There was a Letter to the Editor published in the Marianas Variety today that attacks the politicians that have helped Beautify CNMI! in the last year. The writer accuses them of planting infertile seeds and painting over a sinking ship, when they should be working on "real" solutions.
I respectfully have to disagree with the writer.
The work that Beautify CNMI! does is a low cost, high yield investment in the CNMI's future. First, we improve our product (Saipan, Tinian, and Rota) by sprucing up our islands, cleaning up the garbage, fixing old tourist attractions, removing grafitti, and generally making the islands look better.
Homeboy suggests we have inmates do this work. I recruited 3000+ volunteers to clean up the island on a single day back in October and I've led anywhere between 3-6 cleanups per weekend ever since and guess what? This island is still a mess!
Late last year I led some high schools students and community volunteers on a cleanup of an illegal dumpsite. We removed over 20,000 lbs of illegally dumped household trash. Guess what the place looks like now?
Trashed again! If this place was cleaned up it could be an historical tourist site, like the North Field in Tinian. Can you really blame the Legislature for Koblerville residents being too lazy to bring their trash to the transfer station? I don't think so.
< / rant >
On another note...
The 50 writers and bloggers of the We Love Saipan Network and the six different Beautify CNMI! websites published in three different languages then promote our islands to tourists, professionals, and retirees. We were able to put this together for $9 per year (we're nearing the start of our second year; we're going to have to come up with that $9 again). I've had people tell me that these blogs were the deciding factor in their move to Saipan.
Finally and most importantly, we inspire the next generation to do better than their parents. The kids that we are mentoring are going to be great leaders. I predict that many of these young leaders will run for office in their twenties.
I respectfully have to disagree with the writer.
The work that Beautify CNMI! does is a low cost, high yield investment in the CNMI's future. First, we improve our product (Saipan, Tinian, and Rota) by sprucing up our islands, cleaning up the garbage, fixing old tourist attractions, removing grafitti, and generally making the islands look better.
Homeboy suggests we have inmates do this work. I recruited 3000+ volunteers to clean up the island on a single day back in October and I've led anywhere between 3-6 cleanups per weekend ever since and guess what? This island is still a mess!
Late last year I led some high schools students and community volunteers on a cleanup of an illegal dumpsite. We removed over 20,000 lbs of illegally dumped household trash. Guess what the place looks like now?
Trashed again! If this place was cleaned up it could be an historical tourist site, like the North Field in Tinian. Can you really blame the Legislature for Koblerville residents being too lazy to bring their trash to the transfer station? I don't think so.< / rant >
On another note...
The 50 writers and bloggers of the We Love Saipan Network and the six different Beautify CNMI! websites published in three different languages then promote our islands to tourists, professionals, and retirees. We were able to put this together for $9 per year (we're nearing the start of our second year; we're going to have to come up with that $9 again). I've had people tell me that these blogs were the deciding factor in their move to Saipan.
Finally and most importantly, we inspire the next generation to do better than their parents. The kids that we are mentoring are going to be great leaders. I predict that many of these young leaders will run for office in their twenties.