Saipan

Saipan ( /saɪˈpæn/) is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean (15°10’51”N, 145°45’21”E) with a total area of 44.55 sq mi (115.4 km2). The 2000 census population was 62,392. The Northern Mariana Islands has a population of 80,362 (2005 estimate).

The Commonwealth's center of government is located in the village of Capital Hill on the island. As the entire island is organized as a single municipality, most publications term "Saipan" as the Commonwealth's capital.

Located at latitude of 15.25° north and longitude of 145.75° east, about 120 mi (190 km) north of Guam, Saipan is about 12 mi (19 km) long and 5.6 mi (9.0 km) wide. It is a popular tourist destination in the Pacific.

The western side of the island is lined with sandy beaches and an offshore coral reef which creates a large lagoon. The eastern shore is composed primarily of rugged rocky cliffs and a reef. Its highest point is a limestone covered mountain called Mount Tapochau at 1,560 ft (480 m). Many people consider Mount Tapochau to be an extinct volcano, but is in fact a limestone formation. To the north of Mount Tapochau towards Banzai Cliff is a ridge of hills. Mount Achugao, situated about 2 miles north, has been interpreted to be a remnant of a stratified composite volcanic cone whose Eocene center was not far north of the present peak.

Besides English, the indigenous Chamorro language is spoken by approximately 19 percent of the inhabitants. The island also has many other large, strongly defined lingual and ethnic groups because of the large percentage of contract workers (60% of total population, as of 2001) from China, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. In addition, a large percentage of the island's population includes first-generation immigrants from Japan, China, and Korea, and immigrants from many of the other Micronesian islands.

The population figure being given as of 2001 is now out of date as a major portion of the population would have been present for the garment industry. While some garment workers remain working in other occupations more returned to their home countries, went to Guam or to the United States.

Agriculture, flora and fauna

Undeveloped areas on the island are covered with sword grass meadows and dense, dry-forest jungle known as Tangan-Tangan. Coconuts, papayas, and Thai hot peppers – locally called "Donne Sali" or "Boonie Peppers" – are among the fruits that grow wild. Mango, taro root, and bananas are a few of the many foods cultivated by local families and farmers. Sportfishing is excellent[citation needed] offshore, with numerous small boats catching tuna, wahoo, billfish and many other species.

A number of native birds are easily visible to visitors: among them, Melanesian Honeyeaters; Pacific Reef Herons; and collared kingfishers.

The island used to have a large population of giant African land snails, introduced either deliberately as a food source, or accidentally by shipping. It became an agricultural pest. In the last few decades, its numbers have been substantially controlled by an introduced flatworm, Platydemus manokwari. Unfortunately, possibly due to the flatworm, the native tree-snails also became extinct.

Music

Music on Saipan can generally be broken down into three categories: local, mainland American and Asian. Local consists of Chamorro, Carolinian, Micronesian and Hawaiian Reggae, Called (Jahwaiian) music and song, often with traditional dance for many occasions. Mainland American consists of many of the same varieties that can be found on U.S. radio, and Asian consists of Japanese, Korean, Thai and Philippine music among others. There are seven radio stations on Saipan, which play mainly popular and classic English-language songs as well as local and Philippine music.

Television

Local television stations on Saipan are the following:

KPPI-LP (ABC7), the ABC affiliate (repeats KTGM), which is owned by Sorensen Media Group.

KSPN 2, which is owned by the Flame Tree Network.

The Visitors Channel 3, which is owned by the Flame Tree Network.

WSZE-TV 10, the NBC affiliate (repeats KUAM-TV in Guam), which is owned by Pacific Telestations.

Economy

Tourism has long been a vital source of the island's revenue, although the industry has undergone a serious decline since the Asian Economic Crisis of the mid-to-late 1990s. Some major airlines have since ceased regular service to the island. Some internationally-known businesses which located to Saipan are struggling, and some have left.

