Operation human pinball

Saipan’s professionals are a mobile bunch. Few of us are gathering any moss. The Commonwealth is a gateway to Asia’s bustling markets, so we have, for example, resources like Mike Newman’s website (www.mgnewman.com), which has gained quite a following over the years for its information on layovers at Japan’s Narita airport.

In fact, one of my tasks for 2004 was to bring some of Newman’s observations in the customer service realm to Saipan Tribune readers, but this is one of many things on my “to do” list that has been victim to my tattered schedule. I am no longer a person, I am a human pinball, mired in a project focused on the South Pacific, and it will be May before I get to dig my toes into the sands of PauPau beach again. Hopefully at that point, life will resume its normal pace and rhythms. As for 2005 thus far, I’ve spent the majority of it in hotel rooms.

In fact, when the new year hit, I was sitting with my knees tucked under my chin in an airliner, and if they ever invent a plane that is also a hotel, maybe I’ll take up permanent residence in seat 34E. Forward my mail there, please.

Meanwhile, I will note that some of Saipan’s brightest and best have contributed some words on the life and times of my journalistic hero, Hunter S. Thompson, for an upcoming column. Unfortunately, those words are languishing on one of my other computers, not the thrasher that I take on the road. Yes, I’m so far behind in some things that I have to walk backwards to even recognize myself.

It is at junctures like this that I count my blessings, notably that I have such good support folks on Saipan who can keep some of the business fires tended while I’m getting swatted around the globe. By contrast, a lot of folks in the outside world are so parochial that you could never count on them to get anything done under such challenging circumstances. Saipan has a lot of resourceful folks who can get things accomplished under less than ideal conditions. In this regard, the Commonwealth’s business climate is far better than average. It was good 10 years ago, and it’s even better now that the Internet has empowered us.

As famous as our beaches are, it is our people that give the Commonwealth a real edge in some things. Beaches alone don’t create a tourism industry; the world is chock full of backwater places that are economic wastelands. Ditto for proximity to Asia; yes, it is a blessing indeed, but a blessing that only moves from the theoretical to the real side of the ledger when you have people who can get things done. The Commonwealth may appear a bit sleepy to the casual eye, but that’s largely because most folks in the CNMI (a few higher echelon government types notwithstanding) don’t make a big display out of taking themselves too seriously. I never was much for bluster and balderdash, I’m more impressed with quiet competence.

And when there’s incompetence at issue, it is often (not always, but often) the result of utterly incompetent management. I’ve heard a number of oafish tirades directed against workers in the CNMI over the years, but, from what I’ve seen, it is management, not labor, that is usually the weak link when things fall down. Yelling at employees and becoming a chronic fault finder isn’t good leadership, it is dysfunctional behavior.

But the only functioning I want to do now is down a cold beer that is earmarked for the end of Operation Human Pinball, which will be duly celebrated at my PauPau perch. Hey, I knew the pinball gig would be grueling, but in a feast-or-famine world, I guess it’s better to work yourself to death than starve yourself to death. It’s shaping up to be a good year (so far…things can always change…), so I inspire myself to keep pressing on when I realize that we’ve actually got it pretty good on Saipan.

(Ed Stephens, Jr. is an economist and columnist for the Saipan Tribune. Ed4Saipan@yahoo.com)