Boom and Bust in Modern Saipan

Apparently, Saipan isn't even recognized by Blogger's spell check.  That is how little notice my current home gets in this world.  Of course since I'm from Wyoming, I'm used to being from a place that is unfamiliar to most.  When I was growing up in Wyoming, I once saw an episode of the Garfield cartoon in which they had a bit: 'If it's on TV, it must be true'.  In it, they explained that an Italian artist was drawing the map of America and when he was finished there was a blank spot in the middle.  He wrote "Wyoming" in the blank spot which meant "nothing's here" in Italian.  It was a clever bit, and I have used the reference often when people don't know the state.  Another amusing response I often get when I tell people I'm from Wyoming is: "Ah, Miami."  I don't hear the similarity, but apparently it's there.

So let me tell you a little about the place I'm living and learning about now.  It is one of 16 Mariana Islands, of which, 15 make up the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).  Saipan is part of the CNMI while Guam is in the Marianas but remains a separate US territory.  Saipan is also on the west side of the international dateline, so it is commonly said to be where America's day begins.  And although Hawaii is the closest US state to Saipan, ironically it's where America's day ends 44 hours later.  Actually, Hawaii does share that distinction with the western Aleutian Islands of Alaska too.

The native Chamorro and/or their ancestral Indonesian/Filipino seafarers, arrived 4,000 years ago.  Archaeologists actually believe that Tinian, Saipan's southern neighbor island, may have been the first Pacific island to be settled outside Asia.  Today, the Chamorro only make up about five percent of the population.  The other 'native' group is the Carolinian, but they arrived in the 1800's, after the first colonial powers, which began arriving in the 1600's.  The Spanish were the first to use the island as a stop off point and built ranches to raise animals to supply ships passing through the Marianas.  The English, Dutch, and others also made it a port of call, and like most colonized locations, most of the locals died from disease or were simply pushed out to make room for colonial expansion.

In 1898, the Spanish lost the island to the US, after the Spanish-American War, but sold it to the Germans without much protest from the US.  However, neither made any effort to colonize or develop the island, so not much changed for the new Spanish and Carolinian occupants or the remaining Chamorro people.  However, as a twist of fate and war, because the Germans owned the island, and the Japanese supported the Allies of WWI, the League of Nations awarded control of Saipan to Japan after the war was over. (The Japanese did take the island during WWI, but at that time it was considered a German territory.)  So as Japan expanded it's empire in WWII, Saipan was not part of its conquest.  Rather it had already been governed by Japan for over 20 years.

The old Japanese Hospital, now the Saipan Museum, which rarely opens.
During Japanese colonial rule, this was one of the most modern hospitals in all of Japan.

I'll write more about the WWII history of Saipan later on, but for now I want to get into the boom and bust life of Saipan as a territory of the US.  The first boom was the US military presence, which still remains part of the local economy, with a fleet of supply ships anchored just off shore, a small Army Reserve force on the island, and a National Park War Memorial all providing jobs, income and spending on the island.  I get rocked to sleep and jostled awake everyday by the boats that run workers to and from the cargo ships anchored in the lagoon.  Although it is still part of the economy, and saw some spikes with the Korean and Vietnam wars, the military spending dried up significantly after WWII.  

The next two booms were simultaneous.  The most significant was the garment industry, which started in 1983, peaked in in the 1990's and was gone in 2009.  In 1999, the industry hit its peak with $1.05 BILLION in sales, which brought in $39.3 million in local 'user fees' taxes for the island that year.  In addition to the tax revenue, the industry also brought in over 15,000 foreign factory workers (25% of the islands population) who spent an estimated $39 million a year in the local economy.  The millions sound impressive, but they actually equate to only 8 percent of the total garment sales revenue. This was a small price to pay for the 'Made in America' tag, which production in Saipan provided to the companies that bought the garments.  As for who was buying the clothes produced in Saipan, it was pretty much every single American clothing company: The Gap, Levi Strauss Co, Cutter & Buck, Dayton Hudson, J. Crew Group, J.C. Penny, Sears Roebuck & Co., The Limited, Oshkosh B'Gosh, The Gymboree, the May Company, Lane Bryant, Wal-Mart, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ralph Lauren to name a few.  

Part of an abandoned apartment complex.  It seemed they had consolidated appliances to different apartments.
This one was the fridge apartment.  Also, it appeared they were renovating a few of the buildings next door,
which I guess was signs of better financial times in the latest boom.

