The New Saipan! "Saipan Comeback!

In response to our standard 3-question exit survey:

“Walt:

1. I discovered Saipan from a help wanted ad on the internet
2. + 3. All aspects of the trip exceeded my expectations. Hotel, rental car, guided tour–all far exceeded expectations. GOOD JOB WALT!!!!! Saipan is a wonderful, undiscovered paradise. I foresee living there with my wife next year if/when my job opens up at __________. Thank you again for all your efforts in making my accomodations and arrangements more than favorable.”–A.S.

 

“What makes you think the next governor will make any substantive changes? And what’s to keep him from naming the current governor as chief policy advisor or director of an agency?” my friend asked.

So, in case you haven’t heard, there is talk of impeachment of the current governor on the island of Saipan. And just so we’re all clear on the terminology, to impeach means to “bring up charges against.” Once one is impeached, there is still the matter of a formal trial which may or may not result in a conviction.

So during the course of an email conversation, I jokingly asked my friend, a former Saipan resident, what position he’d be applying for and returning to fill in the “new” administration.

As I said, he replied: “What makes you think the next governor will make any substantive changes? And what’s to keep him from naming the current governor as chief policy advisor or director of an agency?”

I replied to him, “Well, I’m not there on island. I’m not Chamorro or Carolinian. I don’t know the current Lt Governor or his character. Nor am I a politician…

However, I think that if I were taking over a position after my predecessor was just convicted, that simply the prospect of conviction and the increased public scrutiny would keep me in line even if just a bit. A conviction would be a constant reminder that I’m not entirely above the law and that people are watching.

I know many people have a “nothing’s going to change” attitude towards such things, but just the fact that an impeachment is in progress is evidence of change. I see things as a process–a trend. In this universe, nothing stays the same–things are either expanding or contracting. In my opinion, this impeachment is not just some random occurrence, but the continuation of a trend.

Over the course of recent years, we’ve seen evidence of this trend in Saipan society. Here are just a few in some sort of relative or causal sequence:
Clean up garment factories–>community awareness (eg.Welovesaipan, blogger movement)—>community involvement (eg.BeautifyCNMI)–>community activism (Marianas Trench win, contract worker march on Garapan)—>more public pressure (Facebook activism, public demonstrations),—>strengthening of political will—>impeachment—>?

I see a trend towards improvement.

The other thing is, if you look towards the individual in power to make change, then I believe you’ve missed the lesson of history in practically every country on the planet. Change comes as a result of the people exerting their will on those whom they elect. Politicians, by default or design, are typically individuals who are driven to achieve positions of power–whether for good or evil. However, we, the people, are the ones who have the power to determine what those positions can both “achieve” and “get away” with by the power of our collective voice. In other words, if we allow the position to be one in which people can do anything they want without consequence, then the position will attract those who want to do anything they want. If, on the other hand, we define those positions as positions in which the holders are held accountable to the people, then the position will attract a different sort of individual to run for office. Remember, the impeachment process was revived in this new election cycle because the will of the people was made loud and clear to those they elected. There’s a great book I’ve recommended before entitled Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People is Greater than the People in Power. It shows how the rules of the game of people vs power have changed and recounts how Facebook became an integral part of the revolution and evolution of society in the middle east. The title alone says it all. This is all part of what I call a Better Belief System that is taking hold in our society.

I think I’ll make myself Minister of Tourism.

Are you considering moving to, relocating, taking a job or retiring on Saipan? If so, I hope I’ve gotten to you in time!!! Reading this article may mean the difference between happiness and misery in your decision. Let me explain.

In December 2005, while at a holiday party in Brooklyn, a good friend introduced me to Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. It was the first time I’d ever heard of it. He raved about his experience visiting the island, and something just “clicked” and I made the decision then and there to escape from New York and move to Saipan!

Once I returned home to Manhattan and started making plans, I did what any self-respecting resident of the 21st century does when planning a trip or doing research on a subject, I Googled it. I didn’t find much information, but I did see in the search results for “saipan” a link to a site that, by its website address alone, indicated it wouldn’t be filled with glowing praise and positive recommendations about the island. I’m sure you know the site I’m referring to.

Fortunately for me, I had taken a few personal development courses before in my life, and participated in success training for a network marketing company I had been involved in, so I knew the creative power of one’s words and the power that one’s thoughts and beliefs have on one’s reality. So, I made the conscious decision NOT to click on the link for that evidently negative website to read what it had to say about Saipan. Having just made the decision to leave New York to travel to the other side of the world to start a new phase of my life, the last thing I wanted was to have someone else’s negative ideas and thoughts running around my head, and that, I believe has made all the difference in the world!

