By Jeffrey C. Turbitt
A few years back when the idea for the austerity holiday came about, I was more aghast than usual by the latest government scheme. I did not know many of our elected leaders personally at that time, but I got the sense though her media statements that there was something different about then newly elected Congresswoman Cinta Kaipat, so I sent her an impassioned email about my concerns on the proposal. We ultimately did not agree, as she voted for the bill, but a friendship was forged. During her two year term, I sent her at least three or four more of those emails. Sometimes she agreed with me and brought my viewpoint out into the debate, sometimes she didn't, but she always tried to at least consider my and other people’s viewpoints. She just plain stood out to me as being more honest, more forthright and just plain caring more about doing the right thing than most of our elected leaders.
A few weeks back I was talking with some people who follow local politics closely, and they were skeptical of her chances for re-election. They turned out to be right. She didn’t campaign as well as she could have, and apparently she has been a thorn in the side of enough people eager to mine pozzolan on Pagan that it hurt her in this last election. But given the choice between backing a well financed, corporate interest, and the interest of the voiceless little guys from a poor, remote island, she chose the more difficult, less career enriching path of the little guy. That's what makes her different to me.
She also has taken a bit of a hit with the recently enacted labor bill that has become law and has her name on it. Business leaders have vehemently opposed it. Contract workers are opposed to it, and everyone else seems indifferent to it at best. One thing I do know about it is that Kaipat worked in the Department of Labor long enough to have some insight into those issues. The media reports I've read on the bill make me skeptical on it as well. My point is not to say that Kaipat was right about everything, or that everyone should agree with everything she did, but that she is great for this community, and it is sad and unfortunate that she is not returning to office.
With negative headlines and an absolutely depressed mindset island wide, she helped put this island on the right path by being one of the founders of Beautify CNMI, a group that has galvanized the community by cleaning up beaches, raising environmental awareness, our real bread and butter, and getting people to learn to take charge of our island without government assistance, which is a mindset that needed to be established. Those efforts were an influence on the creation of the We Love Saipan network, a CNMI website that offers a much more balanced view of these islands than was previously available online. Said website creator Walt F.J. Goodridge, “The We Love Saipan idea was firmly in the spirit and mood of activism that was kicked off by Beautify CNMI.”
Some of that influence could also be seen this weekend when the Marianas Dive group, a private organization trying to promote and improve the CNMI's underwater world as a tourist draw, had at least thirty members cleaning up Sugar Dock above and below water. Kaipat didn't do all these things of course, but she helped set the mood and change the mindset.
Those efforts weren't lost on PAWS President Katie Busenkell, who expressed heartfelt appreciation for Kaipat's role in animal welfare. "PAWS would like to thank her for lending a sympathetic ear and taking action to improve the quality of life for humans and animals alike. More specifically, we thank her for educating herself about animal-related problems and solutions, introducing the PAWS anti-cruelty bill and lobbying for its passage, for talking with us openly and honestly about building a shelter and available funding, and for helping us find a way to help others be more responsible pet owners. Perhaps most importantly, we thank her for acting in the best interest of the people of Saipan . She is a pillar in this community."
MINA Executive Director Angelo Villagomez was there with Kaipat from the beginning as one of the key figures in Beautify CNMI, and he had this reaction: "Cinta Kaipat IS Beautify CNMI. It was her vision, her idea, her name, and she's the one who recruited the first active members (everybody in the CNMI is a member, even if they don't know it yet). She's involved in every aspect of Beautify CNMI, from planning, to execution, and everywhere in between. She goes out every weekend and she participates. She picks up trash and she digs holes for trees. She's been a tremendous asset to the CNMI over the last two years. We've earned national recognition with the EPA and USDA under her leadership. I'm disappointed that she didn't win, but I'm sure it is just a bump in the road for her. She's still Cinta Kaipat. She was very successful when she was with labor, she was very successful in the legislature, and I'm sure she'll be successful with her next endeavor whatever it is. She'll continue to fight for the little guy, she'll continue to work with Beautify CNMI, and she'll continue to give back to the community in other ways."
Jeffrey C. Turbitt is the language arts department chairman at Saipan Southern High School, as well as an avid scuba diver and traveler. He offers more thoughts in his blog “Hypercritical Thoughts” at: www.turbittj.blogspot.com/ He welcomes feedback, tips and story ideas at turbittj@yahoo.com. His column appears regularly on Wednesdays.