In years past, the main economic driving force in Saipan was garment manufacturing, driven largely by foreign contract workers (mainly from China). As of March 2007, 19 companies manufactured garments on Saipan. In addition to many foreign-owned and run companies, many well-known U.S. brands also operated garment factories in Saipan for much of the last three decades. Brands included Gap (as of 2000 operating six factories there), Levi Strauss,Phillips-Van Heusen,Abercrombie & Fitch, L'Oreal subsidiary Ralph Lauren (Polo), Lord & Taylor, Tommy Hilfiger, and Walmart.

Currently, there are no garment manufacturers on the island, with the last one having closed on January 15, 2009. On November 28, 2009, the federal government took control of immigration to the Northern Mariana Islands.

Current economic conditions (Jan 2011) in Saipan are bleak. The government of the Commonwealth of Mariana Islands, the biggest employer on Saipan, is frequently unable to make payroll on time, resulting in "payless paydays".There is a gulf that exists between wages offered by government agencies and those in private industry. The private industry employers frequently hire non U.S. Citizen contract workers who will work for significantly lower wages. (The minimum wage in Saipan and CNMI is $5.05). The local government opted out of the U.S. Social Security system, and instead implemented a pensioned retirement for government employees after 20 years of service. This system proved to be economically unfeasible and has been replaced by a mandatory 401K-like structure. The government retirement fund is underfunded for its liabilities.

Foreign contract labor abuse and exemptions from U.S. federal regulations

Excerpted from "Immigration and the CNMI: A report of the US Commission on Immigration Reform", January 7, 1998:

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) immigration system is antithetical to the principals that are at the core of the US immigration policy. Over time, the CNMI has developed an immigration system dominated by the entry of foreign temporary contract workers. These now outnumber US citizens but have few rights within the CNMI and are subject to serious labor and human rights abuses. In contrast to US immigration policy, which admits immigrants for permanent residence and eventual citizenship, the CNMI admits aliens largely as temporary contract workers who are ineligible to gain either US citizenship or civil and social rights within the commonwealth. Only a few countries and no democratic society have immigration policies similar to the CNMI. The closest equivalent is Kuwait. The end result of the CNMI policy is to have a minority population governing and severely limiting the rights of the majority population who are alien in every sense of the word.

On March 31, 1998, US Senator Daniel Akaka said:

The Commonwealth shares our American flag, but it does not share the American system of immigration. There is something fundamentally wrong with a CNMI immigration system that issues permits to recruiters, who in turn promise well-paying American jobs to foreigners in exchange for a $6,000 recruitment fee. When the workers arrive in Saipan, they find their recruiter has vanished and there are no jobs in sight. Hundreds of these destitute workers roam the streets of Saipan with little or no chance of employment and no hope of returning to their homeland. The State Department has confirmed that the government of China is an active participant in the CNMI immigration system. There is something fundamentally wrong with an immigration system that allows the government of China to prohibit Chinese workers from exercising political or religious freedom while employed in the United States. Something is fundamentally wrong with a CNMI immigration system that issues entry permits for 12- and 13-year-old girls from the Philippines and other Asian nations, and allows their employers to use them for live sex shows and prostitution. Finally, something is fundamentally wrong when a Chinese construction worker asks if he can sell one of his kidneys for enough money to return to China and escape the deplorable working conditions in the Commonwealth and the immigration system that brought him there. There are voices in the CNMI telling us that the cases of worker abuse we keep hearing about are isolated examples, that the system is improving, and that worker abuse is a thing of the past. These are the same voices that reap the economic benefits of a system of indentured labor that enslaves thousands of foreign workers – a system described in a bi-partisan study as "an unsustainable economic, social and political system that is antithetical to most American values." There is overwhelming evidence that abuse in the CNMI occurs on a grand scale and the problems are far from isolated.