Shortly after arriving on Saipan in February of 2006, and wanting to do something to address the lack of positive information about Saipan, I reserved and launched the WELOVESAIPAN.com site which was a catalyst for a blogger movement on the island. I launched SAIPANLIVING.COM, which has helped hundreds make their decisions about moving to Saipan; DISCOVERSAIPAN.com through which I give and empower others to give tours of the island, DESTINATIONSAIPAN.com for hotel reservations, and BESTofSAIPAN.com at which I’ve collected all the Saipan-related sites I’ve launched. I’ve tutored kids, helped other writers get published, given workshops, launched a health food co-op, written for the Saipan Tribune for five years (see archives). I’ve written the books Jamaican on Saipan, Saipan Living and Doing Business on Saipan. I’ve co-authored Chicken Feathers and Garlic Skin: Diary of a Chinese Garment Factory Girl on Saipan, helped publish The Boy Who Dreamed to Be With His Parents on Saipan, and helped my buddy, actor/director, Dan Shor re-issue his Saipan DVD Looking for America. I also received a Senate Resolution recognizing and itemizing many of the contributions I’ve made to Saipan society.

Who can say?
I share all of this not to impress you, but to impress upon you a significant point. Would all of this have happened if I had read that negative website back in 2005? Who knows. Perhaps reading it would have inspired me even more, and instead of only 5 books about Saipan, I might have written 10! Or, on the other hand, perhaps it would have colored and corrupted my impression of Saipan and had me cynically expecting and thereby seeing only the worse aspects of the island, and dooming myself to misery before I even set foot on its shores. Again, we’ll never know.

However, what I do know is something I recently read on a Saipan blog that was sort of the motivation for this article. The author of a blog post about Saipan said “So, I’ve been trying really hard to un-read what I read at __________ [that same negative website], but it ain’t easy. And that’s my point. My advice to you is to be vigilant and to choose what you allow to enter your mind because it’s very challenging to un-hear or un-read, or un-see something once you’ve let it inside of you.

But, what if it’s all true?
You might be asking What if it’s true what’s written on that website?” The answer is: it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because it’s all someone else’s reality, and you have the power to create your own.

You are not required to listen to, believe and recreate someone else’s thoughts, ideas, words and reality (not even mine) just because they want to share it with you. As I’ve said in other articles I’ve written: Speech is not, in fact, free. It has consequences.

If you’re familiar with my background, you might be aware of my frequent trips to China. I always have a great time when I go! I choose not to read other people’s negative experiences about their time in China, because, quite simply, I know that I (and by that I mean YOU) can create a unique reality. The proof is right there in my Jamaican in China blog. And, what’s more, you have the freedom to choose your responses to anything you experience. (That, in fact, is the only freedom you have when it comes to creating happiness. You can’t control other people’s behavior, but you can control how you choose to respond to that behavior. It’s the secret to happiness). You can create light within darkness. You can create love within hatred. You can create peace within a war zone, and if you take my advice and choose what thoughts you allow to enter your mind, you can create your own unique experience of life on the paradise island and tourist destination of Saipan!

See you on the beach!

p.s. Want to help other people find this article first when considering Saipan?
Join the Saipan Facebook page, and, if you have a blog or website, please link to this blog post to help move it up in the Google and other search engine results.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FREESUMMERCONCERTS.COM announces Martin Nievera “Summer in November” free concert on Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands

NOVEMBER 27, 2012-SAIPAN–As a kickoff of the 2013 summer season of free concerts, FreeSummerConcerts.com announces a free concert by Filipino singer-songwriter Martin Nievera, “The Concert King,” on Friday, November 30th, 2012, on the US Commonwealth island of Saipan.

FreeSummerConcerts is the brainchild of author, “nomadpreneur,” and occasional New York resident, Walt F.J. Goodridge. In the summer of 2005, Goodridge started the site as a personal experiment to help friends and family keep track of New York’s summer season of hundreds of free concerts. The site’s following quickly grew, and in the eight years since it’s launch, has become a staple of thousands of entertainment-seeking New Yorkers as well as tourists. Based on public demand, the site is now expanding its unique donation-driven model nationwide to cover events in 50 states and territories. Anyone, including residents and promoters, can list free events free of charge in the nationwide database.

