Some times it really makes my day reading what is here and has been posted by those who have never been here. This does not apply to those of you who have lived in Saipan or still do.

A good frien of mine who is a high school teacher at Kagman High rolles it all up in a neat package. The locals of the CNMI(Saipan-Rota-Tinian) all have two things in common :they do not understand cause and effect,and planning for the future. These are the folks who run the country. Please do not forget that back in the sailing ship days these island were known as the isle of thievs. Now they are quickly reaching the level of those now in place in Washington DC. Here is a couple of little dittys which are true and make for some good reading.

For cause and effect:
A few years ago I was down at the sky diving operation at the Saipan airport doing some work on their aircraft. After I completed what was required,I went into the office to chat with my friens there. We were havcing a cold drink when a couple of CNMI offiicials came in at the request of the gov. to sak what they could do to make thing better for business on Saipan. They rattled on for a few minutes and I sat there shaking my head (Not too politicaly correct I guess) One then asked me what i thought.(bad decision) I replied the garmet industry is sick and you people are doing nothing to help. Your sugestions one replied. The cnmi has 5 different taxes they impose on the industry leaving a token proffit for them of less than 10%. Solution: cut a few of the taxes enough for them to pay the minimum hourly wage. Then being that workers will be getting more money, workers will make up what ever you loose in additional payrole taxes.(duh)

The guy looked at me like I had jst spoken to him in some ancient language and did not have a clue as to what I just said. Gave no comment,they both left.

Planning ahead:

There are at any tine at least 100-120 street lights that do not shut off when the sun comes up, Dirty electric eyes. Money wasted enough annually to purchas a boom truck anf=d two locals to clean them. Also the government here does not pay their electric bill. Last time I heard it was close to aq quarted million. Amazing!!!!!!!!!!

Even with all its faults Saipan is a great place to live.

JAN

I have lived here on Saipan almost 7 years now and would like to make a comment or two about the Chinese women that live here. When I arrived to fly commercial pilot,I had been married two times and had children which are grown and on their own.(two lemons picked in loves garden) I had no intension or ever getting married again. After spending a little over a year in what that famous quots in “Top Gun” Its a target rich environment. I married a Chinese lady,and it was one of the best things I have ever done. Most of my friends here have done the same,and are happy and have a warm and loving home life. To put it in a few words,Chinese women are the best kept secret in the world. Their family always comes first(not the one back home in China) and they do take very good care of their husbands almost to a fault.

My wife worked for MGM garmet factory,and when she lost her job she was ablt to secure a good position working at one of the larger hotels on the island. This was possible because she spoke japanese and english very well. We met while she was still working for MGM when they cut back her hours at the end she also worked at a beauty parlor giving hair cuts. We dated for a couple of months,and I got my education. Never in my life had I ever met a person who wanted nothing from me except love. Long story short we got married.

Manny of her friends stayed in Saipan and a few went into the sex trade with out having any experience commercially. However many took this path just to stay alive and be able to send a little money home.(cant fault them for that)

Alot of these ladies have married american men a little older that them selves and were married befor. They found out what I did about there women and ook the plunge. All of them that I know as my wifes friends who married americans did not do it for the golden passport called the green card. They found men who new what they had found,treated them with respect and now have a family. Of my wifes friend 6 are now mothers with their husbands and very happy.

Also given the chance they have enrolled in the local college and are improving their english. This one thing will allow them to find reputable work. It is my belief that these women are of good heart and given the chance will always take the right path.

There are many sides to the Saipan situation this is my point of view.

JAN

Frankly, if they legalized it and regulated it, the ladies that engage in it (many of them by choice, because they can make much more on their backs than in other jobs) would be better protected. Most of the prostitutes do not want to leave because they have nothing in their home countries. Also it is a supply and demand issue. As long as there is a demand, there will always be a supply.

If there was a way to put prostitution in a specific red light district. Have the women licensed and tested for STDs and allow them to form a union, to help ensure their rights. As long as they want to do that, then what is the problem? What two consenting adults do behind closed doors is nobody’s business.

