I had a great time over at my folks for the holidays. I hope everyone's holiday was as good. I read the "discrimination at church" letter. Not hard to imagine, really. Predictable in fact. When one group of people comes in and seems to "take over" a thing, a institution, a place, an island the first people will not like it. When Hawaii was made a state, outsiders were and still are disliked by Hawaiians. Palestinians dislike the Jews that came when Israel was created, and the Jews in turn dislike the non jews. In Africa, tribal wars are non stop. This is human nature and it's been going on since before we evolved into Homo Sapiens. It's something that will always be inside us as humans. Groups of people will associate with those that we feel are like us. We tend to stay away from those that are not like us. We will resent those that attempt to take things from "us". In your mind or in your yard, those things are what we imagine them to be- and the church is both. I don't think anyone wants a group to come into a place that was once the primary dominion of the first group and see it dominated by second group unless they have a vested interest in that second group. This is the primary problem in Saipan: guest workers want a better life, and the natives see that quest as a threat, and they are correct in thinking this is a threat. Anyone who thinks that the guest workers will not vote as a block that remove many powers of the natives is naive. I do not condone the actions of the Mr Cepeda, but I understand them. What is causing the actions is clear.

Happy Holidays to everyone. I'm hoping everyone has health (which cannot be over stated) and this coming year, and happiness.

Letter to editor

Ms Berueco's latest letter to the editor was not disrespectful in my opinion. She raised some good points: I am not on Saipan now so there are things happening I do not know about- and if a host offers you food with flies on it you can shoo them away. Please note that I wrote another letter in reference to the time lapse of when I wrote the letter and when it was printed.

Welcome to Saipan views.

I've created a blog so that others may follow an outside view of the happenings on my old home. Saipan is a special place that holds many great memories and still holds many friends for myself. I'm glad to have spent nearly a decade calling Saipan home- I also spent about 18 month on Guam, and over two years on Palau stretched out over several years. Time moves quickly and life changes- both quickly and slowly. I've written letters to the editor in the Saipan Tribune many times in reference to many subjects that effect the CNMI. I thought it was time to let others have a bit more detail than the ST allows to understand the thoughts behind the letters, as there seems to be quite a bit of misunderstanding. The greatest misunderstanding seems to be that people believe I do not care for foreign contract workers, and the lives they are trying to make for themselves. Everyone on this planet is entitled to the best of their ability to improve the surroundings they find themselves in, and to attempt to give themselves and their children the best life they can. As a person improving your own life you must be careful to not do so by degrading others' lives. Everyone must also be careful to understand that different locations on this one planet we have may have different standards of what is acceptable, good, right, and normal. Groups of people also have shared culture and language- and they as a whole are becoming less and less in number. There are less groups of native indians in South America for example. The amount of different dialects and languages on the planet is shrinking quickly. Larger groups are pushing out the smaller groups, and whole "worlds" are dying because of this. The natives of Australia have been subjected to a terrible plight when England decided to send it's criminals to the island- the resulting subjugation was/is deplorable. The conditions and standards of living that native American indians have is also deplorable. Native hawaiians have a lesser standard of living than those people that have moved to the islands. Also the same in New Zealand. This is the larger backdrop that must color the outside view of the Marianas. More later-
William