Showing posts with label PAWS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PAWS. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
There are lots of things to complain about here, so I found it pretty vomitious to see James Yangetmai not only complaining about a group like PAWS that rescues starving, abused, suffering pets and tries to find them basic care and a home, but completely distorting the facts. Yangetmai is upset because according to him his niece didn't get her $200 reward in a timely fashion in a place where the government takes months, if not years, if ever, to pay its bills.
I found this whole account unlikely, so I emailed PAWS President Katie Busenkell, and here is what she said: "Mr. Yangetmai's niece never contacted PAWS - about anything - finding the dog, trying to find the owner, or complaining about the reward. PAWS just publishes descriptions and pictures of lost dogs, and a reward if people want to offer one. That's it. We don't get involved in the reward thing - just putting people in contact."
From Yangetmai's letter:
Oh, the humanity. James, here is my email turbittj@yahoo.com, I suspect four days of feeding someone's lost dog was $20 at the most. I'll reimburse your niece for the trauma of reuniting a family with their pet. Send me her mailing address and I'll send a check. Please remember in the future to teach all your young nieces that if they help some little old lady cross the street, don't forget to ask grandma for money for shoe leather reimbursement. What kind of community are we living in where basic human compassion and concern requires a cash reward?
To the people at PAWS, please keep rescuing animals in your free time and raising awareness to needless suffering, please ignore that awful letter and please remember that no good deed goes unpunished.
Update
Here is what the dog owner who didn't pay the reward had to say.
Update Two
Here is another letter from James Yangetmai. I don't even care about the theft or no theft aspect of this fiasco. I care about the money grubbing, unneighborly, tarnishing PAWS erroneously nature of it. This comment was particularly awful: "Like many people on Saipan my niece had never heard of or even cared about PAWS until the morning she saw the KSPN 2 news rebroadcast." James' two letters are the most revolting things I've seen in the newspaper since the Filipinos go home protest. Are you aware we're surrounded by ocean James? How could you possibly not be aware of PAWS, the tv, radio, newspaper, blog and word of mouth didn't get to you?
I found this whole account unlikely, so I emailed PAWS President Katie Busenkell, and here is what she said: "Mr. Yangetmai's niece never contacted PAWS - about anything - finding the dog, trying to find the owner, or complaining about the reward. PAWS just publishes descriptions and pictures of lost dogs, and a reward if people want to offer one. That's it. We don't get involved in the reward thing - just putting people in contact."
From Yangetmai's letter:
"The Good Samaritan lady who found and provided shelter and cared for Jake for
at least four days is my niece. I was appalled to find out from her yesterday
that the promised reward has not been given, and her repeated calls to PAWS and
the Public Defender’s Office has gone unanswered. I find it disturbing to learn
that PAWS and the pet owners are deceptive in their quest to find their missing
pets, and I hope that this practice of promising what they never intend to give
comes to a halt. And now I wonder how long this deception has been, and how many
of our people have been lied to. "
Oh, the humanity. James, here is my email turbittj@yahoo.com, I suspect four days of feeding someone's lost dog was $20 at the most. I'll reimburse your niece for the trauma of reuniting a family with their pet. Send me her mailing address and I'll send a check. Please remember in the future to teach all your young nieces that if they help some little old lady cross the street, don't forget to ask grandma for money for shoe leather reimbursement. What kind of community are we living in where basic human compassion and concern requires a cash reward?
To the people at PAWS, please keep rescuing animals in your free time and raising awareness to needless suffering, please ignore that awful letter and please remember that no good deed goes unpunished.
Update
Here is what the dog owner who didn't pay the reward had to say.
Update Two
Here is another letter from James Yangetmai. I don't even care about the theft or no theft aspect of this fiasco. I care about the money grubbing, unneighborly, tarnishing PAWS erroneously nature of it. This comment was particularly awful: "Like many people on Saipan my niece had never heard of or even cared about PAWS until the morning she saw the KSPN 2 news rebroadcast." James' two letters are the most revolting things I've seen in the newspaper since the Filipinos go home protest. Are you aware we're surrounded by ocean James? How could you possibly not be aware of PAWS, the tv, radio, newspaper, blog and word of mouth didn't get to you?
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Where's the outrage, MV 2
My second installation of Bold is Beautiful is out.
