To prevent memory loss, one of the novel’s main characters marked everything in their house with its name: table, chair, clock, door, wall, bed, pan. He also marked the animals and the plants: cow, goat, pig, hen, cassava, banana. But then he realized that although he would still know what these things were, he might forget what they were for. So he made more explicit signs. The one that he hung on the neck of the cow stated: This is the cow. She must be milked every morning so that she will produce milk, and the milk must be boiled in order to be mixed with coffee to make coffee and milk.
The people of the village also put up signs on their main streets that said “Macondo” and “God Exists.” Everyone wrote down keys to memorizing objects and even feelings. “But the system demanded so much vigilance and moral strength that many succumbed to the spell of an imaginary reality, one invented by themselves, which was less practical for them but more comforting.”
The people of Macondo were eventually cured of this sickness, but here in the CNMI, struggling against a self-inflicted collective amnesia seems to be an uphill battle. Perhaps I exaggerate. Perhaps what we have here is more comparable to what afflicted the character played by Dana Carver in the movie “Clean Slate.” His amnesia prevented him from remembering anything that happened to him the day before. So every night, before going to bed, he would record a message for himself as a reminder.
The CNMI has such a “device”: the Internet search engines and the Variety files that go all the way back to 1972. But not everyone has the time and the patience to sift through the past, and that includes this newspaper, which published the editorial “Destruction in Marpi” two weeks ago. In the same issue, we ran a photo showing a bulldozer clearing an area on Suicide Cliff.
The editorial resulted in letters to the editor, which triggered more letters and, finally, coverage by the other media outlets on island.
But as one of our reporters pointed out yesterday, the Marpi homestead project was announced in public more than two years ago. The media reported it. But we only reacted in horror, recently, when we finally saw bulldozers on the cliff.
The same thing happened with the late, unlamented garment industry. Years and years ago, the public was made aware that manufacturers would have to leave after 2005, when the WTO rules kicked in. When 2005 arrived and factories started to leave one after the other, a lot of people were actually surprised that such a thing could happen.
Federalization, of course, takes the proverbial cake. Over the years, through its news stories and editorials, this newspaper repeatedly refuted the myths surrounding this issue, but even now, every time federalization is in the news, it’s treated as the first of its kind, and most guest workers are still dreaming of non-existent green cards.
Some of the lawmakers I’ve talked with admitted that, sometimes, while researching on a particular bill they planned to introduce, they would stumble into similar legislation already in the statute book.
I myself only found out recently that it was a law signed in 1981 by Gov. Carlos S. Camacho that renamed Middle Road as Chalan Pale Arnold and Hospital Road as Chalan Monsignor Guerrero. No one pointed this out when the Saipan street signs were finally installed in 2003. No one knew about P.L. 2-16.
For the longest time, moreover, everyone called it “Capitol Hill,” until some senior citizens pointed out that the area’s real name was Capital Hill.
Senator Frica, in an interview months ago, said she realized that there was really no need to pass new laws. A lot of laws have already been passed, amended, repealed or re-enacted since 1978, and most of them are not even being enforced — like the 1989 anti-littering law and the 1995 stray dog control law.
Perhaps the main task of the Legislature that will be sworn in next year should be to review current laws, make the best of what is already in the commonwealth code, and enforce these measures for once.
It is difficult, to be sure, to remember everything, but at least we must try not to forget key facts. If we don’t remember the past we’re bound to repeat it. Again and again.
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