[This is a longer piece than is normally promoted to the Front Page. But it's worth your time to read every word - MB]
I’ve have been writing about the growing Abramoff Scandal for some time.
Things are heating up. In the last two weeks, the vast Republican Culture of Corruption has engulfed three more sitting GOP Congressmen and placed several others in the sights of investigators.
The recent news is an embarrassment of riches for GOP scandal scholars like myself. I started a post unpacking the clues and details embedded in yesterday’s Mark Zachares guilty plea.
Then I read today’s Saipan Tribune:
Buddhi Lal Dhimal, a Nepalese guest worker on the CNMI for the last 10 years set himself on fire today.
It is part of this scandal.
We need to understand why.
To the jump...
George W. Bush and the Gingrich/DeLay modern Republican Party are flooding the zone with scandal after scandal.
It is mind-boggling. They are intertwined. They are woven together by certain threads of sleaze. Karl Rove is one. Tom DeLay is another. And so is Jack Abramoff.
There are many others.
After a long lull, things are heating up once again. Different teams at the Department of Justice seem to be filing case after case.
A blockage has been removed from the Department of Justice. It could be for a variety of reasons and folks are speculating on why long stalled cases are moving again (and new ones are popping up).
I think it has to do with the ongoing investigations of the purge of US Attorneys. That scandal has loosened the control that Rove and the White House had over the career folks at the Department of Justice and they are using that new found freedom to pursue long-stalled corruption investigations.
Explaining why I think that is the case would be a good Diary, but it will have to wait.
Why?
Because Buddhi Lal Dhimal, a Nepalese guest worker on the CNMI for the last 10 years set himself on fire today.
I could have underscored the importance of supporting Charlie Brown in his rematch with Doolittle. [Please Volunteer and/or Donate to his campaign. Vote for Charlie as your choice to be the next Democracy for America Allstar. We can win this one. Charlie Brown is a great candidate.] I could have driven the point home by writing about the ongoing troubles of Dishonest John Doolittle and some of his donors.
It would be a good Diary, but it will have to wait.
Why?
Because Buddhi Lal Dhimal, a Nepalese guest worker on the CNMI for the last 10 years set himself on fire today.
I could have explored yesterday’s information filing in the Mark Zachares guilty plea in the Abramoff Probe. I could have discussed how it is circling around Don Young and pointing towards John Ashcroft. How and why it is pulling in Tom Feeney of Florida. I might have been able to make the Abramoff linkage to the growing Rep. Rick Renzi scandal (which is also linked to the US Attorney Purge scandal) and identify a few other Congressmen who will be in the scandal news soon.
That would be a good Diary, but it will have to wait.
Why?
Because Buddhi Lal Dhimal, a Nepalese guest worker on the CNMI for the last 10 years set himself on fire today.
Dhimal is one of those guest workers living without rights on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). I have written about their plight in many Diaries:
There have been many others. I have written a lot about the CNMI, the abuse and the connections between the Republican Party, Jack Abramoff and their patrons—the Hong Kong based Tan Family.
Twenty-five years of exploitation, corruption, and abuse have placed the CNMI on the verge of collapse and they need a new beginning. That is where we should focus our energy.
When the Northern Mariana Islands joined the US as a Commonwealth the rules of the road were established by a Covenant, a legal agreement between the Federal Government and the indigenous people living on this small chain of land masses in the vast Western Pacific.
At the time the Covenant included exemptions to US labor, immigration and custom laws. This was done to protect the Chamorros and Carolinians who made up the indigenous peoples of the CNMI. The hope was that local control would help these folks protect, maintain and preserve their cultures.
This has failed BIG TIME. The laws were abused. For more than twenty-five years the CNMI has based their economy in an economic system rooted in the shadow world of global trade (human trafficking, sweatshops, forced prostitution, money laundering, drug smuggling, gun running and the like).
This failed economic system has led to an influx of guest worker/immigrants who now outnumber the Chamorro/Carolinian populations.