“We’re serious about going national,” Goodridge states. “And it makes a compelling statement that the kickoff event takes place on one of the least-known US territories. Even though it’s November, Saipan is a part of the US and it’s always summer on Saipan!” (The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) is a fourteen island chain in the Western Pacific approximately 140 miles north of Guam. Saipan is the capital and most populated island.)

Martin Nievera is an award-winning Filipino singer and actor. He last performed a free concert on Saipan in November 2007 to over 8,000 fans. This Friday’s concert is being offered in celebration of the Tan Holdings Company’s 40th anniversary of doing business in Micronesia.

For more details, visit the Saipan events page at www.FreeSummerConcerts.com

There are 301 emails in my outbox to Ruth Tighe (There would be more, but I changed computers in 2010).

As I spent some time this morning going over all those emails, I’m reminded of Ruth’s many acts of kindness as well as countless virtual conversations we shared that have endeared her to my memory. I’d like to share a few snippets of those memories with you.

From the day we first met at a Beautify CNMI meeting a few months after I arrived on Saipan in 2006, she’s been a consistent supporter of my writings, blogs, books and projects and has always gone out of her way to keep me informed. In her last email to me on October 5, 2012, as she typically did, she forwarded me a copy of something she thought I would be interested in. This time it was Congressman Gregorio Kilili” Sablan’s newsletter that I was unaware existed, and to which I am now a subscriber.

My fellow Saipan resident, Ruth, was one of the panel of volunteer (read: drafted) experts (of a grand total of about 3) for the SaipanLiving.com website, and answered email questions on a wide range of topics from where to find honey on Saipan, to CNMI marriage law, to how to deal with mosquitoes! (Her thoughts on island life are featured and immortalized in the book spawned by the site, Saipan Living.) Here’s what one couple wrote back to me after I assigned Ruth the task of answering their questions about starting a business on Saipan:

Thanks for your referral of Ruth – very knowledgeable, articulate and responsive to our questions. She is certainly an adjunct Chamber of Commerce asset.”

My friend, Ruth, shared books on a wide range of topics she thought I’d be interested in (actual physical copies as well as links on the internet).

My number one fan, Ruth, offered feedback to my weekly column in the Saipan Tribune, and graciously mentioned my projects in her On My Mind column. Those mentions were a welcome validation and appreciation of my efforts–though she didn’t know how just how eloquent, well-crafted, and well-received they were. I know because here’s what she once wrote as a p.s. after praising one of my books on Saipan.

RUTH: p.s. As you may notice, I am oddly inarticulate when it comes to praising anyone, anything. It all comes out so stilted. But then, I’ve had trouble with that ever since my kids, as kindergartners, brought home their crudely drawn art efforts………….and I’ve not yet gotten any better…………….I guess one could say I’ve never learned the art of flattery? Anyhow. I plan to mention it in my column……….–ruth

My blog follower, Ruth, was the most frequent commenter on my Jamaican in China adventure, following my blog posts from the beginning, even offering her home for me to crash when it seemed I might be homeless when my departure from Saipan to China might have been postponed after already giving up my apartment.

Then, once I actually ended up in China, Ruth continued to be a recurring, behind-the-scenes character: While in China, through a series of random encounters and after an invite I almost turned down, I met an American fellow in a club in Beijing. The exchange went something like this:

WALT: “So, have you ever heard about Saipan?”
STRANGER: “Yes, actually. I know someone who lives there.”
WALT:“Really!? Who?”
STRANGER: She’s family, but she doesn’t have the same last name. My father’s brother is married to her sister. The name slips me right now, but she’s been there a long time. She’s into politics. Wait, it’s coming to me….R-ru–”
WALT/STRANGER: [in unison] “Ruth Tighe!”

So, turns out that in the heart of China, in a city of 20 million people, at a smoke-filled event I had all intentions of missing that night, I’m introduced by a woman I only spoke to for the first time that afternoon, to a man she only met two days before, who, it turns out is related to my number one blog fan on the island Saipan where I’ve spent the last several years! That stranger, Ben Partan, is now my friend, and we keep in touch regularly!

As she became more and more of a follower and commenter on my blog, I would find myself composing and customizing the format of my emails with her in mind, just so she could have a hassle-free existence reading them. (She once described herself as a “luddite,” and from the way she described it, she must have been using a 286 Computer circa 1980s that always seemed to react weirdly to my emails, and just couldn’t seem to handle the image attachments. Nevertheless, she found the necessary ways and means to email me regularly, order books, vote for my blog for blog of the year!)

