The 5-percent increase for civil servants or 14,000-plus employees in poverty income and below created what\u2019s known as \u201cwage depression.\u201d It simply means the breadcrumbs increase didn\u2019t help the strength of the family purse meet basic needs. It only prolonged family hardship NMI-wide.<\/p>\n
Before you even receive it, your utility bill went up, including gasoline at the pump stations. So there goes the increase that failed to hike family income. <\/p>\n
The elected elite padded their wallets with 80-percent salary hike or some $31,600, smiling ear to ear. But notice most have avoided discussing their newfound loot? The eggs hatched and maggots began crawling out of the sack into the public domain before they knew it. Like Magoo would say, \u201cWhy chillgreen us lai?\u201d You know, treat us like children!<\/p>\n
The glossy claim of economic \u201cimprovement\u201d is a failed PR on a false economy. Otherwise, it would have lifted all boats in the harbor. Most are stuck downstairs when the high tide came rolling in. Only yachts and big new boats floated, none of which belong to ordinary folks. Isn\u2019t this a tale of the lifestyles of the elite versus non-elites? Of course, they\u2019d deny it, as though the suffering villagers are blind, deaf, and mute. The inequity is embedded in villagers\u2019 mind and a daily mouthwash, too!<\/p>\n
Homes:<\/strong> Now, I\u2019ve been around family homes completely stuck in poverty. The young warm bodies are jobless in spite of their efforts to find employment. It\u2019s a case where foreigners are in jobs supposedly intended for local U.S. citizens. It forces a huge number of unemployed locals.<\/p>\n You listen carefully to their down-to-earth views of negligence by politicians on the hill. All they want is the opportunity to be gainfully employed. Is there anybody in government working diligently to resolve this issue so locals could find meaningful employment? Or is their lowly status a reason to ignore their fate altogether?<\/p>\n The 80-percent increase for the elected elite is a miscalculated decision riddled with boastful arrogance. It would haunt Republicans wherever they roam. No amount of \u201cbiba\u201d would shift the fatal narrative now permanently implanted in people\u2019s mind. Is there a savior for self-inflicted political destruction other than absorbing the consequence of indecision?<\/p>\n Trilemma:<\/strong> The weather was a bit humid and breezy, bringing steady drizzle on the tin roof above. The break was a good time to ponder an off-the-cuff assertion that \u201cwe\u2019re doing good but we don\u2019t know where we\u2019re going!\u201d Really?<\/p>\n The apparent inconsistency is fodder for review. I mean if you\u2019re doing great you must be doing something right. How could it be otherwise? But the assertion came from politicians nursing a sense of fear, frustration, if not uncertainty, or the entire trilemma for their miscalculated decisions. The 80-percent centers on their wallets, screw the livelihood of civil servants. How is this supposed to mitigate poverty all over?<\/p>\n There\u2019s hope, though, in the effort by the educational estate and other stakeholders to converge and organize a plan that would put purpose and goal into the education of our children and overall growth. With a fully thought-out blueprint, we could make progress and refinements with a sense of awareness what goes down the pike. It begins with a set of fully thought-out plans.<\/p>\n Wake up!<\/strong> It\u2019s known as AirBnB, private homes and apartments that are rented out to tourist. It\u2019s not part of the hotel group. Yet it enjoys charging fees for rent of their facilities. Does it pay BGRT as hotels do?<\/p>\n You see this is where another financial leak is allowed to escape\u2014paying NMI taxes. Let\u2019s zero-in and bring this group into the fold so they pay their fair share of taxes forthwith! Eh, fair is fair!<\/p>\n Absentee voting:<\/strong> Legally, there are three categories where voters are allowed to vote absentee: medical referral patients, students and military types.<\/p>\n If you are not within one of the three, then by all means you are not qualified to vote absentee. If you physically move to Guam, Hawaii, U.S. mainland or elsewhere to work and are actually living off-island, then you\u2019ve surrendered your absentee rights.<\/p>\n You could claim eventual return. But let\u2019s keep it simple by reviewing what the law permits: patients, students, and military.<\/p>\n The board of election should handle this and other reported mishandling of ballots in Guam in recent past so to maintain integrity of the system. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 5-percent increase for civil servants or 14,000-plus employees in poverty income and below created…<\/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":[7019,51,200,244],"class_list":["post-282999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-bgrt","tag-guam","tag-military","tag-utility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282999","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=282999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}