What I learned from the Discovery Channel

I am sure many of the readers have spent “down time” flipping through the channels on the TV, and find themselves glued to the Discovery Channel. Whether it’s a special on Africa, sharks, or poisonous snakes, there is always something interesting about the animal world that induces us to pause, watch, and listen.

One of the most obvious things we notice is that there is a hierarchy chain in the jungle. In the plains of Africa, the animal on top of course is the lion. He is followed by leopards, cheetahs, water buffalos, antelopes, and so on and so forth down the line until we get to the ant: the bottom of the food chain, the creature that relies on other larger animals to either die, or leave food lying around for it to eat.

It’s interesting to compare nations to the animal world. In the world we live in today, its pretty obvious who the lions are: the Unites States, China, Japan, and European Union, and so on and so forth down the line until we get to countries/states like our own who are dependent on the outside world for their survival. It is important in the jungle as it is in the world we live in not to confuse who we are or our importance to the outside world. A wild boar thinking that he was a lion would have the life snuffed out of him very quickly in the jungle. How about the CNMI? What kind of consequences would follow if we thought and miscalculated for a prolonged period what position we really hold in the hierarchy of nations?

We know the answers to that. Our “country” has grown dependent on the garment business, tourism, and assistance from D.C. so that our citizens could enjoy a quality of life as good or even better than that of the motherland, to boot with less of the difficulties that go with it: expensive real estate, high taxes, pollution, intense competition, stress, just to name a few. Yes, life has been great in the CNMI for a long time, but now that things are falling apart, what kind of power do we have to change things? What kind of leverage do we have to compel our fate to change?

We have a power system that is antiquated and has suffered from years of under investment and gross neglect. We have a garment industry whose prospects are fading with every world trade deal. Our tourism industry is in a sad state as there are too few “high rollers” paying for business class seats to warrant flights when oil is upwards of $60 per barrel. Even good old Uncle Sam, our friend and padrino, has his hands full in Iraq, a country with the second highest oil reserve in the world. With all the resources going into stabilizing a country the size of California with more militias and gangs than L.A. has ever seen, does anyone wonder why there is not much left when our Washington Rep. comes to congress with his hands open? Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a world of REAL POLITIK, where its every nation for themselves, and the laws of the jungle applies.

We don’t have oil. We dont have an abundance of natural resources. We don’t have a nuclear bomb. We are not growing coca. We have no jihadists. We don’t have a population big enough to buy much from the outside world. In short, let’s face it, if things continued to deteriorate for us, WHY WOULD ANYONE COME TO OUR RESCUE? What is in it for them? The world does not need us. We are the ants of the jungle, the bottom of the food chain, and the sooner we all realize this fact, the sooner we can get the economy back on track.

But our lot in life does not necessarily make us helpless, and that is what I have been advocating all along. Only we can save ourselves. Only we can make a difference to make the CNMI relevant or important. But we can’t sit on our hands and do nothing as a lion comes running at us, we need to make some drastic changes now. As we have seen in the Discovery Channel, a gazelle only gets a split second to run from a charging lion. This is our split second.

Have you seen how several hundred ants can lift, move, and transport food a long distance away? The CNMI’s population has had to carry a heavy burden of government inefficiency on its back. The more people leave the island, the lesser ants there are to carry this burden. The higher the cost of fuel, the more people pack up and leave. For those who remain, the burden just becomes bigger and more impossible to carry. This is what’s happening to us now… people are leaving in droves, and those that stay are more burdened than ever to carry this load. Do we want to squander the future for ourselves and future generations because we did not have the courage to embrace change?

So what is the answer to this: bringing in more people to carry the load and broaden the economic base, whether its for real estate investments or call centers or for whatever they want. As long as they pay for their share of the CUC surcharge, and their share of taxes, it will lighten the burden for us all. We need more ants! We need more people here building houses, call centers, hotels, nursing homes etc. After all, these people will buy cars, so your dealers can buy more and give you your cars cheaper, these people will buy appliances, so that yours can be cheaper, these people will buy gas, so yours will be cheaper, and so on and so on…. The more people come the better your quality of life will be as ALL things will be cheaper to buy. That’s why Walmart is Walmart, its size allows it to sell things cheaper. The bigger it gets, the more its consumers benefit. The bigger the CNMI population gets, the more its population will benefit.

But politicians are a cautious breed in the CNMI, and everywhere in the world. They all want to get re-elected, and they all know when they spot a trend. I believe the only way for us to go forward is for the electorate, or you, the readers to band together, and ask your leaders to explore new initiatives that can bring in other people to share the cross we are carrying with us. I feel sadness when I read about the CUC price hearing and see how the people are hurting so badly, but how can we solve this problem, if there ARE NOT ENOUGH private sector people in this economy who can share this burden.

My friends, lets not waste our split second. For as we have seen on the Discovery Channel, it does not take long for the rest of the animal kingdom to cleanly dispose of an animal in trouble.

May our leaders be enlightened.

Ricky Delgado
Pacific Telecoms, Inc.