Here in Dandan, a neighborhood watch action team has been conducting a weekly cleanup campaign in neglected and vandalized recreational areas. Volunteers led by the neighborhood watch block captain Frank B. Camacho have been cutting grass and trees at the children’s park and are spreading the word that ordinary citizens can do something about the mess in their community without waiting for government action that is seldom forthcoming anyway. They are taking charge and empowering themselves. They are making the village a better place for everyone.
“Government money was used for this park that is supposed to be enjoyed by the children and the community,” Camacho said in an earlier interview. “But nobody followed up to take care of it.” What was supposed to be a park became a dump.
“Now we have to move together for our children’s park to be enjoyed by everybody,” Camacho said.
After the park cleanup, the group will try to restore the water and power supplies that were cut after the copperwire and water lines were either destroyed or stolen.
Camacho is inviting other Dandan residents to join their group, which also aims to reduce crime and instill a greater sense of security in the community.
For more information, call him at 483-0764.
If we want to make the world a better place, let’s start with ourselves, in our own villages, and we can do that by going out there, joining other concerned citizens and residents in making positive changes in our neighborhoods.
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A few years ago, a statesider once noted the seemingly countless Filipino organizations on island and how all of them supported local government initiatives involving beautification, public health, public education, among other things. They join cleanups, volunteer for reading programs, raise funds for beach pavilions and organize public awareness campaigns. Some of the professionals share their time and expertise to ensure that their fellow Filipino workers get health advisories or learn new skills that could be turned into a business venture.
This is all good and highly commendable, and to make it even better I suggest that the Philippine consulate look into the possibility of allowing local residents to avail of the free health screenings/tests and enroll in the livelihood courses offered to Filipino workers.
It would be a great gesture of friendship and an expression of gratitude to the CNMI for allowing us to work and live here all these years. It will also allow Filipinos and locals to know each other better and to discuss more ways to make the islands a better place for everyone.
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To end this week’s column in my usual gloomy fashion, I now quote one of our readers regarding the CNMI scholarship program:
“Perhaps you should do a story on how it is that these…scholars became inclined to believe that they bear no legal or moral obligation to repay their student loans…. This mindset, of course, having been derived from identically unlawful/immoral conduct on the part of their parents, aunts and uncles who in the 1980’s were provided generous CNMI funding to attend schools, colleges, and universities off-island (primarily in the U.S.) and, on returning to the CNMI, overwhelmingly did not repay their loans…with the CNMI government reacting just how? Well, by passing legislation that ‘forgave’ the loans of these…students, of course, and in so doing, the CNMI gave no refunds to the small minority of former students who complied with their lawful and ethical obligations and had in fact made partial or full repayments. And, so, today’s students have simply learned this unlawful/unethical behavior from their elders.”
We call the youth the future of the CNMI, yet all we teach them is how to get stuck in the past by becoming as irresponsible and unaccountable as their elders.
