Ambrose M. Bennett
THE Truth is like my MaDear once told me about looking for a job when she said, “they, employers, can’t say yes if you don’t ask”, which is what WE face in the CNMI with our desire for investors, as they can’t say yes if WE don’t ask, thus a silent NO. It’s good that MVA & CEDA are doing promotions to advertise the CNMI. However, WE need the “Personal Touch” applied, as “desperate times call for desperate measures” of personal activism to “focus and speak directly to potential investors” which is a much more effective way of attracting investors, as “they can’t say YES if WE don’t ask.” WE are not even giving investors a chance to say yes, just being lazy and begging for Federal Funds. Heck the lazy Republicans told our Delegate they “still think investors are going to show up if WE wait.” We’ve been waiting for over a decade only to see the CNMI moving BACKWARDS as it is truly time for VOTERS to take action to change our course that seems to be too NOWHERE!
Our Delegate has just PROVEN with the DOT coming to the CNMI to help that if you seek-out people, they will show-up to help. The only question now is “how & what will DOT really do,” as our fate is still in the hands of the Feds with this issue. But a deserved KUDOS to Delegate King-Hinds for her effort with DOT and for rectifying the mail delay. Our Senators & Representatives must be more PROACTIVE in their jobs to “protect, serve & promote the CNMI to investors.” What WE need MOST is NEW Investment to reignite our Tourism Industry/Economy. Like Zaldy said, “the bottom line is the Economy” and there is even a Road Map that WE are not following through with, which raises the BIG question that still looms over our Delegate. “WHAT New Federal Funding, especially for the Economic Road Map, is coming our way” like Kilili used to deliver almost on a regular basis. WE are all hoping & even praying our Delegate will be successful in delivering these types of funds to execute the Economic Road Map and other Developments for the CNMI that is so desperately needed.
The DOT issue that is about improving our Tourism Industry reminded me of the “oversight still needed on the MACS deal.” Since no one is asking, as it has never been made CLEAR as to “WHAT did the CNMI get out of the deal and HOW is MACS improving our Tourism Industry when we already had an airline and MACS Do Not bring in Tourists,” only providing inter-island air travel. “WHY were Personal Incomes & All Future Unknown Businesses given tax relief”??? The Cannabis & Casino Commissions are more oversights and if you can’t see the problem with these CCs and MACS, then you’re blind or you need to check your pulse, as oversight is truly needed.
Then there is the NMD issue that is now heating up since former Senator Mendiola’s Legislation with the reorganization of the Northern Marianas Decent Corporation that is so interested now but where were they for the past decade when Ambrose was the LONE citizen pleading for the Legislation. I’m not against them as I want them to be successful to insure “business & farming grants, subsidies for power, living needs & building a home, high profile professional scholarships (Doctors, Engineers etc.) and a repatriation program, as ALL of my immediate family are NMDs. However, “it seems to be grandstanding after the fact” when they didn’t mention the incomplete enrollment of NMDs nor an assessment of the proposed Legislation. In fact, to my knowledge, there wasn’t a Public Notice on the reorganization and Mr. Quituqua left the Democrat Party for the Republican Party so he claimed that he could “Do something about MPLT helping the NMDs” but TAYA up to now.
They also Do Not need to protect the land, just manage it properly as no one is going to steal it — duh and please stop this kind of poli-tricking gaslighting, as protect it from WHO! But they do need to focus on “the oversight of fixing Article XII that’s perpetrating a Political & Social Sin” if they are truly concerned about “equality & our economic growth.” In fact, parts of Article XII are insufficient for perpetual usage like the “blood requirement and the denial of land/the American Dream to fellow American Citizens.” Oversight by the Feds on Article XII is surely coming, as it’s written in the Covenant Agreement for ONLY 25 years that is now way overdue! The CNMI can’t expect to forever continue to TAKE-TAKE-TAKE BILLIONS from American Taxpayers and Not-give-Anything to OUR American Democracy. Freedom & Equality are not FREE and the CNMI must do its part to CONTRIBUTE to the American Dream for ALL Americans!
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 & Religious Scholar who resides in Kagman III in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
