Columnists

FOR as long as I can remember, Tinian has been known as the hot pepper island where the hottest donne’ Sali grows. Donne’ means “hot pepper,” and Sali refers to a local blackbird that feeds on the tiny hot peppers. Off-island visitors who have tried Tinian’s donne’ Sali would come back for mo…

THREE things to remember when discussing the “war on drugs”: 1) For each news story about an arrest of a pusher, or the discovery of contraband drugs, ask yourself: how many pushers are still doing business out there, selling contraband drugs that have managed to get through? 2) There can be no sup…

I TOLD voters they need to get rid of all these Republicans and now there is more proof on the way that prove I was right.  On the same day we learn the Governor has Covid we also learn that IPI is “ready to spill the beans.”  I won’t say anything about the Governor and his medical condition but it…

ALL eyes are on Tonga this week as we begin to understand how much destruction resulted from last Saturday’s volcanic eruption and tsunami.  In terms of size of the event, this disaster ranks with the Indonesia earthquake and tsunami of 2004, the Fukushima tsunami in Japan, and the earthquake near …

THE Korean community refers to the Lunar New Year as “Seollal,” which is the most celebrated holiday in South Korea. It’s celebrated to mark the passage into a new year, and it is a time for families to gather together, pay respect to our ancestors, and feast. Seollal’s celebratio…

FOR as long as I’ve been on Saipan, I’ve celebrated the new year twice — first on Jan. 1 and then on Lunar New Year, what the Chinese community refers to as the “Spring Festival.” 2022 marks the Year of the Tiger, the third animal in the Chinese zodiac. Rose Chan Growing up, my family members would…

THERE is no “war on drugs” in the U.S., according to an online commentator of The Wall Street Journal.  (You’ve to be a paying subscriber — $38.99/month —  before you can post a comment. And you must use your full and real name.) A real “war on drugs,” the online commentator says, was waged by Chin…

SINCE the Feb. 7, 2018 publication of Junhan B. Todiño’s Marianas Variety story, “Group to build Amelia Earhart monument on Saipan,” much has been written in Variety and on my blog, Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last, about Marie Castro and the original Saipan eyewitnesses to the presence and deaths…

THE CNMI consist of two Matrilineal Cultures, that are of or based on kinship with the mother or the female line, being dominate in certain aspects of life (matrilineal kinship principle).  Simply put, to a large degree Rep. Tina Sablan and Rep. Leila Staffler represent the “TRUE Intentions of our …

THE Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, are one of nature’s most dramatic and awe-inspiring displays.  Solar rays skip off the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in dazzling splashes of color across the sky.  The trouble with Aurora is that it can only be seen at night and only in very high latitudes. …