If this were legalized, then there could be a control over much of the exploitation end of it. As it stands, the average “Mama-san” takes between 40%-60% of what the ladies make.

Of course this would never happen, even tough it works in places like Amsterdam, because the Church people would never allow it.

I can say this. I have gotten to know some of these ladys. Most of them are just normal decent people. They just do this to survive because the way the economy is here. Wages are extremely low and for many of these people to get other work, legitimate work, such as waitressing, they can expect to have their Chinese of Filipino bosses make them work 12 hours a day, six-seven days a week for about $500.00 a month. If you are Chinese, then forget about finding a normal job, because the Filipinos and Koreans (who usually run most of the businesses and/or are supervisors) will not even hire you. Prejudice and discrimination is rampant. So, most of the prostitutes are Chinese because that is about all that they can find in many cases.

Local Government has not helped, because they are inefficient and unable to do the job of keeping track of the labor and immigration in the CNMI, so you have tons of undocumented workers, many being exploited by their own people as well.

Hopefully, come November, when the US Federal Government takes over, there will be a change. The only solution to this “Problem” is to simply re-patriate these women. Or do the logical thing and legalize and regulate it.

But then again, I am a libertarian. I also think they should legalize marijuana too. (Not the hard drugs, just pot).

1. The decline in garment factory employment is very recent. The bars and clubs that you noted have been here for many years. Their existence has nothing to do with closure of the garment factories.

2. Nearly all of the women working in them were brought to Saipan as “waitresses”, not as garment workers.

3. Offering all of the workers a free ticket back home would result in — nothing. They don’t want to go home. They want to stay and work.

4. No one intended to shut down the garment industries. The industry is declining because of competition from China under relaxed trade rules, in spite of efforts to keep it going. This is happening to garment industry factories in many countries including the United States.

5. The minimum wage in Saipan was 3.05 for many years until this year, when it was raised to 3.55. The increase has only been in effect for less than six months and cannot explain the decline in garment factory employment.

6. The minimum wage has been and continues to be low, however, comparing this to US wages is like comparing apples and oranges. Employers in Saipan are responsible for all health care costs for their foreign workers and many other costs including in many cases most or all of the food and housing as well.

Prostitution in Saipan exists but certainly is not new — in fact it appears to have declined slightly over the last few years as the tourism industry is also suffering here. The existence of prostitution is not in any significant way a result of the decline in garment manufacturing.

Provide it in PDF format please.

They wanted higher wages. They didn’t get it. Enforcing the minimum wage wouldn’t have solve any problem because those factories only existed there because they could charge wages comparable with the rest of Asia yet still avoid tariffs on imported goods.

If you have to pay that wage, you could just have easily opened shop in the mainland US and avoid the shipping to Saipan.

People focus on key issues. In the case of Saipan, it was the garment industry, not a general overall package of human rights and economic development.

Centuries of laws and good intentions haven’t wiped out prostitution and crime, I don’t know why it would have done anything here.

It is easy to talk in vague general terms about “employment”, “plans” and “strategies”, as if simpling having these plans will make reality what you want it to be.

Saipan is an island. An island in close proximity to places with much much cheaper labor. There are no easy solutions. If there were, everyone would adopt plans and strategies and every place in the world would be prosperous.

I am certain that regardless what plan or strategy would be put in place, the reality of the situation is if you have an abundance of unemployed females in a place in close proximity to a region of the world where there is sex tourism, this will happen. Look at any town with a military base.

A far better and simpler thing would be to offer everyone a free trip back to China or the Philippines, free of any obligations to those who brought them to Saipan. Even then, they still could be hunted down by the organized crime element that demands payment.

I stand by my original claim. You just can’t make some problems go awawy without shifting them somewhere else or creating entirely new problems.

I do believe that what I saw in Saipan isn’t going to be there in 10 years. Women will stop coming there to work. I also can’t see how that level of prostitution can be supported in the long term (then again, I haven’t been to Bangkok yet, so I could be totally wrong).

If the tourism industry in Saipan can grow (and I think it can), the problem will solve itself, but the answer is time.