Although President Clinton emerged from scandal without much of a hitch, Independent Counsel Ken Starr still did a very respectable job of exposing the sordid facts. Wouldn\u2019t it be nice if we had a special prosecutor investigating some of our most hardened detractors.<\/p>\n
Independent counsel: Congressman Bob Finks, isn\u2019t it true that you accused CNMI garment factories of \u201cusing abused and ill-treated indentured labor?\u201d<\/p>\n
Congressman Finks: Yes, sir, I sure did–and I am damned proud of it. I also made it a point to throw in the loaded term \u201csweatshop\u201d on several occasions, just for good measure.<\/p>\n
IC: I am glad you brought that word up, Congressman. Are you aware that our own OSHA inspectors have jurisdiction over the CNMI\u2019s garment factories?<\/p>\n
The Honorable Finks: Why, yes, of course, I am fully aware of that fact.<\/p>\n
IC: Very well, then in your opinion, would it be possible for sweatshops to, as you suggest, flourish under direct OSHA inspections?<\/p>\n
Congressman Rat W. Finks: Ah, well, I don\u2019t quite know. I suppose, maybe . . . ah, if there were not enough OSHA inspectors and–<\/p>\n
IC: Congressman Finks, are you aware, sir, that there are probably more CNMI OSHA inspectors and\/or inspections, per capita, than in virtually any other US jurisdiction under the American flag?<\/p>\n
Finks: Ah, yeah, I suppose that\u2019s true . . . Um, I heard that the US Department of Interior, Office of Insular Affairs, even went so far as to directly subsidize OSHA inspections in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
IC: So would you then say, sir, that it is quite possible–indeed, likely–for CNMI sweatshops to flourish under direct OSHA, US Department of Labor, FBI, and US Department of Justice oversight?<\/p>\n
The Honorable Rat Finks: Uh, I am sorry, I am afraid I still have to stand by my CNMI sweatshop garment position.<\/p>\n
IC: Sir, are you aware that the government of the Republic of the Philippines, along with our own OSHA people, recently declared the CNMI to be sweatshop free?<\/p>\n
Finks: Well, I honestly don\u2019t know about that.<\/p>\n
IC: Mr. Finks, are you suggesting, sir, that the Philippine government is lying–that it doesn\u2019t care about its own people, if they should be, as you claim, slaving under CNMI sweatshop conditions?<\/p>\n
To be continued . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Although President Clinton emerged from scandal without much of a hitch, Independent Counsel Ken Starr still did a very respectable job of exposing the sordid facts. Wouldn\u2019t it be nice if we had a special prosecutor investigating some of our most hardened detractors.<\/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-46491","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\/46491","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=46491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}