Food For Thought

All Good Things Must Come To An End, (and yes I borrowed the line from the Wildwood Weed song)

2008-10-17T11:36:00.001+10:00

Food For Thought 10-17-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. Typically this is the time you’ve become accustomed to tuning in for Food For Thought, and finding out what thoughts were rambling around inside my head. And I guess that’s what you’ll be getting once again today.

Every year on her birthday, my wife Kelli stops and takes time to re-evaluate her life and take a look at where she’s at, and where she is heading. It’s a good thing to do and when you do it on your birthday, you always have a built in reminder to do it every year. I have to admit that I haven’t always taken the time to do it like she has. But today is my 48th birthday and it seemed like a good time to stop and reflect and reassess. But for me the last several months have been a time to take a look at my life and figure out what I wanted to do and what was truly important to me.

I’m sure it will come as a surprise to no one that diving and everything underwater is not only important to me, but is something that I love sharing with as many people as I possibly can. I have literally taken hundreds and hundreds of people out on dives with me since I moved here 12 ½ years ago. For some, it was their first experience underwater, and it was their introduction to a magical world they had only seen pictures of previously. And for many others, like many of the officers and crewmembers of the various Navy ships that have visited Saipan over the years, it was a chance to let them experience the beauty of what Saipan has to offer underwater. I have had a ton of fun with it over the years, and even had a fictitious tour company sort of spring up as a result. I say it’s fictitious because it’s not listed in the phone book, and I’ve never charged anyone a penny to go diving with me, but it’s very real to the hundreds that I’ve taken out for a dive or two. I’ve had people discover my diving blog online and contact me from Japan, Ohio, Australia and various other locations asking if I’d be willing to take them out diving when they came to Saipan. The answer is always yes. And over the next several days I’ll have the privilege of taking some of the visiting White House staffers out diving as well. It has truly been an amazing life and I’ve been privileged to share my passion with many other people over the years.

A couple diving friends of mine have been talking to me for the last year or so about furthering my dive certifications so that I could actually teach diving and share my passion with that many more people, introducing them at the very basic level. Mike Tripp and Mike Ernest were very patient with me and all my arguments against it, and didn’t push too hard, but yet kept continually encouraging me to take this next step to be able to become even more involved in the diving community. But it was Mike Ernest who was eventually successful in convincing me to take the PADI Rescue Diver class and Divemaster. Once I did that, I realized that I was only one step away from becoming an instructor, so I went ahead and made plans to go to Guam to attend the Instructor’s course over there for the first two weeks of November. So I’ll be gone for a couple weeks as I take the course, but I will be returning to the airwaves November 17th.

The reason I’m taking this next step is because it will allow me to share my love of the underwater world with many more people and to help them experience the magic and wonder of it as well. It’s something that is that important to me and it’s a dream that I’m following. As I get older, I want to spend more time with the things I’m really passionate about and make as much of a difference as I can in them. I think its part of human nature to want to leave your mark and to leave a legacy you can be proud of.

At the same time, I have been thinking about whether the need continues to exist for Food For Thought or not. Food For Thought was never meant to solve all the islands problems or to answer all the questions. It was meant to get you thinking about the issues that confront us all. It didn’t matter whether you agreed with my point of view or not, what mattered is that you spent time thinking about the issues and talking about them with one another. Food For Thought asked a lot of questions, the point of the questions was to get you searching for answers so you could draw your own conclusions. I started Food For Thought 7 years ago because I didn’t see anyone speaking up about the issues and some of the abuses that were going on. I didn’t feel that the newspapers were addressing the issues in their editorials, they were either in bed with or afraid of the politicians.

But that has changed now; people are speaking up about the issues and are writing letters to the editor. They realize that they can speak out against their leaders and question them, and that they have rights as voters and citizens. The need for Food For Thought is not there like it once was. Much has happened in the past 7 years that I’ve been sharing my Food For Thought and I’ve made many predictions throughout the years about where we were heading and what we could expect to happen. I talked about the impending collapse of the garment industry, back when the Babauta administration was calling me an alarmist, saying I didn’t know what I was talking about. Now we’re down to the final 3 garment factories, and they probably won’t be around that much longer. I talked about how the Babauta administration lied to us about the budget and how much was being spent. They kept claiming they achieved a balanced budget, and yet when the audits were performed we learned they had racked up the biggest deficits in the CNMI’s history. I talked about Rota and the Global Country for World Peace. I talked about lawmakers who poached coconut crabs and smuggled in fruit bats. I talked about a previous Attorney General who protected her boss’s fishing buddies, refusing to prosecute them even when they were caught red handed fishing in a sanctuary. I’ve talked about this administration and the nepotism that continues. I’ve talked about the failure to follow through with prosecutions of former Marianas Public Land Authority officials who enriched themselves while in office. I’ve talked about the situation with Commonwealth Utilities Corporation and the folly of their plans. I’ve talked about the issues of the week nearly 400 times with you so far, but I believe this will be the last.

I know there will be many who will be making claims that they are the ones who got me to finally retire Food For Thought, but they will all just be spouting hot air. I’m not stopping because a few members of the legislature tried to formally censure me and have me voted persona non grata. Frankly I was a bit disappointed they didn’t have the guts and the votes to follow through on it. I’m not stopping my commentary because a legislator sent a letter to my boss. My boss got a good laugh out of it, but if you want to know his thoughts of that legislator, you’ll have to ask him yourself. I’m not stopping because I questioned the Drug Enforcement Agency’s timing in my commentary last week. Although I did get a visit from Resident Agent-In-Charge Antonio Marquez from Guam wanting to set the record straight, that had nothing to do with my decision. I’m not stopping my commentary because of any pressure from any politicians, and I’m not stopping it because I have decided to take up writing fairy tales for a living, although that one is very tempting. I am simply stopping because I think it’s time, and I’m passing the torch to others to speak out about the issues of the day. There may be more writing in my future, but it will likely be in the form of books.

When I return from getting my scuba instructor’s card in Guam, I will be continuing the talk show in the mornings, and I’m sure that there will continue to be hot topic issues and opinions expressed there by myself and guests alike, but that will have to suffice. To those of you who have found your public voice, keep speaking out and questioning your leaders. Demand answers! This is your life, your livelihood, your islands and your future, you have every right to expect and demand accountability of elected leaders. Make them answer for their past and their track records don’t just forgive and forget or you’ll be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.

And if you’ve always thought about trying scuba diving but just never took the plunge, let me show you what I’m really passionate about, give me a call and I’ll introduce you to a whole new world.

Thanks for your listenership over the last 7 years and I’ll be expecting you to keep joining me on Island Issues.

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share one last Food For Thought.

Off To A Bad Start

2008-10-10T14:07:00.000+10:00

Food For Thought 10-10-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

Today I want to talk about the incident that happened with the inaugural flight from Shanghai last week. From what I understand, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency decided they were going to do a random check for drugs and decided that they would do it to the passengers on that flight. I’ve been told that the DEA agents were supervising local Customs agents and had them do the body searches on the passengers. And I’ve received statements from various Chinese business people relaying to me what the passengers told them they went through. It seems that some of them who spoke English tried asking what was going on, and why they were conducting the searches, but they weren’t given any answer. And it’s not like the search of the passengers was only conducted on random passengers, but nearly everyone on the flight was subjected to the searches. Not only were all their suitcases and bags thoroughly searched, but many of them were also subjected to strip searches, and many complained that they thought the way the strip searches were carried out was not only unnecessary but also very humiliating and demeaning.

I think it is important to establish a few things before moving on to some of my concerns. Did the Customs agents have the right to go through the tourist’s luggage and make sure they weren’t bringing in any prohibited items to the CNMI? Yes, they not only had the right to search the luggage, but they had an obligation to search it to make sure that there was no meat, plants or any other prohibited item being brought in illegally, whether intentionally or ignorantly. And it should be pointed out here that they confiscated many items that are not allowed to be brought into the CNMI. To realize the importance of a Customs agent doing their job properly, we don’t have to look any farther than the problem we have with the scarlet gourd. If a Customs agent had caught that when it was being smuggled in and confiscated it the way they should have, we wouldn’t have the problem with this runaway vine all over the island right now.

Then we also need to realize that the Drug Enforcement Agency has the right to try intercepting drugs before they come into the country. And they have also told us that they believe most of the crystal methamphetamine, or “ice” is being brought into the CNMI from China. But I believe there are a couple questions that would be prudent to ask here, such as, does the DEA have the right and authorization to strip search the majority of passengers on a flight coming from a country that they believe to be the primary supplier of ice to the CNMI? Was this truly just a “random” search and was it just a coincidence that this happened to be the inaugural flight from Shanghai?

Governor Fitial believes that the feds are just trying to hurt our tourism in retaliation for his lawsuit over extending federalization to our immigration system. Is it possible that there’s any truth to that theory, or is it just paranoia? Let’s just say I wouldn’t take it quite as far as he has, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t at least a bit of truth to it. Could it be that the federal government isn’t worried about messing with our image with Chinese tourists because they have no intention of giving visa waivers to Chinese tourists once they take over immigration? Could this be one of the first demonstrations of the federal government showing us how things will be once they have installed Homeland Security here and taken over immigration? Could the federal government be retaliating for the lawsuit that Governor Fitial filed against them for taking over our immigration? I honestly don’t have the answers to any of these questions, and I wouldn’t even know which way to guess about the truth at this point. I would certainly hope that the federal government wouldn’t be so petty, and I would hope that they would look at the big picture and what the consequences of such an action might be.

So will there be any consequences of this action? Was it handled as well as it could have been, or should have been? Yes, I believe there will be some very serious consequences. Let me ask you, if you had just traveled to a new place, and had to wait for 3 ½ - 4 hours in the middle of the night to get through the airport because you and most of the people you were traveling with had been strip searched, how would you feel? Would it put a damper on the rest of your vacation? What would you tell people when you got home about your vacation? And would you ever go back there and risk having the same thing happen again? Would you recommend the place as a good destination or would you warn people to not go there unless they wanted to be harassed and humiliated, and not be told what was going on? And do you think this is the kind of treatment China was expecting when they gave us Approved Destination Status? Do you think that status may be in jeopardy now as a result of this incident? When you are trying to grow a tourism market you need positive feedback and responses from the visitors, something like this can kill it for a long time to come if word gets around about what happened. And yes, the story has already been carried in the news in Shanghai and is quickly making the rounds of tour operators in Shanghai as well.

So where do we go from here, how do we keep from getting a reputation as a destination that no tourist wants to have to put up with? Can we sit down and talk with the Drug Enforcement Agency and make sure that when they do “random” searches in the future, it isn’t a case where it happens to something as important as an inaugural flight with several dignitaries on board? Would it be asking too much to have them have translators there explaining what is going on and putting the tourists minds at ease? Is there a standard for how many passengers get randomly strip searched? Shouldn’t there be some kind of good reason to go as far as a strip search? Should our government be meeting right now with Homeland Security to see what kind of requirements they are going to have when they have more of a presence here and start calling the shots? Are any of these departments even willing to meet with our government since our Governor has filed a lawsuit against the federal government?

There may have been some valid reasons for doing the searches, but the timing was horrible. You don’t start off with an inaugural flight like that from a new destination making an example of the passengers. You don’t delay the passengers by 3 ½ to 4 hours to leave the airport after arrival. And you don’t strip search the passengers without at least telling them what is going on and why they are being put through something like that. That is you don’t do things like that if you expect to have more tourists from that destination. We desperately need to have our government sit down with the federal government and work some of these issues out so that we don’t lose the last leg of our economy.

I can completely understand how the federal government might not be happy with the CNMI government, both the Executive and Legislative branches, but now is not the time to be getting in turf wars and letting tourism suffer as a result. The Chinese and Russian markets have been the brightest spots for the CNMI in the past year or two, but it won’t take many more incidents like this to destroy everything that has been gained in no time at all.

I really don’t have many answers in this particular situation, but have plenty of questions. These are questions we can’t afford to ignore, and that we’d better take very seriously if we value our Chinese tourists. As is always the case, it doesn’t matter whether you agree with me or not, what matters is that you think about the situation and then discuss it, seeing how it can be improved upon, and how we can learn from our mistakes in the past.

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

The Legislature's Grand Plan

2008-10-03T11:29:00.000+10:00

Food For Thought 10-2-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

I’ve had some people criticize me recently for never looking at the positive side of things, and just pointing out the negative. Well, I’ve decided to remedy that today and share some good news with you. I’m sure you will be thrilled to know that our legislature has come up with a plan for Commonwealth Utilities Corporation. And I think I can say with a certain amount of certainty that they must have done their homework ahead of time and spent a lot of time putting together a fool proof plan. Now you may be thinking that I’ve finally lost it, or that I went too deep while diving a few too many times, or maybe that I was in a car accident and got thrown through the windshield head first into a taotaomona tree. But before you draw any hasty conclusions, hear me out here and see if you don’t have to agree with my logic.

Our legislature came up with a bill to privatize CUC, and they managed to do it without any outside help, advice, expertise or public hearings. Now it’s not that they didn’t have people coming to them offering to help. It is my understanding that Simon Sanchez from Guam and some of his colleagues from Guam Power Authority came over to talk to them, and share what they did on Guam, and even offered to help them with putting together a plan and helping out in the bidding process. They even offered some input on the privatization bill that the legislature was considering, telling them how to avoid certain pitfalls that were obvious in the legislation, like the $250 million price tag. Our legislative geniuses said “thanks, but no thanks”. Well, I’m assuming they said thanks first, but maybe not, maybe they just said no thanks.

One of the things I found most interesting in Simon Sanchez’s talk to the Chamber of Commerce last Wednesday was the comment that if we switched over to generators that burned heavy oil, or RFO, residual fuel oil, we would save enough money in one year to not only pay for all the new generators, but that we’d even have a savings of $30 million in the first year alone. Could I possibly have heard that right? We would save enough money to buy brand new generators, and pay for them in the first year through fuel savings over what we are spending now, and still have an additional savings of $30 million? Did you know that even with the escalating price of fuel, Guam is still only paying .25 cents a kilowatt hour? I don’t know about you, but this information makes me really excited to see just how amazing our legislatures plan must be! I mean it’s got to be much better than what Guam is doing right? Otherwise it would be a no brainer to not go with their recommendation and save $30 million the first year and have brand spanking new generators. And evidently, our legislature has a better plan than burning heavy oil, as there was no stipulation that whatever company won the bid would convert to burning heavy oil to save us money. I sure hope that part of their plan wasn’t based on geckos farting out money – that was just a fairy tale, did they not get that?

The Governor didn’t like this privatization bill, and vetoed it claiming that the $250 million purchase price would simply be passed along to consumers, and would result in even higher power rates than we’re currently experiencing. He also didn’t like the fact that it reinstated another autonomous board to oversee the utility company. But the legislature, this bunch of financial and power generation experts decided they knew better than the Governor, and overrode his veto. They didn’t care that the $250 million dollar purchase price would raise your rates; all they cared about was getting some money to be able to appropriate to such things as fishing derbies, additional baseball fields they could name after relatives, and countless other projects that would ensure their re-election once again. So obviously there must be something that we’re all missing here and that only the legislature is privy to, that’s the only thing that makes any sense. Surely they wouldn’t sell us all out and make us all pay higher rates just so they’d have more money to play with, would they? No, I have to believe that’s simply not possible, they were elected to represent us, and I’m sure that is primarily what motivates them and dictates their decisions.

And another thing that convinces me that the legislature must have a very good plan and not need anybody else’s help is the fact that when Nick Pula, from the Office of Insular Affairs was here last week, he told the legislature that they should probably rethink their override of the Governor’s veto if they really wanted financial assistance from the Interior Department to pay for the overhauls of engines 7 & 5. Now it is my understanding that he didn’t come right out and say, if you override the Governor’s veto of that bill, you can kiss any money from us to overhaul those engines goodbye. He was trying to be diplomatically correct and drop hints, letting them know that they needed to read between the lines, and that time was running out, and they’d better have a very good, plausible plan if they wanted any financial help. So I guess we have to either assume that these guys are not so good at reading between the lines, if they can indeed read at all, or that they got the message, but were sending a message of their own back to Washington. That message would be, “keep your money, we don’t need it anyway, we’ve got a better plan!” So again, while some might be worried about sending that kind of a message to Washington, I’m not worried at all, I know it means that our legislators must have a much better plan, and we truly don’t need any financial help from Washington. I sure hope that they’ve told Tony Muna their plan though, because last I knew, he was still counting on that money from the Department of the Interior to overhaul engines 7&5. I hope their plan isn’t really counting on mouse powered power generation plants, that was just a fairy tale. It wasn’t meant to be used as the new blueprint for privatization of CUC; surely they knew that, right? So thanks for the trip out here Mr. Pula, and thanks for patting us all on the back and congratulating us, but we don’t need your money, really. Well, at least we don’t think we need your money. Wait, should someone go and check with Tony Muna first? Nah, what am I thinking, our financial wizards and power plant experts in the legislature have things completely under control, they know exactly what they’re doing.

Well, this privatization plan must be an impressive one if it means we can finally stand on our own two feet and thumb our noses at the federal government. And one of the most impressive aspects of it is that we can count on it being not only bid out and awarded with no objections filed, but that we can count on the new company coming in and having new generators to replace the Aggreko generators in less than one year, when the Aggreko contract expires. That’s definitely an ambitious and impressive time line, but surely these guys wouldn’t play games when we are under a time deadline like that, would they? You don’t think they took that part of the fairy tale seriously about gecko powered generators do you? Wait, that couldn’t be why that old white haired guy was running around chasing geckos with a butterfly net the other day, could it? No, now that I think about it, I think they were chasing him with a butterfly net and a white jacket, never mind.

I think it’s become quite clear that there are many of us who have been too hard on this legislature, and harshly judged them for not listening to outside experts, for not holding public hearings regarding the privatization of CUC, for telling the Department of the Interior that we don’t need their money, and for not knowing what they were doing. So let me be the first to say, I’m sorry if I jumped to any wrong conclusions, I’m sorry if I’m not smart enough to follow the logic in your flawless plan, and I’m sorry that I didn’t have the faith to believe that you guys finally got your act together and are truly acting in the best interest of the people of the CNMI. I am very excited to watch this plan come together and to put a stop to all the nay-Sayers, myself included. I am so glad that you have a plan that will save us more than $30 million in the next year in fuel costs and still have paid for all new generators. I am thrilled that we can tell the feds we don’t need or want your money; we have a plan of our own, so thanks but no thanks. And most of all, I’m thankful that you have once again given us a reason to respect you and to accord you all the honor that is due you. But of course this would not apply to the 3 legislators that did not vote for the override, Representatives Tina Sablan, Ed Salas and Francisco Dela Cruz.

Now there may be some that hear or read this and might accuse me of sarcasm. But the only ones who could possibly think such a thing would be those who don’t believe all the things I’ve just praised the majority of our legislature for. And surely none of the legislators would, with a few possible exceptions. So bring on the plan I say, show all of us that you truly do know better than everyone else. I can’t think of a better time to prove me wrong and put me in my place once and for all. So thank you legislature for ignoring everyone else and for sticking to your guns, I know it couldn’t have been easy to ignore that many people. Thank you for taking the time to come up with a superior plan that blows all the others out of the water. And thank you for restoring honor and respect to your body. I know that I for one plan on giving you all the honor and respect you have earned from this point forward. I’ve learned my lesson!

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

A Disturbing E-mail & Questionable Actions By Cabinet Members

2008-09-26T09:54:00.002+10:00

Food For Thought 9-26-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

I want to start off today addressing an e-mail I got about my commentary last week from a Merced Santos. I’m assuming she’s a contract worker, because she states in her e-mail that she’s not a U.S. citizen. She proceeded to blast me for my fairy tale because I was critical of Tony Muna. She said she personally blames Kumoi, Tim Villagomez and Tony Guerrero for the mess the utility is currently in, but that Tony Muna is doing the best he can and doesn’t deserve my criticism. First of all Miss Santos, were you not paying attention to the disclaimer? Did I not say the fairy tale was completely made up and not based on any person? Did I stutter? Did I not make myself perfectly clear? Did I not put disclaimers at not only the beginning, but also at the end of the fairy tale? Everybody knows our generators are not the mouse powered power generation units, come on!

But everybody is entitled to their opinion, even if they did ignore the disclaimers. The part of her e-mail that troubled me was her harsh criticism of America and American’s like me. I am going to quote a part of her e-mail, so that I don’t take anything out of context, and all grammatical errors will be presented exactly as they were written.

“My daughter is a junior at MHS and she would listen to your commentaries sometimes and she once asked me why you are so anti-local government, anti-local leaders, and just about anything in the CNMI. I told her that you are one of those transient statesiders who came to doctrinate us with the "American values." And she asked what I mean about such values. I told my daughter that the federal government and some transient statesiders want to continue to study us and force the American values on us but they will not get away with it as they did with other people they call fellow Americans. Such values I said, include enslaving the black people and traded them as properties, horded the American Indians into the desert reservations in the U.S., cheated the Eskimos of their traditional lands and overthrew the last monarchial queen of the Hawaiian islands. These are the core American values that I described to my daughter. The U.S. is one of the most hypocritical nation in the world. Why did the 9-11 tragedy happened? I am not an American citizen, us in the CNMI are second class American citizens who are not allowed to vote for the American president but its government welcomes my son to fight its war in Iraq!! American values? Give me your food for thoughts on American values Mr. Blalock and it better be a good one.”

Again all misuses of words, such as doctrinate, instead of indoctrinate, are the errors of Miss Santos, and I am simply quoting her e-mail exactly as she wrote it. I copied and pasted it fact, just so there would be no chance that I wouldn’t quote her exactly. She told me how much better her English was than mine, so I figured she would want these things pointed out. But I guess my question is, if you hate America and Americans so much, then what are you doing working here? Did someone force you to come to work in an American Commonwealth? Is someone holding you here against your will? I’m fairly certain they must be, because after the things you said about America, I can’t imagine you wanting anything to do with it willingly. If that’s the case, I’d be more than happy to see if we can arrange for your immediate return to the Philippines, where you told me you are from. Are you one of the ones who are hoping for some kind of green card, U.S. citizenship or permanent residency as a result of the federalization of the CNMI’s Immigration system? And if you are, why? Why would you want to go to a country you believe to be so hypocritical and horrible? I’m sorry, but something here just doesn’t compute to me.

As far as my thoughts on American values, I obviously don’t condone every decision made by the United States, and know of very few citizens who do agree with everything. Yes, our country has made some horrible mistakes in our past, and continues making some today. But the awesome thing about the United States is that it allows its citizens to express their thoughts and ideas, even when they differ with the official government position. It vehemently protects individual rights and freedom of speech. It allows me to say whatever I want to say. And believe it or not, but it even allows you to say what you want to say as well, even if your reference to the reason for 9-11 happening was sickening and deplorable. But you are entitled to your opinion, and are even allowed to express it publicly. However as you pointed out, you are not a U.S. citizen, and you do have your own country to go back to, and frankly Merced Santos, that is probably what you should do if you truly feel that way about America.

