The year just receded can\u2019t serve as a scaffold of hope. There\u2019s nothing inspiring about it nor is there a reason to be optimistic of 2014. Not after chasing the elusive \u201cbetter times\u201d that seems to have disappeared into the horizon a long time ago. People at the helm have apparently fled reality or the nightmarish and troubling pile of fiscal issues screaming for help.<\/p>\n
It was time for diversionary reading. I decided to review Buddy Magoo\u2019s script on a book he\u2019s slaving to complete. I finally found time to do syntactic and content analysis. A lot of his sentences aren\u2019t necessarily grammatical but its secret is in your being equipped with Chamorro-I\u00f1glis in order to put context into his essays. Afterwards, I decided to quiz him on a number of issues he raised in his script.<\/p>\n
Smiling, he showed the cover of his book inscribed, Don\u2019t Broke!<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy talk about bankruptcy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the NMI government is, in fact, bankrupt!\u201d<\/p>\n
Quickly noted that governments are usually broke.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s indicative of its inability to measure its \u2018fiscal gap\u2019 or future debts versus future receipts.\u201d <\/p>\n
Pressed him further, \u201cYour view of government spending?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery dollar spent without a dollar in the treasury is debt or deficit spending,\u201d he pointed out. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut government does that all the time,\u201d I noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cYep! But it\u2019s a spending habit that shows lack of conscious leadership,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut government has revenue streams to cover its debts,\u201d I refuted guardedly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the accrual system\u2014spending before actual collection\u2014which is bad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
We basically agreed about the need for some sense of frugality and he should give the guys and gals on the hill a copy of his book to review this year. I mean, the guys still go junketing when paradise is burning in the magma of bankruptcy! How could they miss this fiscal inferno?<\/p>\n
Isn\u2019t the NMI floored in the filthy swamp of debts and deficit spending, i.e., shortage of $12 million for pension pay, $18 million for CUC utility bills, etc.?<\/p>\n
[B]Lia\u2019s scribbling too[\/B]<\/p>\n
Just as I was leaving the store where Magoo was sipping his beer, Lia pulled in and asked that I also review her script. Wow! Looks like this must be the literary season penned in frustration!<\/p>\n
Lia has a simpler theme on health, Don\u2019t Sick. Interesting coincidence in the use of the contraction \u201cdon\u2019t\u201d but both had meaningful issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what pushed you to write about staying healthy?\u201d I quizzed Lia.<\/p>\n
Said she, \u201cHidden its cost, it\u2019s a very expensive item in any family or government budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
In agreement, having gone through it from A-Z. I asked her how does the indigenous population deal with genetic predisposition? Lifestyle is easy to deal with. Genetics simply means a certain serious illness is in your blood and you\u2019d get hit at some point in your life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe genetics aspect needs to be addressed by public health officials,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s hidden and a mapping of sort is needed so we begin addressing how to deal with heart problems, Type II diabetes, kidney failure,\u201d among others. Heavy stuff, huh? Don\u2019t sick!<\/p>\n
[B]More books on the way[\/B]<\/p>\n
Headed home to the quiet corner of my back porch when my spouse handed me the phone. It was Tan Chu` Chiba who also wanted a review of his script.<\/p>\n
His book title is a bit unforgiving, Don\u2019t Stupid!<\/p>\n
His material is largely a warning to voters to elect quality candidates and a stern admonishment of legislators who travel amidst the bankruptcy of the local government.<\/p>\n
He included a chapter, \u201cDon\u2019t Airplane,\u201d you know, traveling when this government is literally broke, drowning in the filthy swamp of budgetary shortfall.<\/p>\n
Or how about the Guangzhou trip where legislators claim their integrity isn\u2019t compromised. Well, people, we\u2019re not as stupid as we look, are we? Read carefully now, a \u201cfreebie\u201d is itself a compromise of your integrity, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s ludicrous to deny it, only to confirm hypocrisy.<\/p>\n
As educated voters increase and register to participate, the more the challenge intensifies for politicians to justify and navigate their way to victory.<\/p>\n
[B]Add I Don\u2019t Know Maria![\/B]<\/p>\n
The list of books won\u2019t be complete unless I add my own scribble, I Don\u2019t Know Maria! It\u2019s a mix of satire, comedy, and the entire nine yards of indigenous common sense that doesn\u2019t make sense. It\u2019s a literal tossing of hope into no man\u2019s land where you simply declare \u201cNo mas!\u201d<\/p>\n
Some are hard hitting, others pure humor, the rest fodder for leisurely reading. But then my material is written in the vernacular. Well, most of the humor is best told in the vernacular with moral messages. There\u2019s also a chapter on what I\u2019ve coined, \u201cMysterity\u201d where politicians redefine the term integrity. Woe!<\/p>\n
Frustrating though our inability to define our future. That too has a chapter that vilifies the combined lack of definition and our special ability at problem identification. You push the needle into the resolution stage and everybody panics, chiming, \u201cIt\u2019s not my job!\u201d Then whose is it?<\/p>\n
The quality of leadership plays a key role in how well we address and, yes, resolve issues. If half the time leadership is clueless, it\u2019s the repeat in computer lingo, \u201cTrash in, trash out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lest we forget, the NMI has a lot of indigenous resource, people it could employ to remap the future of these isles. The disorientation that suffocates the quality of livelihood of simple villagers can\u2019t be allowed to settle in mediocrity and apathy. It\u2019s time to move the needle forward collectively. <\/p>\n
Perhaps we ought to use the Laffer Curve as a reminder that we\u2019ve been down the path of failure and we need not repeat history. Otherwise, we\u2019d all be chiming, \u201cI don\u2019t know Maria!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The year just receded can\u2019t serve as a scaffold of hope. There\u2019s nothing inspiring about it nor is there a reason to be optimistic of 2014. Not after chasing the elusive \u201cbetter times\u201d that seems to have disappeared into the horizon a long time ago. People at the helm have apparently fled reality or the nightmarish and troubling pile of fiscal issues screaming for help.<\/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-174847","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\/174847","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=174847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}