A story appeared in this paper last week putting the pay of 1,080 PSS employees up in the air, and no one much flinched. Another appeared about a woman who was basically used as a slave locked in her barracks lacking the freedom to even go to her church -- maybe a shrug was offered. Another story appeared about a rotting canine corpse on the road heading toward our most scenic area in Marpi -- a mere ripple at best. These things may seem unrelated, but what they tell me is that we have lost our outrage, and when horrible things happen, we half expect them and aren't surprised anymore, and that's not a good way to live. There are two approaches to these events, to surrender or to fight.
I can't say I was shocked at the casual approach the vast majority of my peers took to the statement from the chief financial officer of PSS that the money was not there to pay teachers. Most teachers have long been a bunch of comatose lumps in terms of standing up for themselves --even while being threatened with a crime called theft of services, which most every teacher I talked to blew off and dismissed as a ploy. It probably was a ploy, but it is bad for morale and we have come to the point where the government can basically threaten a crime on its citizens and it doesn't matter -- it's barely news. By the end of the week there still were no assurances that teachers would not be cheated, and the Saipan Tribune didn't even think this event newsworthy. I did eventually get an email from ACT President Betty Miller quoting Commissioner David Borja saying PSS found a way to make payroll, but a $36.7 million budget is needed to avert a crisis during the school year. I presume the details on that are forthcoming from the commissioner.
Secondly, this government talks about our problems about human trafficking being in the past, but then we read another story about a woman being locked in her barracks and forced into prostitution. I don't think the Stardust allegations, soon to go to trial, were very different. This event doesn't mean Saipan is an evil place any more than the U.S. mainland is an evil place because of all the horrible violent incidents there from Virginia Tech to Abu Gharib, but it does say there is a problem. This event shouldn't be used as an excuse for federalization -- there are better reasons than this alleged act. Federalization should happen because it is immoral to exploit the third world on American territory to create an inflated labor supply that leaves an unsustainable, bloated, inefficient government as the sole provider of living wages. Those indigenous citizens not in the bureaucracy are left in the cold as few private sector jobs pay a living wage and too many politicians wield power over a vile patronage system run amok.
Jane Mack, an attorney for Micronesian Legal Services, a non-profit law office that represents the poor in civil litigation, is part of a group playing a role in trying to fix this trafficking problem. She noted that the first step in fixing this problem is acknowledging the problem exists given all the emotion about the federalization debate. "It's not just old news. The women from Karidat who testified in Washington D.C. weren't making up numbers. And the girls and women who are trafficked into the CNMI are, in fact, victims. It is important that politics not get in the way of referrals of victims to Karidat. We shouldn't sweep any current situations under the rug to hide them in the hopes that we'll somehow look better while we argue about federalization."
There was also a letter from PAWS President Katie Busenkell about seeing a charred dog on the road up to Marpi, followed by another suffering dog with a chain collar imbedded in its neck ridden with flies. No tourist is going to enjoy the canine Sunni Triangle for vacation, and what can be a bigger turn off than a charred animal corpse? Busenkell said she sees the same tolerance for the awful, but doesn't think it is an acceptable reaction. "I think people are numbed, but rather than do something, they revert to a convenient blindness. PAWS wanted to do a slogan that says open your eyes, open your heart, save a life. Don't just pass by and do nothing. See that suffering and do something about it. When you take action, you have a positive impact on the community. Stop just driving by."
PAWS is doing something by rescuing as many of these dogs as it can and raising awareness by educating the public. Beautify CNMI is also doing something. Just this weekend a group of volunteers fought back against hoodlums who disrespected the lighthouse and began painting what was a vile, graffiti laden monument. All of these groups are private organizations, yet all get a tremendous amount done without a huge government apparatus. Perhaps there is a lesson there. We should keep up the fight and keep our outrage.
Editor's note: This time I butchered a few transitions. This column thing is harder than I thought it would be, as I'm not making the sweet music I expect of myself just yet. This one is liberal enough to piss off a few people I suppose.
A story appeared in this paper last week putting the pay of 1,080 PSS employees up in the air, and no one much flinched. Another appeared about a woman who was basically used as a slave locked in her barracks lacking the freedom to even go to her church -- maybe a shrug was offered. Another story appeared about a rotting canine corpse on the road heading toward our most scenic area in Marpi -- a mere ripple at best. These things may seem unrelated, but what they tell me is that we have lost our outrage, and when horrible things happen, we half expect them and aren't surprised anymore, and that's not a good way to live. There are two approaches to these events, to surrender or to fight.