Now on to a couple issues from the past week that left me wondering if this administration truly wants to get rid of everyone who is not a part of their exclusive club. The first one involved a situation with the Secretary of the Department of Lands & Natural Resources who also happens to be the government veterinarian. A citizen wrote a letter to him complaining about an issue she had with Dr. Tudor, the islands only private veterinarian. But instead of addressing the issue with Dr. Tudor, who happened to be away on vacation at the time, he decided to call the veterinarian who was filling in for Dr. Tudor and threaten to revoke his license to practice in the CNMI. The veterinarian claimed that Dr. Dela Cruz did indeed revoke his license to practice over the phone; however Dr. Dela Cruz claims that he only mentioned that he could revoke it. Whatever the case, the temporary veterinarian decided he had better things to do than put up with tyrants who just wanted to throw their weight around and show how important they are, so he packed his bags and left that night. So rather than dealing with things in a professional manner, and talking to Dr. Tudor, who the complaint was written about, Dr. Dela Cruz managed to chase off the vet, meaning that if your animals needed any care, you had no choice but to take them to Dr. Dela Cruz, rather ironic I thought. I’m sure that this little incident will not go unreported in veterinarian circles, and good luck the next time we need to get a temporary vet to fill in. It also reinforces our image as being unfriendly to business, and extremely difficult to deal with.

The other incident involves the Secretary of the Department of Public Lands and the Attorney General’s office. They decided to attack the company that recently purchased the Rota Resort, because they claim they didn’t come to them asking for their blessing before executing the deal to buy the resort. And instead of quietly going to the owners of the company and trying to settle whatever dispute they may have had, they decided to publicly attack them in the newspapers and accuse the new owners of trespassing on the property and demand that they vacate the property immediately. Whether D.P.L. and the A.G’s office had the legal right to do what they did is not even the issue with me, it’s the way they went about it and the message they just sent. The message they sent to any and all potential investors is that if you buy a business that is on public property, they can and most likely will make your life a living hell. So all businesses owners who are located on public property just watched the value of their business plummet, as they realize these actions will make it extremely difficult to sell their businesses in the future.

Did I miss something somewhere? Wasn’t this the administration that claimed they were going to be pro business and make it easier for people to do business here? Or was that just one more of the many promises like getting rid of the fuel surcharge, addressing the Commonwealth and answering questions every Wednesday morning on the radio, and prosecuting those involved with the plundering that took place at Marianas Public Land Authority? Their track record may be abysmal, but you have to admit, they’ve been pretty consistent. The administration will try to tell you that we’ve already hit bottom economically and we’ve turned the corner, but like most of their promises it simply isn’t true. If you talk to anyone in business, they will tell you that we aren’t even close to bottom yet and that things will get much worse before it improves, if indeed it ever does. Actions like those of these cabinet members of this administration are guaranteeing that things will only get worse, because the reputation they are giving us is one we won’t lose or change easily.

So I guess my question would be who are these cabinet members accountable to? Who do they answer to? Who is allowing this kind of behavior to go unchecked? What is your definition of dereliction of duty? And do we just want to see how much worse this administration can possibly make it before we consider impeachment? Do you still think you can’t find grounds for impeachment? Two wrongs does not make a right, and I’m thinking the people are going to correct the mistakes they have made in upcoming elections.

Food For Thought is now available online at http://www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com/ and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

A Fairy Tale

2008-09-18T11:45:00.002+10:00

Food For Thought 9-19-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

*Disclaimer – Today’s commentary is a fairy tale, and any correlations you may see between characters in today’s story and people you may know are purely a coincidence. This is meant for entertainment purposes entirely, any lessons you may draw from it are the product of your own imagination. So with that said, let’s get into the story…

Once upon a time, on a tiny island far, far away (well it is far away from most places), lived a king whose name was Bite The Hand That Feeds Me, everyone just called him by his nickname, King Bite Me. This king was a great king, well in his own mind at least, and he had a public liar, I mean crier, who was paid to go everywhere telling everyone what a great king Bite Me was. He was known as one of the best story tellers on the island, he had to be in order to do his job well. The crier’s name was Sir Spins Alot, and not a day went by when the common islanders weren’t subjected to Spins Alot’s fanciful tales and being reminded of what a great king Bite Me was.

King Bite Me got his name for his heroic (that is Spins Alot’s word, not mine) actions against a much larger land far to the east, all the way across the big pond. This much larger land had previously come to the tiny islands defense and rescued them from invaders from another much larger island. Ever since then, this much larger land had given the tiny island millions and millions of dollars to help them with their many troubles. They even adopted the people from the tiny island and issued them their very own blue Indigenous Identification Stamp Book, which was the same one the people in the much larger land used whenever they wanted to travel to far off lands. The much larger land had been very generous to the people of the tiny island, but it was never enough, and certain people, like King Bite Me always wanted more, and would throw temper tantrums when he didn’t get what he wanted.

At one point, King Bite Me decided that he wanted to lay claim to 200 miles of sky above his tiny island. Why he wanted 200 miles was a puzzle in the first place, the tiny little island he lived on was less than 15 miles long, so where did he get off thinking he could make such ridiculous demands? All the villages in the much larger land got to own 3 miles of the sky in their own places, and that seemed to be the standard amount of allowable sky. But King Bite Me thought he was much more important than anyone else, and instead of asking the much larger land for 3 miles of sky, like all the other villages had, he demanded they give him 200 miles of sky. The much larger land decided to let their council of white haired elders decide the matter, and it was decided that since King Bite Me wouldn’t ask for a reasonable amount, that they would give him nothing at all, and hopefully teach him a lesson. At the end of the proceedings it is rumored that the king left in a huff and loudly proclaimed his nickname, Bite Me. So now because of the king’s stubbornness and arrogance, the people of his tiny island have to crawl around on their bellies so as to minimize the amount of air space they take up, since they have no legal claim to any air above the ground at all. It is rumored that as a result of having to crawl around on their bellies so much, many of the politicians, or leeches as they are commonly referred to on the tiny island, actually turned into snakes. Sure many of them had been called snakes for years, so maybe it was just some kind of backwardly evolutionary thing that can only happen in fairy tales, or maybe it was them getting their just desserts, it’s very hard to say, and that’s not really the point anyway. The people of the island frequently wound up paying the price for the decisions made by their great king, Bite Me, but they had been taught not to question their great king, and to just accept whatever he told them as truth. Independent, individual thinking was discouraged, people were just supposed to listen to Sir Spins Alot and trust whatever he told them.

The tiny island had also gotten itself into trouble with the much larger land because of their policies and practices involving bringing in other workers to do all the jobs they didn’t want to be bothered doing themselves. There were problems with all kinds of things, and the much larger land finally decided they would take over the Department of Jobs We Don’t Want To Do. This infuriated great King Bite Me as it meant that some of his favorite entertainers might have to go back to where they came from. He decided that he was going to hire a company that specialized in harassing people and have them to harass the leaders of the much larger land. There were a couple problems with this though, harassers don’t come cheap, they want a lot of money to go harass other people, and it didn’t seem like there were very many other people that agreed with great King Bite Me that hiring the harassers was a good idea. The people elected those from among themselves to make laws and represent them; these were called the honorable leeches. But even the honorable leeches didn’t support hiring the harassers, and they refused to give the king any money to hire the harassers. But great King Bite Me decided he was going to do whatever he wanted to do, after all, he was a king, he didn’t have to worry about being re-elected or anything. So he instructed Sir Spins Alot to tell people that he was going to hire the harassers anyway, and it was none of their business where he was getting the money to pay the harassers. Again it was rumored that as he hired the harassers, he turned in the direction of the much larger land and screamed his nickname once again, Bite Me!

There were those who questioned the sanity of King Bite Me because at the same time he was hiring the harassers to bother the much larger land, he was asking the much larger land for $4 million dollars to buy more mouse food, and to replace a bunch of the mice in power wheels 7 and 5. There were those who tried telling the king that the much larger land might be much more likely to help them out if he didn’t hire people to harass them, but he didn’t care, he stuck his fingers in his ears and kept chanting his nickname over and over, Bite Me, Bite Me, Bite Me, Bite Me.

You see while the rest of the world was moving away from mouse powered power generation plants, King Bite Me and his predecessors had buddies who were in the mouse power generation business, and they offered them rewards if they bought their mice and products from them. So even though there were better options out there to produce the kingdoms power, the king and his predecessors ignored what was in the people’s best interests and kept doing business with their cronies. The main problem with this is that the cost of mouse food was going out of sight, and then if you didn’t give the mice regular checkups, they had a tendency to get sick and stop working. All of the mice in the king’s power generating wheels had been worked for years without any checkups at all, their health was completely ignored. Mice were dying on the job and nobody seemed to care. The ones that were left were breaking their little legs trying to run extra hard to make up for their fallen fellow mice. But instead of buying new mice and taking care of the new mice, King Bite Me had his mice handlers just tape toothpicks to their legs as splints and try to make them keep running on the power wheels. Sure they could whip and beat the poor little mice and get a little more life out of them and make them produce a little more power, but they would eventually just collapse, turning off the lights on the tiny island yet again.

The residents of the tiny island were getting sick and tired of the constant power outages and had talked about putting King Bite Me in a boat with no paddles and sending him out to sea in a storm, and there was also talk of cutting out Sir Spins Alot’s tongue. He realized he had to do something, so he instructed one of his most faithful aides, Why Me, (who he had put in charge of the mouse power plant even though he had no experience with mice, power or plants), to bring in some miniature geckos on tiny little power wheels and have them produce some extra power. He finally found a company, called A Gecko Power Company, who trained geckos to run on the wheels instead of mice, geckos are much faster than mice and it was theorized that they would be more efficient, creating more power on less gecko food. The only problem was it was expensive to bring in A Gecko Power Company, so they took some money from the This Land Is Our Land Fund, and used that to pay for 3 of the months, then Why Me figured he would just wave his magic wand and the geckos would start farting out money and their problems would be solved.

In fact Why Me was so convinced that his plan was fool proof that he found the biggest rock he could find on the island, he stood on top of it and started screaming from the top of his lungs, “We’ve gone 48 straight hours with no power outages, I hereby declare an end to power blackouts”. Of course you can almost guess what happens next, there was a power outage just a few short hours later on Mount Olympus. Then a short 2 days later there was yet another early morning power outage on Mount Olympus. So after his grandiose boasting that we had gone over 48 hours with no power outages, they had now gone 48 hours with 2 power outages since the declaration of an end to the power outages. Was Why Me just that delusional that he really thought there wouldn’t be any more power outages, or had Sir Spins Alot given him the party line to spout, even though everyone knew it was a lie? There were those who said the tiny island would continue having outages because the mouse powered power wheels that had been breaking down causing the previous power outages would continue to break down and cause more outages because they were still using crippled mice to run them. More and more of the tiny island residents were seeing that they couldn’t believe anything at all that was said by anyone connected to King Bite Me, and they continued to make plans to move to the much larger land. So much for Why Me’s grand promise and the end of power outages. Maybe he will have better luck with his magic wand getting the geckos to fart money, well we can always hope.

But you need to remember that part of this plan was to get an extra $4 million dollars from the much larger land to buy mouse food and replace a bunch of the ailing mice. One of the prominent citizens from the tiny island went to the much larger land to talk to some of the leaders there about problems that were being experienced on the tiny island, but when she got there she found out that her invitation to meet with the leaders was revoked because of the king’s plan to hire the harassers. The leaders asked why they should meet with anyone from the tiny island when their king was hiring harassers to pester them.

As with all good fairy tales, there is usually a moral to the story. When you have a King named Bite Me, who likes shouting his nickname at those he is asking to get help from, your chances of success are not good. And waving a magic wand and expecting geckos to start farting out money is probably not the most logical way to go about getting reliable 24 hour power.

Don’t you feel so much better now that you live where you do and not on some tiny island far, far away with a king called Bite Me? See, no matter how bad it is where you are, you can always find somewhere that things are worse, even if it is just in a fairytale story that was completely made up.

Again, any similarity between this fairy tale and people you may know is the product of your overactive imagination and is purely a coincidence. Any lessons to be learned from this fairy tale are totally unintended. And since I’m in the radio business, I obviously listen to a lot of music, and decided that I’d like to finish with a line from the chorus to one of my favorite songs by Carly Simon, with one minor substitution. “You’re so vain; you probably think this story’s about you, don’t you, don’t you?”

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

Misinformation, Deception & Lies

2008-09-12T11:29:00.000+10:00

Food For Thought 9-12-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

A healthy discussion on the issues is usually a good thing; it allows both sides to see things from a point of view they may not have realized previously. That’s provided that both sides base their arguments and point of view on facts and not lies and distortions. If you have to make things up to defend your point of view, that should tell you that maybe you’re on the wrong side of the issue right away. But for some people it’s not about figuring out what the right thing to do is or what makes the most sense, it’s about fighting the issue because your boss is against it, or because of political pressure.

I have listened to those who are opposed to the Marianas Marine Monument, and I consistently hear a couple of either misconceptions, distortions or just outright lies. They keep trying to tell people that the federal government would own those three islands and would not allow anyone to go up there to visit them. The fact of the matter is that this monument is about protecting the water surrounding the islands, and has nothing to do with the islands themselves at all. The islands would remain under the control of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands; we would still own them and make all rules pertaining to them. A marine preserve deals with the water and all the creatures living in the water, the laws would pertain to what is allowable in the waters; it has nothing to do with the land on the islands in this instance. But the opponents don’t want you to realize this, they want to keep you confused about the issue, believing it is really about the land on the islands, and is just one more instance of the federal government coming in and taking over our land and pushing their laws on us. Think about it for a minute though, if it was really about the islands themselves, why would Wespac be fighting it so hard? They are a fishing organization; they are concerned with water, not land.

I also found it quite ironic that in their resolution they passed against the proposed monument, one of the reasons the legislature listed for being against it was that the federal government wouldn’t allow local people to go up and visit those islands. This is ironic because our local legislature has already designated those three islands as Sanctuary islands, meaning they are already off limits to visitors. You might recall the case several years ago when a group of lawmakers took a boat on a joyride to some of the northern islands supposedly to look into the possibility of establishing a school up there. I kid you not, that was the listed purpose of the trip. So they chartered a private boat, and went up on this “fact finding” trip. One of the lawmakers at the time had a private zoo, and wanted to capture some coconut crabs for his zoo, so he got a permit from Fish & Wildlife to capture 5 coconut crabs from the island of Pagan and bring them back to exhibit in his zoo. But for whatever reason, this group of lawmakers, and their friends decided to go to Asuncion Island instead. Asuncion is a sanctuary island and we were told they were not even supposed to step foot on the island, not to mention that it was blatantly illegal to capture coconut crabs on the island. This group of lawmakers turned lawbreakers decided that the laws were for other people, not them, and they proceeded to capture over 20 coconut crabs and had a big feast of them. That attitude by lawmakers is nothing new obviously, and it is still alive and well.

That was the first time I found out that under our own constitution, you are not even allowed to step foot on a sanctuary island, they are totally off limits. So while this bunch of meatheads, I mean honorable meatheads, passed this resolution blaming the federal government for not allowing them to go to the islands if the monument was signed into law, the truth of the matter is that they did it to themselves long before the Marianas Marine Monument was ever proposed. By the way, there were 3 legislators who voted against that moronic resolution; they were Heinz Hofschnieder, Tina Sablan and Edward Salas. So the rest of them all willingly distorted the facts and made it look like one thing, when the reality of the situation was that they themselves were the ones responsible for the situation they were supposedly trying to avoid.

The other major issue that they don’t really want to admit is that the C.N.M.I. currently has no ownership or jurisdiction over the waters surrounding our islands anyway. Most people seem to think that we own and control 3 miles out from each of the islands, however that is simply not true. You may remember a couple years ago when we were fighting with the federal government over how far our ownership and control of the offshore water extended, Governor Fitial was demanding that we fight for 200 miles. I remember at the time there were those that told him that he should be more realistic and only ask for 3 miles, since that is what most other states and territories have. But our Governor, as seems to usually be the case, thought he knew better than everybody else and insisted on fighting for 200 miles. The case wound up going to the U.S. Supreme Court and we wound up with nothing. We didn’t get 200 miles, or 20 miles or 10 miles, or even 3 miles, the federal government said that they owned and controlled all water right up to the high water mark. That’s what happens when you get too greedy and try imposing yourself on the U.S., you wind up with nothing if you’re not willing to be reasonable and compromise.

So since we don’t own or control any of the water according to the U.S. government, what do we really risk giving up? It’s not ours to give up, we don’t own or control it now anyway, we just keep trying to convince everyone that we do. I’ve heard several people say that they are hesitant to support the monument because they haven’t heard how much control we’d have to give up or what we’d lose the rights to. They don’t have to wonder anymore, that question can be easily and truthfully be answered right now. We wouldn’t have to give up any land or rights to the islands at all, because this isn’t about the islands, it has nothing to do with them actually. And we wouldn’t have to give up any mining rights, fishing rights or rights to the water either, we don’t have any! According to the U.S. government, they currently own right up to the high water mark, and the only way I can see that changing is if we were somehow successful in pulling away from the U.S. and declaring ourselves independent. But that probably wouldn’t be a very smart thing to do if we expect to keep getting financial help and handouts from the U.S. Once you understand the truth about these 2 fairly simple issues, it takes a lot of the confusion over the issue away and makes you wonder why all the fuss if we really don’t seem to have anything to argue about anyway?

So if this isn’t really about those 2 major issues, then what is it all about? Could it be that Wespac just doesn’t want to lose that potential fishing area? Is part of their funding dependent on the size of the area they cover? Is this just a jurisdictional thing with them, and are they fighting over turf? Is Wespac behind the reluctance of the lawmakers to support this? Has Wespac been making some big campaign donations? I don’t really know the answers to any of these questions, but I think they are all worth looking into, and I’d like some answers to them.

Is the real reason that the Governor and his “yes men” oppose the monument just because they are still mad at the U.S. government for forcing them to finally raise the minimum wage here? Are they still mad about the takeover of our immigration system, and this is just too close to those events? Is it a spite thing? Are they trying to block it just because they think they can? Are they trying to show the U.S. how big and tough they are and impress them by standing up to them? Have your representatives asked you what you think about the proposed monument? Have they told you they would represent your ideas and attitudes since they are indeed supposed to be representing you?

Or could it be that they really don’t understand the facts themselves? Do you think they really are that misinformed that they believe this is really about the islands? Were they sleeping when the decision was handed down that we don’t own or control any of the water surrounding our islands? Do you think they are under the mistaken impression that the Governor actually won that challenge and we own and control 200 miles out? Do you think it’s possible that these leaders we’ve elected could really be that misinformed about everything, and not have bothered checking into the facts themselves before issuing a resolution? Surely they wouldn’t do that, would they?

Can it be that they really believe that rot about what a good job we’re doing managing our own resources and patrolling our own waters? They don’t even want to open that can of worms and look at just how dismal their record really is in that matter. This commentary isn’t meant for our elected leaders, I don’t believe they have the capacity to understand it anyway. This commentary is meant for you, it’s about using common sense and reason and basing your opinion on the facts, not on misinformation, deceptions and lies. It all boils down to these two basic facts, the Marianas Marine Monument has nothing to do with the islands, and we don’t own or control any of the water anyway. When you establish those two very basic facts, it makes their arguments against this whole thing look very silly and inappropriate. Amazing what a difference a little thing like the facts makes!

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

Fitial's Fabulous Plan

2008-09-05T13:50:00.000+10:00

Food For Thought 9-5-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

You can see the relief on people’s faces the last few days, most of them were able to get a good uninterrupted night’s sleep because there weren’t any power outages in the middle of the night. Commonwealth Utilities Corporation managed to get another of their generators up and running, so they were now able to produce enough electricity to move away from the three hour, three times a day schedule they had supposedly been following for the previous week and a half or so. But before you get too excited and put too much hope in the Aggreko generators that are supposed to be up and running by September 13th, I think it’s important that you understand a few things.

Tony Muna, the Executive Director for CUC spoke to the Saipan Rotary Club this past Tuesday and gave us an update on the situation and answered questions. He explained that Power Plant 1 was down to only one functioning generator at the time. It is a generator that should be producing 16 megawatts, but was currently only producing slightly over 4 megawatts. He said they just brought another engine online that morning that should hopefully allow them to cut down on the outage schedule. So these two generators that were being operated by CUC should have been producing 32 megawatts, but were only producing 8 megawatts between them. That’s good old fashioned CUC efficiency for you. At that point PMIC, which operates power plant #4 was producing 15 megawatts of power, even though they are only contracted to provide 10. That meant we had 23 available megawatts to meet a demand of 41 megawatts.

Nothing was mentioned about power plant #2, which was in the news recently because of the contract with CISCO, even though not a single generator is operating there currently. At this point I think it is probably worth pointing out what that contract was all about, and why even after spending all that money on a contract, we still have no operating generators at that power plant. CISCO was only supposed to supply parts for the generators and offer expertise in repairing the generators, but CUC employees were actually supposed to do the work, install the parts and get the generators up and running. So after spending all that money, and getting the parts delivered, once again the brilliant minds in charge of CUC decided that instead of having their employees actually install the parts and repair the generators, they would keep them working on the generators at power plant #1. Now you may ask yourself why CUC entered into that contract in the first place, if they didn’t have available manpower to install the parts and get the generators up and running, or why they didn’t just contract to have CISCO install the parts themselves and be responsible for getting the generators operational again? I guess you could ask the board that oversees CUC why they allowed such a foolish decision to be made. Oh wait, Governor Fitial did away with that board didn’t he? So does that mean he is ultimately responsible for that huge screw up involving the CISCO contract and the fact that we still have no operating generators there? Even though he may not have personally made the decision himself, he is ultimately responsible for all decisions made by CUC since it falls directly under his office now, isn’t he? Thanks a lot Governor; we could have really used the power provided by those generators at power plant #2 recently. Maybe he didn’t really care that much since we found out recently that we’ve been paying his utility bills for him and for the Lt. Governor as well, and since the blackouts don’t seem to affect his area very much.

So why don’t the Governor and Lt. Governor have to pay for their utility bills at their houses like you and I do? Do they think that just because the utility bills would be paid for if they lived in the official residences that they should be paid for even though they’ve elected to stay in their own mansions instead? We aren’t forcing them to stay in their private residences; they are more than welcome to stay in the government provided residences with the utilities included there. But when you elect to stay in your own private residence because it is so much plusher and fancy than the official governor’s residence, you should pay your own utility bill like any other citizen. After all, it takes quite a bit more electricity to keep your private swimming pool nice and clean. And why did the Lt. Governor’s utility bill jump from 1700 kilowatts a month before the government started paying his bill for him to over 5,000 kilowatts a month when the he got his electricity for free? Did he start just turning on every single electric appliance and air conditioner in his house and let them just run all the time for the heck of it? What happened to the conservation they were telling the rest of us we had to practice? Or is it possible that some of his relatives that live in the same compound could have had their electricity run through his meter, so they could get free electricity too? I have no idea, but I do think it’s something worth looking into, for those with inquiring minds.

I’ve gotten sidetracked though; let’s get back to the state of CUC. So the Aggreko generators are scheduled to be online and producing 15 megawatts of power by September 12th. Again, this is a 6 month rental contract that will cost CUC $500,000 a month. They will be paying for that with the interest income from MPLT investments in 2009 - 2010. I think they are living in Never Never Land, and just don’t have a clue. One thing you need to understand right now is that when CUC says they repaired a generator and have it up and running again, it doesn’t mean they have overhauled it and that it’s now as good as new, it means they’ve replaced the broken part to get it running again, but they still haven’t fixed the problems that caused the failure in the first place, so it will just be a matter of time before it happens again. In fact this administration has done exactly the same thing the last administration did; it has totally neglected the maintenance schedules for the engines and generators. They still haven’t done a single overhaul, they are simply providing band aid fixes and repairs, so these engines will continue to constantly break down and fail because the core problems aren’t being addressed or fixed. That’s also why these generators are only producing a fraction of the power they are capable of producing and why they are so inefficient.

