Tuesday, November 27, 2007

All the road signs were named this week

Apparently there wasn't a street to name this week, as our august legislative body is busy writing resolutions to condemn a high school teacher's letter to the editor and urge him into symbolic exile. This is still the states, right? We don't have anarchy here, we just have a lousy government. It's not just locals who recognize that. Where were the resolutions against Danny Aquino for his white people/Filipino bashing letters to the editor? I will consider any lawmaker who panders to this crap and votes for a meaningless resolution to be on my lame list.

There is precedent for this type of thing. Here was Rep. Candido Taman a few weeks ago in a kiss ass letter to Greg Cruz of Tao Tao Tano fame.
"With all due respect, please do not be obsessed with the word TRANSPARENCY
because we have nothing to hide here. Incidentally, the more you use this word
the more you contribute to the glory of those disrespectful outsiders who are
very critical of our islands, our people and our government. Mr. Cruz, I
humbly invite you to please work with us and not against us. Come sit and share
with us your ideas so that together we can start healing this painful episode in
our history."

REPRESENTATIVE Stanley T. Torres and eight other members of the House of
Representatives have pre-filed a resolution condemning a Public School Teacher for “accusing” local residents of “enslaving contract workers.” The House resolution stated that “this…type of comments should not be tolerated.” It added that Hodges
“should be held accountable in the strongest terms…(and he should) not avail
himself of island living anymore….” Although Hodges has a right to freedom of
speech, the resolution stated that his comments aim to “foment anarchy” in the
CNMI, and these comments “infringe upon the civil rights of other innocent
residents in the island community.” In the past, the Legislature has adopted
similar resolutions declaring various statesiders who were critical of CNMI
policies “persona non grata.”

13 comments:

saipanboonieman said...

two words:

stew pit!!!!

SteeleOnSaipan said...

Wow, I missed the Taman letter.

Now if honesty were a factor here, his statement would have read more like "...the more you contribute to the glory of those disrespectful outsiders who see through all of our deception, pandering and our manipulation of you, our people."

glend558 said...

Jeff, A good start on the MV 13 story this week. Go for it!

Angelo Villagomez said...

Call me crazy, but Taman has a point.

There comes a point when you have to stop yelling and bitching and get down to work to sort out the problems.

There are people on this island that accuse me of propaganda because of my blog and the We Love Saipan Network. One islander told me that I shouldn't promote We Love Saipan because it glosses over our islands' problems.

Are you kidding me?

I shouldn't say how great the beaches are and how much I like playing soccer because some people who I don't even know get screwed at work?

There are people other that think this entire island should concern themselves with nothing but the so-called plight of the contract worker.

One mainland liberal wrote on Dailykos that I was heartless after I told her that most people on this island don't even see the labor abuses.

She took what I told her out of context and used one word from our two hour conversation to paint all the people on this island as heartless criminals.

Jeff said...

You're crazy. That's not Taman's message. Of course you should point out good things about these islands and they certainly exist.

What he's saying is shut up, fall in line, be obedient, don't ask tough questions, and you'll be paid off with one of the make work jobs that have us in this bind in the first place. Not to mention the don't be like the haole "transfer message" to it that he's appealing to in Cruz.

If he made the point you made about the islands, I'd agree.

Anonymous said...

How does one apply for Persona Non Grata status? Will Federalization affect that? I'm officially jealous of Ron Hodges for achieving a status that I haven't yet.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Saipan blogger. I think it's time to move on and get to the spirit of Christmas.

Your support of transparency amongst individuals is a two way street between individuals who encourage domestic terrorism and vandalism and those who put our legislators in check like Mr. Cruz.

I want to thank Mr. Hodges for his letter to the editor though because These "Vandals" just tagged our neighborhood block.

Jeff said...

Somehow I find it unlikely that street vandals take their cues from Variety letters.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Ron promoted it in his classes the day he lost it? Where you there?

Jeff said...

Maybe space monsters really did kill OJ's wife and her friend, and OJ is really innocent. Were you there?

bigsoxfan said...

So, PNG on Saipan for US citizens is symbolic and not legal? I'm assuming so, but just wondering as I would like to return for a visit and while I'm on island, collect my beer for the caption contest, but I also love a good blog war, free beer at Porkies, and especially a discounted (free) airline fare.

Bruce A. Bateman said...

Might I humbly submit that we combine the two elements of your post and ask the Legislature to name a street after Ron H.? I'm thinking the little short stretch that runs steeply up the hill and off suicide cliff would be appropriate from the Legislature's viewpoint.

Anonymous said...

Taman does have a point but he is a signer of HR-219.

My web site, like most Saipan blogs, pictures the beautiful side of our two faces. Realty sales are bad enough, what if I replaced my diving and golf photo pages with 8 Chinese chicks sewing in a tin can.

Dr. K's article was great, maybe he could switch jobs with Fitial...or better yet, Doc, Gov., and I could do a three job exchange...that would be Dr. running the island, the Gov. teaching our students and pulling fast realty deals on unsuspecting tourists...knife anyone?

TGIF! I may rally around my own "call to arms" and take the battle to Porky's for 1, WBill's for a 2nd, Len's 5 for a 3rd, and cap it off at GF!