In 178 days from today, the Federal Government will take over the CNMI's labor and Immigration, hence head note 3(a) is gone, the Garment manufacturing tariff that allowed the CNMI to be competitive, now much more to be retracted on the covenant of our very own livelihood, Immigration which would put a halt to our tourism industry and jeopardize the way we live, the way we survive. It appears that our old guards, our older politicians have served within their means, they have served to protect the people, the indigenous and visitors alike. Today, I worry that our experienced leaders have felt that they lost the battle, now I question, what happens to us? The indigenous people of the CNMI who since 20-30 years ago, had no say on the matters of governing our land, our prosperity, our livelihood. WE, the indigenous have a voice that WE whould exercise.
Today, we have a voice, we are in the mere 18 years to 40 who have not really shared our thoughts, our ways of handling issues. I would like to state commendations to our young leaders such as Ray Yumul, Tina Sablan and Ralph Torres for being in the political Arena despite the challenges. But is that enough? Our generation is faced with difficult choices. Our generation will be the driving force for future islanders. Should we sit idle and let this be where the Federal Government dictates our very lives by enforcing regulations that do not complement an economy for growth, but rather hinder the growth we need for ourselves and our children and their children. The people who sit on the nation's capital stating that in the past 20 years, there has been Labor & Immigration abuse, fine, but was that our time? No, it was not us, our generation has been listening to our elders, following orders and chores to maintain a home, guess what? Our home is much larger than the four walls we sleep in, our home is the land we till, the waters we fish in, the community we engage with, the people who will be here until we take our last breath.
You have heard numerous talk and spread of issues regarding how the
Ask yourselves these questions, I for one would love to spearhead a group, a mass group of people to make a standpoint on allowing OUR generation an opportunity to self governance.
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6 comments:
Immigration and Labor control is less about Economic Control than it is about Political Control. It is about controlling who gets to be a citizen and who doesn't, but more importantly who gets to vote and who doesn't.
Maybe so, but it also puts us on a difficult position whereas, the control of who come in and out of our borders too. This hinders economic survival in itself.
I am still wondering how the CNMI has managed to alienate Japanese and Korean tourists... these groups were the island's lifeline for many years. In the last few years I have heard a lot of noise about how the Chinese and Russians should be allowed to come in as tourists, but let's face it these are groups which tend to have a larger criminal element, as well as a propensity to overstay and/or work illegally. Everyone I talked to in Korea knows Saipan, the island is a household name in both Korea and Japan.
Being a household name is great, but it does not convince them to get here, our tourism numbers are down due to the many factors. Competition is one major factor that has our dwindling tourism industry ailing for assistance. Japan and Korea will always be our main tourism markets, but diversification is also important. Keeping our eggs in one or two baskets will hurt us eventually. A common saying when Japan or Korea as the sniffles, the CNMI is suffering the flu. It is quite devastating to lose alternative tourism markets, we cannot survive!
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