“GREATNESS can only be achieved when the opportunity presents itself,” and there are plenty of opportunities for greatness in the CNMI. For African-Americans who arrived in America as slaves, the opportunities for greatness where endless and the struggle for African-Americans to achieve Greatness is still ongoing in virtually every aspect of life in America today. FYI readers, African-Americans have excelled as athletes because “they were breeding them like animals during slavery to be big, healthy and strong,” thus it was just a matter of adaptation to sports to become America’s top athletes, especially when the weak & sickly died on the trip to America making a race of healthy, big & strong people. I’m sure locals can identify with breeding as they have been breeding Roosters. Well, African-Americans in America and other places where they migrated to after slavery represent the only race of people on planet earth that I know of who were subjected to the breeding (rape) of girls & women being made pregnant by the “Mandingo (the biggest & strongest slave) on the plantation” to produce a superior labor force. So, if you envy the African-American athletes for their ability, DON’T, as you should know that their ancestorial girls & women paid a horrific price for them to be the top athletes they are today.
Becoming great athletes was one of the easiest ways for African-Americans to achieve greatness financially in sports and that was even a challenge to begin participating in pro-sports, as the goal was to keep African-Americans separate and oppressed without any opportunities to get rich. But thanks to some great African-American athletes the barrier was finally broken. One example, when the Boston Celtics, the first pro-basketball team to draft Black players, won 8 NBA Championships in a row, the rest of the league had no choice but to start drafting Black players and it was similar scenarios in other sports that led to Blacks participating. But there are still some sports like golf where Blacks are not as prevalent because it cost a lot of money to learn & play golf but its FREE to learn &play basketball and football. Tiger Woods was fortunate to have a father who was financially able to play golf. But today there are some programs now to help Black Golf & Tennis players so even the color of these sport is going to start changing to be more Black. African-Americans have taken the easiest route to financial greatness in sports but they are also making strides in all aspects of American life, especially since the 1964, Civil Rights Act. But “it’s still a day-on every day to Do & BE better” for African-Americans, as racism and bigotry still exist in the world. I used this Social Studies lesson that I taught in all my “U. S. History Classes,” as many students would often ask me “why are African-Americans so good in sports” but this scenario also virtually applies to the need for breeding greatness in the CNMI.
Greatness for a better CNMI tomorrow
When you think about “who is (or) was truly great in the CNMI” as you may be able to name some athletes but you might be hard pressed to offer a politician’s name, which speaks volumes to the need for greatness in our Politicians. Our new Governor & Lt. Governor are in a position to become great leaders given our destitute position. I was truly glad to see Governor Palacios announce that their administration will be looking at some of our SMART youth with degrees to fill positions. In the past it was about “the good-old-boys” who only have a high-school diploma that must change to be about “our youth and being truly qualified” for a better future.
I wouldn’t be trying to help with our Economy if there were other Economists in the CNMI like myself who know how to “look over the horizon or into the future to create & break paradigms,” but there are none and PSS nor NMC is offering course work in Economics. In fact, when I was at PSS, our students scored the lowest on the Economics section of the Standardized Tests. The CNMI needs Economists “like a hog needs slop,” metaphorically speaking. Creating “apprenticeships is good” but the CNMI needs even more in “highly specialized positions that require degrees” to really achieve greatness. Like many Blacks, many locals can’t afford college for highly skilled jobs which is why WE need to be breeding Accountants, Pilots, Doctors, lawyers & Judges, Editors & Writers, Engineers, Economists, Scientists in many fields of study, Master Electricians to repair our Generators to avoid continuing to depend upon outside help to fix & overhaul our generators, and the list goes on. But it will never happen unless our youth are given the financial support as many of our youth are facing the same challenge as Blacks on the mainland who need the financial help and a support system.
But unlike African-Americans, our local youth have more than 100-million to help the Scholarship Program in the form of NMD funds for “highly specialized scholarships” that have been just sitting doing nothing for decades — we must reverse our migration pattern for jobs. Why can’t the many “specialized jobs WE need be applicable for a “Full NMD Scholarship” with a guaranteed job upon completion of their studies.” We need to be mindful that our students are not returning because most don’t believe there is a job waiting and they certainly don’t want to return only to compete for the same job with a CW, which is why a “Repatriation Plan” should be part of our Workforce Transition Plan that will also help the Scholarship office to bring back students. But the bigger problem is the CNMI still does not have a “Government led systemic transition plan after 3 years.” It should be duly noted that if WE really had a plan, the Feds would be forced to fund the Repatriation Program given the Feds put the 2029, Transition Mandate on the Government of the CNMI. But no one on the Hill was leading on the issue nor “thinking & working-the-problem” to achieve greatness but A&D can change all of that.
No one, except PSS, NMC & NMTI, is doing any breeding nor anything to achieve greatness, as WE have only been “subjected to one gambling idea after another only to be pacified and poli-tricked as a people,” as the CC Chair is still saying we need a casino to save HIS job. WE need “educated thinkers & doers” instead of politicians trying to grab all the credit for a frivolous idea or plan that never pans-out. Just look at what happened with the GOP politicians’ great Casino idea, when “I Told Them So to give the casino to a Japanese Investor, our ally and create a more attractive Family Destination with a Theme Park especially for S.E. Asia & Micronesian Tourists, not with China our enemy” — duh! Ralph & Crew were only thinking of themselves & $$$ signs on that private jet ride in China and totally ignored a critical “social-variable” that “a Chinese Casino in Garapan would run the Japanese away,” like I predicted. Being an Economist and an educated student of Sociology who knew the end-result of the casino, I could only laugh to keep from crying FOR the People, as now everything & MORE with RICO has materialized just like I predicted, which is why having an Economist & a Sociologist helping with legislative decisions is so important. But it needs to be noted the CNMI has not had a real Economist helping our leaders since the post-Trust-Territory days, Mr. William Stewart. It’s been Politicians playing Economist that got us in this Economic-mess and some wonder why our Economy is like a Roller Coaster ride that is now broke.
But there are endless opportunities for greatness to be achieved in the CNMI but if no one is willing to do the work to make it happen, being less than average will be our ceiling of expectations which doesn’t offer much and real prosperity will continue to be elusive for us all. No one else is coming-up with the reforms that I continue to propose because unlike Jesus T. you-know-who Economist at Commerce, I may be the only real Economist who was trained in “Think-tank Mechanics to look over the horizon for what is coming or needed and to come up with Economic ideas/solutions.” I wrote this because if the CNMI is to achieve greatness with our youth then our leaders need to start “thinking & doing while putting our youth FIRST,” like PSS’s Motto states. If we are to help our youth achieve greatness, WE must do some great things to help them. If we want real Economic stability and even prosperity our leaders need the help of a real Economist as smart people alone don’t have the education an insight of the many potential Economic variables to make educated & informed economic decisions. Just think, if you have a legal challenge, you find an attorney and if you have an Economic challenge, you find a real Economist, not a politician or a political emissary like Ralph was doing — it is really that simple to achieve greatness for our youth and our Commonwealth. One People One Direction!
Ambrose M. Bennett, who resides in Kagman III, marched with the late Congressman John Lewis & Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and is an Economist who minored in Sociology, a Political Scientist. He is a retired teacher & former CNMI Board of Education member, a James Madison fellow (U.S. Constitutional Scholar), and a Fulbright-Hays & lifetime Humanities Scholar.
Ambrose M. Bennett
