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Another Saipan garment factory is shutting down. (Marianas Variety), but that's not really news, is it? Let's see, 154 people will lose their jobs. And if 13 are residents, the percentage is...? 8.44%.
There are extenuating circumstances, maybe, but the low percentage isn't news either. My friends (mostly contract workers) in the Human Resources departments of various big companies* tell me they're having a hard time getting twenty percent, never mind thirty percent.
I played a friend in my pool league a couple of weeks ago. He was glad to see me, because he was hired by JAL on Guam and was leaving in a few days. That's not news, I've had the same conversation about once a week for more than two years.
I've talked to two local job-hunters this week. They sounded desperate. Nothing new there.
What's wrong with this picture?
What about the hundreds of high school kids who will be dumped on the street in a couple of months?
*No names, please; just say they have more than one vote in the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and leave it at that.
To be continued
What took you so long? As expected, both houses of the Legislature now agree on cutting the garment user fee. The analysis of the cut's effect will be released any day now, it's probably in the Committee Report.
Meanwhile "The downsizing of the garment industry employees and the closure of numerous garment factories have impacted a large number of nonresident workers and some local resident workers." I'm glad we got that straight.
Not to worry, it's just temporary: "The bill would be effective until Headnote 3(a) of the U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule is amended by the U.S. Congress." Or until the cows come home, whichever comes first.
Passport please It's not just a Saipan problem, the State Department is being swamped with passport requests. They say they are getting more than a million per month.
Tarred with the same baby OK, nothing much to do with Saipan, but exactly how is the term 'tar baby' considered by some a racial epithet? It's a cute Uncle Remus story, told in what is purported to be a nineteenth-century dialect (the experts would have to weigh in on whether that's true, I couldn't find any examples on You Tube). Very useful for describing a bad situation that keeps getting worse and people immediately know what you're saying.
For me it's Iraq, for McCain it was federal involvement in custody cases. This is just a character in a story. If you want to chew on McCain call him a weathervane, start swift-boating him like some wackos in his own party or just (gasp) concentrate on the issues.
Bananas taste like blood That was the title of a flyer that was stuffed into my hand almost forty years ago. Nothing special, I always felt like Robert Stack fighting his way past the panhandlers in the movie Airplane when I tried to get a cup of coffee at the Student Union. Most of the "literature" was forgotten by the time I finished reading it, but that one stuck in my mind. It was about The United Fruit Company in Guatemala.
I'm glad to say they've changed their ways. Now Chiquita (nee United Fruit) isn't just on the side of oppressive governments, evidently they can work with thugs of all political persuasions. Here's Chiquita's side of the story.
Wet pet food recall The Food and Drug Administration monitors pet food? It just never occurred to me, until this story popped up. Now that's a wealthy country. I always talk about dry food, but never really thought about what to call the stuff in the can. Still, I refuse to have a 'wet food' section in my store.
The Menu Foods website was down when I tried to check, but The company said it manufacturers for 17 of the top 20 North American retailers. It is also a contract manufacturer for the top branded pet food companies, including Procter & Gamble Co.
P&G announced Friday the recall of specific 3 oz., 5.5 oz., 6 oz. and 13.2 oz. canned and 3 oz. and 5.3 oz. foil pouch cat and dog wet food products made by Menu Foods but sold under the Iams and Eukanuba brands. The recalled products bear the code dates of 6339 through 7073 followed by the plant code 4197, P&G said.
Burned Meat flavored biscuits are available, though. The saleslady says it's barbecue, but something got changed in the translation from Chinese. Actually, they're pretty tasty, and strangely familiar.
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