THE TRUTH of the matter is the people of the CNMI are extremely disconnected from the actual activities and ownership in our government, as things are just being left-up to the powers that be without any form of input or protest BY the People. There was a time when Public Hearings really meant something in the CNMI but ever-since the Casino was forced down our throats without any form of Public Accountability, it has now become a common practice to avoid all public Hearings that has created an extremely dangerous and detrimental practice for creating legislation in which the People PAY-the-COST. The people really no longer have a real say in the important issues that WE the People are facing that adversely affect our quality of life. The legislature is trying to raise money that adversely affects the People without giving the People any say, other than the public comment section that virtually no-one knows about in time before the Bill is passed into law.
There was a protest FOR the Palestinian People on Capital Hill that I applauded, but it made me wonder WHY there has never been a protest over the 77-million owed to the people by IPI. That is enough money to put THOUSANDS in many households of the CNMI. WHY hasn’t the Casino Commission conducted some form of a Public Hearing to address this enormous amount of money that only Ambrose M. Bennett is asking about? The CNMI Government and the People combined are owed enough money by IPI to have a big portion of the stock & control of IPI but the CC is fumbling around with collecting money that IPI doesn’t have and even extending this mess for years into OUR future. The People are clearly being overlooked and totally disconnected from THEIR contract with IPI, as it’s the People’s Contract that is only being executed by the CC. It is one of the most horrific things I have seen since the Casino being forced on the People without a Public Hearing after the People had rejected it twice. Heck, I even Told Them So and even pleaded in more than one Op ed, to give the Exclusive Casino Contract to the Japanese Investor that would have benefited our Japanese Tourist Market but instead they ran the Japanese Tourists away by betraying them for the Chinese as I predicted. WE need to be trying to find the Japanese investors and convince them to buy-in (our-stock) and finish the project and even transform the Casino into a Convention Center that can entice large groups of Japanese tourists to visit the CNMI and even a place for big local events.
I’m sure that ONE-DAY, the people of the CNMI are going to look back at history and realize that our leaders should have listened to Ambrose on many issues, as I’ve only been offering help & solutions but the powers that be just don’t want to give credit where credit is DUE so the People miss-out! They took my ideology for legalizing marijuana and tried to turn it into THEIRS only to create a FAIIED Cannabis Industry that has NEVER conducted a single promotional activity or event. Now I see MVA is talking about “building Bicycle Tourism,” which is something I’ve wrote about on several occasions dating back over a decade. I won’t say MVA took my idea and changed it but I will say their present idea for Bicycle Tourism falls far short of the idea I promoted. I truly applaud the effort but it’s just another bike-race with no international appeal and tourists are not coming just to ride a bike.
I wrote Op eds and even wrote to MVA about creating the “Tour de Marianas” which would be a race starting on Gaum to Rota, to Tinian and culminating on Saipan. The idea came to me because I thought about how Trikes would be far better & safer than two-wheel motorcycles for the media covering these kinds of events. But the idea was for MVA to work with the Tour de France Organization to promote the event and even make the race one of the “qualifying races to participate in the world-famous Tour de France which would give the CNMI millions in free international advertisement and exposure as a Tourists Destination all over the world. The CNMI can still promote Bicycle Tourism, especially along Beach Road once it’s fixed and it would even be advantageous to have “bicycle-taxi rides on Beach Road” as riding along the beach at sunset in Paradise is a very marketable feature of our Tourism Industry that’s not being taken advantage of.
We (the CNMI) just need to learn HOW to do the work and stop waiting and hoping on tourists and investors to just show-up. Bicycle Tourism is HOPING they will come but the Tour de Marianas will grasp the interest of the entire world cycling community and even MAKE them come to Paradise (the CNMI) just to see the Marianas and/or cycle the course. WE can only be as big & prosperous as we think so WHAT is the expectation do YOU have FOR the Government, the People and the CNMI is the question for readers & our leaders and PLEASE-STOP the bigotry of avoiding to use and say it was Ambrose’s idea. I was educated as an Economist to come up with these kinds of ideas that can HELP and I truly feel FOR the People who continue to suffer these atrocities of political disrespect & bigotry.
One People, One Direction.
Ambrose M. Bennett is an Economist who minored in Sociology, a Political Scientist, a 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.
Ambrose M. Bennett
