Two conspiracies broke this week in the US Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, the land of beautiful beaches, turquoise waters, textile industry greed, and friends of Jack Abramoff. One phase implicated Saipan Catholic Nuns being strong armed and the other is closer to the Bush administration and Republican party.
I am not sure if it was the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, HANMI, or the Fitial administration (all have been lobbying in DC recently) that has implicated honorable citizens in a conspiracy of epic proportions. Two of those accused conspirators are Catholic Sisters, and one was Sister Stella Mangona. Can anyone imagine Sister Stella doing anything wrong? She would be the most credible person on Saipan to testify about anything. This extraordinary story is in this weeks North Star, entitled "A Slave is a Slave is a..." by Fr Joe Billotti, who has systematically explained how three upstanding Saipan residents were unjustly implicated in a conspiracy to hasten federalization here.
Father Joe's response to these hucksters is complete and accurate. I highly recommend Catholic residents of Saipan reading this shocking story,
If these people would try to discredit a Saipan Sister, is anyone safe to speak against their financial agenda? The Saipan delegation promoting this agenda in Washington DC are representatives of the Fitial administration, Saipan Chamber of Commerce, and HANMI (Hotel Association of the Northern Marianas Islands).
During Christmas break, I was told that federalization had been conceded here in the Northern Marianas Islands but I could expect the minimum wage would be revisited and frozen. That seemed impossible at that time. My informants eyes said otherwise, so asked ‘how". My spy said our friends of Jack Abramoff would use blackmail this time, not bribery, to coerce US Republicans to support the wage freeze here. He told me that Republican Congresspersons that had not yet been implicated in the Abramoff affair would like to keep it that way. This week I read the news with horror disbelief that US President Bush’s administration would support the wage freeze in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. My friend laughed and told me US politicians were more corrupt than those in the NMI and Philippines put together, to which I agreed, and added that we would probably hear all the facts in about 20 years.
For more information on this terrible situation, check out unheardnomore.blogsot.com
This will serve as my formal letter of resignation from the Saipan Chamber of Commerce. Please delete A1 Real Estate from all affiliation with your organization post haste.
I will include several previous articles in support of this crisis.
Using 'spin' to argue vs minimum wage hike
The CNMI got a 50-cent raise in minimum wage (to $3.55) last July 2007, and is set to have another 50-cent raise (to $4.05) this May 26, 2008.
The Fitial administration is trying to stop this next incremental raise, and all future scheduled raises (50 cents each year through 2015, until we reach $7.25, which will be the minimum wage in the U.S. set for year 2009). This does not surprise me. This administration lobbied heavily against the first increase, and effectively insisted on having the minimum wage law include requirements for a study by the Department of Labor on the effect of the raises.
And our Governor is not alone-the representative to the U.S. Congress from American Samoa has introduced a bill to stop the incremental minimum wage increases, which also apply to them.
The U.S. Department of Labor issued its report in January 2008, and the Tribune and Variety have each reported that Governor Fitial or his spokespeople say how this report completely vindicates their argument that raising minimum wage in the CNMI is harmful to our economy.
I've read the entire report by the U.S. Department of Labor. It has comments that can be used by either side in the debate about minimum wage. But mostly, it is a lot of wasted paper and a load of waffle.
CNMI Governor Fitial is using the age-old practice of "spin" to argue against the next scheduled minimum wage hike. The spin includes 1) distortions of what the DOL report actually says, 2) sweeping statements about what people in the CNMI think about raising minimum wage, and 3) mischaracterization of the report as reaching a conclusion against implementation of the next minimum wage increase.
- According to the news articles covering the Fitial Administration's position, "Increasing the CNMI wage to $7.25 an hour, the report said, is comparable to raising the U.S. minimum wage to $16.50 an hour." This statement distorts the truth by omitting the real content and context of what is said. It is NOT TRUE, and does not support suspending the next scheduled minimum wage increase.
First of all, the report actually says "The scheduled increase in the minimum wage to $7.25 (by 2015) will likely affect at least 75 percent of wage and salary workers in the CNMI. By comparison, in order to directly affect 75 percent of U.S. hourly workers, the minimum wage would need to be raised to $16.50, the 75th percentile mark for wage and salary workers who are paid hourly rates."