So, what caused the garment industry to crash?  Despite the big money and big brands the whole thing was riddled with corruption, and poor oversight and regulation.  The workers had little to no rights, and some worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Often they were promised good jobs in America, paid recruiters $6000 for the opportunity, and found themselves in Saipan either in a factory working for $3 an hour, or on the streets without any job at all.  Since 90% of these new arrivals were young women, those who arrived with no job awaiting them, often ended up forced into prostitution.  In one case a man contacted a local hospital to ask how much he could make selling a kidney in order to return to his home country.

Ironically, the 1999 peak in sales was also met with three separate lawsuits filed by aid groups on behalf of 30,000 current and past factory workers that same year.  In addition, the factories and their sweatshop conditions were getting more and more publicity in the United States, both in public and in government.  Jack Abramoff, of lobbying corruption infamy was paid $6.7 million by the government of CNMI to prevent congressional oversight of the industry.  Meanwhile, multiple articles were published in both US and international papers as well as magazines.  And some lawmakers were even raising the alarm, despite others trying to brush it off or cover it up.  In the end, Congress finally stepped in to raise the minimum wage and enforce greater immigration regulations, which eventually led to the end of the Garment Industry.

At the same time the garment industry was booming, so was Japan's economy.  And they were also on a real estate buying binge in the US which included Saipan.  I spoke to someone who said any property on the water was going for millions of dollars, and after the crash you'd be lucky to get $40,000.  However, these properties were not actually bought by foreign investors, because Saipan law prohibits anyone other than natives from buying land.  So instead these were 50 year leases on the property, which could be renewed.

At the peak, Japan funded several resort hotels as well as other businesses.  I know of one resort that is still operated by a Japanese firm, and several that have either transitioned to new ownership or failed all together.  One of the most glaring examples is the Fiesta Mall, locally referred to as the Fiasco Mall.  It used to be a popular shopping and hangout spot for everyone from the garment workers to tourists.  Now it is rapidly being reclaimed by the surrounding jungle and only frequented by graffiti artists, vandals, and kids playing war with Airsoft guns.

When Japan's economy crashed, so did the real estate market in Saipan.  Moreover, Japan was also a big part of Saipan's tourism industry, which has always been a mainstay of Saipan's economy.  During the boom, the Japanese were the primary tourists in Saipan, now they have dropped to number three.

The latest boom, has been tied to a resurgence in tourism for two reasons.  The first is a growing middle and upper class in Korea and China, which have taken over the top two spots from Japan.  Now China and Korea are both tied at around 40 percent of the tourist population each year.  That is 80 percent of all the tourism on the island, with Japan making up nearly all of the last 20 percent and the rest of the world barely making a blip on the tourism radar.

The second is the newly legalized gambling industry, which is monopolized by a Chinese firm "Best Sunshine," my employer.  Although, gambling has been legal on other islands in the CNMI, the recent legalization in Saipan is a first for the island, and was done in hopes that it would save the flailing economy and the cash strapped government pension funds.  Japan actually ran a casino on Tinian that went belly up, along with it's ferry, which I would have liked to use to visit the island.

However, the latest boom is already showing signs of bust.  The Best Sunshine parent company (Imperial Pacific International) stock has dropped over 50 percent from recent all time highs.  The main casino hotel project is behind schedule, which has also led Moody's to downgrade the bonds sale from B3 to B2.  Plus, they are under investigation from all fronts, for possible money laundering, to unpaid construction service fees, wrongful termination, and unsafe work environment on the construction site, where they recently denied OSHA access to investigate recent workers' injuries and deaths.  It seems there is something new in the news everyday.

Construction site of the Phase 1 Casino Hotel project.  Lit up at night by the welders.  The speed of progress has been amazing, but I don't know how it will be open in March, when I shot this video at the beginning of January.

Before all of this turmoil, they were allowed to build a temporary 'training' site, which is an actual casino, where new staff are able to learn their jobs as costumers gamble away real money.  The reason it is called a training site is because the legalization of gambling stipulated that the new casino could not occupy an existing property, but must occupy a new construction.  Amazingly, this tiny training location has been able to rake in huge returns.  So much so that it is now the most lucrative casino in the world.  With only about 40 gaming tables and about as many slot machines, the site was able to have over $32 BILLION in chip turnover in its first year alone! That is over $2 million per day per table!  Somehow, this meager 'training' site has been able to beat out the gaming giant of The Sand Venetian in Macau.  It is no wonder there is suspicion of money laundering.