The Governor chastised Pete A. Tenorio for wanting to tell the federal authorities that we are in the middle of a humanitarian crisis as a result of our power situation. He said the situation is much worse after a typhoon and we’ve come through those in the past, and besides, he has a plan. First of all, the problems after a typhoon are distinctly different from the problems being currently experienced by CUC. After a typhoon, you have to deal with trees that have fallen on power lines, downed power lines and distribution problems. It’s just a matter of chasing down all the various distribution lines, and clearing them or replacing them, but once you’ve done that, you’re good to go. Our problems right now have nothing to do with distribution; they are the result of total failure of our power generation system. If that’s not a crisis, I don’t know what is. You didn’t exactly reinforce your credibility by making that statement Governor; you just proved how out of touch with the situation you really are.

Their plan is to put out Requests For Proposal for private companies to overhaul and rehabilitate the engines and generators. Have they forgotten that they can’t seem to actually produce an RFP that isn’t plagued by challenges and delays? Didn’t they just have to cancel the RFP for renewable energy? They plan on having all of this completed during the 6 months that Aggreko is providing the supplemental power. Have they forgotten how much lead time they need to order parts and have them manufactured? Where do they think they are going to come up with the money to have the engines overhauled? Do they have extra money now that they’ve stopped buying so much Rydlyme? Do they think the feds are just going to give it to them and trust them to do the right thing with it, without having a competent and experienced project manager overseeing everything? Tony Muna is an accountant, remember? Is he really qualified to oversee the overhauling of engines and generators? Does he really know what needs to be considered in the contracts? Can he do a better job of the contract that his predecessor did with the CISCO contract?

And in order for this plan to work, with reliable 24 hour power in the meantime, it means that the engines and generators CUC has working right now with their band aid repairs have to continue operating with no breakdowns. What do you think the odds of that happening are? If I was a gambler, I’d set some pretty long odds on that one. So now that you know the real situation and this administration’s plan, do you feel better about things? Are you confident in their abilities to actually pull this off? How do you feel about the Governor and Lt. Governor getting free power and not having to conserve anything, while you and I continue to have to turn off air conditioners even when we do have power just because we simply can’t afford to run them anymore? They’ve had nearly 3 years now, are you enjoying the Better Times? Do you feel they’ve made good decisions regarding the utility company, since it is directly under their control now? Have you appreciated the lower rates they promised before they took office and the consistent, reliable power? Looking back I realize we couldn’t really believe any of their promises or what they told us, and I’m not thinking we should put much stock in this new plan or the current batch of promises either, but then again, that’s just me!

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

What Was Tina Thinking?

2008-08-29T10:32:00.000+10:00

Food For Thought 8-29-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

What was she thinking? How could she possibly expect them to do such a thing? Didn’t she realize the consequences that could be in store if they actually followed through and did what she was asking? I’m referring to Representative Tina Sablan’s suggestion that the House actually entertain impeachment proceedings against Governor Ben Fitial and Lt. Governor Timothy Villagomez. Her colleagues couldn’t believe she was actually considering such a thing, not to mention bringing it up publicly during a House session. They quickly scrambled to dust off the Constitution and see just what exactly the grounds for impeachment were. They showed her that they had no proof that they had broken any laws, therefore they couldn’t do anything. They said it was up to the FBI, or the Attorney General’s office or the Department of Public Safety to bring them proof that laws had been violated, and then, and only then would they even begin to consider such a thing. I guess we are just supposed to pretend that the Attorney General isn’t appointed by the Governor and serves at his pleasure, and that the Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety also isn’t appointed by the Governor and serves at his pleasure. And as 3 other Commissioners of D.P.S. have already found out during this administration, it doesn’t take much to fall out of pleasure with the Governor and to wind up out of a job.

Yes, there is that pesky little phrase about dereliction of duty in the grounds for impeachment in the Constitution, but what exactly does that mean anyway, and after all, which of them couldn’t be accused of dereliction of duty as well? Just because the Governor made some outrageous promises about getting rid of the fuel surcharge on your CUC bill before he took office, should we really hold that against him? Just because he abolished the board that was ultimately responsible for all decisions made by CUC, and then placed the government utility company directly under his own office, and has since completely run the utility company right into the ground, was that really dereliction of duty? Hardly, gross incompetence maybe, but they couldn’t figure out how that could possibly be construed as dereliction of duty, come on Tina, work with us here.

Just because the Governor proposed coming up with a Public Utilities Commission to oversee the utility company and set rates for it, and then submitted names himself for those who would sit on this board, and then when they actually wanted to do their jobs and look over questionable contracts, the Governor did away with the PUC board and declared another state of emergency for the failing power company and gave himself total authority to award sole sourced contracts and do away with all procurement procedures, well surely she couldn’t expect them to use that as grounds for dereliction of duty, could she? She couldn’t possibly be expecting them to entertain impeachment against the Governor for allowing corruption at the utility company involving his own Lt. Governor, the Lt. Governor’s sister and a member of his cabinet, who also happened to be the Lt. Governor’s brother in law, all while the utility company was directly under the Governor’s office could she?

Obviously this young, inexperienced lawmaker hasn’t been around long enough to know how things really work here. If they entertained impeachment proceedings against the Governor or Lt. Governor, they would risk them exposing all the skeletons in their own closets, after all, they would undoubtedly not go quietly. The Governor has been involved in politics for a very long time, and has no doubt at least witnessed many of their questionable little schemes as well. She couldn’t possibly be expecting them to take a chance of having that happen, could she? And the Lt. Governor’s family is one of the biggest, and most power political families on the island, wouldn’t it be the kiss of death if any of them decided to try holding the Lt. Governor responsible for his actions? How would they ever win re-election?

After all, had she forgotten that under the American justice system, you are innocent until proven guilty? Although, anyone with an ounce of common sense realizes that you are not really considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, if you were, then why can you be jailed after being charged with a crime? After all, you haven’t been convicted yet, so you are supposed to be considered innocent, right? And if the court truly considered you innocent, then why would they have the right to impose bail on you before they let you out of jail pending your trial, you haven’t been convicted yet, have you? And if they really considered you innocent, why would they have the right to confiscate your passport before the trial, have you been convicted yet? It is glaringly obvious that law enforcement agencies and the court system consider you guilty once you have been arrested, as you will all the sudden find a lot of your freedoms being stripped away. They have no problem at all arresting you, handcuffing you, locking you up in jail, and bringing you before the court in handcuffs all before you’ve been convicted of anything. So are they assuming you’re innocent up until you’re actually convicted of a crime? They are saying they not only believe you are guilty, but they have proof to back up their claim that you are guilty, and they are going to start treating you as a criminal from the point they take you into custody. A grand jury has already heard the facts of the case, and they found there was sufficient evidence to move forward with a trial, so they obviously don’t think you’re innocent either. And the court also believes there is a very good chance you’re guilty of the crimes you’ve been charged with, otherwise they wouldn’t bother with bail or taking your passport. So let’s stop with this charade of pretending that people are really innocent until proven guilty, our entire system functions on the premise that they are guilty once they’ve been arrested, and then it’s just a matter of whether some slick lawyer can find a way to get them off through a technicality.

But the legislature can keep hiding behind the whole innocent until proven guilty thing, and stall for time right up until the end of the trial. That way they can’t be blamed for taking any action against the Lt. Governor, that way they don’t risk having him uncovering any of their dirty deeds as retaliation for impeaching him. And if they’re really lucky, this whole thing will drag on beyond the end of his term anyway, and then they’re completely off the hook. After all, why should they be the ones to have to take a stand and to put themselves on the line? This isn’t what they got into politics for, is it?
So why is this young upstart lawmaker trying to shake things up? Doesn’t she realize this will all blow over just like everything else out here always has? Doesn’t she know the island attitude is to forgive and forget, after all, we never really hold anyone responsible for anything? It’s always been that way, and as long as this good old boy network can keep it’s stranglehold on power, it will always be that way.

Then they figured if they start lecturing her about being a team player and throwing a bunch of stupid clichés at her, maybe she would finally shut up and just go along with the flow. After all, the people don’t really expect her to do the right thing anymore than they expect them to do the right thing. If they did, they wouldn’t keep re-electing them over and over and over, and letting them keep getting away with the same stuff year after year. She obviously doesn’t understand how politics works; it’s all about building consensus, give and take, compromising on your principles so that you can call in the favors when you need them. It’s not about doing the right things for the right reasons; it’s about working your way into positions of more power and influence. It’s about chinchuli. Chinchuli is the local custom of when you give money at a funeral or rosary, or bring food; the family that you helped now owes you the same amount that you just helped them, whether in cash or food. Things aren’t just given out of generosity or out of the goodness of their hearts; it’s done so that favors can be called in later. And this is taken so seriously that most families actually keep ledger books of not only what they owe other families, but what the other families owe them as well. Now the polite thing is to just go ahead and offer the same thing in return when it is the other family’s turn, but if favors need to be called in and repaid, that is certainly an option.

But chinchuli has made the jump from rosaries and funerals to politics. Lawmakers regard their votes the same way, if you vote for my bill, then I owe you, and I’ll vote for your bill next time. Most of them even keep track of votes and favors owed. So when they are up there on the hill, they are not really representing you, they probably could care less what you happen to think about a certain bill, it’s all about chinchuli and banking favors so that you can call them in at a later date. It’s all about earning favors and paying back favors, it has nothing to do with the issues. It’s all about special interest projects, like lawmakers voting to give outrageous amounts to fishing derbies when several of them compete in those derbies and actually win big prizes in them. Is that like the conflict of interest they claim doesn’t exist in the legislature, and which is the biggest reason they say the legislature should not be changed to a part time legislature?

That silly Tina, here she thought she was being elected to represent the people and do what was in their best interest. The truth of the matter is that every other member of the legislature is up there playing the chinchuli game, and protecting those who have protected them in the past. Which kind of legislator will you be voting for next time?

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

The Cost of Freedom

2008-08-22T10:46:00.000+10:00

Food For Thought 8-22-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

Today I want to talk a little bit about freedom, and the fact that it really isn’t free at all, it’s usually quite costly. I think most of us have heard about the staggering cost of freedom when it comes to war. And there are few places that have seen the cost paid out right in front of their very eyes like Saipan and Tinian have during World War II. The cost of having a free country where you have the right to worship as you please, vote for your candidate of choice and openly speak your mind can be counted not only in dollars spent on a military, but also in the blood of the thousands of soldiers who have given their lives for their country. Whether you agree with the United States policies on Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, and the list goes on, is not really the point. The point is the cost of having a free country is very expensive, and that’s something that no one can argue.

Then there is the freedom to choose where you want to live within the United States or its associated Territories and Commonwealths. That is really a huge blessing; you can come and go as you please, you can choose to live here, or choose to live in any of the states. Even though you weren’t born there, you still have the freedom with your blue passport to live and work anywhere within the U.S. I’m sure we all know dozens or hundreds of contract workers that would give anything to have that freedom and privilege. You have the right to drive on any of the roads that connect the states, to benefit from the infrastructure that has been put into place. If you live in the United States, that isn’t really free either, because you pay federal taxes that help to fund all those things.

As an American, I also had the freedom to choose to move to Saipan, and to live a life that many of my friends back there would have been truly jealous of 8 to 10 years ago. I wasn’t able to come here and buy property, so I’ve rented the whole time I’ve been on Saipan, but I’ve had the freedom to stay here as long as I wanted. But now there seems to be quite a price associated with living here. There is the fact that we are paying the highest utility rates anywhere in the country. We are also paying more for most goods we purchase here as well, including food, clothing, electronics and pretty much anything else we buy. That means that you have less disposable income at the end of the day because more of your income is eaten up because of the higher cost of living and the lower wages. So even though many of us have the freedom to live here, we now have to ask ourselves whether the cost is worth it anymore. For many it is, because this is home, it’s where your family is, where your roots are. For others, the beauty of the tropics and the ocean is enough to keep them here and it makes up for the additional cost to live here.

But lately there is another cost that needs to be factored in, that is the cost of not having reliable 24 hour power. If you don’t have any appliances or electronics that are susceptible to being destroyed by brownouts or power fluctuations, it probably isn’t as big a concern. We have fallen below the acceptable minimum standards of most third world countries, and instead of it getting better, it’s only gotten worse for the last 2 years now. Part of the freedom of living here now includes sleeping without air conditioning because most places lose power for at least a couple hours every night now in addition to several daily outages as well.

Then we also have freedom of speech here, but as most people who have actually exercised their freedom of speech can tell you, that’s not free either, and usually carries a very steep price. Sure, you can say whatever you want, criticize whomever you like, but if you have the guts to actually put your name to whatever you say, there will be a price you will pay, and it will usually be staggering, especially if you’re very vocal about your criticism. If you’re in business and you openly and vocally criticize the government, you can expect them to retaliate in any number of ways. And one of the things you may or may not recognize or identify right away is the fact that the relationships between politicians and their family members in other businesses are like spider webs, they seem to be everywhere and can be very difficult to avoid.

When you’re a part of the media, this can be a very difficult line to try walking. On the one hand, supposedly you have a social responsibility and obligation to be a voice for the people, to speak out about problems and abuses you see. Many people look to you as a sort of social conscience and expect you to say things that they wish they could say themselves, but realize they can’t for any number of reasons. They expect you to expose corruption and to ask the hard questions, they want you to put your neck on the line and be ready to take the heat. But when the heat comes, and you turn around to see those who have been prodding you on and encouraging you, they are nowhere to be found, you’re standing there by yourself, and you’re the sole target of those wanting to retaliate.

The cost comes in politicians that refuse to advertise for their re-election bid, they take their business elsewhere. The cost comes in federally funded government advertising campaigns that you no longer get because you spoke out about something. The cost comes when you lose contracts because you criticized policies or decisions made by certain politicians who have the wife of the person you’re doing business with working for them. The cost comes when you have friends who have to pretend to not know you when certain people are around or are looking. The cost comes to your children when they participate in school competitions and they don’t stand a chance just because of their last name. The cost may come to your spouse who is applying for a new job, but doesn’t stand a chance because she is your wife. Freedom of speech is far from free, and the more you exercise it, the more costly it will become. In a perfect world it wouldn’t be that way, you would be able to speak your mind without fear of repercussion or reprisals, but unfortunately that’s not reality, and this isn’t a perfect world.

The easy and safe thing to do is to just lay low, not ruffle any feathers, always be politically correct and never speak out about anything. There are those who have chosen that path, it is the path of least resistance, and it is the path that has been the most widely taken out here in years past. And honestly, after doing this for over 12 years out here now, I have to ask myself if that wouldn’t have been the smarter path to choose. The costs to my family, my friends, my employer and me would have been so much less.

It is because of the high cost of speaking your mind and exercising freedom of speech that there are so many anonymous blogs out there. They have determined that the cost of identifying themselves while speaking their mind is just way too high and they’re not willing to pay it. I can’t say as I blame them, I totally understand the price of speaking your mind. The only problem with that is you then have no track record, no history and no credibility. Nobody knows who you are, what the motivating factors are behind what you are saying or what your personal or political affiliations are. You can slander anyone you want to without fear of reprisal, because no one knows who you are. It’s quite convenient and allows you to say things you would never dream of if people knew it was you saying them. I suppose it does allow people to have a voice without fear of reprisal, but I’m not sure that’s an entirely good thing. It encourages irresponsibility and recklessness. You don’t need to check your facts before saying anything; gossip or hearsay works just as well as the facts, especially if you can never be held accountable for it. I think it also allows people be much meaner than they would ever dream of being personally or if people knew who was behind it. I gave up reading anything from anyone I don’t know or can’t identify long ago. I just don’t want to be sucked into listening to anything from anyone who isn’t willing to stand behind their own words; it makes them suspect right off the bat. So even being an anonymous blogger isn’t free because the cost is your credibility and your history. You may have some great points of view and concerns to share, but without the credibility and history, they then become suspect and lose their value. I gladly read things from people with whom I know are on the opposite side of an issue, but I know where they’re coming from and can look into their history if I need to. Credibility and reputation aren’t free, they require you to take ownership and stand behind what you say.

All freedoms come with a price, and it’s usually a fairly steep one. The question you need to ask yourself is when those freedoms are no longer worth the price you have to pay to exercise or enjoy them. You may still have the right to exercise your freedoms, but the price of doing so may outweigh the benefits of exercising those freedoms. It’s usually a good idea to stop and reevaluate your situation, take inventory of the price you’re paying and then make an educated decision whether it’s still worth it or not.

Many people in the CNMI are doing a personal cost analysis right now, and you will be seeing their decisions played out as they either decide to stay here and keep speaking their minds, or as they decide the cost has gotten too great, and it far outweighs any perceived benefits or results. Even though the price for free speech can be very costly, I can’t imagine living anywhere that I wasn’t able to exercise it.

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

Federal Charges & Solutions

2008-08-15T13:10:00.001+10:00

Food For Thought 8-15-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

It finally happened this week; something that many of us had heard was coming for at least a month. That was the arrest and arraignment in federal court of Lt. Governor Timothy P. Villagomez, his sister Joaquina V. Santos and her husband, Commerce Secretary James Santos. Former Commonwealth Utilities Executive Director Anthony Guerrero was also arrested but accepted a plea agreement to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy in exchange for his testimony against the others. They each face 3 counts: conspiracy to defraud the federal government, wire fraud and theft of federal funds.

For those of you not familiar with what led to this, let me give you the Reader’s Digest version of the story. Back in 1998, when Tim Villagomez was the Executive Director of Commonwealth Utilities Corporation, he used some federal funds to purchase thousands of gallons of Rydlyme. The problem was that he ignored CNMI procurement regulations and sole sourced the contract out to a company owned by his brother in law, James Santos. Santos had formed the company shortly before the purchase of the Rydlyme. There are also laws against doing business with family members when acting as an agent of the government. They very quickly found that using the chemical caused more problems with the equipment than it solved, so they stopped using it, and CUC still has 8,175 gallons of Rydlyme that remain unused. But according to the indictments, this was a very lucrative transaction for the James Santos as he marked up the cost of the chemical by 400%. If this was a legitimate purchase and the chemical was really needed, why didn’t CUC test the product first to make sure that it worked and didn’t have any adverse effects before buying such a huge quantity of it, the purchase price was $280,000? The fact that procurement policies were ignored, and the fact that it was a sole sourced contract through a family member makes this a very questionable, if not outright illegal transaction.

Now if it weren’t for the fact that procurement policies were ignored and that it was sole sourced to a family member, I could almost swallow the explanation that they erroneously bought a chemical that just didn’t work out. We all know that sometimes you just make mistakes when buying things, although one would hope that if they were spending that kind of money they would make sure they knew what they were doing and buying.

But the thing that really makes this whole thing stink even worse is that they didn’t stop at that one transaction back in 1998. Evidently they all made so much money out of this little scheme that they decided to bring it back for another round in 2006-2007. This time Tim Villagomez was no longer the Executive Director of CUC, but was the Lt. Governor. Since Governor Fitial has gotten rid of the Board of Directors for CUC shortly after coming into office, he had appointed the Lt. Governor in charge of the troubled power company, since he was after all a former Executive Director of CUC. So even though CUC was in the middle of the worst financial mess they’ve ever had to face, the Lt. Governor decided to launch their little plan one more time, only this time his sister set up the company that would sell the Rydlyme to CUC. So even though they already knew the Rydlyme wouldn’t work, and would just cause more problems if it was actually used, they went ahead and bought another $120,000 worth of it through the company set up by his sister. Since there was another Executive Director of CUC now, he had to be instructed to go ahead and approve the purchase of the Rydlyme, even though we already still had a bunch sitting around. According to the indictments, the Lt. Governor in his capacity as the boss of CUC Executive Director Anthony Guerrero, included him in this scheme and had him sign off on the purchase, again without going through proper procurement procedures. They didn’t even have the creativity to use a different chemical this time, they didn’t figure they would ever get caught, and even if they did, they didn’t figure anybody would do anything about it anyway. After all, that’s just the way things work here in the islands. So at a time when we were already experiencing rolling blackouts as a result of not being able to pay for fuel, and we didn’t have the money needed to do the proper maintenance and repair of the engines, the Lt. Governor went ahead with this little plan to buy more of the useless chemical to the tune of $120,000 and route it through his sisters newly formed company.

There are so many things that bother me about this whole thing that I almost don’t know where to start. First of all, how dare they enrich themselves at a time when the rest of the Commonwealth is suffering through constant rolling blackouts? Did they not care that the money was needed for things that might help alleviate our rolling blackouts? Did they not care about the effect this would have on you as they sat in their generator powered air conditioned homes? I know that this kind of thing happens all the time here, and has been done numerous times in the past, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it or tolerate it.

Then I am also dismayed that the Lt. Governor has not voluntarily stepped down pending the outcome of his trial. Does he not realize that having him continue in his capacity as Lt. Governor as he faces these charges in federal court once again makes us a laughingstock to any and all potential investors and business people? Does he not care about the image of the CNMI and our already badly bruised reputation? I am also disappointed that the judge didn’t issue a prohibition against him having anything to do with CUC pending the outcome of the trial. Do you realize that the Lt. Governor is still in charge of CUC since there is still no board to oversee the corporation? And now that the Governor has declared another state of emergency for CUC, will that just open the door to numerous other sweetheart deals and scams that we’ll all wind up paying for? How much access does Tim Villagomez have to CUC documents and records right now? Can he go through and destroy other documents that that could possibly be used against him in other deals he was involved with? I think you can see how this is not only a very unhealthy situation, but a disaster just waiting to happen.

I was extremely disappointed by statements made by the Senate President in the newspaper about the situation regarding the Lt. Governor on Thursday. He went out of his way to say that he was confident that the Lt. Governor would be found not guilty and that he was very, very close family. Shouldn’t he be waiting to see what a jury has to say before declaring his belief that the Lt. Governor is not guilty? And was it really appropriate for him to point out his close family ties at the same time? Does this mean we can’t count on him to be unbiased and to look out for the best interests of the citizens of the Commonwealth? Does this mean that he won’t take his responsibility to consider impeachment proceedings against the Lt. Governor seriously?

And what about the responsibility of the Governor, he is after all the one who put the Lt. Governor in charge of CUC and let him oversee its operations. The Governor also just lost a cabinet member as James Santos was the Secretary of the Department of Commerce. Does this show that the Governor hasn’t used the best judgment in choosing not only his running mate, but also in the top people he surrounds himself with? Is the Governor the final authority? Does the buck stop with him? Since he is the one who abolished the CUC Board of Directors, does that make him ultimately responsible for what happens at the utility company since it is now under the control of the Executive branch?

I believe there is more than enough reason for both the House and Senate to look into impeachment proceedings against both the Governor and the Lt. Governor, but of course we all know that won’t happen, because as the Senate President so succinctly pointed out, they are dealing with very, very close family. So will our House and Senate put family ties ahead of their sworn duty to protect and safeguard the people of the CNMI? The Lt. Governor has also reportedly rejoined the Republican Party, who happens to be in control in the House of Representatives right now, and was reportedly getting ready to run with a very prominent member of the Republican Party and the House of Representatives in the next gubernatorial election. So because of all these connections and the close family ties that seem to permeate nearly everywhere, I’m fairly certain that we can’t count on the House or the Senate to do their jobs.

So will the Governor and Lt. Governor do the honorable thing and voluntarily step down as a result of all of this? I don’t believe they will, even though they should, because as this whole thing has shown us, they are far more concerned with their own well being and enrichment than they are of the feelings of the people and the needs of the Commonwealth. We have seen and even heard from various politicians’ mouths in the past that when they get in office, it’s their turn to enrich themselves in any way they can. It’s considered an inalienable right.