My fondest memories of Ruth involve our exchanges over what I imagine constitutes our mutual respect for and love affair with the English language. After reading one my articles or blog posts, Ruth might send me an email that would begin something like this:

RUTH: …being a teacher of English myself at one time, I struggled to parse your first sentence.
Pray tell, what is the subject of the verb “has”?

Thus would commence a nuanced back-and-forth debate that only language purists would appreciate wherein we would advocate on behalf of this or that grammatical case and convention, rule or precedent, and through which one of us would invariably introduce the other to a word hitherto not in his or her vocabulary (eg. She introduced me to “nonce.” I introduced her to “epicene.” Look ‘em up!)

Ruth was my “reality check” for how my writings were being perceived by “regular humans” and offered her insights and interpretations.

We would often share and compare ideas on random topics in life and living. In one exchange back in 2010, Ruth and I discussed the purpose of the news media and the individual’s role in social change:

WALT: People fault the rich for not doing more for this or that cause. They fault their neighbor for not joining in the struggle against this or that injustice. While it’s true that the world would benefit if more people took up the mantle for a given cause, one of the things I think activists often overlook is that not everyone is called to the activist “life theme.”

RUTH: In thinking about this, I could agree that not everyone is called to be a leader. But not called to do good, to right wrongs, to help others, to try improve life on earth for all its living creatures – and plants/trees? I would agree that many don’t accept or recognize that “responsibility,” if you will, but I have trouble accepting that they don’t have that responsibility….”

Those of us who knew her will recognize that as an apt description of how she conducted life.

In September of this year, I relaunched the WeLoveSaipan.com site with the new banner “We STILL Love Saipan!” and sent Ruth an email requesting an updated description of why she, too, “still” loved Saipan. She replied:

RUTH: Nice idea, and I’d love to participate, but at the moment, I am barely functioning – I’ve hit a down phase in my health – they call it an “exacerbation” – and I have no energy, have a hard time catching my breath, and cannot think all that deeply, clearly. You’ll note, I’m not putting out my column……..
So my contribution will have to wait til I feel stronger again…………
ruth

Ruth didn’t get around to submitting her contribution. However, she did compose one testimonial for me a few months prior especially for Saipan Living:
RUTH: For someone who grew up in land-locked territory, the closeness to the sea is, I think, what attracts me the most – an attraction that has not worn off after 28 years of living on Saipan. The ocean in all its moods and colors, reflecting the clouds above, and the clouds themselves, offer an ever-changing panoply of color, images, beauty and is visible from nearly everywhere on island.

It’s green year-round, with plumeria, or hibiscus, or bougainvillea always in bloom. It’s warm, and sometimes rainy – but often that brings rainbows.
It’s a small island, made up of small, close communities in each village, and friendly people.

Despite its surface appearance as being just like southern California or Florida, it has its own culture, its own idiosyncrasies – and in order to survive and get along, it is necessary to understand, accept and embrace the differences. Living can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be – it depends on a person’s life style, and his or her willingness to try new things, to adapt to the local setting.

Paradise has its drawbacks: occasional typhoons, termites, ineradicable ants. But that goes with the territory.

Politically, it is no different than the mainland U.S. – here, though, it’s on a smaller scale, and “in your face” – the corrupt politicians are not in the distant capital, but are your friends and neighbors. Different, fascinating, ever-changing….[end excerpt]

Because of this ever-changing, virtual world we live in, and this nomadic life I’ve chosen, I’ve actually only had about 5 physical face-to-face meetings, one ear-to-ear phone call, and taken just a single photograph with my friend Ruth Tighe since I first met her in 2006. However, I consider her an ally, my biggest supporter, and I feel so very fortunate that this one person on a little 5 x 13-mile island in the middle of the Pacific, whom I would never have known otherwise, emerged from anonymity and into my life. It has made all the difference in the world.

Thanks, Ruth. Sorry I wasn’t on island to see you off, but I’m sure I speak for many on Saipan when I say….You’ll always be on my mind!

Walt F.J. Goodridge

Honored Friend of Ruth Tighe

p.s. With all the references to my books and sites and blogs and columns, I’ve realized that it’s challenging to write about all the ways a person affects your life without appearing to speak inordinately about the details of that life. I think Ruth and I shared the similar purpose of sharing information with others through the written word. In my case, that purpose manifests in the books and sites and blogs and columns I’ve created. Ruth’s impact on my life, therefore, is most evident in the ways in which she supported me in these and in the fulfillment of my purpose. I hope, in some way, I was able to help her in hers!