Cats and dogs

The article that came out yesterday on Saipan Tribune and Marianas Variety about the rift between the Rota Municipal Council and the Rota Delegation regarding the Casino is very disappointing to me as a person who resides on Rota because instead of them planning ahead and initializing the process of this historical event, they are like cats and dogs fighting about who has the authority to make decisions on spending the money from the casino.

What money? At the rate we are going, there won’t be any money to spend because prospective investors may not be interested to establish their gaming business on island because of all the battling and the people who are making decisions for the people of Rota Hello! The people have spoken. They want casinos on Rota. The island’s leaders should quit their arguing and concentrate on making it happen. We are all suffering and will continue to suffer unless these child leaders wake up from their selfish fantasy and realize that they owe it to the people to set their egos aside and think about the man nam’se’ (poor) people of Rota and get on with the program. We are not going to continue to suffer because of idiotic reasons such as who will make decisions on how the money will be used or who should benefit from it. If anything else, it should be our people who should decide how the money should be spent according to the importance and how the outcome will be for each situation.

But no, I am tired of seeing Rota and casino in the same sentence almost everyday in our islands’ newspapers. This is so embarrassing and not to mention tiring for other island readers to continue to witness how separated our people are with no unification and making no effort to sit down as a whole and communicate positively and make a sound decision that will enable Rota citizens the opportunity to at least try and get out of the black hole that our economy is in, because believe me, the more we waste our time in this nonsense the more the people are continuing to suffer.

Come on leaders, put your pride and stubbornness in your pocket. Make the effort to compromise with each other and come up with a positive solution to resolve this situation. Basta di en na’ fanmamalao I taotao miyu Luta, Fan afa’maolek, fan ali’e’ ya en fanmama’tinas maolek na disesion para todu I tatao Luta siha (Stop embarrassing the people of Rota, please meet, discuss and make positive decisions for you people). If it is our island’s problem, we do not need to make the entire world know our problem. Yes, the entire world has Internet access and it is most disconcerting for other countries to know that after the initiative was voted for by the people, we can’t even get past the next stage because of the power struggle between our Rota elected leaders. Get over yourselves, you may think that you’re fighting for the people but in reality, you are only trying to deepen your pockets with the expected benefits that will come with casino. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that, but do not forget the patte (share) of all the people.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to vent my feelings on this subject.