I haven't jumped in with this Marine Monument imbroglio, or most anything else of late including my column, for a lot of reasons. Number one is the fact that I'm intellectually tired of pointing out the raging idiocy that simply can be expected here. Lately I have watched KSPN's broadcasts of "Old News" that comes on in the late evening, and it is astonishing how all the same identical issues: minimum wage, federalization, luring investors or CUC's latest show of incompetence have been around for twenty years now. KSPN could save money and just put that on at 6:00 p.m. A lot of the same people appear -- Heinz, Fitial, Pete A -- only the video is granier and those people are a bit lighter and have more hair.
Number two is that I'm otherwise focused on my new baby and other personal tasks I have at hand. Three is that I've almost completely lost hope that this place can be turned around, and I think a lot worse is yet to come. An honest appraisal of this situation is just too depressing, and I don't want to be that guy -- at least repeatedly. Prices have gone up, and they are going higher. The one good thing about the garment factories is the shipping containers that would come here for export. Those will be gone and the shipping to our remote rock in the ocean will be even more expensive and less common and that brings the supply of goods down, which will make things even more expensive. I think we are a long, long way from the economic bottom. Oil is on an inexorable march upward, with many experts seeing it headed toward $200 per barrel. This place simply isn't set up to manage that situation. I think $7.00 a gallon gas and .70 cent a KWH power turns this place into Beirut circa 1983, and there is no reason to think those prices won't head there. If there was real risk management going on, we would have prepared for the inevitable spike in oil, but we didn't even find it wise to maintain the power plant, but we did keep the municipal councils, we do string along those same workers and "save" their jobs every couple of months instead of just paying them a severance to go get retrained for a useful job. Beyond that, we still hire PIOs, we still have the various affairs offices, we still hire useless lobbyists and we still have almost two years left of Governor Fitial, who is ascending the ladder to Bushian levels of incompetence. While this island suffers from expensive and unstable power, he still has his eyes on this revolting and decided minimum wage and federalization issue. I bet the ranch he uses his reprogramming authority to enrich some connected law firm with whatever corporate welfare he can get away with distributing from the CNMI's meager coffers to take on the U.S. Congress -- with our sordid reputation on labor and wages. He gives every indication of grasping at straws in his public comments. His stand on this PEW monument is but the latest revolting decision he has made. I read his letter to President Numbnuts, and it is an exercise in shoddy reasoning and petulance.
But, the biggest reason I've stayed out of this is that a number of people have done a good job expressing my feelings for me. Ruth Tighe has said a lot of sensible things. Ken Kramer wrote about it in a style similar to how I would -- only he brings much more environmental knowledge to the table than me. Mike Tripp wrote a decent piece on this controversy. Mike tried to be nice and diplomatic, but this situation doesn't call for niceness and diplomacy -- especially at this stage. It calls for someone to point out the corrupt nature and the shoddy reasoning of the governor, the legislature, John Gourley, as well as the rest of WESPAC and their minions. Fortunately, Jane Mack did that brilliantly in her Variety letter.
These are my three favorite graphs from Jane's letter:
Why do we turn a blind eye to the past damage and continuing harm these fishing
interests and WESPAC are doing? Because there are liars and cheats among us,
people willing to twist the facts and prey on fears and prejudices to get what
they want, to keep their pockets full while emptying us of our world’s natural
resources. Twist the facts to pretend we’ll lose control that we don’t have.
Prey on fears about the federal government, when WESPAC, which is now in
control, itself is a federal agency.
It is the governor who is shutting down the process, not letting us be heard! Where is the due process and public involvement in the governor’s way of handling this?
There is NONE.
The decision is too important to be left to Charles Reyes Jr. or Governor Fitial, or our Legislature who have not listened. It is ironic that John Gourley complains that Pew Charitable Trust hasn’t listened to him — he is one voice, speaking with and from the experience of an advisory council member for WESPAC. If you want to be heard, then let the process continue so that we can all have a voice on the matter. Please make the stupidity stop. Make corruption stop. Make the devastation of our natural world stop!
Mike Tripp, who later went on to praise Angelo, said this in his post: "A number of people don’t like the locally hired Pew coordinator or lobbyist if you prefer. No doubt Angelo O'Connor Villagomez can be cocky and arrogant. His sense of humor often easily missed, especially by strangers."
The Marianas Variety said this: "We have come to conclusion that the local community support required by this undertaking is simply not there.This is not a question of whether the monument proposal is good or bad for the NMI — but of whether the local community can stomach what some perceive as yet another unilateral attempt by an “outsider” to “take away” yet another portion of local cultural identity... At this point, its proponents must take one on the chin, and acknowledge that they have to do a better job of reaching out to the local community and its elected leaders."
Angelo never had a fighting chance with this thing. The timing was off with the federalization takeover about to be finalized. Global issues have grown far more complex and people's willingness, and ability, to comprehend them has gone down, and this is without expounding upon the media's willingness to cover these issues in a world with Britney Spears and professional sports. This is the recipe that led to the disastrous regime of Bush. People focused on "values" and "guns," and not competence and corporate plunder.
This monument fiasco is just the latest example of how easily people can be manipulated. WESPAC spun the elected powers that be, who are largely too ignorant to fully comprehend this issue, have never really represented the people and can't think much beyond the next election anyway. This issue was ripe to be easily demagogued. There has been years of propaganda about the evil feds. "Anger over foreigners telling them what to do" is an act of cutting off your nose to spite your face. There would be $20 million in federal gravy coming in here, not to mention the help to our very sullied reputation. That good publicity is now all but foregone, and it would have boosted the engine of this economy: tourism. But people here want to oppose this because they're angry over federalization. Boy did they show them.
