'Power to the people' rally

Rep. Tina Sablan talks to the hundreds of people gathered for a peaceful rally to call on the US government to step into the power crisis on Saipan.







Young, old, brown, black, white, yellow join Wednesday night's peaceful rally calling for "reliable and affordable" power for all.












Using a candlelight, Rep. Tina Sablan, one of the leaders of the peaceful rally, reads a prayer for those affected by power outages while the crowd gathers near the stage holding candles and cellphones.

















Need they say more?












Businessman Robert Russell, left, shares his experiences about power outages while protest leader Ed Propst listens.

Quick Note: 5x Off

I don't know if you notice at all, but in our area the power goes off at least five times a day. Wonder if that would reduce our next CUC bill....

Savoring the final day

As expected, there was a long line of people at the Hollywood Theaters Thursday night in what could be the last day of operation of Saipan's only movie house.

It may reopen in a month but the hundreds of people who were there last night did not want to take chances. Nothing beats the feeling of watching a movie in a giant screen, along with many other strangers. Then there's pop corn and nachos. We will surely miss that experience.

If only the same number of people last night show up everyday at the seven-theater movie house, and if only power rates are not that expensive, then we won't have a problem losing Hollywood Theatres which opened on Sept. 8, 1999.

What a sad day, indeed, for Saipan.

If the power outage initially planned for Friday happens, Hollywood Theaters could have been a luxurious refuge the whole day.

Earth Hour, Saipan style!

Lights were turned off or dimmed from New Zealand to China, Rome, Hungary and San Francisco on Saturday night for Earth Hour, a worldwide campaign to highlight the need for energy conservation and the threat of global warming. It started from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. in many cities around the world.

Not to be outdone, Saipan did more than what the organizers of Earth Hour had asked for, to help save the environment.

The difference is that on Saipan, it was forced on residents by the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. (CUC) because of several hours of power outages during the weekend!

Poll: Power to the people

It is sad to hear stories about how the island community is now coping with the high cost of utilities here in the CNMI. Which brings us to our next poll about being happy that the recent turn of events about the legislature overriding a veto of the Governor regarding CUC bill reduction.

We had this nice chitchat with someone who shared with us that there are now families somewhere here on the island that have been disconnected and have not had power for so many months now. The story even told us that these families have to share connections with their neighbors. Some families are now into candles.

It is sad to learn about these realities that extremely bite hard.

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Btw, our last poll got 58 percent of the votes saying that the government should not allow CNMI resident to pay their utility bills within a year, while 23 percent of the voters said yes.

Now, on to our next poll, related to CUC again.

<---- Cast your votes now!

Power Rangers Power Off!

A Taiwanese utilities corporation is now on the island providing a "free" assessment of the power plants around the CNMI. The ever huggable Saipan Mayor brought the group from Guam after being referred to by Taiwan's North American Affairs minister in July.

The Mayor hosted a dinner for the group together with the Acting Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez. The highlight of the meeting was that the power company initially concluding that the main cause of power problem here in the CNMI is maintenance of the power plant.

As the dinner went on, the power in that area suddenly went off. "Mayor, meeting this group is very timely huh?" quipped the acting governor.

Was the blackout part of the setup, to make the meeting more credible, thus provide more drama?

The Reveler