Don't fix it, the rain has stopped
It seems a typical reaction among island planners to shirk the responsibility of making difficult decisions. This is especially true of bureaucrats and politicians who cater to what’s politically correct (thinking of their selfish political survival) over what’s politically right–protecting the interest of the public.
As such, any substantive issue is usually relegated to the heat of what’s politically correct as to bring into question the issue of real leadership. It seems we are victims of the lack of resolve to retain real professionals in government to help our titular head map-out what must be done to assist the private sector muddle through the deepening crisis. It’s a selfish agenda telling the governor what he wants to hear rather than what he needs to hear. It is a disservice all the way around.
This scenario reminds me of the Asian Crisis when the roof caved-in and the rain instantly flooded their living room and kitchen. Someone recommended that the roof be rebuilt, but nobody wants to do so because, apparently, the rain has stopped. Now, there’s fear that though most Asian Tiger economies and Japan could only feel perceived slow leaks in financial reforms, a superstorm could easily inundate the entire house once more and it would be awfully hard to plug them in the middle of a powerful and destructive storm.
Every tiding of recovery in Japan and Asia is seemingly taken as a major sign of things returning to normal, and so we rest once more on our laurels to wait out the ripple effects of good tidings. How I wish that these speculations could be used as hard facts to pin down our hopes of recovery that in fact it has finally arrived however slow. It is this phenomenon–slow recovery–that I find troublesome in that it could go either way: real recovery or more crashes.
This substantive indicator is a grand tale that it’ll take Japan some four to six years before it could regain its financial posture that now dogs bureaucrats, politicians, economists and investors. More Japanese who once boasted of lifetime jobs would be jobless. Consumer spending would contract meaning, a lot less would be traveling abroad given that most would protect family savings for education, healthcare and retirement.
It makes it much more difficult a task for the Marianas Visitors Authority to fetch our share of the balance of the traveling public from the Land of the Rising Sun. It means, a far more aggressive campaign blitz to lure more visitors to the NMI given that other destinations would vicious be competing for the same dollar. I’m not sure what would be the appropriate pitch, but how about proximity to home in these regional bad economic times?
1983 was the last time that a major economic investment moved into these islands. And guess what it was: the much maligned apparel industry that has, since the plummet of the tourism industry two years ago, scaffolded local government revenues, including direct and indirect jobs for more than 3,000 people here. Since then, we’ve rested in our laurels hoping that some other major industry would sail into our shallow waters. Well, there’s certainly one other industry that has grown by leaps and bounds: Mañana and more mañana! Problem? It is non-revenue generating and it is passed around as a virtual trophy.
I think we can do better and we can start by repealing every statute in the books that has fanned feel-good protectionism. They simultaneously have ruined expansion of current investments while discouraging future investments. And until we learn the very essence of wealth and jobs creation, there really isn’t much hope for these isles to cater to the basic needs of its people.