The current population is officially pegged at 84,500, but may be well over 92,000 when illegal immigrants are factored in. Less than 25% are indigenous to the islands. Back in 1980 roughly 70% of the population was made up Chamorros and Carolinians (a minority population that descended from travelers who came to the CNMI in the 1800s from the Carolinian islands).
Every effort to end the abuse and reform the CNMI economy over the last 25 years has failed. For the first dozen years it was because it was hard to get the word out and hard to get anybody in Washington to pay attention to the problems of a small chain of islands in the Western Pacific. After 1995 it was because of Jack Abramoff and the Republican Party.
Both of those excuses are gone.
If we fail now it will be a failure of the Democratic Party.
We can not let that happen.
The 110th Congress has sent strong signals that change is coming and that the CNMI will be forced to clean up its act. A big part of that effort is immigration reform. Reform that would grant guest workers like Buddhi Lal Dhimal rights and a possible path to US Citizenship.
Events are moving quickly and the various players are staking out negotiating points, red lines and strategies as the 110th Congress considers new legislation to extend US labor, immigration and custom laws to the CNMI, a US Territory in the Western Pacific about 40 miles north of Guam.
Some players are hopeful. Some are fearful. And the old guard Pirates of Saipan are preparing for one more effort to block reform.
It is time to stop them, but while they are focused on blocking reform—we are overwhelmed by the endless scandals and disasters of the Boy King.
Meanwhile, the Pirates of Saipan are a unified bunch.
Together they work their common interests of greed, power and control to maintain an economic system at odds with American values and security as well as being harmful to both the indigenous population of the CNMI and the tens of thousands of guest workers imported to the Marianas Islands to toil in the shadows of the global economy.
While they have been wounded, they are still a formidable force. They still have power.
They especially have power over the majority population on the CNMI—the guest workers. And they are using that power to "cleanse’ the CNMI of as many guest workers as they can—and doing it as fast as they can.
It is a brutal process and yet another cruel indignity being visited on a long abused population.
Under the guest worker provisions of the CNMI, these guest workers have no rights. They are at the mercy of their employers. As a response to decades of abuse some workers have been able to get a hearing for their grievances, but a successful and just outcome is rare.
Now these folks were recruited to come to the CNMI. They paid money to get there and often for jobs that were not there once they arrived on the US Territory.
It might have been an agency like this one that recruited Buddhi Lal Dhimal to leave Nepal and travel to the CNMI to work as a security guard at L&T, a Tan Family sweatshop on Saipan.
He worked there for ten years. Like most guest workers he would have sent a portion of his wages back to support his family. Dhimal’s home country Nepal has been torn by civil war and conflict. The money these Nepalese workers send home is extremely important. For their families back home they are willing to suffer all manner of abuse on the CNMI and in the other countries that traffic in the exploitation of foreign guest workers. While that kind of abuse might be expected in the Gulf States, the Marianas Islands are part of America.
These workers should have some rights in the USA, but thanks to Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, John Doolittle and the rest of their gang of thieves—they do not.
The CNMI economy is rooted in a government protected and sponsored system of abuse. We have not seen such a system on US soil since slavery was abolished. The guest worker system on the CNMI is nothing less than modern slavery. Modern slavery that has been allowed to flourish on US soil and it is a system designed to remove all hope and dreams from its victims.
This has especially been true lately on the CNMI.
The sweatshops are closing and moving to a new Tan Family factory compound on mainland China. The CNMI economy is in shambles. While guest workers out number the indigenous population, they can not vote and live without rights. And all the discussions in Washington about how to end the abuse and repair the economy on the CNMI include a plan for extending justice to the guest workers of the CNMI.
Naturally, this has many folks fearful of change and many more hopeful that soon they may get rights and possibly a pathway to US Citizenship.
