I'm a feminist. I promote equality and women's rights. When I went to law school, less than 1/3 of lawschool classes were women. I've protested against the values and practices that keep women out of political and economic power.
And I HATE it when women use feminist propaganda to promote anti-feminist practices.
Jacinta Kaipat is so outrageously wrong (saying that the regulation that we can't bring in foreign workers as personal maids is anti-women) that I can't think of a "punishment" bad enough.
1. Keeping women in low-paying jobs like maids is not a value of feminism. That women all over the world, and especially desperate women in third-world countries, hire themselves out as maids does not mean having maid jobs is a goal to aspire to.
2. Women can get into the workforce and be valuable and productive without personal domestic help.
3. The new regulation that would prohibit bringing in foreign domestic workers as personal maids does not mean that you can't have a maid. You can--just hire a U.S. citizen, a citizen from one of the Freely Associated States, a permanent resident. Of course, these people will expect to be paid at least minimum wage.
4. The new regulation respects the transition--if you have a maid and you aren't ready to join the rest of the world in the modern era and want to hold on to the past, renew her contract for 2 years. That will give you time to wrap your head around the reality of life.
5. Or you can incorporate and hire your maid through the CNMI-only worker program.
Wendy has a good discussion on all of this, too.
Of course, the community does seem to know that Jacinta Kaipat's opinion is utter nonsense, or, as one commenter at the Variety said, "pure drivel."
I hope dearly that a good majority of this community feels the same way you, Wendy, the commenters on the Variety and I feel.
I have always had a problem with Cinta's mindset. I have ahd the chance to sit and tlak with her and work besides her for some time and I could never see things from her point of view. It is as if she has been put down so badly at an early stage in life that the chip on her shoulder is so massive that she just can't set it down.
She tries and has tried in the past to point in a better direction but in the end she succumbs to that chip on her shoulder.
She finds solace in tight nit groups that champion her as a leader and a champion of the people and that goes to her head in a flash and for that instant she is free in her mind of the chip.
These statements that she gave were said while she was adrift in that lala land of freedom she created for herself.
I am sure that Deanne and Fitial are very proud of her and her ability in this case to spin and distort things so badly in order to paint the federal government as nothing but evil.
In the end, I do hope our voters and all that live here see that it is her that is spewing evilness.
Well said Jane!
I seriously do not know where Cinta is coming from with her "anti-women" opinion.
I thought she would make a good senator. I have changed my mind!
I do hope that people who have publicly endorsed Cinta (ehem... Brad, Angelo, etc) please come forward to either rebut all the irate voters complaints or retract their endorsement. There is no excuse for us to look past this. It is not Cinta's first time making derogatory comments that are indicative of a southern plantation owner in the 1800s.
We can not and should not tolerate this. Why have we for so long?
She has been tied to her Uncle's belt since her initial run for office. No more.
I sincerely hope that Governor Fitial does not win the election, but I haven't ruled that out as a possibility. We won't know until the votes are counted.
Although there is a lot of vocal dissent, there are a lot of other voters whose opinions are known only to themselves and their families. How will people actually vote?
Cinta just lost my vote.
How will we be able to ensure that we have a free and fair election?
We have a very green head of CEC in Robert and we have oversight by a very green AG in Meagan.
We all know very well where the AG's office has stood in there backing to the end of this Governor.
How can we as citizens be vigilant in ensuring that this election is FAIRLY carried out? Can we volunteer to watch polls and eye the ballot boxes to polls, then ensure they are not stuffed and eye their return to the multipurpose center?
Who is overseeing this besides the AGs office? I have no faith in the AGO to oversee a fair election.
As is obvious from the slew of comments on the Variety article, it seems the "community" is pretty united on this one. This is the only place in America where almost everyone has a housekeeper. It's insane! There's absolutely nothing wrong with working as a maid/housekeeper/nanny, or wanting to hire one. The problem is, these employees have been treated as pseudo-slaves, whose pay has been kept low via our tiered system. No job should pay lower than minimum wage, and we'll find that when it comes to residents, they'll require a whole lot higher than the current minimum wage to work these jobs. Pay me $10.00 an hour, I just might consider it. $5.00 an hour? Forget it.
There's a lot of bullshit feminism out there. Most of it is not feminism at all but people using the word "feminism" who don't have the first clue what it means.
OTOH you have people who say "I believe in 'equal work for equal pay' but I'm not a feminist." Uh, yes, you are... except feminism is about so much more than earnings - but I don't think it's about the "right" to have a maid at all.