Even my yachting job is tied to this wild casino gamble.  The Grand Marianas yachting fleet is a subsidiary of the casino, and we cater to the VIP customers of the gaming tables.  So, I can only hope that the company is able to raise the $60 million in new capital they need to keep things going before their phase one casino hotel opens in March.  If not, I guess I may be the first to know when I fail to see my paycheck and the fuel trucks stop coming to refuel the boats.

It's too soon for Saipan's next bust... both legal and economic.  Their biggest hope for avoiding the legal bust was the fact that president-elect Trump's ex-casino CEO, Mark Brown, was running the show here.  However, as of TODAY, he was pushed aside and the Chinese COO has taken over as the CEO, as Mark travels to drum up capital after the bond downgrade.   I guess the casino is gambling on the odds of a financial bust being greater than a legal one.  Either way, wish me and Saipan good luck.

Artful Miami

For six months I lived on a yacht in Miami Beach, which was very nice, but I was on the yacht for work not an extended vacation.  However, when I did have time off, I took advantage of the opportunity to explore the city.  I’d say Miami has it all, but that simply isn’t true.  The first thing it is lacking is seasons.  While in Miami, I found myself in the middle of what felt like an endless summer.  Even though I was there in the winter, I had just spent the last summer in Alaska, and the Florida 'winter' felt like summer to me.  This made it hard to remember that it was winter almost everywhere else in the country.  I had never considered how helpful seasons are for marking the passage of time, but in Miami I was losing track of time as fall and winter slipped past and the arrival of spring was just a slow rise in temperatures from hot to uncomfortably hot. For months I spoke to friends about their summer plans, and I kept thinking it is already here rather than three months away.   I’m not saying I haven’t enjoyed the warm weather, but I think I prefer a place with seasons to mark my place in the year. 

However, the consistent great weather did afford me the opportunity to check out the impressive Miami art scene.  And I think the art scene might be thriving, because you have to be creative if you’re going to celebrate Christmas when it is 80 degrees outside.  This occurred to me as I explored Wynwood during Art Basel and passed a Christmas tree sales tent with a backdrop of palm trees and an inflatable Santa standing on thick green lawn. 

Art Basel is the biggest arts event in Miami and a plethora of other satellite events and tents have sprung up around it.  I spent my time around Wynwood, the Miami art district, which is full of murals and artisan breweries that are also covered in Murals.  The area is popular year round, especially for their monthly second Saturday events, however the Art Basel scene made a second Saturday look sleepy. 

The streets were packed with traffic, which was largely deadlocked, in part due to the major street party that was going on at 22^nd St. and 2^nd Ave.  Two large tents covered several empty lots, and were filled with bars, a stage of lights, jumbotrons, Speakers and DJ equipment, and a sea of humanity raging between it all.  Beyond the tents was a pop up Skate Park and another large lot filled with food trucks.  I had to make a video, because pictures simply would not do it justice:

At the corner of 25^th and 2^nd, I passed a U-haul that was parked on a corner, back wide open with the storage space converted into a mobile stage.  The band was pouring out into the street, which was being blocked by the onlookers with arms raised and phones recording the impromptu performance.  After a few songs, they broke into slow rap about how the cops were going to shut them down, but that quickly ramped back up into pleas 'for five more minutes.'  I moved on before their fate was decided.

I was more interested in getting to the J Wakefield Brewery, which has some of the best beer in Wynwood.  Despite the great beer, it normally has pretty small crowds and a laid back vibe.  However, as I suspected, they were overflowing with Basel crowds as well, and had a DJ out front keeping the overflowing crowds entertained as they drank beers at the picnic tables or awaited some food at the food truck.   The DJ, beers and crowd were fun, but I didn't linger long, because I wanted to check out the new murals that were being painted around the district.

One of the more controversial aspects of the art scene in Wynwood is the constant transition and renewal of the mural works throughout the district.  At J Wakefield, they have covered their walls in murals, mostly tied to Star Wars, but I've also seen them change in the time I've been here.  While I enjoy the new art, I also hate to see the old works painted over.  The brewery use to  have a phoenix on one of the walls, which has now been replaced by a dragon.  In another year it will probably be something new.  I heard a story about a local painting company that actually has the job of painting over walls to prep them for new murals.  The owner of the company is also a local graffiti artist and often has to take a lot of heat from other graffiti artists while he is on the job painting over their work to prepare it for something new.  He has even had to paint over some of his own work.  In the end he says he does it because he has to pay the bills, and he gets the work because property owners know they can depend on him to show up and get the job done.  I guess it is like all aspects of life, the only thing that is constant is change.  At J Wakefield, the the tap list changes even more often than the artwork, and both will keep me coming back.