Even David Cohen, (the Bush Administration’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Department for Insular Affairs) has made it clear in Senate Testimony that this problem must also addressed as part of any new CNMI legislation (emphasis added):
Mr. Chairman, I call to your attention the unique situation of the long-term foreign employees that have become an integral part of CNMI society. A number of foreign employees have been working in the CNMI for five, ten, fifteen or more years. Many are raising children in the CNMI, and their children are U.S. citizens. These employees were invited to come to the CNMI because they were needed, they came and have stayed legally, and they have contributed much to the community. They were essential in building the CNMI economy from the ground up from what it was at the inception of the Commonwealth: a rural economy with little industry, tourism or other commercial activity. Long-term foreign employees are integrated into all levels of the CNMI’s workforce and society, serving as doctors, nurses, journalists, business managers, engineers, architects, service industry employees, housekeepers, farmers, construction workers, and in countless other occupations. I hope that the Committee and the CNMI Government will keep the situation of these long-term members of the CNMI community in mind as they consider reforms to the CNMI’s immigration system.
This is shorthand for a pathway to Citizenship for these long time guest workers or at the very least it means Green Cards so that these long time residents—who were recruited to work on this US Territory.
And for the indigenous people of the CNMI it may mean that the minority status they created for themselves will became a political reality as members of the guest worker population become US Citizens. (This is already happening because of birthrates, but extending justice to the long-time guest workers will speed up the process).
The Pirates of Saipan are fighting this possible outcome.
Since last November—when the Democrats took control of Congress—there has been a growing effort on the CNMI to purge the US Territory of as many guest workers as can be removed. Laws that have long been ignored are now being enforced to the letter of the law. Long time guest workers are being swept up and hastily deported to their country of origin. The process is fast. It is without appeal. It is without council or even an advocate for the guest worker. It is an organized purge.
Buddhi Lal Dhimal was caught up in this systematic cleansing of guest workers from the CNMI.
The details were in today’s Marianas Variety (emphasis added):
A FORMER security guard who was ordered to leave the CNMI and was trying to get a repatriation ticket set himself on fire in the hallway of the Department of Labor yesterday morning, setting off a fire alarm that led to the evacuation of personnel and their clients. [snipp]
"He was heard saying he didn’t have anything to eat anymore, moments before setting himself on fire. It was scary for a lot of people in the building," said one of the tenants in the Afetnas Building which houses the Labor and Division of Immigration offices. [snip]
Labor Hearing Officer Jerry Cody ordered Dhimal to depart the CNMI no later than 30 days from the date of the Dec. 18, 2006 order he issued for engaging in unlawful employment with Osman Gani doing business as Lucky Security Service.
In that order, Cody ordered the former employer of record, L&T International Corp., to provide a repatriation ticket for complainant’s departure to his original point of hire.
The labor hearing officer also asked the director of Labor to assist in obtaining a repatriation airline ticket from L&T International Corp. [snip]
Moreover, Cody said in his five-page order in December that as it anticipated that Lucky Security Service would not pay the award of $2,024.08 to Dhimal for back wages, unpaid overtime and liquidated damages, Dhimal could make application under Public Law 11-66 for the recovery of this award.
"In that event, the Collections Unit is requested to assist complainant in obtaining any funds available under Public Law 11-66 for satisfaction of this award," said Cody.
Dhimal previously worked as a security guard at L&T International Corp. under a nonresident worker permit that expired on Aug. 19, 2005. He failed to find a transfer employer after the 45-day deadline, by Oct. 2, 2005.
After the deadline passed, Dhimal approached the office of the director of Labor requesting an extension. No extension was granted pursuant to regulations.
In early November 2005, Dhimal approached Osman Gani doing business as Lucky Security Service and the company employed Dhimal as a security guard at the Cha Cha Junior High School in Kagman from Nov. 5, 2005 to Jan. 17, 2006.
On Jan. 17, immigration officers arrested Dhimal at the work site for working without a permit and remaining in the CNMI without lawful status.