What this means is that the CNMI has a much larger segment of its working population suffering from the low minimum wage than the U.S. does. In the U.S., minimum wage is truly a "floor" and many workers obviously earn more than the minimum, which is why it would take such a much larger increase to effect 75 percent of them. This is not an argument AGAINST raising minimum wage here, but only highlights the urgency and desperation of why we need these incremental raises.
Second of all, on this point, the report is comparing apples and oranges-or really today and many years hence. The CNMI is not facing a raise to $7.25 this year. We are facing a raise to $4.05 this May. Nothing in the report tells us what that is comparable to in the U.S. Nothing discusses what minimum wage can buy in the CNMI for the average worker, what our cost-of-living is, and how that compares to the U.S. minimum wage earner's lifestyle.
- The governor reports a "broad consensus" against raising the minimum wage to the next level here. Jeff Flores has already spoken out in a letter to the editors of our newspapers that he disagrees, and doesn’t believe people here are uniformly against raising minimum wage. Rod Hodges has written against it. Others have questioned the governor's position. I, too, am not part of that alleged consensus. I can't believe that any person here earning minimum wage is against a wage hike this May to $4.05 per hour.
It’s time to show that our Governor is misstating the facts about what the people in the CNMI want. Every worker here who earns a minimum wage of $3.55 who is in favor of raising their minimum wage to $4.05 can contact Mr. George Miller or any of the representatives on the House Committee on Education and Labor. Any other person, whether you earn minimum wage or not, who feels it’s important to raise the CNMI minimum wage to $4.05 this May, can also express your views to the committee members. You can see the full committee roster online. Or you can just write or call: Democratic Staff, 2181 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, (202-225-3725).
- The DOL report includes statements about the past that are informative, but nothing it says about the present effect of the minimum wage here or the likely effect another raise may have is at all reliable. The report itself denies reliability.
It notes that there are many adverse economic factors. In discussing the garment industry, the report says that lack of data make it impossible to distinguish among the various adverse factors as to which are having the greatest impact. (page 31). Obviously, the loss of special status and the opening up of the market to other global economies is a very significant consideration, and one, I think, that is more likely to have dictated the pullout of our garment industry than the small wage hike.
Also, although the report paints a bleak picture and talks about how difficult having a raise in minimum wage is when times are tough, it suggests that the tourism industry may rebound. The report makes no mention of the likely positive, indirect, impact that the military buildup in Guam will have on the CNMI economy. If the DOL had applied its own logic with these considerations in mind, it might have suggested that there will be room in the CNMI's economy for absorbing the impact of the minimum wage hike.
But most telling in the report is this: "The CNMI does not yet have in place macroeconomic data collection and accounting-systems technology capable of generating information on total output and its components on a monthly or quarterly basis. As a result, there is not a way to provide objective measures of productive capacity, capacity utilization, employment, wages or unemployment rates. ...In the absence of complete and accurate macroeconomic data, there is no objective method to gauge the level of aggregate economic activity, the level of employment it supports, or other important measures such as total personal income, consumption, savings and other metrics that explain the well-being of the population and the average citizen. ...The lack of such data are especially a barrier to assessing the current and future impact of the recent and scheduled increases in the minimum wage."
In other words--they’re just guessing, and can’t say anything objective about the actual impact of the small minimum wage increase we've had, or the impact of the next anticipated wage increase.
The Fitial Administration’s spin is nothing but more twist against what is fair and just-a living wage for workers.
Jane Mack
Chamberonomics XXXV...who are the bad guys?Three groups favor keeping our Third World wage structure and dooming a generation of local island youth to servitude and poverty: the Chamber, HANMI, and the Fitial administration. We have two groups that have not formally stated their position, the TaoTao Tano and the 16th Legislature.
The Saipan Chamber of Commerce opposes raising the minimum wage here. HANMI supports keeping a status quo on wages in the NMI and sent their president to DC to lobby against raising the wages of local Chamorro and Carolinian workers of our islands. Any American company involved in this should be exposed.
The Fitial administration has publicly stated they are in favor of artificially depressing wages. This policy will guarantee another generation of local islanders working for slave wages while their big business associates flourish. The Fitial administration includes the mainland lawyers circulating anti-federalization propaganda, which has been thoroughly rebuked by many credible sources, including the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Senate, Federal Ombudsman Jim Benedetto, NMI Rep. Tina Sablan, and many others. The Governor, his attorney Howard Willens, free Commonwealth legal consultant to our dysfunctional DOL, Deanne Siemer, and Fitial’s niece, Cinta Kaipat, are involved with a campaign of disinformation that aims to protect big businesses to the determent of our local citizens. This entire situation seems be beyond the look of impropriety.
