By Ambrose M. Bennett – Activist
THE Truth Be Told, the Governor & Delegate offered “outstanding justification arguments for the reinstatement of Annex VI of the U.S.-China Air Transport Agreement restrictions to be lifted. Her lawyer skills in stating the CNMI’s case were excellent, as I do give credit when credit is due! Everything they said to the Department of the Interior’s Interagency Group on Insular Affairs was “spot-on,” but it didn’t matter as its about what “Trump Wants,” not their justifications. Just think, WHY did the Feds stop the Annex VI in the first place & stall the EVS-TAP, as it’s about the Fed’s Politics with China that refuses to mate with the CNMI’s politics. Heck, I may want the CNMI to be successful “More than Some and even More than MOST,” as Dr. Joyner might say, as I have been yelling & warning and giving ideas for over two decades for FREE, even while being “blackballed & scorned by bigot hatters” because I CARE about the People and my reward is waiting UPSTAIRS anyway!
However, “Reality is Reality” as Kilili did a much better job than our present Delegate due to the Politics in D.C. with his “Work & people-skills” and he was not a lawyer as its more about the Politic in D.C. than a person being a lawyer or a former CEO. It’s OK to REMIND and even justify the Federal Rules needing change, the Fed’s FAILURES with the Touchback-EVS-TAP & Annex VI, as it’s really about “Fed Politics” that is based on genuine concerns. For those who doubt there are real concerns with China and their continued aggression to rule-over America’s Allies in S.E. Asia, I humbly remind them of the lesson in history with Japan or WE might be DOOMED to make the same mistake with China, as America didn’t think Japan was a real threat until the Pearl Harbor attack! So, the delegate’s EVS-TAP & Annex VI challenges are like I predicted when she won as “the challenge is NOT on her but her Party-Of-Trump.” It’s no telling what Trump, not the Dept. of the Interior, might do at any given second, hour or day, so WE can only HOPE & PRAY for Democrats to takeover in the midterm as the CNMI can depend upon the Dems to help! In fact, the entire CNMI should ALWAYS be “Democrat-Blue” especially given the politics in Washington with China, but anything can happen with Trump — so prayers!
The CNMI is literally caught between “East & West” and powerless with No-Leverage to force the issues on either side. In fact, I believe it is the CNMI’s politics that make it bad for ourselves, especially when the leaders still don’t seem to have LEARNED the Politics-of-the-Feds, which is about “tactfulness & data driven phenomenon” as polls are ever important in America but our leaders could care-less how Public Opinion is trending, only the background out-cry. Our leaders continue to keep their heads-in-the-sand on the migration to the mainland that I’ve been yelling about since 2012 as they don’t get the importance of “trying to make the CNMI more like the America on the mainland” which why Locals continue to leave, as the expectation in the Plebiscite to join America was for the American Dream! Just think, there have literally been thousands of Americans who have come to the CNMI but the overwhelming majority of them end up leaving back to the mainland as they are treated like “second-class citizens who are a renter-class who can’t play an active role in the politics of the CNMI” — the reality! The CNMI is short on labor but has literally chased thousands of mainland Americans AWAY killing progress for the CNMI in many ways from the “workforce to the Real Estate & Construction industries” — duh!
However, I hope Mr. Torres & the new CEI can do something about changing the conditions for mainland Americans in the CNMI and for Locals on the mainland to return, especially when he almost fell into the “Quest for the American Dream on the mainland” over Helping the CNMI and he made a noble decision to commit to HIS People and I commend him! Maybe CEI will want to talk with me if they are truly sincere about the CNMI’s search for prosperity if that you-know-what doesn’t get in the way. But I charge now and to figuratively say it like it is in the Bible, I do not “cast-my-pearls-to-swine” (give ideas away to be wasted) as when People (leaders) pay they might want to hear & use my “intellectual property.” But the more our leaders work to “include Americans & work to set the conditions for the CNMI to be more LIKE America” the better-off WE will all be, because at the core of it all (our challenges, wants & needs) is “America & the American Dream”!
On the LT & BH Month: WHAT is happening with the LT. Governor from Luta? I don’t know about Mr. Cabrera but being from Luta the LT may not even know how MUCH the DPS Commissioner Anthony I. Macaranas is “Respected Appreciated & even LOVED by Many if not MOST of the People on Saipan,” self-included. Heck, Macaranas might run for Governor and easily WIN — at least WE KNOW that WE can TRUST him to be “objective and a straightshooter and not a politician poli-tricking all of us”! So be careful LT, as you are really making a name for yourself as the Temporary Boss and it’s not a nice name from what I’m hearing over the Coconut Wire on Saipan! On a final note, I can see the CNMI still has a lot of maturing to do as-part-of-the-American-Family when it comes to fully “embracing African Americans,” as even Trump TRIED to publicly embrace Black History Month. However, there was not so much as single “Event” since Joe Hill, John Joyner & myself stopped doing the events for Black History Month & MLK Day and if I missed any printed advertisement, you have my sincere “Apology & THANKS,” as I only read the web-version of the MV that does not show Ads. But I must THANK the NMI Humanities Council, as being the only entity to publicly express in the opinion section their appreciation for Black History Month and the plethora of Black Contributions & Blacks who even DIED in the course of America’s Economic, Social & Political evolution as a Nation!
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.