Let’s translate this for a moment. Dhimal had been working for the Tan Family for ten years. His employment contract ran out and the Tan Family would not renew it. Nobody else would formally renew it within the 45 days that CNMI labor laws mandate. He was not granted an extension. He found a job as a security guard at a local high school. His new off-the-books employers ripped him off for over $2,000 in wages. He could apply for recovery of his lost wages but he also had to be deported. His former employer the Tan Family, would provide the one-way ticket back to Nepal.
This morning he was suppose to visit the CNMI Department of labor, pick up his ticket and then be flown penniless back to Nepal while local Osman Gani pockets the value of Dhimal’s labor—labor that was already undervalued due to the artificially low CNMI minimum wage of $3.05—a wage that he might not have even been paid.
He was without rights. Any hopes he had that the 110th Congress would end the system of abuse and finally extend rights to long-term guest workers like himself were extinguished.
He had no power. He had no rights. He had no hope.
And he knew that he was only one of hundreds, if not thousands of other CNMI guest workers facing the same systematic removal from the territory just as help looked like it was finally on its way.
So he fought back. He fought back in the way that many without power have fought back to shame the powerful.
He went to the place of power and set himself on fire.
I am shamed.
I am shamed for my Country that we have allowed this abuse to go on for so long.
I am shamed for my Party that used the issue of abuse on the CNMI to win seats last November and has not spoken out forcibly against this form of modern slavery on US soil.
I am shamed that I have not done enough to end this horrific crime that is the economic system allowed to flourish on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana islands.
I am shamed and I am angry.
We have to STOP THIS ABUSE.
The powers that be on the CNMI and their Republican allies have created an economic system based on exploiting guest workers. They know the gig is up, but they want a slow and gradual transition that allows then to squeeze out just a bit more profit. They want more studies. They want more delays. They want to use those delays to cleans the CNMI of more long-term guest workers.
The only argument they have in their favor is the fear of change.
It is a very old argument, used over the centuries by those who build exploitation into their profit models. I do not have a lot of sympathy for their crocodile tears. For me, the long-term cost of injustice paid in ruined individual lives is more important than the temporary costs of moving away from a failed and corrupt economic system.
If you know about the abuse on the CNMI, you can not morally allow it to continue.
I know about it. So do you.
And so do the Democrats who run the 110th Congress.
We need to demand change. I do not want to listen to the testimony of another young woman who was raped and abuse. I do not want to read about another guest worker reduced to setting himself on fire as the only way to send a message to the powerful. I want the stories of systematic abuse to end.
I am sick of it.
I want those involved in the Abramoff/CNMI scandal to be held accountable. I want justice for the guest workers and the indigenous people harmed by the scandal. I want US labor, immigration and custom laws extended to the CNMI. I want the US minimum wage to apply to the CNMI.
And if all of those things happen, I am aware that we are just starting the real work.
That will not be done until a new economy, firmly rooted in social justice and environmental sustainability, is built on the islands.
I would like so see the CNMI transformed from shorthand for sweatshops and abuse to shorthand for hope and justice. As I told David Cohen of the DOI’s Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) we all want the same thing:
It is my hope that we are ultimately on the same side. It is my hope that we both want justice for the people on the CNMI—both natives and guest workers. I hope we both want a functional sustainable economy that works for the people and the environment. And that we both want the CNMI to be a full part of America living under our laws and with representation in the US Congress.
Tall order. But it can be done...
In the scheme of things the problems of the CNMI are small.
I mean, we can’t seem to do the big things like Iraq, New Orleans, the Climate Crisis, the economy, etc., so my quest to call attention to the troubles of this far away place is quixotic. And yet, I hope that we will pay attention. I hope that we will bring a new dawn to the CNMI and a future built on a just and sustainable economy that works for all. I hope a victory here will inspire new victories on the mainland.
I wanted to write a different Diary today, but I couldn’t.
Why?
Because Buddhi Lal Dhimal, a Nepalese guest worker on the CNMI for the last 10 years set himself on fire today.
Let’s work to stop this abuse once and for all. And please let’s get it on a front burner in the 110th Congress.
2007 is now. Let’s get to work.
And please say a prayer for Dhimal as he struggles for life in a CNMI hospital.