I don’t think this upcoming trial in federal court will be as much about guilt or innocence as much as it will be about getting family members on the jury and on trying to get an acquittal through technicalities. I think it is very important to remember that even though you may be found not guilty in a court of law, it doesn’t mean that you didn’t do what you were accused of; it just means that your lawyer figured out a way to get you off. So should the removal of the Lt. Governor be dependent on the outcome of the trial or should it be decided based on what has happened? The facts of the case seem pretty clear and straightforward, but sadly as the Senate President pointed out, they aren’t nearly as concerned with facts as they are with family ties.

I know that I have expressed my frustration with CUC many times and in many different ways over the past couple of years. It should be pointed out though that much of what has happened at CUC is not the fault of the line crews, or the mechanics or the rank and file CUC employees. They do their jobs and follow orders given to them by the administration of CUC, which has been taking their orders from the Governors during the previous two administrations. The frustrations should be directed at those responsible for the messes we are currently experiencing. They deserve your rath and your frustration, but remember that the CUC linemen, mechanics and rank and file employees can only do what they are allowed to, they don’t make the decisions, they simply follow orders. So during these days and nights of extended power outages, if you want to know who to blame for the current mess we’re in, you could start by thanking former Governor Juan Babauta, the CUC Executive Director under his watch, Lorraine Babauta, Lt. Governor and former CUC Executive Director Tim Villagomez, former CUC Executive Director Ramon Guerrero, numerous former CUC board members, and yes our current Governor, Ben Fitial also has to accept his role for what has happened not only when he was Speaker of the House but also now while he is Governor. There is plenty of blame to go around, but it belongs to these people, not the rank and file CUC employees. Keep that in mind the next time you see a CUC line crew out looking to isolate the problem at 3 am on a rainy morning.

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

A Few Questions

2008-08-08T14:37:00.000+10:00

Food For Thought 8-8-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

As I sat at my desk contemplating the numerous issues that I could talk about in today’s commentary, I guess confusion is the word that best describes my state of mind at the moment. I have a bunch of questions swirling around in my head again with no apparent answers anywhere in sight. Sometimes it helps to go ahead and ask some of the obvious questions, because when other people express the same questions and concerns, you realize that you’re not the only who is wondering, “what the heck?”

One of the first things that made me scratch my shaved head was a letter to the editor in Friday’s paper praising Governor Fitial. It used some lame symbolism about Governor Fitial being a great swimmer and swimming into the eye of the storm, and told about how he had confidence that Governor Fitial was the best swimmer and how many people had admired him for his great swimming skills. Some of the questions this letter brought to mind were: Is this guy trying to get a job in government and what does he want from the Governor? Is he related to the Governor, or was he being paid to help the Governor’s Press Secretary try putting a positive spin on the Governor? Was he just in a car accident where he experienced severe head trauma? Has he been treated for hallucinations? Is he on mind altering medication? Did he happen to find another package washed up on Managaha and did he sample the contents? There were a few other questions that came to mind, but I don’t think those should be shared publicly.

Then there were some of the statements for one of the candidates running for the Washington delegate position. He stated he was the best candidate because he is a Carolinian from Rota, and that he would appoint Rota students to the military academies. If you know anything at all about this guy, you can just imagine the long list of questions that came flooding into my mind when I heard he was first running and then when I heard about some of his statements. Obviously I can’t list all of the questions; I don’t want this commentary to last over 2 hours today. But there are a few questions that I felt should probably be asked. The first question that came to mind was, shouldn’t you be representing all the people on all of the islands in the CNMI, not just the Carolinians on Rota? Do you realize that this is a CNMI delegate position, and not just a Rota delegate position? Do you think other people should be represented as well? Do you believe that under the U.S. Constitution all men are created equal? How much time did you spend on you exhaustive platform? Would you care to tell us what it is like being charged with a crime, convicted of a crime, while arriving at a plea bargain to have a bunch of other charges against you dismissed, and what it is like to serve a sentence in the CNMI jail? Can you remind us once again of what it was that you were charged with and convicted of? With those things in your background, do you really feel that anyone would ever take you seriously if you were to actually be elected? Do you feel that having those things in your background would add fuel to the fire in the criticism of the CNMI? Do you think you have successfully put that kind of behavior in your past, or is it something that may reappear at any time without warning? Do you think there should be any moral or ethical standards applied to someone seeking to represent the CNMI in the U.S. Congress? Now I’m not really expecting that he will bother to answer any of my questions, but since he is running for such a high position, I would think that we should all be demanding answers to each and every one of these questions before giving him our vote. Although I’ll admit, some of the questions were purely to satisfy my own curiosity.

Then while we’re on the topic of the race for Washington delegate, I wonder why not all of the candidates have taken advantage of my offer of free air time to tell the public why they are running for that position, and to answer a few questions? So far only 2 of the candidates have come in to talk about their candidacy on the air, they are Pete A. Tenorio, who is running as a Republican, and John Davis who is running as an independent. I have heard from Greg “Kilili” Sablan that he wants to come in as well, and from John Oliver Gonzales who said he wants to go over possible questions and answers with his people before going on the air – fair enough. But that still leaves 5 candidates who have not contacted me about the offer of going on the morning talk show to discuss their candidacy. They are Senator Luis Crisostimo, who is still a senator and doesn’t want to give up his sure thing quite yet, David Cing – a former senator from Tinian who is representing the Democrats, former Judge Lizama, who could use the opportunity to explain how the 180 day prohibition against him running for office from the time of his retirement doesn’t apply to him, Chong Won – a former CNMI police officer and now businessman, and Felipe Atalig who I should probably refrain from trying to describe to you. Yes, there is plenty of time before the election, and I would hope that they would all want to avail of the offer to get some free publicity and to explain to the public why they are running for this position. Could it be that some of them may not be thrilled about the questions I would come up with for them? The offer will continue to be on the table up until the election, but its first come, first serve of course.

And then I’ve got a bunch of questions regarding the proposed Marine Monument and the opposition to it. First off, why do the opponents keep calling it the Pew Monument? Don’t they realize that the Pew Foundation really wouldn’t have anything to do with it after it was designated as a monument; they simply came up with the proposal, that’s all. Is this really about indigenous rights, or has it simply become a pissing contest? Do some of our politicians have their noses out of joint all because this wasn’t their idea and they weren’t consulted about it early enough? Do the opponents realize that this has nothing to do with the land on the islands at all, but that it is protecting the waters around the islands? Do they realize that they don’t have any rights to those waters anyway according to the U.S. Supreme Court? I see some of them are claiming that they already practice ancient conservation methods, so they don’t need any help from the federal government in protecting the waters. How many of them have ever fished up there? How many of them have ever been there period? I read where they say they hope to eventually repopulate those islands. Do they realize that would be illegal under our current laws because the islands are already sanctuaries? Do they realize these islands would be nearly impossible to live on because of the terrain? What do they think their fishing practices here have to do with conserving the environment up there? Do they really want to allow illegal fishing boats go up there and get away with whatever they can take anytime they want? Who is financing the stickers I’ve seen that have a red circle and a line through it with the words Pew Monument in it? Is it Westpac? Why is Westpac so opposed to this? Is it because they lose money or control? I can understand why the politicians are opposed to it; typically they are always opposed to anything that is good for the CNMI if they don’t get their cut off the top. I just wonder why we can’t have a discussion about this based on the facts and not on misinformation, and a smoke screen instead of the real issues.

And then I am wondering why a certain member of the legislature recently introduced a bill seeking to punish government employees if they don’t provide information to the legislators fast enough, while they continue to block applying the Open Government Act to themselves? Isn’t that pretty much the height of hypocrisy? Does this lawmaker really think that they are all in a class by themselves and aren’t answerable or accountable to anyone, and that everyone else should jump whenever they want something? And why did this lawmaker accompany the Senate President and the Speaker of the House to Washington? What was their purpose of going there? Wasn’t our Washington Representative doing his job, did they feel they needed to do it for him? Did they go with the blessings of the administration, or to tell whoever would listen that they disagreed with the Governor and weren’t on the same page with him on any number of issues? Wouldn’t you like to know what was so important that these 3 felt the need to spend all that money? And aren’t our local lawmakers supposed to be concerned with making laws here? Did they need to do some research? Were their frequent flyer accounts getting low?

And finally just a few random questions that are rambling around in my head, can we really believe anything at all we’re told by anyone at CUC? Did the Attorney General’s Office decide to drop all prosecutions of former MPLA board members, attorneys and employees and just not bother to tell anyone? Is there anything at all about this administration that could be considered transparent by any stretch of the imagination? What was the result of the subpoenas that were served on people connected with CUC? Will we see any results of that? Will it hopefully be handled in federal court if we do? How will things change at the Department of Public Safety with Clyde out and Santiago in? Why don’t police officers direct traffic when power is out at the lights anymore?

Some days you don’t have many answers, just a bunch of questions that you’d like to get some answers to. These days, there are more and more questions and fewer and fewer answers.

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

What Is Your Breaking Point?

2008-08-01T15:30:00.000+10:00

Food For Thought 8-1-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

We all have things that are breaking points for us, things that once they are taken away or violated cross a line in our mind, whether we are conscious of it or not, mean that it is no longer worth it to us. Let’s take a look at living in the Northern Mariana Islands and take a look at where some of our breaking points may be. People have different reasons for wanting to live here, assuming that they do actually want to live here. There are those of course who were born here, their family has always lived here, and had no real choice in where they lived. Most of them will most likely stay here just because they really don’t know anything else and have never had any other options or experiences. Then there are those who were born here, but have been to the United States or traveled around Asia, but they still want to live here because this is home for them. They have a sense of belonging and identity by living here. And then there are those who have come from different places and actually chose to move to Saipan or one of the other Northern Mariana Islands.

Those who were born here, have all their family here, and they haven’t ever been anywhere else are the most likely to stay here no matter what, since it’s all they know. It doesn’t matter how bad it gets or whether they pass their breaking point or not, they will most likely stay because it seems like the only option to them. They will just do whatever it takes to survive, have more people all live in the same house, turn off the electricity, whatever they have to do. Even though their quality of life is horrible, they have nothing to compare it to, no point of reference so they will just keep putting up with this situation, no matter how bad it gets.

Those who have been to the states for college, or who have traveled quite a bit realize just how far behind we are on so many things and how there is a definite price you have to pay for living somewhere like this. The breaking point that determines whether they stay here or seek greener pastures elsewhere could be anything from losing our movie theater, losing Price Costco, gasoline going to $7 a gallon, utilities costing more per month than their rent or house payment to the constant and unscheduled power outages. They might get tired of hearing all the hollow promises from the administration about how they are going to fix things but never really do. They might determine that their children can’t get a quality education out here, or that they can’t afford to put their children in a private school. The amount they have to settle for as a salary out here might be so out of line with everywhere else in the world that they simply aren’t willing to short sell themselves anymore. It could be that the rest of their family is moving away and they want to move to be close to them. It could be that the price of goods rises so high that they can’t afford things that they normally wouldn’t even have to think about twice in the states. But more and more of them have reached their breaking point and they are moving away from the CNMI in droves. I think we’re going to see an even bigger exodus of this group within the next year or two.

And then there is the last group, that’s the one I belong to. For any of us that have been here at least 5 years, we’re an odd bunch. We have lived in other areas where we’ve had many more conveniences, prices have been lower, you’ve had much better selection of everything, and yet we willingly gave all that up and moved here. The reasons are different for every person, and the reasons they stay are different as well, but I think all of us have a breaking point too. At some point the quality of life will have deteriorated to such a point that even the beauty of the tropics that most likely drew us here in the first place won’t be enough to keep us here any longer. But it will most likely be different things for each of us that pushes us to our breaking point. I have seen many friends leave in the last year, and the reasons for the departures are as wide and varied as the people themselves. Many have just watched things continuing to slide down hill over the last 5 years and they want to leave before we hit rock bottom. They love what Saipan used to be, but realize it is not that anymore, and most likely never will be again.

There are those that have left because with the escalating price of electricity and gasoline, they don’t have any extra money for anything anymore. It has wiped out their ability to save up to travel. There are those who are sick and tired of the constant power outages, and losing their electronic equipment repeatedly because of the low line voltage or the power surges and spikes. Some are tired of having crowded classrooms, no supplies, no janitorial service and threats of payless paydays. There are those who have worked at the hospital who are sick and tired of the political interference in them trying to do their jobs. They are tired of being overworked and underpaid. They are tied of having to try practicing third world medicine, realizing that they don’t have the proper tools and support here in order to properly do their jobs.

And then there are those of us who have watched all of these problems materialize and we have continued to put up with them all. It’s usually because there is something else that holds us here, something that we would have a hard time finding most other places. In my case, it’s been the diving and my underwater photography. I can put up with a lot of inconveniences as long as I have those. It doesn’t mean I like the problems or am happy about them, but they haven’t quite pushed me to my breaking point yet, or at least they hadn’t pushed me there up until Monday night. I had a friend from Hawaii here this past week and ask if I could take him out night diving, of course I never turn down those requests if I can possibly help it. We went diving in the Grotto Monday night, and of course I had my underwater camera and was getting some pretty cool pictures down there.

When we got back up to the truck it was pretty dark, and somehow I forgot to put my camera in the backseat of the truck and left it in the bed of the truck. We stopped at a local hangout after our dive for a drink or two and some tacos. While we were in there, some punk came along and stole my underwater camera from the back of my truck. I’m sure that it wasn’t something they needed themselves, as no decent diver would do that to another diver, this was some scumbag who was looking for a few bucks and probably took it straight to a pawnshop. Idiots like that one will ultimately be the complete demise of Saipan, they will have driven everyone out who is working to improve this place and who genuinely cares about it. They don’t care about anyone else, they don’t care about the good of the community, I’m fairly certain they never volunteer their time to help anyone out or to improve our islands. They are morally bankrupt individuals who only think about themselves and really don’t care about the consequences of their actions, the entire world revolves around them. They don’t care if their actions might chase yet another person out of the Commonwealth, one who is a contributing member to society. They don’t think past their next high. And they know they really have nothing to fear by stealing. The pawnshops make it very easy for them to convert their stolen items to cash, they don’t ask for any receipts or proof of ownership. Our pawnshops are a thief’s dream. Why we continue to allow them and make a market for thieves, I have never quite figured out. It’s not like the thieves have to worry about cops on patrol spotting them or arresting them, there is a better chance of them being struck by a falling meteor. And even if by some fluke of nature they are caught, they all know they have nothing to worry about in our courts. They may have to listen to a lecture and get a slap on the wrists, but it’s not like they’ll get any serious jail time or have to reimburse the person they stole from. There are no consequences for crime here, nothing to make a thief think twice before stealing something.

Some people are willing to tolerate a lot of things, but very few people are willing to tolerate thieves. There is something very personal and disturbing when your privacy is violated and someone takes your things. Personally I like the Saudi’s way of dealing with thieves, on their first offense they cut off one of their hands in the town square, so that everyone can see what happens to thieves. Second offense they lose their heads. I know there are those who will be screaming that it is barbaric and we need to be patient and rehabilitate the thieves, but one thing you need to realize, Saudi Arabia doesn’t have many repeat offenders. Forget the three strikes and out rule, you never make it that far. We will continue putting up with the juvenile delinquents, with the scumbags that are too lazy to work for a living and with those with no respect for anything or anyone. And pretty soon, that’s all we’ll have left, because everyone with the means of leaving will have done so, they will be tired of being ripped off every time they turn around.

Taking control of our island means stopping the rampant theft, not tolerating thieves in our families any longer, turning them over to the police and then demanding that the justice system actually does something about the crimes. I realize there is about as much chance of that actually happening as a snowball fight in hell, but if something doesn’t change fairly soon, they will have nobody to steal from but each other and you. Don’t cry when you’re next if you don’t do anything about the problem now!

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

Do We Really Need Them?

2008-07-18T15:25:00.000+10:00

Food For Thought 7-18-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

I understand that the Fitial administration has its hands full right now with more problems than they can handle at one time, but to me that still doesn’t let them off the hook for certain promises they made to us a couple years ago. Their promise to get rid of the fuel surcharge for CUC when they came into office was an absolutely ridiculous promise that I knew there was no way they could ever keep. So I never put any stock in that promise in the first place. But there were other promises that I did expect them to keep, and have been extremely disappointed that their word seems to be about as dependable as the CUC engines and generators.

Before the Governor even took office he promised to come in each Wednesday morning that he was on island to answer any questions and keep the record straight about what was going on. He did fairly well with that for a couple months, then started having back problems so he stopped coming in. But even after he has recovered from his back surgery, I think he’s only been in studio one or two times in the past year. I don’t know if he’s been upset at some of the things I’ve said about his administration in my commentary, or if he just really doesn’t want to have to face some of the questions he knows I’ll have, but I’ve been disappointed that he didn’t live up to his promise of transparency and being accountable to the people in that way. I’m sure he doesn’t like having to come up with answers for many of the problems that we’re currently embroiled in, but isn’t that what we elected him to do, come up with answers and tell us what is going on?

This Governor also promised to end deficit spending and to finally have a balanced budget and only spend what we were taking in, and they claimed they actually accomplished this a year ago or so. But if that is really true, then how is it that we accumulated another $30 million deficit last year alone? You can’t just stop paying some of your obligations and pay only the ones you can afford and call it a balanced budget; it just doesn’t work that way. This administration has certainly tried to spin things in a favorable way, but that doesn’t mean that it was really the truth. The truth is in the figures and the audits, and the last one just pegged our cumulative deficit at $218 million. It’s spiraling out of control and in spite of the measures that have been enacted, it really hasn’t put a dent in our negative cash flow. We need to make much more substantial cuts and stop the needless spending immediately. We still haven’t figured out that we can’t afford to go to stateside conferences and spend money like it grows on trees.

Then what about the promises of prosecutions having to do with the messes that were uncovered at Marianas Public Land Authority, did they forget about those, or are they just waiting for the statute of limitations to run out? It’s been over 2 ½ years, just exactly how long does it take them to build a case? For the longest time we were told they were waiting for the report from the Office of the Public Auditor, but then that report came out saying they had found numerous instances of questionable if not outright illegal activities. But that report has been out for well over a year and still not a single word from the administration or the Attorney General’s office about any follow up or prosecutions for the financial atrocities that took place at that autonomous agency. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been told by the administration to just be patient, there would be an announcement any day now. That was over a year ago!

It’s just more of the same old same old, lots of talk, but never any follow through or results. Why is there such a hesitancy to prosecute white collar crimes in previous administrations? Is there some unwritten code that as long as you don’t prosecute the guys who came before you then the next guy who comes along won’t prosecute you for all your misdeeds either? Of all the promises that were made by this administration and consequently broken, this is the one that disappoints me the most. I expected they wouldn’t really follow through on the rest, but I thought they were as outraged as I was about the blatant corruption and money grabbing that took place at MPLA during the last administration, and I thought they were serious about holding them accountable for it. This administration has proven that they are no more serious about following up the OPA’s recommendations than any other administration has been.

I guess I’m just a bit confused about why we wouldn’t want to go after those who have taken advantage of their positions and misused the taxpayer’s money. We all know it isn’t because we have such a surplus of cash at the moment. This won’t be the first time I’ve suggested such a thing, and it most likely won’t be the last, but can you tell me what the point of even having an Office of the Public Auditor is if we are never going to follow up on their recommendations or make any prosecutions as a result of their investigations? I mean really, why bother staffing the office and having an operating budget for them? If all of their findings just wind up collecting dust anyway and we never see any follow up, then why spend the money and go through the exercise in the first place? Is it just so that we can pretend to be a society of law and order? Is it so that we can appear to respect the law?

And why do we go through the pretense of having enforcement agencies? Sure we have made laws and supposedly we expect those laws to be upheld and enforced, but I think we all know they’re not. So why should we have Fish & Wildlife officers if the Attorney General’s Office is just going to recommend plea bargains for those the Fish & Wildlife officers catch violating our laws, and they only wind up with 6 month sentences all suspended except for the 4 days already served and $25 fines? Couldn’t we save a lot of money if we did away with those jobs since we’re obviously not serious about enforcing anything anyway?

And if the Attorney General’s office can’t be bothered actually taking a case to trial and following the recommendations of the Office of the Public Auditor, why have it then? We could save a bunch of money if we didn’t have to pay all those “over the salary cap” lawyers up there. And why have a court if the judges are just going to slap everyone on the wrists anyway and tell them not to do it again? Just think of all the money we’d save by not paying those salaries and for their office staff. And why have a jail if we really can’t afford to put prisoners in it anyway and don’t have the stomach to actually give out real sentences?

I realize that this may seem absurd to some to even contemplate doing something as extreme as getting rid of all these agencies, but seriously, if we’re not going to get serious about utilizing them, then why have them in the first place? Seriously, what are we really accomplishing if we are not going to utilize them? I believe if you take a look at just how many of the Office of the Public Auditor’s recommendations that have actually been followed up on or been prosecuted over the last 6 years, you will quickly see what I mean. It’s not that their work isn’t good or that they’re not thorough, it’s just that there is no will to actually follow through on their recommendation and push through with prosecutions. I believe if you ask the Public Auditor himself, you will also find that he has been very frustrated by the lack of follow through on any and all of their investigations during his time in the office.

I believe that the Governor, the Department of Public Safety and the rest of the enforcement agencies, the Attorney General’s Office, the courts and the jails would all try to tell us that they are all doing a great job. It kind of reminds me of the Emperor’s new clothes. A scam artist convinced the Emperor that he would make him clothing of the finest material, it was so fine that he couldn’t even see it. The Emperor, being the pompous and vain dictator he was, wanted only the finest for himself, so he paid the scam artist and then went parading around in his new clothes. As he walked down the streets the people all laughed at him as he was prancing around naked. I think all the administration and all these agencies would try convincing us they are all doing a great job, when in reality they are all parading around naked, not accomplishing a thing. I would love to be proved wrong about any of this, please just show me a successful prosecution of any of the former MPLA board members or their questionable attorney and I’ll issue a public apology. But in the meantime, I’m going to go around saying that we’ve been lied to over and over and over again, and that somebody is prancing around naked!

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

The "B" Word

2008-07-11T11:46:00.001+10:00

Food For Thought 7-11-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

For several weeks now, I’ve been hearing from several different sources that our government, specifically the administration is slowly coming to the realization that the problems at Commonwealth Utilities Corporation are far beyond anything they can cope with or solve. They are realizing that for far too long we had political appointees running and managing the corporation that really didn’t have the required background, expertise or experience to do the job properly. And then we had the interference from politicians who had their own plans and designs on the future of the power plant and refused to spend any money on maintenance for the engines and generators because they were just going to privatize it anyway. The money kept in surplus to order spare parts and fuel was quickly squandered and wasted. Then we had a bunch of pandering politicians seeking desperately to hold onto their jobs artificially lower the rate that CUC had to charge to residential customers, charging far less even than the fuel costs to produce the electricity, not to mention all of the other associated costs. Then this administration learned that they had been led astray and told that the repairs would be completed much sooner than was feasible or realistic. So now they had engines and generators that were breaking down on a daily basis, parts that had not been ordered yet that were needed for overhauls of the engines, no end in sight of the rolling blackouts, and they were continually unable to pay for adequate fuel shipments to run the generators for the next month.

When you find yourself in the middle of a situation like this, it severely limits your options. You realize that continuing to depend on fossil fuels to produce your electricity will not be sustainable much longer, yet you have no money to invest in alternative energy sources. So do you continue throwing millions of dollars into the old, inefficient generators we have? Do you invest in new generators that will continue to burn expensive diesel fuel that you know you won’t be able to afford to pay for, and that will drive the cost of electricity so high that no one will be able to afford to live here any longer? Or do you eventually come to the realization that the problems have spiraled out of control to the point that there is no possible way you can begin to address all the issues and come up with a workable solution? Do you finally have to start discussing the “B” word? And can you discuss the “B” word since the utility is owned by the government, without admitting that the entire government is also teetering on the verge of the “B” word as well? The “B” word in case you are wondering, is Bankruptcy.