I don’t know Taotao Tano’s official position on restricting the opportunities available to the next generation of our local island youth. Do the 130 members of the TTT rally support raising the minimum wage here for locals or do you support Governor Fitial and his mainland lawyers' freeze on our Third World wage structure? Please advise, but please spare me any propaganda written by Fitial’s or Jack Abramoff’s friends. Local residents here deserve to know how the 16th Legislature stands on the minimum wage issue. Do you stand with Fitial, the Chamber, and HANMI, or do you represent and support the local indigenous crusade to elevate their wages and standard of living?
I did challenge the 15th Legislature and have called previous congresspersons here spineless because they were afraid to stand up against big business, but this Legislature has many new faces that may inspire courage, perhaps enough to protect the future of our local young people. I would like to hear the official position of our NMI Legislature regarding the minimum wage issue. Does the 16th Legislature stand with our local citizens in economic emergency or with big business money?
Ron Hodges
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Chamberonomics XXXIV...bitter times ahead!
A survey of my MHS students taken Friday, February 15, 2008 showed that one half of my 16-17 year old students did not have one dollar in their pocket.
The US federal government may pass out $30 to $50 million dollars to residents of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota according to the $152 billion Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 signed by President Bush. We have concerns before they would actually hand $50 million to our current administration. The money goes (or should go) to every resident of the CNMI, including children, guest workers, and their children, passed out in increments between $300 and $600 dollars each. A family of four could expect $1,800. The CNMI has a problem before we qualify. The problem is that the money must be paid by the CNMI and reimbursed by Uncle Sam.
Simply put, the mismanaged NMI does not have the money to get the other money! Our local government can’t provide basic services to the residents here. Our local residents suffer from the nation’s poorest water quality, exorbitant power costs, grossly under funded educational institutions, disgraceful housing availabilities for US citizens and guest workers alike, inadequate funding for CHC, and government instability that has put potential investors on permanent hold, all one would expect from weak governance with little accountability.
Big business has not reinvested billions of textile industry profits back into the CNMI and have moved that money to Hong Kong and other foreign locations. Our current administration is tied to the garment magnates from the top down. Our weak administration still aims to execute PL 15-108, despite the diverse throng of residents who marched against the horrifically unjust law, which is reminiscent of Black Codes that followed the US Civil War.
Who could imagine the United States of America handing fifty million dollars to an administration so closely tied to organized crime and with such a history of human rights atrocities? This administration has high dollar mainland lawyers from DC trying to block US intervention and assistance with of our labor and immigration involving lobbyists, propaganda schemes, threats, scare tactics, and all to protect their business interests to the determent of the local citizens here. This should come as no surprise given our involvement with federal prisoner Jack Abramoff. Should not the people here be represented as well? CNMI attorneys have a history of conflicts here, but common sense would show they are afraid to stand against big business control here.
This administration recently paid NMI funds to study the impact of federalization of the CNMI. The results did not show what this administration had hoped for, and they have not shared the news with the general public...the news is that the CNMI would greatly benefit from federalization.
Congressional staffers and US military advisors in DC reported this week that the adversarial government in the NMI has recently been deleted from Guam military build-up plans until further notice due to lack of cooperation from our big business controlled administration, and simply put, the US Marine base in Tinian has been cancelled!
The current administration is actively lobbying to block the minimum wage increase here, an economic move that would doom a generation of Chamorro and Carolinian graduates to exodus or poverty. Our long befuddled legislature has not taken an official position on administration business associates lobby effort to block the minimum wage law.
I would ask the US to withhold Economic Stimulus Act funds until the US can properly administer and account for the people's money. Furthermore, should the money miraculously become available, I would ask guest workers here to remit their funds to their country of natural origin as an act of UNITY in the commonwealth and in defiance of our weak leadership until PL-15-108 is scrapped. I also ask the US to have FEMA takeover and administer our power, water, hospital, and public schools.
The United States must assure these essential services are available to citizens of our commonwealth and our local government has no financial plan to address these conditions in the near foreseeable future.
Ron Hodges