Our lost horizon

A frog enjoys cold water; he splashes and enjoys himself in it. But put the frog in hot water, and he immediately tries to jump out. Then put the same frog into cold water again and slowly begin to heat it. The frog becomes used to the water without noticing that it is getting hot. As the water rises to boiling temperature, the frog dies.

We in the CNMI are pretty much like that frog. For the past three years we have watched our economy slide downhill. We see stores closing, businesses leaving the island, and the remaining ones pleading for some sort of relief. We flounder around hoping for a quick fix. Meanwhile the water is getting hotter. Will we die the same way the frog does without realizing what is happening to us?

Do we have a horizon? Unfortunately it appears to be a murky one. So let’s decide on a positive and compelling horizon. We begin by not looking backward, but forward! Ask two questions: Where are we today? Are we pleased with our answer? Once we know, we can create a new horizon.

The government can begin by educating our people on the value of tourism. Teach them to be kind and courteous to tourists. Educate the children and adults to greet and welcome strangers to our islands. Whole pages could be written on how we ignore or are rude to our visitors yet expect them to go home and report glowing comments about our lovely islands. Teach us until we understand the economics and value of tourism. All of these suggestions don’t cost a nickel to implement, except a change in attitude.

Help us reframe our negative attitude towards the garment industry. Picture the government revenue which is about $220,000,000 this year. Then subtract $40,000,000 from it. Now we have only $180,000,000, also minus the mutiplier-effect of each dollar spent by the employees in the industry. How many government workers will have to take a salary cut or be dismissed? How many more food, clothing, restaurants, and other stores will close their doors when we subtract all of the above?

By reframing our attitude towards the garment industry, we will find that the garment industry is an asset, and not a liability as some critics are quick to point out. Instead of laboring over the same stereotyped concept of the industry, what if we mentally reframed the industry and looked at it from a different perspective? Is there any value?

Strange how these same critics have nothing to replace the industry with nor the huge lost of revenue, except vague criticism based on emotions. How do they expect all of us to survive? On bread fruit and coconuts? That life style is a lost horizon. Yet change in attitude doesn’t cost a nickel.

Concentrate on training our resident workers to become skilled workers. We have wasted years and millions of dollars and produced little for our efforts. Unless we can marshal a skilled and literate work force we will never attract capital for new investments, but eternally depend on non-resident workers.

Have we listened to our young people begging for the training they want? Strangely, we are not listening to their pleas. Instead we argue about what we feel they should have instead of what they want. Go and ask them. It doesn’t cost a nickel, except a change in attitude.

The above comments hopefully will cause us to think and decide on the positive and compelling horizon awaiting us. Let’s look ahead, not backward. Decide on the compelling horizon and move on!