I HAVE agreed to take it upon myself to be a translator for the general public, free of charge. I speak many languages, including English, Chamorro, and Japanese. In addition to these three languages, I am also a qualified expert in the Fitial administration’s dialect.
What is the Fitial administration’s dialect? It is hypocritical and deceitful. For example, when the Fitial administration promises “better times,” what they are really promising is “bitter times.”
Another would be “feds should help, not harm, NMI.” What this really means is “Feds should leave my dirty laundry alone. I am already in enough trouble as it is.”
Indeed, Governor Fitial, your problems do seem to be mounting higher and higher each day. First, you appointed various Tan executives to top government posts. Then, in a sneaky and low-profile manner, you contracted Dr. Jesus Camacho at tax payers’ expense to defend you in the local newspapers. And then recently, we discovered that your son’s company was granted exclusive rights to provide translation services to the Division of Immigration. And who can forget that you are in high favor of contracting Prime Asia, a company on which your special assistant for special projects is a board member of, to build the new Capitol.
The halls of your offices reek heavily with a strong stench of nepotism and hypocrisy. I’m sure your own house smells like Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff, illegal and corrupted.
“We are dying economically.” Translation: “My friends in the garment industry are suffering big time.” I’m sorry. Strike that. “ME and my friends in the garment industry are suffering big time.”
Not only are you a staunch supporter of conflict of interest, but you also happen to be a fanatic of self-interest and special interests. For years, it’s been all about you and your garment industry buddies. For years, you people subjected pitiful Chinese employees to work for minimum wage in poor working environments. You maximized your pockets and paid minimal fees to the government coffers.
It’s about time you start contributing your fair amount to our economy. You and your buddies have tarnished the reputation of the CNMI with your wrongful practices and have polluted our environment with the smoke from your warehouses. The rest of us paid our dues; it’s your turn to pay yours.
Did you think you were going to get away with making us suffer big time?
More importantly, did you think you were going to get away from being held accountable for your ties to Abramoff and Delay?
“The federal government should focus its investigation on how unfairly the citizens of the commonwealth are being treated.” This is just a stupid remark all on its own.
Earth to Governor Fitial. The feds have come to rescue us citizens of the commonwealth from your unfair treatment of us. You are the one mistreating us, and, thus, you are the one they are investigating.
Did that not click in your mind?
“Most of the people in the CNMI do not care about the Abramoff issue.”
Translation: “Why did you have to remind them that I was involved in the scandal? I’ve been working so hard this past year to put other worries on their minds so that they could forget about that.”
You may not want us to care, but we care about the Abramoff issue. We care about it a lot. We’re not stupid to forget about our ticket to better times.
The worries you put on us everyday remind us of how corrupted you are. Last time I checked “Benigno Fitial” in my dictionary, it ended with “see Jack Abramoff.” And if you look at the synonyms of “Benigno Fitial” in my thesaurus, you will find that it not only says, “deceitful, cunning, untrustworthy, etc.,” but it also lists Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay as related words.
“What they [citizens of the commonwealth] need is an improved CNMI economy, and what we need is a federal government concerned about doing what ever it can to help this unrepresented group of American Pacific islanders who are losing sons in Iraq on a regular basis. That’s what America should care about when it comes to the CNMI, not Jack Abramoff.” These last two sentences are simply not translatable.
Yes, we do need an improved CNMI economy, the one that you promised us. In your promise, you stated that you would bring in investors within six months of being in office. Where are they?
Yes, we are an unrepresented group of American Pacific islanders, specifically because you’ve neglected to pay attention to us. You have chosen to represent the Tan family and friends, not the people of the Commonwealth.
Yes, we are losing sons in Iraq on a regular basis. What does that have to do with exempting you from being held accountable for your part in the Abramoff scandal? I am certain they didn’t sacrifice their lives specifically to free you of any charges that may be brought against you in the Abramoff matter. Indeed, they died for freedom, but not that special interest freedom that you seem to have in mind.
If you don’t mind me asking, what grounds do you think you have that you should be giving America advice? Last time I checked, you can’t even run our small commonwealth right. You have no backing to make claims as to what our country should and should not be doing.
One last thing: you can run, but you sure cannot hide.
I almost forgot. Should the Division of Immigration need my translating services, please do not hesitate to contact me via e-mail: roselle_d_calvo@hotmail.com.

ROSELLE D. CALVO
New York, NY