Ambrose M. Bennett
THE TRUTH of the matter is the fact that WE (the CNMI) have done all we can now do about China and it’s time to “pivot” away our focus to things that NEED to be FIXED! I do want to commend what I see as a real partnership between MVA Managing Director Mr. Conception and the Governor who are obviously working hard together to revive our Tourism Industry. It is also obvious Mr. Conception knows the industry and knows what he is talking about, but even with that said the Governor and MVA need HELP to turn things around. There is all this talk about China when WE KNOW the casino is dead and America’s relationship with China is on-the-ropes and the last I heard, the CNMI is part of America. Instead of working on things like the casino & China that ain’t broke but indeed “dead & even DONE.” WE need to fix the things we can and control it using the KISS Methodology with our Economy Ambrose M. Bennett — for TRUE, so make sure you read my next Op ed on fixing the broken CC & Hotel.
Let’s start fixing some of the many things that are BROKE in the CNMI that truly need fixing, as some of the malfunctioning things can actually help to increase our Tourism Arrivals. For those who have been keeping up, they know that number one on my list and should be number one on the Government’s list, which is to FIX our Cannabis Tourism Industry quick, fast and in-a-hurry now that WE are in a real competition with Guam for the Cannabis Tourism market in our region. And don’t forget, WE have put a Hemp Industry on the Books but still NO Industry. WE can’t expect these two industries to just somehow magically become revenue generating industries for the CNMI, as there is a saying in America that “WE have to earn it the old-fashioned way — by doing the WORK to make it happen.” Teaching children about “controlling their destiny and doing the work to make it happen” is the very same scenario that is taking place in the CNMI — nobody did the work previously.
But just think about what WE have to offer beyond the Tourist Sites that MVA has done all they can to clean them up. But WE still don’t have anything NEW to offer tourists, which is what is BROKE about our Tourism Industry, which is why I was yelling as during Covid to FIX our Tourism Model as the WW II model has lost its novelty affect the Japanese that were coming are old-age now. I’m also glad to see CPA is trying to fix their challenge of needing more flights by making it more affordable for airlines. But DPS has YET to put cameras at these sites in a day & age when almost every public place on the mainland is PROTECTED by cameras — some of that stimulus money should have been used on a camera system, instead of a BOOST-Giveaway! Given all the crimes and even deaths that have taken place at these sites, WE still haven’t learned the simple lesson to MODERNIZE our security system for Tourists and the Local People, as cameras are a great advertising asset to promote too tourists knowing they will be protected. And there is a lot more I can’t list but it’s going to take all of us as “Tourism IS our business,” as Mr. Conception so righteously says at MVA, as our Tourism will all sink & swim for us ALL!
I can remember after the last typhoon gave Saipan a “hair-cut” figuratively, I wrote about HOW important it was to KEEP and MAINTAIN the many views that had been re-exposed by the typhoon. But as usual, no one listened to that important plea to “protect our VIEWS” as that is something tourists come here to see and we only give them “Tangan-Tangan Jungles” even in the homesteads that have patchworks of jungles. Homesteads like Dandan & San Vicente should be FULLY developed and even with sidewalks now so many kids can even walk to school who only live a few blocks away. But instead, WE are continuing with the horrific oversight of not maintaining our homesteads and allowing these jungles to just fester and destroy the normality of it being a COMPLETED homestead, as none of the existing Homesteads are completed. It is BETTER for our aesthetics, EASIER to transition into existing lots, & even COSTLESS to fill up the existing Homesteads. Heck, they are talking about a NEW 88 million-dollar Homestead project when there are literally hundreds of Jungle-Homestead lots that need to be reissued and occupied — fix what’s broken FIRST! Take back those empty lots and give the owners a “raincheck” for them to select a new lot when they are ready. But by all means clean-up the existing homesteads before anymore Homesteads are opened, especially when WE DON’T HAVE THE MONEY!
I do want to also commend the mayor of Saipan for the great job he is doing to reclaim the easements that had also become Tangan-Tangan Jungles. Now, all WE need is for the State Flower & Flame Trees to be replanted where road construction has decimated them and along easements in the villages with flowers on one side with the power-poles and Flame Trees on the other of the easement wherever possible. Thanks Mayor and keep-it-up, as fixing the things that are broken can do a great deal to improve the CNMI’s aesthetic (beauty) presentation to tourists. There are many other things that are broken that WE can fix to improve our Tourism Industry that will make tourists WANT to return to the beautiful & safe islands of the CNMI. So, let’s clean up our act while WE are waiting on the tourists and start making the CNMI the America that the founders and the People back them had such high hopes of the CNMI becoming.
One People, One Direction.
Ambrose M. Bennett is an Economist who minored in Sociology, a Political Scientist, a retired teacher & former CNMI Board of Education Member, a James Madison Fellow (U.S. Constitutional Scholar), a Fulbright-Hays & lifetime Humanities Scholar who resides in Kagman III in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
