Nonresident evil

Our system of labor and immigration was institutionalized through things like politics, law, religion and social practices1 as part of an economic scheme designed to maximize profits on the backs of desperate foreigners in the backyard of happy-go-lucky islanders. Nonresidents eagerly accepted substandard conditions/wages and our indigenous people willingly allowed them to take it, effectively setting the bar low and displacing the natural labor force of our islands. To make matters worse, excessive amounts of the money generated in our islands over the course of the past 20 years got funneled abroad and only a handful of wealthy land barons and the likes profited in the exchange. The fate of our local economy, therefore, was predestined and the plight of nearly all rank-and-file workers remained substandard—not by the contrived CNMI standards, but by the modern American standard wherein people should be compensated fairly, allowed to exercise individual freedoms and afforded certain inalienable rights, including but not limited to being treated with dignity and respect.

People of all ethnic backgrounds and political status have had to endure life on our islands without any of the above. And most of us developed a kind of numb acceptance of the status quo despite it being woefully flawed for residents and nonresidents alike. All along, everyone involved (including policy makers, employers and even the workers themselves) were more concerned with making personal (albeit short-term) profit than they were in protecting any civil, legal, and human interests or ensuring that the CNMI would prosper in the end. And now, in a convenient diversion from the truth, we want to assign blame without genuinely considering our options for a new course together.

Among other things, some would have us believe in the destructive force of a nonresident evil as if the only thing to fear is a foreigner in the “Homeland.” The bullhorn, ruckus of obnoxious racists and countless other veiled minions of racial discrimination hold the line in a despicable war over an imaginary turf being mapped out with scare tactics. Racism is alive and well in the CNMI as it is all over the world. So simple-minded yet provocative and incendiary rhetoric perpetuates the cycle of ignorance and the cultural divides remain in constant flux. Meanwhile, the most relevant issues (i.e., domestic tranquility, economic prosperity, life, liberty and justice for all) get marginalized.

People with disabilities are particularly haunted by this acceptance of a flawed status quo, an all-too-common quest for short-term gain versus a sustainable future and the oppressive prejudices that generally plague our society. The fact that offices like the Northern Marianas Protection & Advocacy Systems, Inc. (NMPASI) exist and continue to be called on to challenge the institution and to combat unwarranted discrimination is a sad commentary on our society as a whole. We all, despite disability, race, gender, color, etc., have something good to offer, if only we could agree on and work toward a common goal to build a stronger, more sustainable future. To be sure, progress has been made on all fronts, so we may be inclined, “To stop without a farmhouse near / Between the woods and frozen lake / The darkest evening of the year / The woods are lovely, dark and deep / But (we) have promises to keep / And miles to go before (we) sleep /And miles to go before (we) sleep.”2

For more on discrimination of and/or the rights of people with disabilities, please feel free to call the NMPASI Office at (670) 235-7273/4 [voice] / 235-7275 [fax] / 235-7278 [tty] or contact on-line at www.nmpasi.com.

1 The theme of institutionalizing a system of labor is taken from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas by Frederick Douglas, a former slave.
2 Robert Frost, Woods on a Snowy Evening

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