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When the cat is away
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Posted on Dec 18 2008
Mr. McCue, as I have stated in my last letter published Dec. 16, 2008, our group has been working diligently, carefully and quietly with some government and private agencies to help in our own way to boost the ailing CNMI economy and address the critical issues long-term guest workers are facing and would be facing.
A few months back, there were really some heated arguments between some local groups and long-term guest workers. but we were able to sit down and listened to each other. You are not here physically, so you do not really know all the details that are happening here. So please, don’t act like you are here with us. We are mature people here who, after listening to both sides, were able to understand each other’s issues and sentiments, though we still each have our own ideas and opinions, which we respect. We may not be friends with one another but we act like a mature people when we need to sit down or occasionally bump into each other.
There is a saying, “When the cat is away, the rats will play.” I will say that, “When the cat is away, he doesn’t know that the dogs and rats are talking about.” Sounds different, huh?! But that is what’s happening and that’s what you don’t know because you are miles away.
When a person invites me to be a guest in their house and he/she offers me soda, I could refuse that, right? And ask for water instead. If the host asks me to stop smoking L&M Blue and insists that I should try smoking their marijuana, I could refuse, right? And even if I am a guest in that house, and I can see the flies are on the food, I can shoo them away, right? In my simple examples, I hope you understand what I want to imply. I may be short in my English vocabulary, but I have the freedom to use the little that I know of.
No one can force me to do things I do not like. It is my own will to come here and stay for 14 years now. I will state with my head up: “I am enjoying my life here in the CNMI and the CNMI made my life better. I have accepted the conditions of my life here. But that doesn’t mean I will just accept things as they are.”
Merry Christmas to you and may you find love and peace wherever you are.
[B]Malou H. Berueco[/B] [I]Gualo Rai, Saipan[/I]