In 1991, Levi Strauss & Co. was embarrassed by a scandal involving six subsidiary factories run on Saipan by the Tan Holdings Corporation. It was revealed that Chinese laborers in those factories suffered under what the U.S. Department of Labor called "slavelike" conditions.[citation needed] Cited for sub-minimal wages, seven-day work week schedules with twelve-hour shifts, poor living conditions and other indignities (including the alleged removal of passports and the virtual imprisonment of workers), Tan would eventually pay what was then the largest fines in U.S. labor history, distributing more than $9 million in restitution to some 1200 employees. At the time, Tan factories produced 3% of Levi's jeans with the "Made in the U.S.A." label. Levi Strauss claimed that it had no knowledge of the offenses, severed ties to the Tan family, and instituted labor reforms and inspection practices in its offshore facilities.

Other local issues

Despite an annual rainfall of 80 to 100 inches (2,000 to 2,500 mm), the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation (CUC), the local government-run water utility company on Saipan, is unable to deliver 24-hour-a-day potable water to its customers in certain areas. As a result, several large hotels use reverse osmosis to produce fresh water for their customers. In addition, many homes and small businesses augment the sporadic and sometimes brackish water provided by CUC with rainwater collected and stored in cisterns. Most locals buy drinking water from water distributors and use tap water only for bathing or washing.

Saipan also has a negative place in many Irish people's minds after the “Roy Keane Incident”, a bitter and public falling-out between Republic of Ireland soccer star Roy Keane and Ireland manager Mick McCarthy which took place before the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

Demographics

Commonwealth Health Center, Saipan, 2006, the island's only public hospital.

According to the last census in 2000, the population of Saipan was 62,392. Mono-racial people totaled 56,355, and their demographic breakdown in descending order by category was as follows:

Asians numbered 35,985, comprising 57.7% of the population.

Filipino: 16,280 (26.1%)

Chinese: 15,040 (24.1%)

Korean: 1,945 (3.1%)

Other Asian ethnicities: 962 (1.5%)

Japanese: 898 (1.4%)

Bangladeshi: 690 (1.1%)

Nepalese: 170 (0.3%)

Pacific Islanders numbered 18,781, comprising 30.1% of the population.

Chamorro: 11,644 (18.7%)

Carolinian: 2,645 (4.2%)

Palauan: 1,642 (2.6%)

Chuukese: 1,382 (2.2%)

Pohnpeian: 614 (1.0%)

Other Pacific Islander ethnicities: 502 (0.8%)

Yapese: 192 (0.3%)

Marshallese: 109 (0.2%)

Kosraean: 51 (0.1%)

People of two or more races or ethnic groups numbered 6,037, comprising 9.7% of the population.

Whites numbered 1,121, comprising 1.8% of the population.

Other races/ethnic groups numbered 435, comprising 0.7% of the population.

Blacks numbered 33, comprising 0.1% of the population.

45.2% of the population was male, 54.8% was female. The median age of the island's population was 28.7, which is higher than in most other Oceanic regions due to its volume of foreign workers.

The population rose 18% (9,694) since the previous census in 1995.

Education

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Public School System serves Saipan.

Northern Marianas College is a two-year community college serving the Northern Mariana Islands.

Notable residents from the mainland United States

Larry Hillblom: 1980s–1995

Guy Gabaldon: 1926–2006

Appearances in fiction

Saipan was a major part of the plot in the Tom Clancy novel Debt of Honor. The island is invaded by Japan, as part of a systematic attack on the United States.

Much of the action in 2002 film Windtalkers takes place during the invasion of Saipan during World War II.

A significant part of the novel Amrita by Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto takes place in Saipan with regular references to the landscape and spirituality of the island.

Appearances in television

Location for South Korean band,TVXQ's All About TVXQ! Season 3 Storybook in Saipan.

Saipan was the main site for a South Korean dating reality TV show "Kko Kko Tour".

Also the location for the South Korean Variety Show "Lets Go! Dream Team Season 2" Survival Special, which was used to find the true ace of the program.

Also the location for the South Korean TV show "Hot Brothers" air date 6 October 2010 at Pacific Islands Club.