UPDATE
As was mentioned down the thread in the comments, the CNMI Department of Labor will waste no time in deporting Dhimal: will waste no time in deporting Dhimal
Department of Public Safety spokesperson Lei Ogumoro told Saipan Tribune yesterday that Dhimal remains at the Intensive Care Unit of the Commonwealth Health Center.
Ogumoro said Dhima will be transferred to a hospital in Manila, the Philippines, this Saturday. [snip]
As of yesterday, no charges have been filed against Dhimal. [snip]
Dhimal filed a Labor complaint against Osman Gani, owner of Lucky Security Service. He prevailed after Labor awarded him $2,024.08 in unpaid wages and liquidated damages. Labor, however, denied his request for transfer and ordered him to depart the CNMI
He will still be forced off the CNMI without payment for his labor. He will still be part of an active effort to cleanse the CNMI of long-time guest workers who might benefit from reform legislation.
This is an injustice.
The economic system on the CNMI is an injustice.
This needs to be fixed and it should happen without delay.
The time for more studies is over.
Please call and email the Democratic Leadership of the House and Senate.
Let's make this a priority.
And let's see if we can not insure that Buddhi Lal Dhimal is not sent to Manila and then to oblivion. It would be nice to give him some hope and some justice.
UPDATE 2: Action on the CNMI Minimum Wage
This just in from Congressman George Miller:
Today the House is expected to consider the conference report on H.R. 1591, the emergency supplemental appropriations bill that includes an increase in the national minimum wage. This memorandum provides details on that minimum wage increase.
The national minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 per hour for nearly a decade. The language in the legislation would increase the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour in three steps over a period of two years and two months. The first $0.70 increase would occur 60 days after enactment; the second $0.70 increase would occur one year after the first increase; and the third $0.70 increase would occur one year after the second increase.
The legislation would also extend the national minimum wage rate to two U.S. territories: the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa. Federal minimum wage laws already apply in American Samoa, but federal law sets different wage rates there. Federal minimum wage law does not apply to the Northern Marianas at all.
The legislation under consideration in the House this week will phase in minimum wage increases in the territories more slowly, given that the territories are at a different level of economic development than the mainland.
For both territories, their minimum wage rates will increase in increments of $0.50 until they reach the same rate as the mainland. The first $0.50 increase will occur 60 days after enactment; the second $0.50 increase will occur one year after the first increase. The $0.50 increases will continue on an annual basis until the wage rates in the territories reach $7.25.
After the third $0.50 increase in the territories, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will be required to conduct an economic study and report to Congress on the expected impact of the continued increases on each territory's employment and standard of living. Unless Congress acts at that point to adjust the increases based on any relevant findings in the BLS report, the $0.50 wage increases will continue on an annual basis.
Because America Samoa has multiple industry wage rates, those rates will serve as the initial floor. For example, the current minimum wage rates for the hotel industry ($3.00 per hour) and the construction industry ($3.60 per hour) would increase by $0.50 cents to $3.50 per hour and $4.10 per hour, respectively, 60 days after enactment and continue increasing by $0.50 each year thereafter until each industry wage rate reaches the federal rate.
The industry committees appointed by the Bush administration in American Samoa, which have failed in recent years to make progress on reaching the goal of the federal wage rate, would no longer be used in establishing minimum wage rates.
Because the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas has no federal minimum wage rate, the minimum wage would be established at $3.55 per hour 60 days after enactment, which is $0.50 more than the locally established minimum wage of $3.05. It would increase by $0.50 each year thereafter.
All other U.S. territories are already subject to the federal minimum wage rate of $5.15 per hour, and will continue to have the same federal minimum wage rate as the mainland.
Here is a comment from Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, on the legislation:
"We are a critical step closer to enacting a minimum wage increase for the millions of workers who have waited nearly a decade for a raise. This legislation will create much fairer wages for workers throughout the United States and its territories. Workers deserve a fair day's pay for an honest day's work."
This is good news. And I needed some today.