I have heard from several different people in the last few weeks that the administration is getting closer and closer to the conclusion that bankruptcy might be the only viable option they have left, and that it has been discussed extensively. Could that also be the reason that the administration placed an accountant in charge of the failing utility company instead of a power plant operations manager or engineer? Was his sole objective to get the financial books organized enough to be able to formally declare bankruptcy? When I had Tony Muna on my talk show last week, I came right out and asked him whether the administration has been considering declaring bankruptcy for CUC. He was reluctant to answer the question at first, and wanted to point out all the things the administration has tried to do to avoid this. He blamed the Retirement Fund for not being willing to give CUC the loan a couple years ago, then he blamed the legislature for lowering the rate the utility had to charge to residential customers. Yes, we all know there is plenty of blame to go around, but the question I asked was whether the administration has been discussing putting CUC into bankruptcy. After dancing around the issue for the better part of a half hour, Tony finally came out and said yes, the administration has been discussing the viability of declaring bankruptcy for CUC. He was careful to point out that it was not the course of action that had been definitely decided at this point yet, but it was certainly one of the options that were being considered.

But the mere fact that bankruptcy is even being considered for CUC brings up a whole host of other questions. If the administration, who is in effect running CUC at the moment, declares the utility is bankrupt, where does it go from there? Do they march into Judge Munson’s federal courtroom and say, here you go, we don’t know what to do with it anymore or how to solve the problems? Would Judge Munson have the authority to appoint a receiver to oversee the operations of CUC from that point forward? Who would then be responsible for paying for future fuel shipments? Would a receiver have the authority to take bids and privative the utility company? If the utility company were under the direction of a federally appointed receiver, would that mean that they could tap into federal funds to bring in alternative energy producing plants, whether wind, wave, solar or deep cold water ocean thermal energy conversion?

I think the administration has finally realized that just going to the federal government asking for financial help while continuing to have a dysfunctional, corrupt, inefficient and malfunctioning system in place to operate the utility company isn’t going to work. We’ve tried that before, and the federal government is tired of throwing good money after bad. I think they are going to want to see some real reforms and changes before they bail us out again. They are going to want to be sure we don’t find ourselves right back in the same position in another 10 years. And they should put some very strict demands on any help they wind up giving us, as we haven’t always been known to honor our previous agreements.

But should the receivership stop with just the utility company? What about Commonwealth Health Center? It has been swimming in a sea of red ink for more years than I can count. Their billing department there is a complete joke and they can’t seem to keep the staff or equipment they need. Could a federally appointed receiver straighten out their messes as well and get them on the path to being a professionally run and operated hospital?

And what about our Retirement Fund? Will they be financially solvent 10 years from now? Will retirees actually be receiving their checks? But is that really the Retirement Fund’s fault, or is it the fault of the government who isn’t paying the proper contributions to the Retirement Fund? And if the government isn’t paying all their obligations and doesn’t have enough money to meet all their financial obligations, should they be placed under receivership as well? After all, what is the definition of bankruptcy? Isn’t it when your liabilities exceed your income and your assets and you have no way of generating enough income to pay for all your liabilities? If that is the definition of bankruptcy, I’d say our local government has been operating in bankruptcy for several years now, or not operating as the case may be. It wouldn’t be the first time that a government was bankrupt and placed into receivership. It happened to Orange County, California several years ago. And while you may say, but wait, that was only a county government, not something like the Commonwealth government, you need to realize that the population of Orange county is far, far higher than that of the CNMI, and the scale of everything was that much bigger as well.

There are those that would say the federal government has no business intruding into our affairs, and they should only be there to give us money and nothing more. We have the right of self-governance and the right to choose our own leaders and then watch them run things straight into the ground. That may be true, but then the federal government also has the right to say no to our continued requests for funding to bail us out of whatever the current mess is. I’m sure they are getting tired of watching the same scenarios play out over and over out here, while we never seem to learn any lessons from it, or hold any of those who got us in these messes responsible. Honestly the federal government would have to be insane to offer us any financial assistance. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing, in the same situation over and over and expecting different results each time. The federal government knows our track record and has watched us repeat the same mistakes over and over again. If they were to give us money again without requiring some drastic changes, they would fit the definition of insanity.

We just keep electing the same ones who got us into these problems right back into office, which is why our last governor actually thinks he has a chance and is planning on running to be governor again in the next election. He’s counting on the fact that you’ll forget he kept claiming things were pretty darn good when he was in the process of destroying CUC and letting our economy quickly flush down the toilet. He’s hoping that you won’t put 2 and 2 together and realize that he’s a big part of the reason we are in the messes we are in right now. If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results, then what would voting for any politician once again who you’ve already given a chance to and who has failed you be?

Yes, we have fewer and fewer options available to us these days, and maybe that’s what it’s going to take to finally effect any real and meaningful change. The “B” word may be closer than you think, or at least finally admitting that is where we are, and have been.

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

Sometimes A Little Extra Effort Is Required!

2008-07-03T13:24:00.001+10:00

Food For Thought 7-4-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

Happy Independence Day! I hope that somewhere during your time of celebrating and partying over the weekend you are able to reflect on what a privilege it is to be an American and to have all the freedoms that come along with that blue passport. And even though this holiday is not specifically about our soldiers and those who have served in the military, I hope that you will take this opportunity once again to thank all those who have served in the military to protect our freedoms and ensure our liberty and independence. Honestly, I don’t think we can ever thank them quite enough, especially for the things they have been willing to go through and endure for the rest of us.

I think that all of us who live in the CNMI, or who have spent any time here in the past, realize that we face some pretty unique challenges as a result of where we live. But how we respond to some of those challenges can be very important and can make a big difference. I ran into another one of these challenges the other day and learned a few lessons that I thought I’d share with you as they may apply to situations you run into as well.

I was setting up an online store to sell shirts, hats and assorted other merchandise with my Axe Murderer Tours logo on it. No, I don’t really have a company called Axe Murderer Tours, well not yet at least. But I have taken hundreds of military visitors and other guests to the island out diving over the past 12 years. I have never charged for it, I just like being able to share the underwater world here that I have come to love so much, so I let them go along as a dive buddy. Several years ago, a lady who was serving in the U.S. military and was stationed in Seoul, South Korea came here for a long weekend. I ran into her as she was trying to figure out how she could go out on a dive, since there didn’t seem to be many shops that were really interested in English speaking customers. My dive buddy and I offered to take her along with us the following day, and she jumped on the offer. When we went to the hotel to pick her up the next morning, she and her friend were sitting on the curb laughing. When they came up to the truck I asked what was so funny, she said they were just discussing that here they were going out with a couple guys who could be Axe Murderers for all they knew. To which I replied, yup, we could be, so are you going to take a chance on going diving with a couple axe murderers, or are you going to sit here at your hotel all day? They climbed into the truck & I wound up taking her on two dives, an island tour and out to dinner at Sunset Bar & Grill back when it was still open. As we were sitting there on the beach, drinking our daiquiris, watching the sunset and listening to the live band, she said, Axe Murderer Tours is the best tour company ever! And that was the official naming of Axe Murderer Tours; I mean how do you not use a name & story that cool?

I still wasn’t charging to take anyone diving, and was just doing it for fun, but people kept asking me if they could buy an Axe Murderer Tours shirt or hat as a memento of their dives with me. I always had to tell them it was just a make believe company and I didn’t have any hats or shirts. But after years and years of this, hearing people ask for hats & shirts over and over and over, I finally figured, why not? So I had my dive buddies Doug & Barry come up with a few different designs for me and we finally settled on one.

Then I found out about an online company called Cafepress, which prints your logo onto hats, shirts, and other merchandise that you select. You can find them online at www.cafepress.com. One of the things I really liked about this company was the fact that they let you set up your own store online, they let you design your own logo, they let you pick the merchandise to be sold in your store, and they don’t charge you a penny to do it. Then you can set your markup over what the base price for the various items is, and they will pay you the difference when people buy your merchandise. That meant I didn’t have any set up costs, website costs or inventory costs. They would print or stitch the merchandise as people ordered it. This sounded like the perfect solution for me, all I needed was the logo, I could choose the merchandise I wanted to offer, customize it, and then it would automatically pop up in my online store, but I didn’t have to spend a penny to make it happen.

I decided I wanted to order a bunch of the merchandise right away though so I would know the quality and feel good about recommending it to other people. As I got to the end of the ordering process and filled in my billing and shipping information, I noticed that it changed the amount of shipping from regular to international, and went from $11 to nearly $60. They did have Northern Mariana Islands in their pull down menu for country choices, but if you chose United States for your country choice, they didn’t have Northern Mariana Islands or MP available in their state pull down menu. I wanted the merchandise pretty bad, but not bad enough to pay that much of a difference in the price of shipping. So we decided to have it shipped to my wife’s sister in the states, and then have her mail it out to us. But I wanted them to get this obvious problem fixed so that any other potential customers who live in the Northern Mariana Islands wouldn’t have the same problems and hassles.

I clicked on their “contact us” button and wrote them an e-mail about my concerns and not having them recognize that we have the U.S. Postal system here and should have the same postal rates as any state, or Hawaii, which they did list in their state pull down menu. I got an e-mail back from one of their customer service representatives who said, “Dear Harry, I would be happy to help you with this. However, I am unable to change the shipping options once the destination address has been entered. It will only be able to ship with the corresponding shipping method. If there is anything else I can do for you, please let me know”.

I read that e-mail first thing Thursday morning, so I wondered if I hadn’t shaken all the cobwebs out of my head yet. I gave my head a good shake and read it again. Nope, same thing, she was basically telling me, yes – I’d like to help you, but I can’t so I won’t, but if there is something else I can do for you, let me know. That was a customer service representative? With the time difference, their office was now open so I could call their toll free assistance number. I figured I might have better luck talking to someone on the phone. It was just my luck to have the same girl who wrote me the lame e-mail answer the phone. I tried explaining to her once again that the Northern Mariana Islands are a U.S. Commonwealth, and we have the U.S. Postal system here, so they should be charging us the same or at least giving us the same options they would give any state. Her response was that she didn’t have the ability to change anything on the order form so therefore she couldn’t help me, was there anything else I needed? I said yes, I need to talk to someone who can actually help me then and will listen to what I’m telling them. She asked if I’d like to speak to someone in the head office, I said sure, so she transferred me. I wasn’t really surprised when she screwed that up too and just connected me back to the same customer service number I had called originally. But this time I got a guy who was much more helpful and on top of his game. After explaining the whole situation to him, he said, well that’s something that our IT guys should be able to fix very easily, and either add Northern Mariana Islands to the state pull down menu, or allow various shipping options if you list Northern Mariana Islands in the country pull down menu. He said he would happily pass it along to them and request that they fix and update their system. That is all I was asking for, someone who would listen to the situation, apply some logic and then find a way to fix the problem.

I was very tempted to just write back a disgusted e-mail when I got her first response thanking her for doing nothing. But that wouldn’t have accomplished anything besides possibly making me feel slightly better at the time. But by following up, and calling the company, I’m hopeful that they will actually recognize us as part of the U.S. Postal system now and give us more affordable shipping options. Not only will that be good for my little online Axe Murderer Tours merchandise store, but it will also be good for anyone who decides to buy one of my shirts, hats or other pieces of merchandise, and it will also be good for any other budding entrepreneur in the CNMI who wants to come up with their own logos and start their own online store too. I’m still waiting to hear back for sure whether they will actually follow through on this or not and offer various shipping options to us, but I’m hopeful that once they check into the situation, they’ll realize there is no reason not to update their system. And if they are a good business, they will do what it takes to attract more customers and to make it easier and more affordable for customers to use their service from out here.

But when we’re confronted with those situations, what do we usually do? Do we take the time to try explaining it and finding someone who will actually listen, or do we just write them a nasty gram thanking them for nothing? One gets results that will help not only you, but everybody else as well, and the other only makes you feel better temporarily. It may take a little more patience and determination to pursue these sorts of things, and you’re never guaranteed to get the results you’re going after, but if you don’t try, you’re almost guaranteed that nothing will change. Unfortunately not all employees that are in the Customer Service department really belong there or will go above and beyond to actually deliver customer service. But don’t let that stop you, ask to speak to another customer service representative or ask to speak to their supervisor, keep trying until you find out that they don’t understand the situation and don’t want to understand the situation, they refuse to do anything about it because they really don’t want your business that bad, or until you find someone who can actually do something about your problem and come up with a solution.

If you want to see my store and see just how easy it is to have your own online store without spending a penny of set up money, you can check it out at www.cafepress.com/saipandiver. What kind of logo or design ideas are just floating around in your head waiting for an opportunity? Good luck with your ideas and good luck to all of us in having Cafepress offer us all more affordable shipping options since we are indeed a part of the United States.

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

Handguns Soon In The CNMI

2008-06-27T14:17:00.000+10:00

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

With the passage of the minimum wage law which included the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the passage of the recent law which extends U.S. Federal Immigration control over the CNMI, we are quickly learning that we are a part of the United States. I don’t think a lot of people really believed that up until just recently. Oh sure, they were right there to get their blue passport, cash their economic stimulus check and take all the money the federal government wanted to throw our way, but I think a lot of people were under the mistaken impression that it was a one way street, only benefits for us with none of the duties or obligations to go along with it. They didn’t really think we had to abide by the U.S. Constitution or the federal laws; after all, we were the only U.S. area that was given the right to restrict land ownership to the indigenous Chamorros & Carolinians. And the U.S. let us control our own minimum wage and take care of our own Immigration, and we couldn’t vote for the president, so obviously they really didn’t care what we did out here, we could just do whatever we wanted, and nobody could do anything about it. I can understand why some people may have gotten the impression that the U.S. laws and constitution might not apply to them because of those other exceptions, but they were mistaken in that belief and are now learning that if you fly the U.S. flag, it means you’re a U.S. citizen and have all the rights, privileges, duties and obligations that go along with that as well.

Now we have one of our crackpot congressmen once again trying to look into changing our status and affiliation with the United States. He’s being a crybaby because he’s all the sudden being expected to follow the U.S. constitution and laws like all other U.S. citizens. I don’t think he’s thought ahead to just how this place would survive without all the federal handouts we get currently. I think he expects those would continue, but we just wouldn’t have to let the U.S. tell us what to do anymore. Frankly, I think he should renounce his U.S. citizenship and burn his blue passport, if he’s serious this time and not just shooting off his mouth once again, then let him prove it with his actions. Burning his passport and not getting another one and giving his economic stimulus check back would be a good place to start. If he doesn’t want to be a U.S. citizen, then let him try finding out what it is like in this world when you’re not a U.S. citizen. And to all those who agree with him, I think maybe they should all be sent to Farallon De Mendeniza and allowed to start their own banana republic up there. It would be taking Survivor to a whole new level; maybe they could even get their own TV series out of it.

And while most people don’t realize it yet and haven’t even heard the news, we are now in violation of the U.S. constitution in another area as well. The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5 to 4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns. The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans can keep handguns at home for self-defense in their first-ever pronouncement on the meaning of gun rights under the second amendment. The Supreme Court has not conclusively interpreted the Second Amendment since it’s ratification in 1791. The amendment states “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed”.

The main issues the Supreme Court was deciding on were whether the amendment protects an individual’s right to own guns no matter what, and whether that right is somehow tied to service in a state militia.
According to a story written by the Associated Press, “Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said that an individual right to bear arms is supported by "the historical narrative" both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted.
The Constitution does not permit "the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home," Scalia said. The court also struck down Washington's requirement that firearms be equipped with trigger locks or kept disassembled, but left intact the licensing of guns.
Scalia noted that the handgun is Americans' preferred weapon of self-defense in part because "it can be pointed at a burglar with one hand while the other hand dials the police."
Scalia's opinion dealt almost exclusively with self-defense in the home, acknowledging only briefly in his lengthy historical analysis that early Americans also valued gun rights because of hunting.”
What this means is that the CNMI’s prohibition against handgun ownership by individuals is clearly violating the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and that we are now faced with a choice. We can either willingly follow U.S. law and this decision by the U.S. Supreme Court & change our laws so that we are in compliance with the U.S. Constitution, or we can wait until someone files a lawsuit against the CNMI for violating their basic rights under the constitution. And I can guarantee that our local law prohibiting handgun ownership will be challenged almost immediately. So the question is, will we realize that we need to step into compliance with U.S. Constitutional law and change our laws accordingly, or will we once again try asserting our independence and claim that those laws don’t apply to us?
I can already hear some of the liberals among us screaming that this will now put guns in the hands of the criminal element and it will make it that much more dangerous to live here. The truth of the matter is that any criminal here who wishes to have a handgun, probably already has one. In case they haven’t noticed, criminals don’t usually check whether the law gives them the right to have a handgun or not, that would kind of go against their whole criminal persona. But this will give U.S. citizens the right to bear arms and be prepared to protect themselves in their own homes. That was the original intent of the Second Amendment in the first place; it was one of the most elementary rights of citizenship. Over the years though, various locations have decided that they could restrict the ownership of handguns, ignoring or challenging the U.S. Constitution on the issue. This is a fight that has been many years in the making and just needed to be challenged all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court to let them make a final decision on the issue once and for all. They made the decision and now it’s time for all locations that have laws which contradict the U.S. Constitution to come into compliance, places like Washington D.C., Chicago, San Francisco and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

I’m hoping that we will tackle this issue with intelligence and planning, rather than just try to avoid and ignore it until is it forced through legal action. Since we now know that we are legally entitled to own handguns, there will be the need of some accompanying legislation about who would be restricted from owning them, such as felons, about how you can legally transport them, where you can legally fire them, and whether they have to be registered or not. If we do this properly, we will be prepared and it won’t cause a lot of problems and confusion, but if we stick our heads in the sand and try to pretend it doesn’t apply to us, we will wind up losing the court challenge and then will be totally unprepared to deal with the issue.

I think it’s high time that we realize what being an American citizen is about. I believe that when many of our lawmakers were going to school, there was no such thing as a civics course and probably nothing about U.S. history, laws or responsibility, since at that point we were not even a U.S. Commonwealth. But whether we like it or not, we are learning those lessons now very quickly, and we need to realize that as long as we fly the U.S. flag, have blue passports and continue to accept federal dollars that we have to live under the U.S. Constitution and federal laws.

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

State of Disaster at CUC

2008-06-20T10:02:00.001+10:00

Food For Thought 6-20-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

How much is too much? At what point will you finally be at your breaking point and admit that our system has failed us miserably and just continues to perpetuate itself? Our utility company is sinking to new all time lows, even though they keep trying to tell us that we’re almost at the end of rolling blackouts. I think it’s clearer than ever that they really just don’t have a clue. A group of over 200 people met this past week because they are sick and tired of what is going on at Commonwealth Utilities Corporation. They are demanding action, demanding that the legislature take their jobs seriously and provide real oversight over the government owned utility. They are also demanding that we finally break down and actually hire a professional who has the skills, education and experience to actually properly and effectively run a utility company. These seem like pretty reasonable demands to me.

And yet our Governor continues to beg the federal government for money to fix our worn out and poorly maintained generators. The real question is, why would anyone in the federal government want to listen to anything he has to say? After all, isn’t it our own fault that our generators were not maintained and were left to just fall apart believing that a sweetheart privatization deal was just around the corner? Isn’t it our fault that we continue to put political appointees in charge of running and charting the course for this very technical corporation? Isn’t it our fault that in spite of gross negligence, mismanagement and corruption we still haven’t seen any of the people ultimately responsible for the mess put behind bars or held responsible?

Is the federal government supposed to just ignore the fact that our Governor has done nothing but fight them at every turn recently with regards to the minimum wage increases and the federalization of our immigration system, and now that it has all passed and been signed into law, he is threatening to sue the federal government and drag the whole mess into court? Are they just supposed to pretend that none of that has happened and throw more money at our messes, believing that we will actually use the money properly this time and not squander and waste it? I’m afraid our track record wouldn’t give them much reason to trust us or believe that we would actually do it right this time.

Has our government given the federal government any reason to believe that we can really properly manage our own affairs and that we’ll be responsible this time around? Do you recall the whole mess with Marianas Public Lands Authority? Do you remember how much money was squandered through frivolous travel by their board members and the exorbitant per diem fees they voted to give themselves? Do you remember how a certain lawyer that was hired by MPLA wound up cashing checks that were supposed to go to MPLA, but somehow wound up going to him personally? Have you ever seen charges brought against any of them? It’s been 2 ½ years, does this administration really expect us to believe they can’t build a case in that much time? And now one of our senators is actually recommending that the Governor appoint this same lawyer with the questionable background at MPLA to serve as a judge?

Our leaders have made us the punch line to a bad joke; they have made us a laughingstock because of their rampant greed, corruption, mismanagement and nepotism. We have come to just think of this as the way things are; sadly we don’t expect anything else from them because it’s all we’ve ever experienced. But now the chickens are finally coming home to roost, each and every one of us are paying for their incompetence through outrageous electricity costs and frequent power outages. Families are getting sick of it and are leaving the islands for good. Businesses can no longer survive because of the double whammy from CUC, exorbitant utility costs and unreliable power.

If you added up the total amount of destroyed equipment as a result of the rolling blackouts and brownouts, I’m sure the figure would be astronomical. I have heard people talk about the possibility of a class action lawsuit against the government and CUC for all the losses they have incurred as a result of the failure to provide constant, reliable power. Frankly, it’s probably long overdue. Something has got to give and wake our leaders up, they need to realize that they are responsible for the mess we are in, and they need to do something about it. We either need to get serious about privatizing the utility company, but doing it right this time, or we need to hire experienced professionals with a proven track record to run and manage our utility company who can get it back on track and stop wasting over 60% of the fuel they put into the engines.

I’ve heard Tony Muna tell us over and over that he is only basing the rates CUC is charging us on “cost recovery”, but the problem is the costs are far higher than they need to be because of mismanagement within the power company. We are currently burning 60% more fuel than we need to be because our engines and generators are inefficient and not working properly. When you figure out how much all that wasted fuel is costing us, you all the sudden realize we could probably buy new generators and completely pay for them in a fairly short amount of time if you applied the money used to pay for all that wasted fuel. But instead of doing that, we just continue the band-aid approach and try repairing and patching up the old engines and just dealing with their inefficiencies. Hiring an experienced Executive Director and then having him come up with a cost effective plan would get us away from this never ending destructive cycle, but we keep avoiding that. Instead the Governor appoints an accountant as Executive Director of the utility company, someone with absolutely no experience or expertise in power management or systems. Sure he can crunch the numbers, but does he have the background and experience to show us how to stop wasting so much money on inefficient engines? What is he doing about the 25% line losses we continue to experience? That means that 25% of the electricity being produced is not being run through any meters, it’s just disappearing. But it is being paid for; you and I are being forced to pay for these losses. Our utility company isn’t just recovering costs, they are in squandering mode, and they’re turning it into an art form.

What if the federal government came in right now and said they would be willing to give us money to buy new generators which would be efficient, and would lower the cost we’re currently paying for electricity, but the catch was that they would hire and place the people here to run the corporation. Do you have more confidence in our own politicians to actually fix the mess properly, or do you think the federal government might be a little more reliable in this regard? I don’t know of any offers from the federal government in this regard, I was just wondering whether our leaders would still get your vote of confidence, or whether you’ve had about enough of their lies and empty promises.

