Waiving the flags?

The Department of Homeland Security hates tourists. That's the reality we face when we read (Gov. Benigno R.) Fitial to continue pressing for China, Russia visa waivers (Saipan Tribune)

The Christian Science Monitor tells us that Tourism rises globally, but not to U.S. The article notes that "In fact, the annual number of foreign visitors to the US is about 2 million lower than in 2000, leading travel-industry experts to figure that from 2000 to 2007, the US economy took a hit of about $150 billion." Security trumps tourism.

The article quotes Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association about the reasons there are far fewer foreign visitors to trade shows:

On a recent trip to China, Mr. Shapiro met the owner of a chain of 1,200 electronics stores who said he'd love to visit the Las Vegas show – but can't get a visa. While Shapiro may not know why that particular visa request was denied, he does know about the process a Chinese businessperson, tourist, or student has to go through to get a visa.

As he describes it, the applicant must first get to the US Embassy or a city with a US consulate, wait in what can be a long line, and pay a $100 application fee, giving a full accounting of all financial assets. The applicant must then return to the embassy or consulate for a two-minute interview that results in approval for a visa or rejection.

Foreign students face a similar problem. That's probably going to be the next local headline when the regulations are finalized.

There's certainly a connection to the Marines moving to Guam, with some spillover expected to the Northern Marianas. China and Russia are hardly hotbeds of terrorism, though some Chechens have been among the 'foreign fighters' in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military security, visa fraud and other criminal activity are more likely to be the "security concerns" cited in the proposed regulations.

As I so persuasively argued in Immigrate Expectations, the CNMI is likely to get lost in national immigration issues. From recent discussions on ILW.COM, it appears that Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation is very likely early in the next U.S. Congress. Any exceptions for Guam and the CNMI would be seen as precedents and it's hard to see bureaucrats sticking their necks out in that political climate.

Maybe the Governor can bring it up if he meets President-elect Barack Obama while attending the inauguration.

Okay, my tongue is firmly in cheek on that one.

Four XTERRANS and a funeral

Saturday wasn't a good day for running errands.

First it was XTERRA. Drivers were gawking and gaping as dribs and drabs of competitors passed by. Yeah, I know, they get strung out after awhile so you can't see them all at once.

For me, it's worth the hassle and the $150,000. That's a lot of publicity for Saipan and the CNMI, and positive for a change. Well, except for our lovable boonie dogs getting half of the Saipan Tribune story. I didn't get it from the Tribune's website, folks. It was number two on a 'Saipan' news search I have set up.

Then, around noon, I got caught behind a funeral just as I got to Fish and Tackle. That used to be the bottleneck before we had traffic lights. Ah, the memories, and since I didn't have anything else to do for awhile I wallowed in them.

It might be hard to believe today, but traffic snarls made people nicer back then, not meaner. If you had been stuck at a stop sign for awhile, you could count on somebody stopping to let you out. Sometimes they'd let everybody out. That got irritating, especially if they were the hot-rodders who zipped behind Mt. Carmel Church (it wasn't a cathedral) and the Nauru Building to cut ahead of line. I mean, why reward hyper people?

Luckily, I lived in the north and only the occasional all-night adventure or early appointment got me stuck there in the morning.

You'd even get stuck behind the occasional carabao cart, just until they found a place to pull over. It sure would be nice if people could remember the good old days when the traffic lights go out.

I have a Japanese car radio and public radio wasn't my cuppa tea. An ancient U2 and an older Jimmy Buffet tape were all I had. If you haven't memorized the lyrics, you can't understand them. That left me with my imagination and three tweens who don't much like my music anyway. So I thought about tourism.

But that's another story.

BTW: No letter-writing please. XTERRANS may be aliens, but they're not trying to stay.

Immigrate expectations

I love debate. Back-and-forth, refuting, attacking and defending, marshaling facts to back the opposing sides. It's even better when I haven't made up my mind.

That's where I am on the 'federalization' of immigration. Saipan's a mess, with too many contract workers grabbing for the brass ring. Rota and Tinian too, but not nearly as bad. Local jobseekers are feeling hostile and left out. I'll give you that. However, is U.S. control the best way off of the merry-go-round?

Have its proponents done their homework? Really, the bureaucracy, the backlogs, the leakage and the outright failures should give you pause. Somebody please convince me that the U.S. system, as it stands, doesn't need to be changed. I really want to hear that story.

Meanwhile, the higher minimum wage is percolating through the economy. In the long run, that's what's going to encourage local employment. It already has. The new labor law, whatever you think of it, is also having that effect.

