Well, here it is…so far: “Come Visit the Soft, Warm Sands of Saipan’s Pristine Pacific Beaches” appropriately accompanied by a photograph of blue sky with a soft white, wafting cloud or two, sparkling sands, a scantily clad model and a deep blue ocean. And all of this is found in a couple of unknown Web sites that rarely get a “hit” or plastered on a wall in some obscure travel office that does most of its business by telephone or Internet. There are no brochures, outside of the MVA office or the aforementioned travel offices and no promotional films except maybe for that 3-minute blurb seen (but not viewed) by people on an arriving jet who are, instead, trying to prepare for the last minute rush to the bathroom.
On the other hand, we have the executive branch of our commonwealth government that has recently been fantastically successful at getting the message out about Saipan to just about every single news outlet, newspaper, talk show, blog and blurb in the entire world; some say now amounting to MILLIONS of readers and listeners.
And the message being sent is literally loaded with everything you always wanted to know about Saipan in a paragraph or two — and NO posters. To wit: Massages by exotic young women — even from jail in the middle of the night; how to smuggle people from the NMI to Guam; Garapan’s “red light” district open 24/7; chief executive’s driver deals drugs from official car (meet the rich and famous); the land of “executive” privilege for those at the high end; law enforcement at the whim of the privileged; Legislators unwilling to take a stand (no need to enforce the constitution — someone else will do it); and, cheap fares via “illegal” taxi to all of the above attractions. With all this to see and do, who needs a clean beach?
MVA has spent several million dollars a year on paragraph one (above) and tourism has declined to almost nothing because nobody sees or hears the message nor do they distinguish it from the bazillion similar messages from every tropical island government in the world. The executive branch has spent nothing, except the cost of a one hour (or so) massage and has yielded the equivalent of MILLIONS in FREE advertising that EVERYBODY has seen. Now THAT should bring in gazillions of tourists, right Ben? Ben? (to borrow a phrase). Somewhere, there’s a message here.
Quick note to members of the House: Seven governors have either been forced out or voluntarily stepped down in the last two years after federal authorities exposed “deeds” (some illegal, some just inappropriate) and not a single state legislature has “waited” for an outside agency (the feds) to take ANY action before acting themselves — except YOU. The simple appearance of impropriety was enough in every case. Has the cat got your tongue? Or is it just all that “other” dirt that might come out? Do you believe damage to the NMI’s world-wide image is unimportant if it originates from within? We must all remember that Fitial, Inos, Tan and Abramoff are “peas in a pod” (also see below for more “peas”) for over 15 years. Jack has yielded over 500,000 pages of “investigative” testimony in exchange for a lesser sentence during the last three years. (He got five years, 10 months instead of 10). Can’t wait to see what all those pages have to say. The CNMI parts — so far — have resulted in EIGHT convictions and TEN “lost” congressional seats. More to come?
Any of these names ring a bell, Ben?: Nurnberge, Bierne, Farrow, Scanlon, Safavian, Ney, Foley, Kidan, Griles, DeLay, Doolittle, Lapin, Clyburn, Thompson, Rohrabacher, Calvert, Hall, Reed, Stillwell, Rudy, Norquist, Ralston, Buckham, Burns and, last but not least: “KATRINA.” THIS constitutes some of Ben’s former friends, acquaintances and associates (mostly through Jack). Where are they now, Ben? Ben?
DR. THOMAS D. ARKLE JR.
San Jose, Tinian