While CUC continues with their load shedding schedule and frequent breakdown occurrences that aren’t scheduled, there may be some times that our radio stations will be off the air in the evening hours as a result. Because of the rolling blackouts and brownouts, we have had several automatic transfer switches burn out at our generator location on Mt. Tapochou. The cost to replace it is about $3,000, but since we can’t count on CUC to not repeat the same problem that burned the last switch out last time, we can’t afford to just keep replacing it. That means that every time there is a power outage on Mt. Tapochou, one of us has to drive up there and manually start the generator and switch power over. Then when CUC restores power we have to drive back up again, turn the generator off and switch power back. Some days recently we have had to make the trip up and down as many as 6 times in one day. We will continue making the trips during the day, but we cannot continue driving up at night, not knowing how long the outage will last or when CUC will finally bring island power back.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this might cause, however I believe you can understand that we also have to limit the amount of time we spend driving up and down Mt. Tapochou because of CUC. Many businesses have had to cut back on their hours, some have had to close periodically, and others are now assessing whether they can even afford to continue doing business in the CNMI as a result of our power situation. This situation could have been avoided if the administration and management of CUC had brought in auxiliary generators to help make up for the lack of capacity while repairs were ongoing, but they didn’t. They didn’t care about the effect it would have on you, on businesses or on the quality of life in general. And now they are telling us they are just recovering costs when they charge us the highest electricity rates around, even though they waste 60% of their fuel, and they lose 25% of their electricity through line losses. They may be recovering their costs, but the problem is their costs are absurd because of the waste and mismanagement taking place. Are you willing to keep buying the line of crap they’re feeding you, or have you had enough? Honestly I don’t know what the fix to this problem is going to be, but I do know that those responsible for this mess need to be held accountable and never given the chance to do it to us again.

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

My State of the Commonwealth Assessment

2008-06-06T11:02:00.001+10:00

Food For Thought 6-6-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

For quite a while I took flack for my criticism of the government, their lack of efficiency, their utter lack of professionalism, the blatant nepotism, cronyism, mismanagement, illegal deeds, and the list just goes on and on and on. I have been warning about this “perfect storm” meltdown for the past 8 years. It really wasn’t hard to see it coming, it didn’t take a Wharton School of Business economist to predict it, and in fact it was pretty hard to imagine anything else happening actually. But I was called an alarmist, a meddling haole, an outspoken outsider, and a whole host of other names. I was accused of bashing the last Governor as a political favor to his opponents; I have been accused of going easy on this Governor, for whatever reason. But now I’m far from the only one who is outraged at what is going on and who is speaking out on it.

Just so everyone understands and we’re all on the same page here, yes, I believe this administration inherited a horrible mess, in almost every single aspect. And yes, I’m still shocked that no one from the previous administration is in jail right now for their misdeeds while in office. But this administration has had 2 ½ years to give us the “Better Times” they promised. They claimed they had a plan, they claimed they were going to end the fuel surcharge that the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation was charging us. At this point it is painfully obvious, they had no real plan, and they just flat out lied to us about what they were going to do with the CUC rates.

I realize that the engines and generators had not been properly maintained at all during the previous administration, but it’s been 2 ½ years. They knew the engines would be breaking down, and yet they didn’t come up with a contingency plan while they would be rehabbing the engines. A private company offered to bring one of their excess generators over to provide extra power so we wouldn’t have to go through rolling blackouts, but the government never entertained their offer. I guess they thought we would be happier having numerous rolling blackouts every day. They must have thought we had an endless supply of money to continue repairing and replacing our burned up air conditioners, computers, appliances and other electronic equipment, because they didn’t have the utility company own up to its responsibility for all the destruction and reimburse people for their damages. The government must have thought business would want to be forced to close because they didn’t have enough power to stay open. They must have thought that you didn’t care if you had to put up with numerous outages every day at home, which caused food to spoil in your refrigerator and freezer. They must have thought we wouldn’t care that a supplemental engine would be running at over 90% efficiency and not wasting over 60% of our fuel and lube oil as our current engines do. Yes, we might have had to pay a bit extra to have those engines brought in temporarily, but couldn’t they figure out that we would have easily saved that money several times over by running more efficient engines? It’s really not rocket science!
And then we’ve been lied to more times than I can count about the duration of the power outages and rolling blackouts. We’ve been given more false deadlines as to when the rolling blackouts would stop than we can count. Instead of publishing a power outage schedule that we can all depend on and follow, they have now started publishing what they call a contingency outage schedule. That means that is the schedule they will follow if they need to shut down certain feeders for whatever reason. So you really never know if they will be shutting off power or not. So if you run around your home or office shutting off all the electronics, you’re never really sure if they’re actually going to turn off the power or not. And then they seem to have trouble telling the time. If the schedule says 10 am, it means 9:30 or maybe 10:15, you really never know.

I haven’t talked to a single person that actually believes the government knows what it’s doing with CUC, or who thinks they are actually improving the situation. There is zero confidence in this administration’s ability to fix the problems at CUC or to actually move us toward renewable energy sources. People are disgusted, fed up and ready to revolt over the power situation. I don’t know what will be happening in the coming days, but I’m fairly certain that you will see more and more people completely losing any and all trust that this administration can or will make any positive difference whatsoever.

And then there is the mess involving the Federal economic stimulus checks. Some people got their full checks, others got nothing, and some seemed to get partial checks. The Department of Finance tells us that if there were deficiencies in your 2007 tax return that it will delay you receiving your economic stimulus checks. What they didn’t tell us is that even if the deficiency was their fault, it would still delay them giving you your economic stimulus check. I read an example this week about someone who received a letter from Revenue & Tax about a $10.50 discrepancy in their tax return, therefore they would not be receiving their check until the discrepancy was cleared up. They had their accountant go over their taxes again, and were told that the discrepancy was due to an error in calculation by the Division of Revenue & Tax. But of course they didn’t bother notifying them right away after they filed their taxes; they waited until now, when they could use it as an excuse to not give them their economic stimulus checks right away. So because of a $10.50 mistake, which was the fault of Revenue & Tax, they were withholding over $2,000 of economic stimulus money from this family. And that’s just one example; there are numerous people out there with similar stories.

Why would the government be doing this? Are they using some of the money from the federal government for the economic stimulus checks to help float them financially while they sort out their “messes”? Are they trying to hang onto some of it for as long as they can to earn interest on it? Or are they really just that inefficient and unorganized? I sent an e-mail to the Governor’s Press Secretary early this week telling him that it would be nice if they could have Eloy Inos or someone else from the Department of Finance come in and answer all the questions created by this mess. I told them I’d welcome them any day they could make it. I was told that was a great idea and they would welcome the opportunity to come in and clarify the situation, but yet they still have not contacted me with a day they would be willing to come in and answer questions. Why is that? Do they not have answers for the questions they know I will be asking? What happened to the promise of this administration to be open and accountable to the people, what happened to the transparency?

I said before the last gubernatorial election that whoever won was going to be inheriting the biggest mess the CNMI has ever seen, and it would be a thankless task. I said that there was going to have to be a lot of pain as corrective measures were taken and things rectified from the debacle left by the last administration. That was true then, and it’s still true today. And it’s one thing if you’re experiencing the pain as you see the light at the end of the tunnel and realize it’s being done for your own good. I don’t believe that’s the case right now. There is no light at the end of the tunnel, and we have learned we can’t believe anything we’re told. Things have continued on a very steep downward spiral and there are no signs that we will pull out of it anytime soon. Family after family is packing their bags and heading out in search of a new start and a new life somewhere else, anywhere else. They have come to the conclusion that things couldn’t possibly be any worse anywhere else.

2 ½ years into their term, this administration is looking like it will go down in history as the worst administration in the history of the CNMI. Yes, they inherited a huge mess, but instead of tackling the problems with a plan and minimizing the pain and problems, they disregarded the cost of their actions and just blindly plowed ahead, driving families and business out of the islands as a result. And then when presented with an opportunity to make a positive impact, distributing the federal economic stimulus checks, they couldn’t even get that one right, and made a lot of people very mad in the process. This was a chance to pump some much needed dollars into a starving local economy, but they only managed to get part of the money where it belonged, the rest of it is still sitting in their bank account, accruing interest for them, while they try to fix their own mistakes so they can finally give people what the federal government wanted them to have much earlier. And instead of coming in on the air and explaining what is going on and offering some answers to the questions, they are still tucked away in their offices, trying to avoid the angry masses out in the hallways.

If I had to give the present administration a midterm grade on their performance so far, I’m afraid it would have to be a D-. The only thing that keeps them from getting a failing grade is that they have slowed down the spending and slashed the budgets, which is something their predecessor was unwilling to do or admit there was a need for. However, the nepotism and cronyism has been as entrenched in this administration as any other, I detected no difference at all. They have utterly and miserably failed in their handling of the entire CUC situation. They have failed to attract the new investors they promised when running for office. They have failed in their relations with the U.S. government. And they have failed to give people hope or a reason to stay here, the most stinging indictment of all.

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

Lucky or Blessed?

2008-05-30T13:47:00.001+10:00

Food For Thought 5-30-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

I’ve been told many times and in many different ways over the years that I’m truly a lucky bum. My co-worker Lewie has commented many times on how lucky he thinks I am, and yet if you asked my daughter, she would tell you I’m one of the unluckiest people she knows. It’s all a matter of perspective, how you look at things and evaluate them.

Some of the reasons Lewie has come to this conclusion are because I've found a nearly new digital camera in an underwater housing while diving in the Grotto before, and yes, it still worked just fine. There have been several times that I was diving the Grotto picking up trash people had thrown in it and I've found $20 bills. Not just once or twice mind you, but several times now. I had someone come out to Saipan a little less than a year ago, who just happened to want something I had. It was something I hadn't spent any money on, but he wanted, and I wound up with a brand new Canon EOS Rebel XTi Digital camera with 5 lenses, a carrying case, tripods and a bunch of other gear in exchange for my item which I didn't really even want any longer. I had a health insurance company trying to tell me recently that I owed them $250 for items that weren't covered when I went to Hong Kong for a heart catheterization a couple years ago. In the end, instead of me having to pay them $250, they wound up sending me a check for nearly $1,000. And then last weekend while diving at Lau Lau, I jumped in the water right where you start your dive, and when I got to the bottom I found an Aladin Pro dive computer, which was still working just fine! So even though I've already got a dive computer, and I just ordered Kelli new dive gear, thanks to the check from that insurance company, now I've got a dive computer for other people I take diving to wear. Very cool! So am I just extraordinarily lucky? I don't think so, I mean when you figure how many hours I spend underwater every week, odds are good that I'm going to find some things that other divers have lost. Some people would still say that I’ve been very lucky.

But then if you asked my daughter about my luck, she would point out my lack of luck when it comes to buying Red Cross Club 200 tickets every year. There have only been a couple years in the last 12 that I have not bought a ticket and gone. I always tell her every year that I’m feeling lucky and I think this will be the one. She always laughs and scoffs at me and says, sure Dad, you say that every year. And it’s true, I do. I have probably gone 10 out of the past 12 years, I’m guessing they have given away well over 400 prizes during that time, and yet I still have never won anything, not even a one night stay at a hotel or a cell phone. Nada, Zip, Nothing! I have to admit, my record for the Club 200 has been perfect, but I’m feeling lucky this year. I can hear my daughter groaning and laughing at me already.

Since I’m a member of the Rotary Club of Saipan, I’m always tasked with selling $400 worth of tickets every time we hold a Las Vegas night. Typically I would sell most of the tickets and buy a few myself, in the hopes that I might strike it lucky and win one of the big prizes. I have won assorted raffle prizes over the years with my Las Vegas Night tickets, but I’ve never won one of the big cash prizes. But for several years I have watched as some of the Rotarians who have just bought their entire $400 allotment of tickets themselves have won vehicles and some of the top cash prizes. So last year I got a brainstorm, I decided I just needed to increase my odds, I decided to go into a pool with 3 other people for my allotment of tickets. We would each kick in $100 and we would equally share any prizes that were won with any of our tickets. I figured this increased my odds of winning something greatly. So somehow I managed to talk my daughter into buying $100 worth of the tickets with me, of course her boyfriend got pulled into the scheme as well, and a guy who happened to be renting a room from me also got in on the action. Except for Sarah, I think we were all kind of excited about our chances. I talked about my grand scheme to hit it big on my talk show the morning before the event. Some employees of another Rotarian who hadn’t sold any of his tickets yet were listening to my idea, and they decided they would do the same thing with their boss. Yup, you can almost guess where this is going, can’t you? We managed to win a few raffle prizes, but the other group who copied my plan hit it big, they won $5,000 I believe. You can just imagine the lecture I got from my daughter over that one.

And by the way, there is another Las Vegas night coming up, and I plan on doing the same thing with my tickets again this year. I’m thinking my daughter will be less than enthusiastic about entering into a partnership with her “unlucky” father, so that means there will be a couple open slots if you’re feeling “lucky”. First come, first serve!

But the reason I bring all this up is because I want to talk about what some people look at as luck, I look at as being blessed. This was kind of brought home to me the other day as I was reading some of the comments from people on Link Referral who have read my blog and looked at the pictures on my Smugmug site. Let me share their comments with you so you know what I mean.

-"Incredible. I'm not usually the the jealous type, but I have to honestly say that I envy you. What an awesome site. I loved watching that curious little turtle come up and bump your camera. You could almost see his mind working as he looked at you in curiosity. I've never went on a dive before but I would love to when I can save up enough. Thank you so much..."

-"Awesome awesome website. The photos are lovely. The map is beuatiful - i love maps. My Picks are great, actually everythng I clicked was stunning! I could lose myself in there for hours. You are one very lucky man! Fantabulous job!.."

Yes, I'll admit, I'm getting the chance to live most people's dream. Most people scrimp and save all year for the chance to go somewhere like this for a week or two on vacation, it's what keeps them going all year until the next vacation. But I'm living the vacation, I get to dive every weekend of the year and combine two of my passions, scuba diving and photography. It just doesn't get much better than that.

But again, getting back to the being "lucky" thing. I truly believe it's not just blind luck, I believe that God has for His own reasons decided to just bless me abundantly, far beyond anything I could have ever imagined or asked for, and certainly far beyond anything I deserve.He has blessed me with the most amazing wife I could have ever asked for. There is no doubt in my mind that Kelli loves me unconditionally and is completely and totally devoted to me. I know that she has spent thousands of hours praying for me and asking for God's blessings on us, I believe those prayers have been, and are continuing to be answered. I have seen the bible promise of "Seek and ye shall find, ask and it shall be given to you" answered over and over during our life together.

I will never be a rich man, as far as monetary wealth goes. I have too much fun giving it away to others. When I am blessed, I have fun passing those blessings on to others. When I found the underwater digital camera and housing, I gave it to a friend of mine who had just given her digital camera to her sister in the Philippines. I knew she would get much more use and enjoyment out of it than I possibly could. Yes, I had people offering to buy it from me, but that would have just given me some money which would have disappeared and I'd have forgotten what I bought with it. But this way I have the satisfaction of knowing that she has a camera she will use to capture memories and special moments while she's going to college that she will continue to share with her mother and family back in the Philippines. One option would add toward your monetary wealth, the other is absolutely priceless! I've tried to follow that principle throughout my life, and truly share with others what I have been given. You might say that I'm unbelievably lucky; I say that I am extraordinarily blessed. When my time on this earth is gone and it's time for those left behind to say goodbye, I won't have to worry about them fighting over my riches, there won't be any. But hopefully there will be an interesting assortment of people left behind who will all have their own little story of their brushes with this eccentric old dive bum, and hopefully they will incorporate the principle of sharing the wealth, and passing along what has been given to you to make a difference in someone else's life. It’s called the “Pay It Forward” principle, and there was actually a very cute and moving movie made about it a few years ago. If there was one principle I would impart to you it would be this, get out of the rat race and get into the giving race. It's a decision you'll never regret, and you will truly leave a lasting impression on those whose lives you've touched. Perspective can truly make all the difference in the world, and can turn someone who was feeling sorry for themselves over not striking it rich, to someone who is thankful and rejoicing over the many blessings that they have been given. I know I’m not the only one who has been extraordinarily blessed, have you taken the time to be thankful for your blessings lately? I don’t think you have to wait for Thanksgiving to do it, in fact I would hope that you would take the time to say thanks on a regular basis for the things you’ve been blessed with.

Food For Thought is now available online at http://www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com/ and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce - Striving to Make A Difference!

2008-05-23T14:12:00.002+10:00

Food For Thought 5-23-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

For the last several years I’ve been a member of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce’s Education Committee that interviews college-bound high school seniors and then awards some of them scholarships. I’ve got to say that it’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve been involved in for a very long time. We get to meet and talk to the cream of the crop as far as that year’s high school seniors go. We get to find out what they think about things, and what issues are important to them. I’ve found it very interesting getting things from a different perspective.

You hear some amazing stories of determination and perseverance, and overcoming long odds to wind up where they are today. I also find it interesting to find out who the most influential person has been for some of them. Obviously in some cases it’s one of their parents, but then there are others who tell us about a certain teacher who really opened their eyes and their minds to a whole new world. I was truly impressed as one of our candidates told us that one of her teachers had the most profound impact on her. I was impressed that she acknowledged what a difference he had made in her life and was more than happy to share that with us, and I was also impressed that this teacher takes his job so seriously and really strives to make an impact in his student’s lives.

With the ways things are in the CNMI lately, it’s easy to get discouraged and only concentrate on the negative things that are happening, like the almost daily increases in the price of gasoline, and the ever upwardly spiraling cost of electricity. And I’m not saying that these are not important issues, or are not destroying many families quality of life, but in spite of all these things happening to us and around us, there are still some bright spots and things we can take encouragement from.

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce has come under a lot of fire this past year for their perceived positions on some of the issues, and for their stands on others. Some of the criticism was even coming from members of the Chamber at the time, who for their own reasons didn’t appreciate the stand the Chamber was taking at the time. The Chamber has also come under criticism in the past for charging admission to go to the Senate and Gubernatorial debates it has sponsored in the past. However, this criticism almost always comes from those who have never gotten involved, and have never participated. The money raised from those debates and the various fundraisers is where the money comes from that we give out to the scholarship recipients. It is also where the money comes from to put on the workshops the Chamber did for the schools recently.

The title of the workshops was, “I’m about to graduate from high school, now what?” The purpose of the workshops was to prepare our students for life after high school and give them some advice and tips that will hopefully help them to be more successful in their interviews and jobs. The workshops were the brainchild of Chamber President Jim Arenovski and Education Committee Chair Kathryn Barry. They came up with a 4 hour program that taught the students everything from how to conduct themselves in an interview, and what the interviewers would be looking for, to how to balance a checkbook, how to make a budget to help you live within your income, how to balance family expectations and work obligations, and how to effectively communicate. Various Chamber of Commerce members donated 5 hours each Saturday morning for a month to put on these workshops for any interested students in both the public and private schools. Jay Santos of Triple J Enterprises & Hertz Rent a Car, Steve Jang of Rainbow Color and Kanae Quinn of PIC were all part of the team that shared their knowledge and experience with the students to help them to be better prepared for what lies ahead for them. Nobody was forcing them to do this and to volunteer their time, nobody was paying them for it, and they weren’t getting anything out of it other than the satisfaction of investing in the youth of today, and the leaders of tomorrow.

You may not always understand or agree with all the positions or stands taken by the Chamber of Commerce, but that’s ok, not all the members always agree, and there are even disagreements in direction at the board level from time to time. But like with any other organization, you do the best you can, try to get the majority consensus and then proceed accordingly. But one thing I don’t think anyone can disagree with is the importance of helping our students financially by offering these scholarships, and the importance of putting on the workshops to help prepare our students for the next step in life. Detractors are always very vocal and usually very biased in their point of view and perspective. And unfortunately sometimes they are the only points of view you ever hear, because they are always demanding to be heard and writing letters to the editor. But I thought you needed to hear a little bit about the other side of the story, the one that doesn’t always get that much press or coverage. The other side that is striving to make a tangible difference in our students lives. I would encourage you to ask some of the students who attended those seminars what they thought of them. Ask them what they learned, whether they thought they were beneficial or not. And I would also encourage you to attend the next Saipan Chamber of Commerce General Membership meeting that will be held Wednesday, June 4th at the World Resort. That is when the Chamber will be awarding scholarships to 6 of the 33 applicants they had this year. You will meet some of the best and brightest students our schools have produced. Not all of them, because unfortunately we didn’t have enough money to reward all the deserving students a scholarship, and trying to make some of those decisions is gut wrenching. But you will hear a little about them and from them, and you will also hear from some of the past recipients of the Chamber of Commerce scholarships. You’ll hear how the money they received helped them to pursue their college degree, where they are now in their education, and what their next step is. I hope to see many of you there!

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

Punishment for Illegal Fishing

2008-05-16T13:21:00.001+10:00

Food For Thought 5-16-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

Today I want to talk about an issue that has been on my mind for some time now, that’s the illegal fishing that has been going on at the Grotto. I have been diving the Grotto for the past 12 years and have logged in close to 1,000 dives in the Grotto during that time. During the last year I have noticed a big increase in the amount of fishing line that is tangled in the coral outside of the Grotto and stretched across the openings to the Grotto. I typically spend a couple hours every weekend of my diving time untangling the fishing line and collecting it, trying to make the Grotto a pristine and attractive dive location for the hundreds of tourists who dive there every week. There are some dives that I have so much cut up rebar, spark plugs, and homemade molded weights in my pockets that it’s tough to keep my swimsuit on. The Grotto is supposed to be a sanctuary, which means that it’s illegal to fish there; however, it has been fished very heavily for the past year. Obviously with all the fishing going on, the fish aren’t being protected there at all, but my concern is more about all the fishing line they leave behind, and what it may mean to the tourists who come there to dive. Not only is it ugly to see the fishing line tangled in all the coral, but it is also a safety hazard when you have heavy duty monofilament line stretched across the openings that are used to come in and go out of the Grotto. If a tourist gets tangled in one of those lines and panics, it could easily lead to a drowning and a very bad situation.

A few months ago, Fish & Wildlife officers caught two Chinese contract workers illegally fishing at the Grotto. They were arrested and charged with violating a sanctuary. They spent a few days in jail while waiting to be processed and post their bail. Before the case went to trial, the Attorney General’s Office offered them a plea bargain, if they would plead guilty to the lesser of the charges; they would recommend only that they be given probation and a minimal fine. So when the case came before Judge Mona Manglona, she accepted the plea agreement and gave them 6 months in jail, all suspended except for the few days already served, and a $25 fine. I was outraged when I heard about it; I thought what a mockery of justice. Why bother even having these laws in the first place if that’s all we’re going to do to those who are caught? It was my understanding that the judge said something about it being a rarely committed offense when she handed down the light sentence. She obviously hasn’t been diving in the Grotto for the past year or she’d know better.

Then I had a discussion with a friend of mine, who happens to be a lawyer about the situation. He told me I shouldn’t be so hard on Judge Manglona, because if it was a plea agreement, she really could only go on the evidence and facts as provided by the Attorney General’s Office, and if they didn’t bring in expert testimony or present facts about the frequency of the problem or the magnitude of it, then the Judge wouldn’t have that information to base her decision on. He also told me that the Judge only has two options at that point, to either accept or reject the plea bargain as presented by the Attorney General’s Office. He said the bulk of the blame should be placed on the Attorney General’s Office for not recommending a stiffer penalty, and doing a better job of researching the facts in the case about the problem of illegal fishing in the Grotto.

