who claims (as you believe him to be) to be “the Rule.”
-- continued --
You bring up the Philippine-style understanding of rule of law – I do not know enough to comment on this stereotypical characterization. I think I understand what you are trying to say. You believe that in the United States laws should be followed and rules should be adhered to. I agree. And in the CNMI, no one as far as I have seen has broken any laws in protesting, writing, speaking out, and petitioning the federal government. The foreign workers and other advocates who are engaging in petitioning US Congress to grant long term workers a pathway to citizenship are all law abiding people. Just because you don’t like what they say does not make what they are doing illegal. Of course, if you were in perhaps another country that was ruled by an oppressive dictator, you would fit in well and you could easily work with that dictator to incarcerate or kill those who are practicing the freedom of speech that we here in the United States hold so near and dear to our hearts.
You point out that a legislator’s duty is to legislate. Do you agree then that laws can be changed? Isn’t changing the law when necessary one of a legislator’s many duties? You have told people, including legislators, that if they do not agree with the laws on the books they should “do their jobs” and change them. But now you are claiming that the rule of law should be preserved and you should not change rules mid-stream. I wonder if that argument was given when people were pushing for the abolishment of slavery, or the granting of women’s right to vote, or the granting of U.S. citizenship to the Trust Territory citizens living in the Northern Marianas? All of these changes to the rules happened midstream as a direct outcome of petitions from the citizenry, lawmakers, and foreigners.
You state that you don't want a "demographic change" and that the CNMI "does not have a need for culture-changing overwhelming number of immigrants". Where are you living? If this is your thinking then you are surely just a bit late. While you were asleep over the past 20 years, the CNMI experienced the largest population increase in the history of the world (1986 - 1999). That increase, Mr. B, was a direct outcome of our inviting tens of thousands of foreign guest workers to our shores under a locally created CNMI guest worker program. Whether they are called "outside labor" as you put it or "immigrants" is a mere classification of terms. But do not be mistaken or turn a blind eye as you often do to the fact that these foreign guest workers have definitely already had a major cultural-changing impact on the CNMI with or without a green card in their pocket or a US passport.
You then go on to speak of being nice to children and how that might not be the best thing for society. I disagree. I think you should always be nice to children. Of course I could go so far as to interpret your statement to mean that it is okay to be cruel and abuse your children as long as you believe it’s a good thing for society. Baka, spare the metaphors and please spare your children the rods.
While on vacation…
GET YE TO CHURCH!
Want a real understanding of the "Phillipine style understanding of the rule of law"?
Spend a couple weeks in the PI.
Whatever happended to that Filipina HR manager who was caught charging Filipinos big bucks to get/keep jobs at PIC?
I don't want a real understanding of the Philipine-sytle rule of law and I have no intention of spending a couple weeks there. Interesting thought though. Maybe you should work for MVA and use that as a slogan to get tourist to our islands.
The CNMI -- Want a real understanding of twisting of law and corruption on US Soil? Come spend a few weeks in our islands!
*****
Whatever happened to all of the thousands (Yes. Thousands) of US citizens employers as well as Foreign Investors who have wronged many foreign guest workers? Head over to DOL they should have records of the many resolved cases, settlements, ongoing court cases, unpaid settlements, etc.
this is the message from anonymous that used the bishop's name in vain...
"f%^& church. your argument is weak, and i hope that people of foreign countries never gain a pathway to citizenship as you have laid out."
why? you can find all that right here in california. they were taught, after all, by americans weren't' they?
the marianas varietization of smr.
hey- you reposted it. i retract my last comment.
The Truth,
You are very good at putting words into other peoples' mouths and then shooting them down.
How many people other than myself were hoping to see another comment here?
Are you still up and running SMR?
I'm looking for some new local stuff to read and you're the cure for what ails me.
You going to write something new anytime soon?
I've taken your lead of sorts by changing my new blog to reflect the news of the day...kind of.
Have you checked out the new page yet? The link is in my profile. I'd put it here but I don't want to SPAM you for the sake of a link.
nicely done yapper from yap....;-)
William Hunter would make an excellent manager of any of these hotels. He manages to keep his one of the busiest on island without a continuous flow of group tour hookups. No restaurants, no pool, just great attentive service. I love his hotel and stay there all the time.
"No restaurants, no pool, just great attentive service."
exactly my point.
so you think he knows how to handle issues in all of these departments?
hotel general managers have to spend time running each department before getting moved up to the gm slot.
as i said be for, it's not that he doesn't have the potential to run a major hotel with the proper training and experience, but he's not there right now.
that's fair.
the hyatt regency would never place the manager of a rinky dink hotel like the aquarius beach tower in charge of one of its properties without having gone through its indoctrination program.
think about what you're saying here.
william hunter manages a staff of less than 20 employees and there are over 10x that at some of the larger properties.
he's not ready to run any of the island's full-service hotels at this time.
as for the aquarius, i agree that the people there do the best they can to keep people happy.
the problem is that it's also rat nasty because it routinely gets torn up during weekend parties from saipan's residents.
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