When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Unless life crams those lemons down your throat whole. And chokes you to death. Then I guess you're screwed. Life hasn't quite done that to me yet.
I'm sitting on a beautiful tropical island in the Northern Pacific Ocean, looking out my window at a beautiful, sunny day, with just a few clouds in the distance. I have a great job waiting for me in an exciting, exotic foreign country. And I have lots of free time on my hands! What's not to love about life?
Well, there's an asterisk to most of what's above. The beautiful tropical island is Saipan, which is part of the United States. That seems like it should be a bonus, but for anyone like myself, who has no money to speak of, it only means that I now become the perpetually losing party in America's neverending war on the poor. Mind you, this island has a high level of expertise in handling poverty. Food stamps and Medicaid are de rigueur, so hospitals, pharmacies, and grocery stores have no problem accepting them. And the offices that issue these public benefits are fairly fast and efficient in doing so. And friendly.
Unfortunately, it's all done under the same philosophy of 'helping those poor unfortunates' rather than citizens collecting benefits due, so the language is still filled with penalties for doing it wrong and the feeling is that someone is doing you a favor, even though I and the other citizens are collecting what we're entitled to, what we spent years paying taxes for. As Erica constantly reminds me, it would be far worse on the mainland.
The more substantial problem with being in the US, even if you only consider that a technicality, is that main problem that, apparently, plagues every part of the country: cars. Or more specifically, the lack of any other form of transportation. This island should be a case study of how insane reliance on the automobile can get. This island has the remnants of at least one town and the potential for several more. There are communities all over this 12-mile-long island, but so far Garapan, where I live, is the only one that even appears to have been walkable at one time. If you've never read my other blog, Battling Burnham, you may not know how I feel about urban development and American-style exurban environments. So I'll give a quick summary: I don't like them. A small, densely developed area can easily be walked, giving access to the most number of people possible. American-style, exurban development restricts access to those who can afford a car. This means anyone too poor, too young, too old, too handicapped, etc. can't get access to anything, from jobs to food.
So walking anywhere is out. Public transportation, like most of the mainland, doesn't exist. As a side note, concrete bus shelters all over the island aren't used for anything except advertising. Also, there's a Commonwealth Transit Authority in Susupe complete with publicly owned buses parked out front. I'm told they plan to start service next year, but only if you call 24 hrs ahead for a pick-up.
