It\u2019s good to read, analyze and critically question issues of interest that may have immediate or future implications in the islands in one form or another. Otherwise, it would be to our detriment if events hit the NMI in stealth fashion where we ask, out of ignorance, what happened? Briefly, here are issues you might find interesting:<\/p>\n
Biggy:<\/strong> Japan is building its $40-billion casino industry and would move on without high rollers. The decision is to protect its pachinko gaming industry. Plus, it has over 26 million wealthy folks who could take home vacations in posh and fully furnished integrated resorts in various areas of the country.<\/p>\n Two issues emerge in mind as Japan prepares to open its casino industry in the next decade: the superb competition it would inflict against the casino here and its effects upon mandating its people to stay home. Japanese are nationalists and would follow constructive policy decisions to support their own industry.<\/p>\n China:<\/strong> For most folks it\u2019s just another day in paradise. Personally, behind such contentment lurks the query: what\u2019s in our future as China expands her military capabilities in war fighting domain: land, sea, air, outer space, and information space?<\/p>\n \u201cThe Chinese are clearly intent upon dominating the Western Pacific in order to secure their own environment,\u201d according to Dean Cheng, senior research fellow, Asian Studies, Heritage Foundation. \u201cThis will affect not only U.S. allies, but the United States itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Would a $13-billion naval expansion help our country and wouldn\u2019t technology compromise such plan? How about more missiles?<\/p>\n PR debt:<\/strong> An average of 14 families lose homes to foreclosure in Puerto Rico every day, more than double the rate a decade ago as the island faces a real-estate crash worse than the one that sparked the Great Recession in the U.S. mainland, according to a recent AP report.<\/p>\n \u201cFamilies across Puerto Rico are moving in with relatives, becoming homeless or simply fleeing to the U.S. mainland with destroyed credit records as the island\u2019s government struggles to restructure a portion of its $73-billion public debt and help the economy emerge from a decade-long recession.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the crisis no one is talking about,\u201d said Ricardo Ramos, a professor at the Legal Assistance Clinic of the University of Puerto Rico. \u201cThis has so, so many consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn this U.S. territory of 3.4 million people, local courts oversaw foreclosures on nearly 33,000 homes from 2009 to 2016, according to government statistics. A record 5,424 homes were foreclosed last year, up 130 percent from nearly a decade ago, when the government first began tracking those numbers.\u201d Is the NMI trailing behind?<\/p>\n Salaries:<\/strong> Local Republicans have ensured that salaries remain the same for over 20 years. It couldn\u2019t care less how hardworking folks weather increases in the prices of basic goods throughout the period. What sterling performance, keeping a lot of employees drowning in abject poverty!<\/p>\n Now a plan is brewing to raise salaries for the government sector. Once more, it conveniently bypasses the needs of employees in private industries.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a perennial scheme, rewarding unproductive workers using taxes paid by the more productive sector. It\u2019s the politically attractive thing to do to ensure re-election, pandering to voters in the public sector. It\u2019s half-cocked plan!<\/p>\n Taxpayers\u2019 dime:<\/strong> Former president Barack Hussein Obama has been vacationing in places visited only by the \u201crich and famous.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cJudicial Watch, the independent organization that tracks government corruption, has cataloged the previous president\u2019s penchant for travel. His 2013 vacations cost over $7 million for that year alone,\u201d according to the Conservative Daily Post.<\/p>\n \u201cThe total price for repeated trips to Hawaii, China, Europe, and other places around the world while he was in office amounted to just over $70 million. That number is all that can be tracked through the Freedom of Information Act. It doesn\u2019t include security.\u201d<\/p>\n Since leaving office, Obama has visited Marlon Brando\u2019s private island and Sir Richard Branson\u2019s Necker Island that has a price tag of $80,000 per night. He splurges while 46 million Americans are drowning in the swamp of abject poverty.<\/p>\n Obama\u2019s socialistic views inherent under his signature Obamacare aims to ensure that the 73 million folks now under Medicaid would have their medical bills paid fully by taxpayers. What if the number of health payers sees significant reduction? Who then picks up the tab, sir?<\/p>\n It\u2019s good intention gone the other way, while you wine and dine in the most expensive destinations as people in abject poverty seek basic medical attention on a program destined for ruination under your signature healthcare program. How about descending to our level so you see what we look like standing shoulder to shoulder?<\/p>\n Disappointing the trust I had in his humble beginning to see that his best bet is to stay the course improving the lot of the destitute. Like my Kanaka bruddahs would ask, \u201cHas he gotten too big for his pants?\u201d<\/p>\n Leadership:<\/strong> Is our country retiring from global leadership? A recent Bloomberg story says it appears China and Germany are moving in to fill the void in what\u2019s dubbed as a Trump vacuum at the G-20 meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cThe two industrial powerhouses of Asia and Europe are being nudged into an informal alliance to pick up the leadership baton that the U.S. is accused of having dropped since President Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration earlier this year,\u201d according to diplomats and officials from several Group of 20 members.<\/p>\n The situation has crystallized ahead of this year\u2019s annual G20 meeting, which will be held in Germany\u2019s busiest commercial port. \u201cThat\u2019s in part because,\u00a0for the first time since the group\u2019s founding, the U.S. will be represented by a president who embraces protectionism, abandoning decades of American cheer-leading for free trade.\u201d It\u2019s one tough geopolitical issue! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s good to read, analyze and critically question issues of interest that may have immediate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[17484,169,67,90],"class_list":["post-255838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-barack-hussein-obama","tag-china","tag-people","tag-puerto-rico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255838","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}