A few days after that conversation, I happened to run into Matt Gregory, the Attorney General, so I had a discussion with him about it. He said he had just learned about the situation a couple days before, but planned on looking into it. He did say though that his office has to make decisions about where to allocate their time and funds though. Should they assign prosecutors to the more serious crimes like white collar crime, sex abuse cases and domestic violence, or should they make crimes like this one the priority and assign the personnel to them to be able to actually take them to trial and prosecute them? He said it is very expensive and time consuming to take a case to trial, and like every other agency, his agency is short on personnel and funds, so they have to make judgment calls about which cases to take to trial and which ones to offer plea bargains in. And sometimes in the big scheme of things, crimes like this one aren’t looked at as being serious enough to merit the time and expense required to properly prosecute it. And the defense attorneys know that the Attorney General’s Office doesn’t have the money or personnel to take cases like that to court, so they insist on ridiculously low plea bargains which let their clients off scott free basically. I had to admit, as much as I didn’t like it, I could understand where he was coming from and his logic. And yes, I’d hate to think that a child molester got a plea bargain instead of an illegal fisherman. But that wasn’t going to help the problem at hand, stopping the illegal fishing taking place at the Grotto. For a $25 fine, I’m thinking that most of the people who are fishing there aren’t going to think twice about whether it’s worth the risk or not, they could easily sell a couple fish to make up the cost of the fine and still have plenty left in their pocket.

So then the only logical place to find a solution to the problem would be the legislature. They have the ability to change the law. They could make it a felony instead of a misdemeanor, which would make it an immediately deportable offense if committed by a contract worker. That way you wouldn’t have to worry about repeat offenders. Or they could change the minimum penalty guidelines for violating that particular law. In most states, if you violate their hunting and fishing laws, you not only face a several thousand dollar fine, but you also forfeit all equipment in your possession at the time, which would include all fishing equipment, and would even include the vehicle you drove to get there. The state takes possession of those things and can then sell them at auction. If we don’t have the resources to properly prosecute our laws when they are broken, we can change the minimum sentencing and fine guidelines to make it extremely prohibitive and risky to violate the laws.

But if we don’t have the will or the stomach to impose serious minimum fines to deter these types of crimes, then why have the laws in the first place? That really has to be the question you ask yourself at this point. Because it’s not worth Fish & Wildlife’s time or effort to go to the Grotto and conduct a stake out, having to pay overtime if the offender is only going to get a $25 fine in the end anyway. So if we’re not going to raise the minimum penalty and really hit the offenders hard by imposing staggering fines and confiscating all their equipment, including vehicles, then what are we really accomplishing by setting these areas aside as sanctuaries? Are we just turning it into a private fishing club for those who don’t care about our laws? Because the law abiding citizens will actually pay attention to the signs and the laws and won’t fish there, but those who don’t care about our laws and who just want the biggest fish because they are in a sanctuary will be the only ones really benefitting from having these laws. Is that what we really want to accomplish? Rewarding those who don’t care about our laws and giving them the biggest fish because the rest of us honor the laws? Does that make sense on any planet?

I was diving at the Grotto last Saturday night, and there was an old 20 passenger mini bus there, it looked like one of the old ones that used to be used by the garment factories. The registration had expired a couple years ago and had never been renewed. I knew it meant that we had some illegal fishermen at the Grotto again. During the dive, I went outside of the Grotto and while I was out there I had a chunk of rebar tied to fishing line go floating past my mask, they were fishing right above me. After the dive we called Fish & Wildlife and reported the situation to them. They responded promptly and thanked us for the call and had someone come out to check out the situation. I understand they finally found the fisherman hiding behind the pavilion. He claimed he spoke no English, so they followed him home to get his information, but they did confiscate all of his fishing line and chunks of rebar he used for sinkers. Again, if we were serious about enforcing our laws, we would have given Fish & Wildlife the authority to seize his vehicle right then and there. But that’s not their fault – that would be the legislature’s fault.

As I see it, the legislature at this point really has two choices, unless they just want to keep making a mockery of the system and rewarding those who flagrantly abuse our laws. They can either do away with the sanctuary laws saying we can’t really afford to enforce or prosecute them anyway, and let everybody fish there instead of just the criminals, or they can raise the minimum fines to make a real impact when someone violates the laws. But if they think anything is being accomplished or that justice is being served the way things are set up and operating right now, they are fooling themselves. This is a system that is broken down and completely malfunctioning at every level, and yet we continue to pretend that it’s working and accomplishing something. I do believe that we have some lawmakers who want to do the right thing and enact laws that actually protect our natural resources and our people. Here is a chance for them to fix and improve a system that according to everyone in the loop, is simply not working. I can’t imagine why they would want to make it easy on those who disregard our laws and let them get away with plundering our natural resources, can you?

Food For Thought is now available online at http://www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com/ and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

Mandatory Driver's Training - Finally!

2008-05-09T10:49:00.000+10:00

Food For Thought 5-9-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

Progress tends to come very slowly in the islands, there are many contributing factors, but today I am happy to report on some progress that I’ve been fighting for for the last 10 years. When I first moved out here 12 years ago I was shocked to learn that there was no drivers education program and no laws requiring one. When our children turned 16 years old, you would just take them in to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, have them take the written and road test, pay their fee and they would then walk away with a driver’s license that allowed them to drive on the roads by themselves. If the parent gave them some instruction and practice, that would be the extent of their formal drivers training and education. We didn’t mandate that they took a course teaching them the laws, or require that they spent so many hours driving with a parent or guardian before being allowed to drive by themselves. And we also didn’t require anyone coming here from another country to take a course teaching them about our laws, they just had to take a test, which they could easily buy the answers from and get their license. It was absolute insanity and was no wonder why we had the kind of drivers on our roads we did.

I’ve been talking about the need for a Driver’s Training school for the past 10 years. Everyone always said, yes, that’s a great idea, someone should do something about that, but for years nothing ever happened. About 4 years ago, Representative Heinz Hofschneider introduced a bill that would have made driver’s training mandatory for anyone turning 16 or for anyone coming in from another country. The governor at the time vetoed it because he knew I was behind the bill and had been pushing it, and because it was being introduced by Heinz Hofschneider, who the governor didn’t like at all either. So politics got in the way of moving forward with a good idea and a good bill, and that was the end of it for a while.

In the next legislature, Congressman Arnold Palacios agreed to sponsor the bill and introduce it once again. We had a different governor this time around, and he had promised to support the bill if it passed both houses and got to his desk. The senate decided to sit on the bill for quite a while, as they have a habit of doing, but they did eventually pass it, and the Governor, true to his word, signed it into law. The law gave the Department of Public Safety 6 months to implement rules & regulations for the new law, and set up standards which would govern Driver’s Training schools. It was evidently not a priority for the Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety at the time, and she just ignored the mandate in the law to promulgate rules and regulations within 6 months.

In the meantime, a local teacher, who had been a driving instructor back in the states, decided he would open a Driver’s Training school, since the law had mandated drivers education now. But the 6 months came and went, then it was over a year and still no rules or regulations from the Department of Public Safety. Obviously he wasn’t getting many students since the Bureau of Motor Vehicles wasn’t forcing people to take the mandatory drivers training class before getting their license. They weren’t forcing people to take the course because the Department of Public Safety still had not come out with any rules & regulations yet. So we finally had a law on the books mandating drivers training, and now we even had a school, but we still weren’t getting anywhere and very few students were actually being trained.

Recently the Governor appointed former congressman and former police officer Clyde Norita as the new Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety. Clyde came in for the morning talk show, Island Issues, just a day or two after being appointed. I asked him what he planned on doing about the drivers training law that had never been implemented. He assured me that he would be looking into it immediately and would be meeting with the gentleman who had started the Driver’s Training school to see if everything was ready. Clyde honored that promise and started digging into it immediately. The result is that we now have rules and regulations promulgated for the drivers training program, and it is set to take effect on June 2, 2008. From that point forward all first time drivers license applicants will have to take a certified drivers training course and log in a certain number of hours driving with a parent or guardian in the vehicle. Also anyone coming from any country other than the U.S. or Canada will also have to take the drivers training course. If someone applies for a license before June 2, 2008, they will not have to take the course, but if they are applying for their first CNMI driver’s license after that date, they will be required to take the course before getting their license.

So finally, after years and years of talking about the need for a driver’s training program, it is about to become a reality. I’m hoping that this will greatly improve the safety on our roads, and that it will cut down on some of the needless traffic related deaths we have witnessed in the last couple decades. I realize there are those who will not like this law and grumble because the government is forcing them to spend more money in order to get a driver’s license for their children. But if you talk to any parent who has lost a child in a traffic accident out here, I’m sure they would tell you it would be money well spent if it makes them better and more defensive drivers. Drivers who have gotten a certain number of driving citations will also be required to take this course in order to keep their license. So even though there are a lot of people who have slipped through the cracks and never had any drivers training or education, if the police department starts cracking down, they may be required to take the course after all.

I would like to thank and congratulate those who had a hand in making this a reality, Representative Heinz Hofschneider for drafting and sponsoring the bill in the first place, Representative Arnold Palacios for sponsoring it in the next legislature, Governor Fitial for signing the bill into law, and to DPS Commissioner Clyde Norita for taking control of the situation and promulgating rules and regulations so that it could finally be implemented. Yes, sometimes progress here can be painfully slow, but that doesn’t mean that you should give up and stop trying or that you should throw up your hands and quit after the first setback or obstacle.
For those wondering just what exactly this will mean and how it will work, DPS Commissioner Clyde Norita will be in my studio Tuesday morning at 7 am to talk about the law, the rules and regulations and about what you would have to do if you wanted to open another driver’s training school. This will also open up new business opportunities, job opportunities, and it will bring in additional revenues to the government through taxes and permit fees. So while there may be some students out there not happy about the prospect of having to take a driver’s training course now, I am thrilled that they will be equipped to be better and safer drivers now as a result. Of course we will still have accidents, but I’ve got to believe that it can only help to educate our students before letting them loose behind the wheel, and by having them log in so many hours driving under the watchful eye of a parent or guardian first.

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

The State of the Commonwealth

2008-05-02T14:52:00.000+10:00

Food For Thought 5-2-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

I guess I’ll start this week with a few of my thoughts from the Governor’s State of the Commonwealth speech and the address by the Washington Representative. Yes, I did go and sit through both of the addresses. I was actually there at 8:30 because I thought it started at 9 am for some reason, but when there were only 3 of us in the audience at 9 am, one of us got the bright idea to go and find out what was up (I wasn’t the bright one, just in case you were wondering). That’s when we found out it didn’t start until 10, but by that point, we had frostbite in most of our limbs because of the ridiculously cold air conditioning, so we just sat tight and waited.

There were no surprises in the Governor’s address; he was touting the fact that the Kumho investment at Lau Lau, the increased flights from Asiana and Northwest, and the new casino developments on Tinian were all signs that there is hope. He did not indicate that he thought things would be improving anytime soon, and indicated that more cuts needed to be made in the government so that we can live within our means. He did announce that the CNMI government has reached an agreement with the U.S. government over the release of $16.1 million dollars for the federal stimulus program. He said we should be receiving that money within the next couple of weeks and the government would then start the distribution of it toward the end of the month. It is $600 per person, or $1,200 for a couple and an additional $300 per child living at home. It’s certainly not the answer to all of our problems, but it may pay for one month’s CUC bill, or 2 months of your gasoline bill. I know that I’m personally happy to hear about it, and think I can probably find a good use for at least a little bit of my $600 allotment.

The Governor also talked a bit about the impending federalization of our immigration system, and the fact that he isn’t hopeful that we will be able to avoid the next .50 cent per hour minimum wage increase set to take effect later this month. While talking about the federalization of our immigration system, he went out of his way to say that many of the congressmen and congressional staffers they had talked to in Washington had never heard of the CNMI or our situation. He said that we have not been effectively represented in Washington DC, and hoped that situation would be changing in the future. It has been no secret that the Governor and Pete A. Tenorio, the Washington Representative have been polar opposites on most of the issues revolving around the federalization of our minimum wage and immigration, and the Governor was using this opportunity to bash the Washington Rep. for it.

The Governor did show a slide that indicated the progress of the repair work on the CUC engines. He said that within 6 months we would be at 90% of our operating capacity at CUC, our megawatt capacity would go from roughly 28 to over 80 megawatts. He didn’t say whether our generators would be improved from operating at 40% efficiency to over 90% where they should be operating though. If that were to happen, we would be using half as much fuel and lube oil, and obviously we could lower prices accordingly. Because he didn’t mention it, I’m guessing that the efficiency of the engines isn’t being worked on, we’re just simply getting them up and running, but it’s probably still at about 40%.

The Governor did come out and criticize the legislature rather harshly for their bill lowering the rate that CUC can charge to residential customers, and I’m not saying they didn’t deserve it. He said that the utility is experiencing a huge cash shortage as a result, and that the government can no longer afford to subsidize the utility. It was rather obvious that the Governor was more than a little frustrated with the actions of the legislature, and didn’t mind pointing fingers and laying the blame where he believed it belonged. You could see legislators rolling their eyes and looking at each other, which makes me question whether anybody will really be trying to work together or cooperate to address our problems, or whether they’ll just be too busy pointing fingers and playing political games.

For his part of the address, Pete A. Tenorio told how he had testified in favor of the minimum wage increase up to $4.05 an hour and how he was supporting the federalization of our immigration system. He said he wasn’t happy about the fact that they put the non-voting delegate in congress in the same bill as the immigration federalization, but that he felt as long as they were federalizing our immigration, it was vitally important that we have representation in Congress. He also seemed intent on convincing the audience that he has indeed been busy in Washington working with the powers that be on the federalization bill, getting concessions for us. He started off definitely on the defensive from the lambasting he took from the Governor, but he didn’t seem to deviate from his speech much to respond to any of the accusations or to make any accusations of his own.

The reaction of the crowd was the thing that I think was the biggest difference this year. A couple times you could hear one person start to clap in the middle of the speech, but then when they realized no one else was going to join them, they quickly stopped. There was no applause or encouragement whatsoever during the body of either of the speeches, and the response afterward could only be described as lukewarm at best. Even though at least half of the crowd seemed to be various cabinet secretaries, department heads and government employees, none of them seemed to be leading the cheering section or to be that enthusiastic in their applause. To me, the reaction of the crowd seemed to speak volumes and was probably more of an indicator of the state of the Commonwealth than the speech itself.

I think one of the biggest challenges we currently face is that our people are losing hope. They are losing hope that our leaders are capable of doing anything about the myriad of problems we are currently facing. They are losing hope that anyone has a plan that will actually make any difference. They are losing hope that our leaders will finally put politics behind them and just all roll up their sleeves together to get serious about planning where we want to head as a Commonwealth, and then implementing that plan without all looking for their own reward or kickback. They are losing hope that anyone we elect as Governor will truly be any different from all the rest. They are losing hope that they will be able to provide an adequate standard of living for their families if they continue living in the islands.

I have talked to numerous people recently, who are either in the process of moving away or are taking a very hard look at whether the time has come for them to leave as well. None of the ones I’ve talked to have only been here a year or two, most of them have been here for at least a decade, and some of them have lived here their entire lives. None of the people I’ve talked to want to leave, this has become their home and they had planned on staying here for a very long time. But if your quality of life erodes to the point where you’re having to make major sacrifices just to stay, you have to ask yourself whether it is really worth it or not.

Some of the problems that we are currently facing are global and not specific to just us. We can’t do anything about the cost of gasoline, and the point may be coming very quickly where it simply is no longer economically viable to drive our cars to work. That will mean that a public transportation system will be a necessity for many people’s survival. However, we don’t have a public transportation system, and to my knowledge no one is looking into the feasibility of creating one.

With the price of oil, renewable energy has become more important than ever to our long term survival and to the ability of businesses to remain profitable. But what are we doing about it? Sure we passed a law mandating that we have to have a certain percentage of renewable energy each year, but we really aren’t doing anything about making that happen. Our government has said that it’s not in the business of research and development and our utility can’t even afford to pay for fuel, not to mention invest in alternative energy. So where does that leave us? Can we really expect a business to want to just come in and invest tens of millions of dollars into renewable energy plants and have to hope for the best when dealing with our government? Our track record would scare away even the most adventurous and risk taking companies.

Is it any reason that more and more people are losing hope and are moving away? When will enough finally be enough for you? What will your breaking point be? When will your quality of life have slipped to an intolerable level that you’re no longer willing to put up with? Are you willing to live in a cave with no power or running water, and to eat fish and drink coconut milk every day? I was really hoping that there might be a splinter of hope in the Governor’s State of the Commonwealth address for people who need something to help them hang on for just a little longer, but if it was there, I totally missed it. There is plenty of blame to go around, but sadly no solutions anywhere in sight.

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

Who Are Our Legislators Really Representing?

2008-04-25T10:25:00.002+10:00

Food For Thought 4-25-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

No matter how hard I try to ignore the legislature and not talk about them, they just continue to make fools of themselves and beg to be criticized for it. The only real dilemma here is trying to decide where to start this week. I guess the latest attempt by the legislature to legalize gambling on Saipan is the most logical place to start. I know this may come as a total shock to some of you, but gambling is illegal on Saipan. Then why are there more poker places than Tinian has cows you ask? The answer to that is both simple and complicated. The simple side of it is because we have corrupt and moronic lawmakers who had their hands out looking for “campaign donations” when the idea of slot machines was first introduced years ago. Now comes the complicated part, when the slot machines were first introduced they were for “entertainment” purposes only, and you could only win credits on them, no cash. But that wasn’t good enough, some of the gullible citizens thought they could strike it rich if only they could actually have a chance of winning a huge cash jackpot. At least that’s what they were told by the machines owners and operators. So again, the poker industry pimps went up and had a discussion with the legislature and they decided that gambling only involved games of chance. And because there is a certain amount of thinking and reasoning that goes into playing poker, it then became a game of skill, not a game of chance, and therefore was not considered gambling. Seriously, this is the reasoning they incorporated! And thus was born our non-gambling poker industry.

I always thought that gambling was when you bet money or other goods on the outcome of some sort of game, and you had a chance of increasing your initial bet depending on the odds and the outcome of the game. I decided that maybe I should find out what someone else’s definition of gambling was, so I checked Wikipedia to see what their definition of gambling was. According to Wikipedia, “gambling has a certain economic definition, referring to wagering money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and or material goods.” That’s basically the same thing that I said, only it sounds like it went through a legal department first. So whether you call it a game or skill or a game of chance, it’s still gambling as long as money or material goods are wagered or used. So it’s not exactly a quantum leap to figure out that we do indeed already have gambling on Saipan. But for some, that’s not enough, they figure they could take a lot more of your money if they could take it at blackjack tables, Texas Hold-em tables and a few other select games.

We saw a group gather signatures and put this issue on the ballot in the last election, whether to allow indigenously owned and controlled casinos to operate on Saipan or not. The initiative was soundly defeated. You can argue that people weren’t necessarily against gambling, they just didn’t like the indigenous only angle, but I think it’s a moot point. It was shot down, the people had spoken. Our lawmakers weren’t paying any attention to what you had to say though; either that or they just thought they knew better than you once again. They tried introducing a bill that would seek to legalize certain games of chance for Saipan, to have limited casino operations. Most people were outraged that the idiots on the hill hadn’t paid any attention to the last election, and the Senate promised to kill the bill anyway, because of course Rota and Tinian don’t want any competition from Saipan to their thriving casino industries, and I said that with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek. The first time they tried to pass the bill, it was killed, no big surprise.

But I have to admit that even I was surprised when the issue resurfaced again recently. Congressman and former Speaker Oscar Babauta tried introducing it again, with a slightly different spin, saying it would be the economic salvation for Saipan. It might be the economic salvation for someone, but it would probably just be the casino owners and whoever he had to pay off to push the process through. The House voted on the measure this past Thursday and it was soundly defeated once again, 16 voting no, 2 abstained and 2 voted yes. I think it might be worth pointing out who the two Congressmen were that voted for its passage though; they were Oscar Babauta and Stanley Torres. The two abstentions were Ray Palacios and Justo Quitugua. So congratulations on re-electing these two who are obviously so in tuned with what the community wants. I don’t know whether it’s that they don’t listen, can’t remember, don’t care or just aren’t smart enough to read the writing on the wall. But once again they are wasting your money by introducing and supporting legislation that has absolutely no chance of passage whatsoever. The truly sad part is, that you obviously didn’t learn your lessons in the last election, and you’ll forget these lessons before the next election once again, and these two will probably be re-elected once again, although for the life of me I can’t figure out why anyone would want them representing them.

I read where some of the freshmen lawmakers are getting fed up with the way things are done in their illustrious body; I can only imagine their frustration level. And it is my understanding that the House deliberately kills discussion and won’t allow recommendations or amendments from a certain female freshman lawmaker. Do they really believe they’re collectively better off by not allowing her to be heard or to participate? Do they really think that they are the only ones with all the answers? Aren’t they the ones who got us into all of these messes in the first place? Do they think it’s more important to continue recycling defeated legislation than it is to listen to new and fresh ideas? If our hope truly rides on the actions, thoughts and plans of the legislature, we are indeed doomed!

And that brings me to the other monumental show of ignorance recently by this self-important body. The House of Representatives voted Thursday by a vote of 17-3 approving a resolution asking President Bush not to unilaterally declare a marine sanctuary around the islands of Uracas, Maug and Asuncion. The 3 who voted against the resolution were Representatives Tina Sablan, Heinz Hofschneider and Edward Salas. The Senate unanimously adopted the resolution earlier in the week. I realize there are people on both sides of this debate and issue, but honestly those who have come out against it have motives that are more than a little suspect, and their track records are less than stellar when it comes to the environment. I believe it is always a mistake though to take sides on an issue before thoroughly familiarizing yourself with it. After all, how can you vote on something if you haven’t bothered to educate yourself on it? Do you really think that reading a few letters to the editor in the newspaper qualifies you as being properly educated? Did the lawmakers bother to actually find out how the public actually feels about this proposed marine sanctuary? Did they hold any public hearings on the matter before issuing their resolution? Or do they think they have some kind of ESP that informs them automatically what the majority of their constituency thinks about any particular matter at any given time? Again, these supposed “representatives” of the people decided they already knew what you wanted and thought, and therefore they didn’t need to ask you, they would just go ahead and speak for you, whether it represented how you truly felt or not. In my mind the most prudent thing to do at this point would have been to hold public hearings, do some more investigation into exactly what this would mean for the CNMI, and maybe find out how the marine sanctuary in the northern Hawaiian Islands has been working out.

I guess the thing that really upsets me about this is that once again, they didn’t bother asking you what you thought, they didn’t care. If they really wanted to know, they could have found out, and could have given everyone with an opinion a chance to share it with them. But they once again feel they know what is best for us, and that they don’t need or want your input into the matter.

I guess at this point in time I would have to ask, do you really feel you’re getting your money’s worth out of our legislature? Are they worth all the money we spend on them every year? Are they accurately and properly representing you and how you feel about things? Are they introducing and supporting bills and concepts that are important to you, that you feel will improve the quality of life in the CNMI? Are they spending their time productively and showing positive results for it? Are you happy that nearly every legislator, some of the legislative bureau staff and other government employees take numerous hours out of every week to attend every funeral that comes along, whether they knew the person or family or not? If an employee in the private sector wants to attend a funeral, it is usually on their own time, the employer doesn’t usually pay them when they are out on personal business, so why should government employees be allowed to go and then collect their full pay? After all, we all know the real reason they are there is to buy some goodwill and hopefully your family’s votes in the next election. I even heard a Saipan Senator told a colleague that the best way to get votes was to attend every single rosary and funeral that came along. Is that really what we elect them for? Is that what’s important to you? The next time you see them at a funeral, tell them they work for you and to get back to work, this isn’t included in their job description.