I've read and heard complaints about how Saipan is pictured in Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy by John Bowe. The book doesn't paint a pretty picture, but it's basically fair. The critics overlook the first three-quarters of the book, written about abuses in the U.S. It's cynical and hypocritical to sip your Florida orange juice and criticize the local system.

The Department of Labor was a cesspool when I used to write about it. Immigration wasn't much better. I'm not there every week any more, but I don't see that today. I do see abuses being reported by the local government, by various federal agencies and by NGO's. I see that in mainland papers, I see it regularly on Guam in the Pacific Daily News and the Marianas Variety.

Okay, tell me a fair system can never be administered locally. We'll have a debate.

Some employers are evil. Everywhere. The only answer is to whack them with a big stick. In our part of the world we have another problem. Some of our investors just don't know about the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Ignorance is no excuse, of course, but they need to be educated when they move in. To me, that's at least as important as the briefing new contract workers are getting now.

Saipan Chamber of Commerce President Jim Arenovski and his '4 reasons why S.2483 won't work for us' (Saipan Tribune) got me started on this again*. His and/or Lynn Knight's arguments about the lousy “H” worker system had me nodding in agreement.

All right, so I was looking around for someone to hoot and holler with when I read that the bill would “artificially cause the CNMI's population to decline over the next four and a half years”. Nope, there's nothing artificial about local unemployment while half of the workforce is contract labor. But that's what happens when you try to add one more argument to bolster your cause.

I love Russian tourists. They've got money and they're repeat customers if you treat them right. They usually stay for weeks, not for days. I like the Chinese. That's where the proposed legislation worries me most. Tourism in the U.S. has taken a big hit since 9-11. Surf the internet and you'll see how much. We need new markets, not new roadblocks.

Education looks promising, but tourism is basically it. Schools would have the same visa problems in the federal system.

Factories are just a fantasy on an island with limited population. What's your competitive advantage? Resources? Sea, sand and coconuts, good for a tourism factory (aka hotel) and a small, sustainable fishery. Location? Ha. Low wages, or a temporary loophole? We've been there, and done that.

Here's a challenge for you: try to find out about the Commonwealth on the U.S. Department of Labor website. The Minimum Wage Laws in the States for instance. Other than the minimum wage poster and a few reports, I found nothing. Now tell me the U.S. immigration law will be fine-tuned if it causes problems here.

Coming soon, the debate I've never heard: how much development, and for who?

*Well, there were four in the second paragraph. The body of the article has “First off” and “Secondly” but gets kind of muddled in the end. It probably needs some editing.

Post it note

Just out of curiousity, I followed the link in a Google ad on my home page (I know, I know, that's a no-no) about TripAdvisor.com's Saipan Forum. What are potential tourists reading? thought I.

Here's one that I just had to flag. I'll copy the email reply so you get the idea.

Dear TripAdvisor Member,

Thanks so much for letting us know about your concerns regarding the Saipan forums, and for your helpful participation.

At TripAdvisor we do our best to allow a wide variety of members to voice their opinions, but at the same time keep the forums friendly and helpful to all. We appreciate your help in doing so.

At this time we're evaluating the situation and have already taken fair action to reduce the number of disruptive and inappropriate posts in the forum. We will remove posts that directly violate our forum guidelines or significantly disrupt a directly travel-related discussion. Please note that we have updated our guidelines, they may be viewed by following this link:http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html

Thanks again for sharing your concerns.

Best regards,
DanTripAdvisor Support Team

On Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:25:39 -0500, sosaipan@yahoo.com wrote:

> User: Ken Phillips (sosaipan@yahoo.com)>
> Forum ID: 2885
> Topic ID: 1584975
> Topic Title: Need a good hotel for 3 weeks
> Poster Name: patron-silver
> Poster ID: 32ABDD2C07324150AD2E9FDB50F089A1
> Post ID: 9825529
> Post Body: Saipan has gone too the dogs.
> Water and electricity are intermittent.
> Tourism has ceased to exist.
> DONT swim in the lagoon, its polluted with raw sewerage.
>
>Link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g60716-i2885-k1584975-l9825529-Saipan.html#9825529> >

Complaint:

It overstates the problems. While the local utility is indeed stretched too thin, intermittent is a great exagerration. There are infrequent partial outages because of inadequate backup. They are planned to have minimal impact on tourist areas.

Tourism is down, it has not ceased by any means.

The beaches are red-flagged more often than I, or anyone would like, but it is an overstatement to say they are polluted with raw sewage.

The post is a hit job, for some reason.>

Maybe I should have replied to the post instead of complaining, but that's like replying to someone who asks if you've stopped beating your wife. You start by being on the defensive and I'd rather just have it removed. And yes, I spun it as positively as I could without lying. This is what potential visitors are reading about the island, folks.