I can't say I was shocked at the casual approach the vast majority of my peers took to the statement from the chief financial officer of PSS that the money was not there to pay teachers. Most teachers have long been a bunch of comatose lumps in terms of standing up for themselves --even while being threatened with a crime called theft of services, which most every teacher I talked to blew off and dismissed as a ploy. It probably was a ploy, but it is bad for morale and we have come to the point where the government can basically threaten a crime on its citizens and it doesn't matter -- it's barely news. By the end of the week there still were no assurances that teachers would not be cheated, and the Saipan Tribune didn't even think this event newsworthy. I did eventually get an email from ACT President Betty Miller quoting Commissioner David Borja saying PSS found a way to make payroll, but a $36.7 million budget is needed to avert a crisis during the school year. I presume the details on that are forthcoming from the commissioner.
Secondly, this government talks about our problems about human trafficking being in the past, but then we read another story about a woman being locked in her barracks and forced into prostitution. I don't think the Stardust allegations, soon to go to trial, were very different. This event doesn't mean Saipan is an evil place any more than the U.S. mainland is an evil place because of all the horrible violent incidents there from Virginia Tech to Abu Gharib, but it does say there is a problem. This event shouldn't be used as an excuse for federalization -- there are better reasons than this alleged act. Federalization should happen because it is immoral to exploit the third world on American territory to create an inflated labor supply that leaves an unsustainable, bloated, inefficient government as the sole provider of living wages. Those indigenous citizens not in the bureaucracy are left in the cold as few private sector jobs pay a living wage and too many politicians wield power over a vile patronage system run amok.
Jane Mack, an attorney for Micronesian Legal Services, a non-profit law office that represents the poor in civil litigation, is part of a group playing a role in trying to fix this trafficking problem. She noted that the first step in fixing this problem is acknowledging the problem exists given all the emotion about the federalization debate. "It's not just old news. The women from Karidat who testified in Washington D.C. weren't making up numbers. And the girls and women who are trafficked into the CNMI are, in fact, victims. It is important that politics not get in the way of referrals of victims to Karidat. We shouldn't sweep any current situations under the rug to hide them in the hopes that we'll somehow look better while we argue about federalization."
There was also a letter from PAWS President Katie Busenkell about seeing a charred dog on the road up to Marpi, followed by another suffering dog with a chain collar imbedded in its neck ridden with flies. No tourist is going to enjoy the canine Sunni Triangle for vacation, and what can be a bigger turn off than a charred animal corpse? Busenkell said she sees the same tolerance for the awful, but doesn't think it is an acceptable reaction. "I think people are numbed, but rather than do something, they revert to a convenient blindness. PAWS wanted to do a slogan that says open your eyes, open your heart, save a life. Don't just pass by and do nothing. See that suffering and do something about it. When you take action, you have a positive impact on the community. Stop just driving by."
PAWS is doing something by rescuing as many of these dogs as it can and raising awareness by educating the public. Beautify CNMI is also doing something. Just this weekend a group of volunteers fought back against hoodlums who disrespected the lighthouse and began painting what was a vile, graffiti laden monument. All of these groups are private organizations, yet all get a tremendous amount done without a huge government apparatus. Perhaps there is a lesson there. We should keep up the fight and keep our outrage.
Editor's note: This time I butchered a few transitions. This column thing is harder than I thought it would be, as I'm not making the sweet music I expect of myself just yet. This one is liberal enough to piss off a few people I suppose.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Citizen participation needed
After years of poor planning and mismanagement, this community is facing some drastic decisions that will have enormous implications for many CNMI citizens. The more the community participates in these decisions, the wiser I believe these decisions will be. The less the community participates in these decisions, the more likely the usual factors of nepotism, re-election interests or just "bending over" for whatever the garment factories want will influence these decisions. I hope it is not the latter.
There are several community groups sprouting up, growing or reforming that will assist in this democratic process. These five groups and entities are all operating with different focuses and in different ways, but all of them are doing work that will benefit the CNMI and lead to more citizen participation and better decisions. I do not speak for any of them, but have participated in each in some small way, very small actually, but I would like to support them all.
After Tina Sablan’s manifesto was published, she followed through and has had open forums at various locations to solicit and organize ordinary citizen input into fixing the many problems with our government. This group is currently putting together voter’s guides for November that hopefully will lead to educated voters making decisions on issues, not on lawn signs and waving. This group is actively soliciting signatures to establish a run off election so the next governor will be elected by a clear majority and will have a clear mandate. Beyond that, this group is trying to make sure the Open Government Act applies to the legislature. Right now, the legislature is exempted. I can't imagine that anyone could read the minutes of the past meetings, on the website, and not come away convinced that ninety percent of the positions and suggestions by the public are infinitely better than anything that ever came out of Capitol Hill. There is a lot more information available at http://www.thecnmi.com/.
