Troubling Alien Registration
A few days ago I decided to write a letter to the editor of the Saipan Tribune about the illegal alien registration forms put out my the Federal Ombudsman Office. We have to stand up to tyranny and fight for freedom. This is my only motivation. The letter was published today so I decided to also publish it here for you all to read.
I am very concerned about the collection of information currently underway at the Federal Ombudsman’s Office for several reasons and I think everyone else should be concerned as well.
First off there are the concerns raised by Attorney Woodruff. There are no guarantees on how the information collected will be used and how long the data will be kept. I think it’s safe to say that ICE can get a hold of that data, if they so desire. Fortunately, that is a minor concern for most legal residents of the CNMI. There are bigger issues at stake.
I don’t claim to be a lawyer, but I remember from back in my school days that the Paperwork Reduction Act governs how federal government agencies gather data. It’s my understanding that all proper and legal requests for information must have an OMB control number on the form to ensure that the form complies not only with the law but also that the data collected truly is required by the government. Furthermore, it states just how the data may be used and for what purposes it may be used.
I looked very closely at the registration form prepared by the Federal Ombudsman’s Office and there is no OMB control number. There is also no Paperwork Reduction Act notice on the form. These facts alone mean that the registration form is not compulsory. You can fill it out if you want to, but there is no requirement to do it. It’s almost frightening to see that the form doesn’t have any statements on how exactly the data will be used and who will have access to that data. Some may find solace in the statements of the Ombudsperson that the data will be used only for the count of aliens, but without an OMB control number and a clear Privacy Act statement, we can only trust her and every other alphabet soup government agency that could possibly access the information.
I think that all residents of the CNMI, whether they are aliens or citizens, deserve a proper and legal count of long term guest workers in the CNMI that complies not just with Public Law 110-229 but every other law that governs how government agencies gather, collect and store data.
I hope that this will hopefully open up some eyes and get the proper people looking into this issue. Government, no matter how benign their purpose, must follow the law.
The Journey To Where I Will Be Part II
As I said in a post a few weeks ago, my experiment on being fully supported by income from the internet began in earnest in August 2007. It wasn’t without a few hiccups along the way, but within 4 months, I was making more money online than I was making before as a teacher. Simply amazing.
More than just the increased income, I also had more free time. I was in the Philippines at the time so I was able to go out to Jollibee with the kids whenever I wanted to. I could let them play in the kiddie area while I just sat back and relaxed. This easy life continued for about a year.
It continued until there was a confluence of negative events all at once. The financial crisis in September 2008 was a major catalyst. People started getting scared and within a few weeks, the paid writing market just about dried up completely. People just weren’t paying for business services. This meant a sharp reduction in my writing income.
Another problem that came up was a bad decision on my part. I decided to take a month to help a friend try to build a business quickly. He needed the help and I thought that I could afford to stay away for a month from paid writing while people got their heads back on straight. Bad move. It was a bad decision because first the friend’s business went nowhere and was basically a lost cause. Second, well the few existing customers I had looked elsewhere for their writing needs.
As I said, there was a confluence of events. The last nail in the coffin was diabetes. Normally diabetes develops over a period of time and there are plenty of warning signs. Not for me. I was hit like a freight train and it culminated in a month of being bed ridden not able to figure out what I had. By time I got to the doctor and got proper medication, I had been out of work for more than 2 months. Two months is a long time in an industry that moves at internet speed.
December 2008 wasn’t a good month for me. I spent the month trying to once again get back into doing the internet work that had solely supported me for more than a year. I sputtered along but several things started to become abundantly clear to me. I think it was the turning point for my time in the Philippines.
By January 2009, I was looking for alternatives and knew that real alternatives were hard to come by during a Great Recession. During my research, I ran across a post about Saipan. I started doing some real research about Saipan but found that there wasn’t a lot of information about it. The most important fact that I learned was that my wife could come here with just a visitor entry permit and that I could change it to an IR permit within 30 days. I realized that it was our best chance and with a window closing by June 1st, it was something that needed to be done right away.
The Journey To Where I Will Be Part I
As I alluded to a few weeks ago, I am in the process of moving forward with a purpose. I remember just how I got started in all of this business so maybe now is the time to reflect on just how business for me began.
I remember arriving back dead broke to the US back in August 2004. I struggled financially for the first couple of months but then things finally started to click for me. I had a few extra dollars and an old computer connected to the internet. I decided to start hosting a few sites and get back into the work that I had been involved with several years before. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time needed to devote full time to this so guess what? I didn’t find the level of success that I wanted.
I ended up going abroad once again, this time to Korea and then on to Thailand once again. I was back teaching English. I was doing programming for others, as always, but I was also trying my hand at putting together sites of my own. Into my lap fell an opportunity in January 2006 to run a TEFL community called TEFLWatch. While it wasn’t very profitable at all, it did open doors that had previously been closed. Unfortunately, I closed it in December 2007 because of a confluence of several factors.
With many doors open, by August 2007, I was able to support myself entirely through a mini network of sites that I developed. I did everything on them, from hosting to web development to content development to marketing. It’s hard to be a jack of all trades, but I think I could classify the work as a success.
But this isn’t the end of the story, it’s merely the beginning….
Onward and Upward Against Diabetes
I am learning more each and every day in how to deal with this disease called Diabetes. It truly does sap my energy and it makes it hard for me to do the things that I used to do. I am confronting different challenges but it only helps me get over this illness and move onward and upward.
Some days I feel like I can change the world, while other days I feel like the world is trying to change me. I would say that this is the biggest challenge affecting me because of this diabetes. I am thankful that during this time, I have received a lot of moral support from friends and family. It has made all the difference.
Is The Recession Over?
I was reading a comment earlier today on a forum that really struck a chord with me. The person was commenting that the recession was over. My first thought was, “Yeah right. You say it’s over but what does that really matter?” I continued and read what he offered as proof.
He is a content writer and his proof was that people were once again ordering large orders of web content that he could fulfill. He surmised that since people were ordering content, people must be buying once again and so the recession must be easing. I don’t know if this is necessarily the truth, but it sure does bear watching.
-
Categories
-
Archives
- February 2010 (1)
- December 2009 (3)
- November 2009 (1)
- October 2009 (1)
- September 2009 (1)
- August 2009 (1)
- July 2009 (1)
- June 2009 (7)
- May 2009 (4)
- April 2009 (7)
- March 2009 (2)
- February 2009 (3)
- January 2009 (12)
- December 2008 (6)
- November 2008 (8)
- October 2008 (4)
- September 2008 (4)
- August 2008 (1)
- July 2008 (1)
- June 2008 (1)
- May 2008 (1)
-
Recent Posts
-
