The problem is that in the CNMI, the word “temporary” doesn’t have the same meaning that it has elsewhere. Elsewhere, it means for the short term, for the time being. But here it means “until it wears out.” Just think of the quonset huts left behind after WW II. Or the FEMA temporary housing left after typhoons. In both cases, the temporary structures were used until they fell apart.
So when the administration labels the power poles “temporary” you know that the poles will stay there until they wear out, that there’s no intention to replace them.
The administration goes on, according to the report in the paper, to make the silly statement that the poles could be replaced when “alternative power sources become available.” But alternative sources are already available — like small diesel generators, as well as solar panels and wind generators. The first is available in the major hardware stores, the other two — now in the process of being installed in a number of schools on island, at American Memorial Park — from contractors on island. There is no shortage of available alternate sources of power.
One must ask again: what are the power needs of the new cemetery? For rest rooms, a small diesel generator is all that is needed. Solar panels, or wind generators, or the generator would provide whatever lighting is needed. To power a water sprinkler? Is that even really necessary?
At issue is a major tourist attraction that will be forever ruined if the power poles are installed. The road to the Banzai Cliff monuments is now open, green, uncluttered. Once those power poles go up, and the power lines are strung, they will be an unattractive eyesore, leaving the site spoiled and compromised.
It boggles the mind that with all the moaning and groaning about budget shortages, the administration sees nothing wrong in deliberately ruining a valuable tourism asset, when it would be so easy to protect and preserve it.
RUTH L. TIGHE
Tanapag, Saipan