Food For Thought is now available online at http://www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com/ and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

Lack of Responsibility

2008-04-18T10:18:00.001+10:00

Food For Thought 4-18-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

This past week has been one of the more trying weeks I can ever remember during my 12 years on Saipan. The main reason is that Commonwealth Utilities Corporation told us they had no money to pay for more fuel and they only had enough to go through Thursday. They said if the administration or legislature didn’t come up with more cash to give them, they would have to turn off power for the island on Friday. When you’re in business, that’s the last thing you want to hear, that there will be no power anywhere. So all week everyone on island has been waiting to hear what was happening. Did CUC all the sudden come up with enough cash to buy more fuel? Did the legislature come up with the money to buy fuel? Did the administration reprogram enough funds to keep the lights on for a while longer?

As we read the newspapers every day they didn’t really answer any of our questions, they just seemed to be blaming each other and coming up with excuses. I was hoping that since this was the #1 issue in the Commonwealth at the time, that maybe the Governor would come in Wednesday morning and tell everyone what his plan was and what the status of the utility was. Or at the very least that they would send in the Lt. Governor and Tony Guerrero, the Executive Director of CUC to give us some answers so that we all knew how to plan. But no, even though the Lt. Governor promised me just 2 weeks ago that they realized they had to be much more transparent about the crisis situation at the utility, and they would be coming out in the public to explain it more often, they didn’t come in either. Instead, the administration had the acting director of the Emergency Management Office come in to talk about their plans. Now it’s not that EMO isn’t important, but frankly it’s not what anybody wanted to hear, we all wanted to hear if the lights were going to be on Friday or not. But not one word from the administration or the utility as to the status of fuel to keep the generators operating.

So then Thursday came, the day before the utility told us the lights would be going out if they didn’t come up with more money to buy fuel. The Saipan Tribune didn’t really have any news about the situation at all. The Marianas Variety had a story from the Governor’s Press Secretary saying that the administration would not be giving the utility any money; there was no money to give or to reprogram. Earlier in the week there was a story in one of the papers in which the Governor’s Press Secretary was blaming CUC for their current mess, saying that since they had refused to take the pay cuts last year that everyone else had to take, they made their own mess and no one was going to bail them out now. Maybe if they had taken those pay cuts, they wouldn’t be in the financial mess they are in now. While there may be some truth in that story and those statements, this really wasn’t what anyone wanted to hear. Here we were all wondering if we would be able to keep the doors open for our businesses, and they were still playing politics, pointing fingers at each other. Now this whole thing was beginning to smell like a political power play, and it really stunk.

Around 11 am on Thursday as I was driving up to Mt. Topochou to start our generator for the next power outage, I had Lewie call CUC to find out if they were able to buy fuel or what the situation for Friday was going to be. The person Lewie talked to said they did get a fuel shipment the day before, so that would have been on Wednesday, but it was a secret, and they weren’t allowed to let that information out yet. So at 11 am on Thursday I knew that there wouldn’t be any island-wide blackouts over the weekend due to a lack of fuel, however I still couldn’t go on air and say anything, because I still didn’t have any official notice from the administration or CUC, basically all I had was hearsay, even though it was inside information.

I had a million questions going through my mind at this point, the first of which was, who is lying? The administration said they weren’t going to give CUC any money to buy fuel, and CUC had been telling us they had no money to buy fuel, yet evidently they somehow came up with money to buy another week’s worth of fuel, so where did they get the money, and who was lying about it and why? And why were they keeping this information a big secret? Shouldn’t they be telling people to avoid panic? Shouldn’t they be letting businesses know so they could also plan accordingly? Shouldn’t they be telling schools so they knew if there was any point in opening on Friday or not? What were they waiting for? If they already had the fuel, they obviously knew what their plan was, so what was the purpose in keeping quiet about it for over a day? Was this just another political ploy by the administration or by CUC? The more I thought about it, the more pissed off I got about it. There was no good or acceptable reason to not let the public know what was going on. This was part of some political game, pure and simple, and there is no excuse for it. Whoever was behind withholding this information should lose their job immediately, and I don’t care whether it was the Governor or the Executive Director of CUC. You are now putting political games ahead of the good of the Commonwealth and you need to lose your job for it, it’s really just that simple!

Then I started getting calls all Thursday afternoon from people saying they heard on a radio station that there would be total blackouts starting Friday because CUC had no money to buy any fuel and everything would go dark on Friday. Other rumors popped up on blogs that there would be total blackouts from 6 am to 6 pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The rumor mills were going into overdrive and everyone was grasping for straws. Why would a radio station start such rumors without any hard facts to go on? Were they just drawing their own conclusions from what they had read in the newspaper and then stating their conclusions as facts? Was this just simply a case of disc jockeys going too far and creating a public panic? But why would the management of those stations allow them to keep adding fuel to the fire and spreading these rumors? Did they think it was good for their business, to be screaming “wolf” and then watching the public panic as they called all their friends to let them all know the “latest news”? It was completely irresponsible for that station to be saying those things on the air and spreading false rumors, but then again, they have really never been known for taking the responsible route or for being a reputable source for any information. So why would anyone believe anything they had to say on the matter? I guess that’s a question that only those people can answer; I just hope they’ve learned a lesson through this whole thing.

I could have gone on the air at noon on Thursday and said that I had learned through an inside source that CUC had bought fuel the day before and therefore there would be no island-wide power outage over the weekend. But I didn’t have any official notification from the utility, because they were still playing their secretive games. So I waited to go on the air to say anything until 3:30 pm, when I finally received official notification from CUC that they had purchased 3500 barrels of fuel which was another week’s supply. It’s called doing the responsible thing, and not reporting on a situation when all you have is hearsay and rumors. Unlike other stations, I don’t believe in whipping the public into a false panic just to try and make a name for myself, I’d rather wait and just report the facts.

I also don’t understand why a private school principal would cancel school for half a day based on those same rumors and misinformation? But then again there are many things that I haven’t understood in the past, like why we wasted the money to put a float in the Rose Bowl parade. Wouldn’t be great if we had that money right now to give to CUC? But then I guess we wouldn’t have all those extra tourists that came here as a result of seeing our float in the Rose Bowl parade and came here as a result. Oh wait, we didn’t get any extra tourists did we, so I guess it would be pretty nice to have that money right now after all, wouldn’t it?

The topic today is really about responsibility and doing the right things for the right reasons, something that seems to be sadly lacking in the Commonwealth. We have legislators that bought their re-election by lowering the rate that CUC had to charge to their residential customers, even though they knew it would drive the utility to the point of bankruptcy. We have an administration who seems more concerned about pointing fingers at the utility and making an example of them for not taking an across the board pay cut than they do about coming up with the funding for paying for fuel. We have a utility that seems to also be involved in playing the political games by not disclosing that they had come up with money to buy another week’s worth of fuel and there would be no island-wide blackout this weekend. And we have another radio station that is more interested in starting and spreading rumors than they are in getting out the truth and checking their facts before going public with them. I don’t see any examples of taking proper responsibility and doing the right things for the right reasons. If this is what we are going to have to continue putting up with, is it any wonder that Hollywood Theaters is closing their doors? They won’t be the last business to shut their doors and say it’s just not worth it anymore, the only question is, how many businesses and residents will leave before our leaders finally wake up and realize they can’t operate this way anymore?

Food For Thought is now available online at http://www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com/ and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

Federal Takeover Of Our Immigration Is A Done Deal

2008-04-11T11:07:00.001+10:00

Food For Thought 4-11-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

As I was sitting at my desk writing my commentary, I got a call from Jeff Schorr who let me know that he was just notified by his office in Washington that the U.S. Senate passed the bill that would federalize our Immigration system here in the CNMI. This is the same bill that the Governor has been fighting vigorously, and that HANMI and the Saipan Chamber of Commerce have sent their representatives to Washington to lobby against. All the lobbying efforts were evidently totally in vain as the vote was 91 to 4; no one cared what they had to say. I have had the feeling for quite some time now that trying to fight against this was like trying to hold back a 20’ tsunami that was rolling up the beach. You can do anything you want, but it won’t matter or do any good whatsoever, it was going to happen for a number of reasons. Whether the bill has to go back to the House or not really doesn’t make any difference, they will pass it immediately, and the President has already indicated he would sign it into law. The federalization of our Immigration program is no longer something to be fought or debated, it is now a fact.

Let’s be honest, the CNMI does not exactly have a very good track record, we’ve gone back on our promises in the past to raise the minimum wage. Years ago our legislature passed a law that would implement increases of the minimum wage gradually bringing it up to U.S. levels. They did this right before we were supposed to go to Washington to deliver testimony to Congress in regards to a takeover of our labor laws and minimum wage. So the Saipan delegation which included business and political leaders was able to testify to the U.S. Congress that we had just passed a law that would raise our minimum wage in incremental stages until it reached the U.S. levels. As a result, the U.S. Congress shelved their plans to take over our labor laws and minimum wage since they believed we were trying to comply. No sooner did that happen than our legislature repealed the law raising the minimum wage, caving in to pressure from the garment industry about the effects raising the minimum wage would have on their industry. We showed the U.S. government at that point that our word and our laws meant nothing and that we couldn’t be trusted.

And our current leaders can’t just blame this whole thing on someone else claiming they had nothing to do with it, many of them were still in office back then. Governor Fitial was in the legislature at the time and several of those serving in the legislature currently were in it then as well.

Then instead of doing the right thing and implementing a plan to raise our minimum wage, we got bogged down in fighting over whether it should be broken down by industry and have different minimum wages for the different categories, or whether we should raise it across the board. Since we couldn’t manage to agree on anything, we did nothing, we just left the minimum wage alone and didn’t raise it at all. Instead we started a campaign of hiring lobbyists to fight off the threat of a federal takeover of our labor and immigration departments. We hired the firm that employed Jack Abramoff, and he became our new savior. He wined and dined the right people, and he even managed to bring Congressman Tom DeLay and some of his colleagues out here on a trip. Ben Fitial was in the legislature at the time and was instrumental in negotiating the multi-million dollar contracts that were used to hire Abramoff’s firms and fight off the federalization attempts. Ben made no secret of his ties to Abramoff at the time, calling him his brother. These actions infuriated certain people like Congressman George Miller who vowed to not let this issue go away, and continued to introduce it in the U.S. House.

The shift of power in the U.S. House and Senate, and the disgrace of former Congressman Tom DeLay, and the imprisonment of lobbyist Jack Abramoff all started an inevitable ball rolling that wouldn’t stop until it brought the CNMI under the U.S. minimum wage and federalized our immigration system. There are many other factors that come into play here as well, including the buildup of military forces on Guam, real or perceived security threats in the region and a system that hasn’t always done a very good job of policing itself.

Whether you agree with the federalization of our Immigration or not, I don’t think many people can argue with a straight face that we haven’t asked for this with our actions over and over in the past. This can simply be considered as the consequences of our actions and inaction over the years.

So what will this really mean for the CNMI, will it be good or bad, will it cost us access to the Chinese and Russian tourist markets? I don’t think anybody can really give you a straight answer to any of those questions right now. There are too many unknowns and variables in the legislation, too many “mays” and “ifs” in the legislation to really get a good read on it. Until the rules are promulgated and we see what really happens with our Chinese and Russian tourists, anything that anybody tells you will be basically speculation.

There is one good thing that I believe will come of this, and that is that it finally ends the uncertainly of potential investors. Now they will know what the situation is and they won’t have a threat hanging over their heads making them nervous above moving forward with their plans. To be honest, it may chase some of them away and make them want to locate elsewhere, but I’m sure there are others who may look at it as a positive development and may be willing to finally pull the trigger on investing in the CNMI. Let’s just hope it’s not too little, too late. The uncertainty of the whole thing has been absolutely killing us for the last couple of years, and I for one am glad that at least the uncertainty is now gone. As for whether it will ultimately be good or bad for the CNMI, we will all have to wait and see together.

It is possible that there might be those who got the impression from my commentary last week that I think all the problems at Commonwealth Utilities Corporation should be blamed on the legislature. I believe the legislature has to own up to its responsibility for the utility company’s current financial woes as a result of their moronic law to lower the rate the utility charges to residential customers. They created a huge mess, and I don’t believe they have ever taken responsibility for their role in it. But let’s be perfectly clear, that is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to problems at the utility.

From some of the facts that are starting to come out and come to my attention now, I don’t think there can be any disputing the fact that the utility has been mismanaged for years and years, and our current problems are a compounding of all the incompetence over the years. You may get tired of hearing me talk about the utility company over the next several months, but I truly believe it poses one of the biggest challenges to survival of the CNMI, and therefore it needs to be discussed, exposed and addressed.

When talking about problems at the utility, it’s difficult to know where to start, there are just so many different topics and areas that need to be addressed. One of the first things I guess that deserves to be considered is whether CUC really has to charge as much as they are trying to just because of the cost of fuel? While it’s true that the cost of fuel has been skyrocketing and the cost of power needs to be tied to the cost of the fuel, it is also true that our engines and generators have been so poorly maintained that the efficiency on most of them is at about 40%. Not only does that mean that we’ve had to use over twice as much fuel to operate them as we should have, but also that we’re burning through 3 times as much lube oil as we should. In other words, CUC is throwing away money in fuel and lube oil all because they have not properly maintained the generators. So they could be charging about half as much as they want to charge and still be recouping their costs, if they would just operate the generators as they are supposed to be. They have tried telling me that there is no mismanagement at the utility, but that is just blatantly not true, and there are a myriad of facts to back that statement up.

One of the other things that has been suggested is burning dirty oil, which is much cheaper and would lower the cost of operating the units substantially as well. There are a lot more hoops we would have to jump through with the EPA to make that happen, but it is definitely a possibility, however not one that seems to be seriously considered by CUC. Why did they let our generators get in this condition in the first place instead of keeping them properly maintained? I really don’t believe our generators have been properly maintained for many years, but it is a fact that during the last administration Governor Babauta instructed CUC to stop spending money maintaining the generators since he was planning to privatize it anyway. I guess he might have believed that a private company would put in new generators anyway, so why throw money away on the old ones. There are so many flaws in that thinking I’m not even going to try addressing them all, but if you want to know how our generators wound up in the condition they are in, that’s where the lion’s share of the blame lies. So do you really think he deserves another chance to mess things up even worse? I think he’s going to give you the opportunity to vote for him in the next election if you still haven’t learned your lessons.

But there is also plenty of blame to go around inside the utility as well. They have not run it properly for as long as I can see. Let me just give you one example, Telesource charged CUC about $15 million dollars to build a power plant on Tinian which included an itemized list of all improvements. During an auditors visit many years ago, it was discovered that Telesource neglected to construct a used oil incinerator which was valued at about $350,000 and was listed on the itemized list of improvements to the facility. After being provided notice of the missing equipment, Telesource told them that they took care of the used oil problem themselves and therefore there was no need for an incinerator. There are a couple major problems with this though, #1 – CUC has already paid for the unit listed on the schedule of values in support of their contractual obligations. And #2 – when CUC takes back the power plant, it should not have to incur the cost to have the used oil shipped off island since the incinerator is already listed as an asset of the power plant, and has already been paid for. The cost to purchase and install this equipment would be considerably higher today than it was 10 years ago when the agreement was entered into with Telesource, and there are newer emission regulations in place today which would push the costs even higher. You would think that CUC would be pressing Telesource to purchase and install this incinerator since they are contractually obligated to do so and since CUC has already paid for it, but no, they are not pressing the matter and it appears that they are just willing to let it disappear. That means that CUC will either have to purchase an incinerator themselves after they take over the power plant, or that they will have to pay to have the oil shipped off island. But why, since they’ve already paid to have an incinerator installed? Is that what you consider proper management and oversight?

And the incinerator on Tinian is just one of the many examples of mismanagement and wasted money at this government owned and operated utility. I will be sharing many more examples in the coming weeks of just how bad things have gotten at the utility and of how they seem either incapable or unwilling to run things properly and professionally. Maybe it’s time that the federal government take-over not only our Immigration but also our utility company. Frankly I don’t blame the federal government for not being willing to bail out the utility, why throw more money away on an organization that has shown itself to be incompetent and incapable of running itself in a responsible manner. If there are to be more federal takeovers on the island, I’m praying that the next one will be of CUC.

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.

The CNMI Legislature - The Root Of All Evil?

2008-04-04T08:39:00.000+10:00

Food For Thought 4-4-08

Hi friends, this is Harry Blalock; General Manager for radio stations KZMI & KCNM. It’s that time once again to take a look at the issues of the week, and to offer some Food For Thought.

I’ve been detecting a very marked change in the last several months, many people are completely losing hope that things will ever change or improve here. Up to this point, many of us believed that things would continue getting worse for a while, but then we would turn a corner and things would actually start to rebound and the worst would be behind us. Things have admittedly been very bad here for quite a while. Corruption is not only rampant, but seems to be encouraged as no one is ever held accountable for their misdeeds, and that is something that many people have just come to expect as a way of life when you live in the CNMI. It’s sad that this has become an accepted way of life, because it shouldn’t be this way, and certainly doesn’t have to be. But it is because people continue to put the same old politicians back into office that got us into all these messes in the first place. They continue to fall for the same old campaign promises and lies even though they have never seen them fulfilled even once. For many years I have been saying that the key to any meaningful and lasting change here is abolish and completely revamp the way our legislature works. But we all know that will never happen because the good old boys are not about to give up their stranglehold on power and actually do something that would serve the needs of the people. This is a lesson now being learned by some of the freshman lawmakers who were just elected last November. I certainly don’t think the legislature is the only place in government that we have real problems, but I do believe it is the heart of the problem that needs to be addressed first.

This past week the Lt. Governor and Tony Guerrero, the Executive Director of Commonwealth Utilities Corporation came in to explain on the air what is going on with the utility, why we have been experiencing so many power outages lately, and the general state of the utility. I know they meant for the talk to be encouraging, as they are in the final stages of rehabbing a couple of the main engines and generators, and once they are back online we shouldn’t have the rolling blackouts we’ve been experiencing recently.

But at the same they were sharing the good news about some of the generators finally being repaired and back online, they told about the utilities inability to pay for a fuel delivery from Mobil later that same day. They told me that CUC had only $1 million to pay for a $4 million dollar delivery. They were hoping that they could either come up with the money from somewhere else in government, or that Mobil would agree to some kind of terms. Then they broke the news to me that the utility is still forced to charge the low rate of .17 cents a kilowatt hour to residential customers as a result of the ridiculous law passed by both houses of the legislature before the previous election. You might recall that Tao Tao Tano went up to the legislature demanding that the legislators do something about the high cost of power or the supposed thousands of Tao Tao Tano supporters would vote them all out of office. Our leaders who are full of something, but integrity isn’t it, caved in and voted to lower the rates for residential customers to .17 cents a kilowatt hour, while raising the cost of power to business to .32 cents. They were told repeatedly that this was charging far below what it actually cost the utility to produce the power, but they didn’t care, they were too busy buying votes to secure their income for the next 2 years, or 4 years in the senate’s case. They knew that this would mean the utility wouldn’t have money to make its fuel purchases, but again, they just didn’t care, they were too afraid of being voted out of office if they didn’t cave in to Tao Tao Tano’s demands.

And now the chickens are coming home to roost, the utility had to lower the rates back down as of March 1st, and they are still continuing to bill at that rate. It might be worth noting at this point that the same legislator who authored the bill to lower the power rate in the first place has now also authored a bill to repeal that law. Did he all of the sudden wake up and realize this wouldn’t work, that CUC wasn’t going to be able to buy fuel, or did he only do it in the first place to buy votes before the election? The bill has passed the House and is now awaiting action from the Senate.

But up until March 1st, CUC was charging the higher rate for electricity, and yet they are still $3 million short for the fuel delivery, and that’s when they were supposedly charging enough to cover their costs. The billing cycle for these new lower rates won’t be felt until May and June, which means that CUC will again not have even close to enough money to pay for their fuel deliveries. Are we really supposed to expect Mobil to just keep bringing fuel knowing that we won’t be able to pay for it and that we’re not doing anything to fix the problem? Where will the Governor and the legislature reappropriate money from to pay for fuel the next time? Will it come from your department? Will they cut your job? One thing that I can guarantee you is they won’t take it out of their own pockets or operating expenses.

In the midst of the crisis, we have everybody blaming everybody else for the mess the utility currently finds itself in. The administration would blame the legislature for stalling and not approving their appointments to the Public Utilities Commission. The legislature would accuse the administration of using political favors in their appointments and not appointing those best qualified to serve in that capacity, or those with a conflict of interest. And CUC would blame the legislature for passing a law lowering the rates for residential customers to .17 cents a kilowatt hour, knowing that it costs far more than that to produce the electricity. And in the midst of all the arguing and finger pointing, the situation just gets more and more desperate and hopeless. It’s no wonder that so many people are choosing to move away and start over somewhere else; they just don’t have the confidence that things will ever change or improve here.

It’s very well documented just how cash strapped the government is and how we need to make some drastic cuts just to survive. But you might be interested to know that the legislature is willing to make cuts, but only to you, they don’t even want to consider inflicting any cuts that might impact them personally. In Friday’s edition of the Saipan Tribune there is a story on page 5 entitled “Austerity bill hurdles bitter House debate”. This bill reinstates the austerity Friday program and suspends holiday pay for the 3 remaining holidays this fiscal year. It also reduces the government’s retirement contribution rate to 11 percent, which is far less than the actuary recommended rate of 36.77 percent. The bill also reprograms $6 million from various revenue sources outside the General Fund. This bill is expected to raise $17 million for government operations.

As you may recall from the last round of austerity Friday’s, the only effect that has on the legislators themselves is that it gives them an extra day off every other week, while not touching their pay. So they’ve done it again, they’ve given themselves more time off at the same pay while cutting your pay. And they are also putting off their retirement obligations, and letting another administration down the line have to deal with the deficit to the Retirement Fund.

Voting against the bill were David Apatang, Heinz Hofschneider, Tina Sablan and Ralph Torres, Rosemond Santos was absent. Tina Sablan attempted to make an amendment to terminate government paid mobile phones and vehicle leases, which would also save the government a lot of money. She wanted to make other amendments as well, but was never allowed to introduce them. Representative Diego Benavente voted down Sablan’s proposed amendment, saying that her suggestion might cause controversy and delay passage of the bill in the Senate. Representative Joseph Deleon Guerrero said that this kind of amendment has no room in this legislation. In other words, Tina Sablan’s amendments would take away some of the lawmakers perks, and they weren’t willing to give up any of their own personal goodies for the good of the Commonwealth, they’d rather just have you pay for it. They have obviously learned no lessons at all and why should they? You put them back into office last November after watching them pull all these same shenanigans during their last term, and didn’t hold them accountable or make them answer for any of it. They believe they are truly above the rest of us and shouldn’t have to face the same hardships they inflict on the rest of us. They behave this way because they can. Instead of punishing them for it and booting them out of office, you re-elected them and rewarded them for their greedy and selfish behavior.

Yes, I have a lot of respect for Tina Sablan and her ideas, but the problem is she is vastly outvoted in the legislature, and it is still a numbers game there. Common sense, fiscal responsibility and ethics really don’t have any place in the legislature, and those that employ them and hold them dear will be outvoted and silenced every single time. So as business close because they can’t afford the outrageous power bills being levied against them, and as there are more blackouts because CUC can’t afford to pay for the fuel shipments, you can thank your lawmakers for lowering the residential rate before the last election in a sleazy attempt to hold onto their jobs and power.

If the legislature isn’t the root of all evil, it certainly isn’t far from it!

Food For Thought is now available online at www.fftsaipan.blogspot.com and if you want it by e-mail distribution please send me an e-mail at harryblalock@gmail.com

I’m Harry Blalock, thanking you once again for giving me a generous slice of your valuable time, and allowing me to share my Food For Thought.