Bidding Adios to this millennium
Having walked through the valley of hardship all throughout the year, we need only rebuild personal and collective resolve to reconstruct the bridge of prosperity “as we know it”. It has been an awfully difficult year especially for businesses who were adversely affected by the assaults of the Asian Crisis. Let’s hope that all these will soon be water under the bridge.
I look forward to the new millennium ever determined to aggressively and proactively partake in wealth and jobs creation. It is the only route to granting the indigenous people the opportunity and hope to dealing with the uncertainties of the future. It is the only route that can enable local leadership to begin addressing and resolving the qualitative issues we’ve seemingly neglected since the formative years of our constitutional government.
If there’s anything I can rightly claim of major accomplishment as publisher of this newspaper organization, it is in turning the relatively new kid in the block (Saipan Tribune) into the newspaper of command. Despite the bad times, we’ve sailed through the worst year never losing sight of what’s at issue, diligently sticking to journalistic tradition and ethics. It is only fair that we stick to facts and not build the convenient habit of fabricating quotes from sources by looking at our ugly faces in the mirror of sensationalism. Credibility is everything in this business!
Fairness has grandly given the Tribune credibility and far wider readership both in hard copies and online editions. We choose not to coast along so we can bring the role of this newspaper to greater heights. At least, we know we’ve done our best as your community newspaper of command. Why our success? Our reporters are known in their country of origin as seasoned journalists from highly credible news organizations.
Throughout the year, we’ve seen the single common denominator deteriorate–the local economy–fueled by the intransigence of the lead federal agency to ensure that Clinton’s policy of “economic good times” descends and includes these isles under the greater American Economic Community. It has consistently chosen to treat these isles as another foreign country. But this setback didn’t discourage us from speaking our minds in disagreement for it is only very American to exercise one’s freedom of expression to protect our freedom. This is one of the several venues upon which refinement of our democratic institutions occurs. If anything, the democratic process entails the constant guard of our rights as citizens. It is often a long and arduous process.
Up ahead, there’s a wide open field of opportunities to lure lasting investments into our islands. It means reviewing our books on investments for there obviously are too many strangling regulations that contribute to the steady decline in current and future investments. Lest we forget, our local government can only dispose of our taxes with prudence provided that we allow more investments here to support the growing needs for better education, health and public safety. An empty coffer isn’t the way to provide for these mind-numbing needs that have grown beyond our means to defray them.
For all our trials and tribulations over the last year, let us regroup and pray that the new millennium brings greater prosperity to these isles. And the resolution of these issues require a simple equation–our taking a proactive approach to emplacing the requisite infrastructure for investment and new capital infusion. The management and staff join me in wishing you all a Happy New Year!
