Tale of carelessness and negligence

The NMI must learn to live in both good and bad times. Unless we do so, we’d constantly revisit the story of a rich family who spent its money in all the wrong items. If I may share it with you.

The family fortune was overpouring with money. It’s party time at each wink of an eye. Nothing was put aside for that rainy day. One day, the family wallet took a slim-fast diet and went bust. The only thing left were three pieces of rice in the rice dispenser.
The family cooked it in a 50 gallon pot. Each member was given a soup bowl his/her share. When by mistake one of them scooped-up one of three pieces of rice, the entire family pounded his back until he coughed it out. The moral of the story is that one must save for that dreadful rainy day.

In like fashion, we were negligent of establishing and building upon a reserve for the NMI during the boom time of the eighties. We did it like it’s going out of style. We partied from dusk to dawn never mindful that money that isn’t invested will be gone instantly as soon as it is spent. We now watch government departments and agencies go through the painful task of where and how much must they cut. The biggest pain and challenge for government managers is who should be cut off the local roll when nothing else works.

I’m afraid that the countdown to a total economic meltdown has begun. Its rumblings were audible since two years ago. Nothing was done to stave it off. Today, leadership is mired in its wonderful world of lamañana. This failure would force kids studying abroad to either find employment to pay for their own education or return home because the scholarship fund is also a victim of the economic contraction triggered by the Asian Crisis. This situation is fueled by local leadership’s indecision since a year ago to get on the ball to stave-off any further assault on the local economy.

Sure, one can conveniently turn to the previous administration to vent his or her frustrations at all the wild splurge. Friends, it isn’t what they did that matters to your local constituency now. It’s what you would have failed to do to ease the hardship that most would have to endure up ahead. Well, it’s a test of leadership and we’d all be watching how decisions or indecisions help or destroy the last economic straw that’s left in the pile of ruins.

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It is a healthy exercise to see young people proactively seek for answers, i.e., NMC students motorcading to Capital Hill to ask for educational assistance grants. In fact, it is even heartwarming that our students have started to learn the importance of participatory democracy.

But the irony of the student rally at the administration compound was the parade of luxury cars driven by our students “in need” of money for tuition fees. I stood there marveling at all the chromed roll bars, big foot tires that cost not less than $300 apiece, tinted windshields that cost about $120; and, of course, powerful stereo system that cost not less than $1,500. And they are asking for money to cover their tuition.

The group is divided into the haves and havenots. The haves are the most vocal ones while the havenots have humbly kept their opinons to themselves. The haves are children of lawyers and financially poised professionals who can in fact pay for the tuition of their children. But the notion of luxury cars being driven to plea for money keeps returning to mind. These vehicles are normally driven by children of the affluent. If these students can afford fancy cars, shouldn’t money spent to soup-up these automobiles best saved for tuition fees? Or is something amiss here?