Just a few blocks away, I decided to stop at an art shop I had passed several times before but hadn't stopped because of the security, fence and valet had made it seem less inviting in the past.  However, for Art Basel, they were living up to their name - Art Fusion Gallery - with live band in the parking lot, surrounded by several sculpture pieces, in front of the mural covered walls, which also had art video clips being projected on them.  Inside I discovered it had been voted Florida’s number one gallery two years running, and I could see why.  The artwork was excellent and represented local talents as well as several artists from around the world.  They also represented a variety of mediums as well, from photography and paintings, to sculptures and found object pieces.  They even had one artist who had added an augmented reality experience to her paintings, which could be seen by viewing her work through an ipad camera screen.    

In the end, I never even made it to the main Art Basel event tents around the Miami Beach convention center, but I did visit several satellite events around Wynwood.  Although, they did have more of an art show feel, they too had the festival/party atmosphere as well.  There were café bars in each tent as well as a rolling wine carts for the VIP crowd.  I was not a VIP and was primarily there for the art, but as I left someone in line asked me if there was a bar inside.  I told him there was and he loudly reported this news back to his friends.  I'm not sure if it was the news of booze or their thirst for the arts that kept them in line, but they stayed.  

Months later, Miami hosts the much more laid back Coconut Grove Art Festival.  It started in 1963 and has grown to include 360 international artists selected from 1,300 applicants, plus a stage for musical performances as well.  I attended this festival a year before I made it to Art Basel, and enjoyed the fact that it is organized into individual booths for artists to display and sell their work.  This provides you with the opportunity to meet the artists and learn about their work, inspiration and more.  While a few artists were at Art Basel as well, I found that most of the art was being presented by sales surrogates, and sometimes the same artwork was being displayed and sold in more than one area.  This gave Basel a much more sales focused and less approachable feel.  

One artist I met at Coconut Grove, also did murals and told me he had several works in Wynwood,  and even invited me to an event in Wynwood later in the week.  We chatted for a while and he also told me about a cross country road trip he funded by painting mural bread crumbs along his path.   Before he departed on the trip, he had searched his route using google street view, and called businesses that he found with graffiti on their walls.  He would offer his services painting murals and then planned the trip according to the jobs he lined up.  

Another was photographer Brad Pogatetz, who searched for blight in all the towns he attended art festivals.   He had some pretty amazing photographs of churches and factories in various stages of decay.  I was shocked to see some of the churches that had been allowed to crumble, with such beautiful art and wood work left to the destructive forces of the elements.  

I probably chatted with over a dozen artists before I finally decided I needed to cut the conversations short in order to make it through the other 300 exhibits.  Despite my best efforts, I wasn't able to finish before the show closed for the evening.  

Besides the annual shows and the murals throughout the city, Miami also has several art museums and even an art bar worth checking out.  On my first trip to Little Havana, I discovered CubaOcho, which proclaimed it had 'the best Mojitoe' around.  Of course I had seen this same sign outside of almost every bar I passed in Little Havana, but what drew me into this bar was that it was also called a Museum and Performing Arts Center.  

Inside I found walls, ceilings, and even table tops covered in art.  The stage looked like a library, complete with an antigue fainting couch and other sofas.  Even the bar was covered with artwork.  The owner had escaped Cuba with some Cuban artworks that were endanger of being destroyed by the Castro's communist revolution, and after arriving in Miami, continued his efforts to rescue pre-revolution artwork, as well as introducing post-revolution Cuban artwork to the Miami area.  The Mojito was good, but it is the artwork that keeps me coming back.  

Finally, even the architecture of Miami has Art in the name.  Miami Beach is famous for it's Art Deco skyline, as well as the later development of MiMo, or Miami Modern architectural style.  This was one of the first things that drew me to Miami, long before the yachting.  I have been on several Art Deco walking tours and also would recommend the FIU Wolfsonian Museum, which is housed in a historic storage building that was built in the Art Deco style as well.  The Museum has a great collection of art and appliances from the 1920's and '30's all built in the futuristic style of the Art Deco era.  

So, despite the lack of seasons, Miami is not lacking when it comes to art from all disciplines.