Greetings from Guam
By James P. Healy

swimguam@kuentos.guam.net

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.

- Eleanor Roosevelt

My apologies for the rather lengthy absence of my column. I was on strike. I held out against the Machine...The Urban Industrial Military Complex Machine... I fought Goliath. Workers of the world unite! Victory for the common peasant. (They finally agreed to double my old contract - terms of which have not been disclosed. )

Now, let the writing re-begin.

Our hospital has half the nurses it needs, but they can't hire more unless the Governor says its okay. The Governor says that the legislature has to lift a hiring freeze they voted into place before he can authorize the hospital to hire more nurses. The legislature said that the hiring freeze was only for non-essential government workers and that the Governor can hire the nurses. The Governor says he can't until the entire hiring freeze is lifted. The courts are weighing in, as is the Attorney General, and the law suits are flying. It's a power showdown between the Democratic governor and the Republican legislature. Neither one is going to budge...come now, children, let's play nicely.

Oh, by the way, the hospital owes the Government of Guam - specifically the Department of Revenue and Taxation - 12 million bucks. On a similar note, the Guam Waterworks Authority, another Government of Guam agency, owes the Guam Power Authority, yet another GovGuam agency, like 8 million. Then there is another GovGuam agency or department that also owes Guam Power Authority millions. We're broke. So come and visit and spend lots of money so we can light our classrooms for the children...please do it for the children (bitten by the politics bug).

On to a brighter note, we need a lot of teachers here. (That's a bright note if you are looking for a teaching job. But don't apply here - hiring freeze...remember?). We have school aids and custodians who have been subbing on a regular basis in the same class since January. Because we (Guam - GovGuam) are broke. We can't hire substitute teachers. A whole slew of teachers left in January when GovGuam offered an early retirement and early out program. Then the hiring freeze bill was passed at about the same time. I know of an AP 12 English class that has had a school aid three out of five days a week since January. The other two days, they are taught by an assistant principal (former English teacher). So, the schools are in good shape, too.

So, with no money for nurses, teachers, police, and firemen, they are able to thankfully scrape up 14 thousand so our Lt. Governor could give her office a make-over. New furniture, carpet, blinds, the works. The reason given for this expenditure? Termites. (Well, if she lived in the cement block I live in, this hell hole of isolation, this island on an island...she wouldn't have a termite problem.) Papillon - the French Dustin Hoffman guy - didn't have a termite problem, did he? No, and neither do I.

On a more positive note, I do not think I have Island Fever.

So you are probably saying to yourself, 'Wow, Guam sure sounds like it is in rough shape financially and politically. Why would you want to stay there.?'

If that's what you were saying to yourself, good question, alert reader. All this political chaos and the fall out of inept government lands on the people. It squashes them. Many leave the island, the middle class shrinks, the welfare rolls grow, and the inept politicians remain rich and inept. It's not a good scene. So, why stay? Because that is the Monday through Friday Guam, when I read the paper and listen to the Myk Powell show on Newstalk K-57.

The true beauty of Guam is that you can go on vacation every weekend, like I do. The week's economic and political woes immediately evaporate as I gaze at a spectacular sunset on Cella Bay or drift off in my hammock to the sound of the high tide moving in. It just doesn't matter as long as it does not screw up my weekend vacations. Guam is like any other place on this earth. It's what you make of it. It's like the old, half empty - half full adage; as long as they do not pave over the entire island, Guam's glass will always be half full in my eyes.

Hafa Adai