Next, there is a rise in the number of bloggers here in the CNMI. There are at least twenty different people writing about the CNMI from many different perspectives such as school principal, environmentalist, legislator, scuba instructor, lawyer, teacher and even student. There are many links to these blogs at http://www.welovesaipan.com/ or my own blog at http://turbittj.blogspot.com/.
Third, Beautify CNMI continues to grow and has received many awards for their efforts to clean up the island. The next cleanup will be on Saturday May 26th at 8:00 am at the Okinawa War Memorial. People can find much more about this group at http://beautifycnmi.blogspot.com/.
Beautify CNMI is also working with PAWS, the Pet Assistance and Welfare Service. Improving the plight of suffering animals isn’t just a moral issue, it is an issue of health, safety and economics. My friend Katie Busenkell recently wrote an extremely sensible, well reasoned opinion article on why solving the issues of our animals is in our economic and health interests, as the current state of the dog population lowers property values and is a turn off to tourists. More can be read here at http://www.paws-saipan.com/.
Finally, after a long period of indifference and infighting, the Association of Commonwealth Teachers has a set of new officers paving the way for a greater voice in education for actual teachers. ACT is meeting on Thursdays at San Vicente Elementary School at 6:00 pm and a new website is currently under construction. Inquiries can be made at cnmiactnow@aol.com.
All of these entities need and deserve more community involvement. The mechanisms are in place for more citizen involvement and more democracy. The people of this commonwealth need to get together to turn around and fix the many problems we face. Don't leave it just to our elected officials. They've had their turn and the reverse Midas Touch is evident.
There are several community groups sprouting up, growing or reforming that will assist in this democratic process. These five groups and entities are all operating with different focuses and in different ways, but all of them are doing work that will benefit the CNMI and lead to more citizen participation and better decisions. I do not speak for any of them, but have participated in each in some small way, very small actually, but I would like to support them all.
After Tina Sablan’s manifesto was published, she followed through and has had open forums at various locations to solicit and organize ordinary citizen input into fixing the many problems with our government. This group is currently putting together voter’s guides for November that hopefully will lead to educated voters making decisions on issues, not on lawn signs and waving. This group is actively soliciting signatures to establish a run off election so the next governor will be elected by a clear majority and will have a clear mandate. Beyond that, this group is trying to make sure the Open Government Act applies to the legislature. Right now, the legislature is exempted. I can't imagine that anyone could read the minutes of the past meetings, on the website, and not come away convinced that ninety percent of the positions and suggestions by the public are infinitely better than anything that ever came out of Capitol Hill. There is a lot more information available at http://www.thecnmi.com/.
Next, there is a rise in the number of bloggers here in the CNMI. There are at least twenty different people writing about the CNMI from many different perspectives such as school principal, environmentalist, legislator, scuba instructor, lawyer, teacher and even student. There are many links to these blogs at http://www.welovesaipan.com/ or my own blog at http://turbittj.blogspot.com/.
Third, Beautify CNMI continues to grow and has received many awards for their efforts to clean up the island. The next cleanup will be on Saturday May 26th at 8:00 am at the Okinawa War Memorial. People can find much more about this group at http://beautifycnmi.blogspot.com/.
Beautify CNMI is also working with PAWS, the Pet Assistance and Welfare Service. Improving the plight of suffering animals isn’t just a moral issue, it is an issue of health, safety and economics. My friend Katie Busenkell recently wrote an extremely sensible, well reasoned opinion article on why solving the issues of our animals is in our economic and health interests, as the current state of the dog population lowers property values and is a turn off to tourists. More can be read here at http://www.paws-saipan.com/.
Finally, after a long period of indifference and infighting, the Association of Commonwealth Teachers has a set of new officers paving the way for a greater voice in education for actual teachers. ACT is meeting on Thursdays at San Vicente Elementary School at 6:00 pm and a new website is currently under construction. Inquiries can be made at cnmiactnow@aol.com.
All of these entities need and deserve more community involvement. The mechanisms are in place for more citizen involvement and more democracy. The people of this commonwealth need to get together to turn around and fix the many problems we face. Don't leave it just to our elected officials. They've had their turn and the reverse Midas Touch is evident.
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