There\u2019s no surprise about the economic challenges we are facing. And it should not be a surprise that as much as we are experiencing, there\u2019s still some sacrificing ahead. These once prosperous islands have taken two or three blows to the stomach. We are now on one knee.<\/p>\n
One can understand the prevailing mood and talk around the islands that ooze negativity, doom and gloom. It\u2019s not getting better fast enough. No one is ever satisfied, especially when we\u2019ve had it better. <\/p>\n
This type of talk that repeats over and over starts weighing down on everyone and adds to our inability to see the forest instead of the big trees we are lost in\u2014so much so that even a slight gain or an incremental step toward improvement is met with, \u201cSo what! Look at all the other problems.\u201d <\/p>\n
We instead want to look at things beyond the obvious. We want us to look at the long and proud history of what it means to be the Northern Marianas, one might say the most self-sufficient and successful of all of Micronesia to date. <\/p>\n
Look at our history: The Micronesian people are warriors from a long line of survivors, people who are so much more in tune with the environment that environmentalist should take a lesson here.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been through hardships before: super-typhoons, power outages for weeks, water shortages\u2026 and guess what? We toughened up and survived! Unlike many other disaster-hit communities in other parts of the world, the people of the Marianas know how to bounce back with little help from the outside.<\/p>\n
Now some may say that this hardship is different because it deals with our economy and our workforce. It\u2019s going to take everyone to change this. We\u2019re in this economic downturn together, and to keep livelihoods, families and businesses afloat, we need to change our mindset from LOSERS to SURVIVORS. <\/p>\n
We recently read another chapter of Lino M. Olopai\u2019s book, The Rope of Tradition and it made us proud to be a part of Micronesia. No matter how hard we think life is today, these islands have had it worse. The people here have always relied on family, friends, and the local network to help out. <\/p>\n
Let us not be like the crabs in the basket. As one starts to climb out, the others jump on its back and bring that crab back down. Let\u2019s change this outcome.<\/p>\n
In Spanish, the word \u201cAnimo\u201d means to encourage, to liven up, to cheer. This word has been used to motivate people to get to work. Animo means pull up your sleeves, wear comfortable clothes, get the tools out, and let\u2019s get to work! <\/p>\n
To everyone in the CNMI, as hard as it is, let\u2019s give constructive criticism and encourage each other. For change to work, don\u2019t try to change the world around you. Instead, change yourself and the world around you will change.<\/p>\n
Ghandi said, \u201cYou must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.\u201d Let us not lose faith in the CNMI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s no surprise about the economic challenges we are facing. And it should not be a surprise that as much as we are experiencing, there\u2019s still some sacrificing ahead. These once prosperous islands have taken two or three blows to the stomach. We are now on one knee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}