Paradise Trashed

I know that the Guam Visitors Bureau isn't going to like me mentioning this but here it goes anyway -- Guam is paradise trashed.

Many people don't really take care of their property. They care even less about the property of others and they tend to dump their garbage anywhere and everywhere -- including along the roadsides. There are abandoned rusting car shells on almost every street -- no exaggeration.

Occasionally the tourist industry applies a little pressure and someone gets a bee in their bonnet to clean it all up. We're in that phase right now.

So, yesterday there where tractors and a flatbed semi-truck on the road where PIBC is located in Mangilao. This is a part of an island-wide sweep to collect aging boonie cars from the roadsides.

They had 'em piled up high on the back of that trailer when it drove off yesterday afternoon. It was truly a beautiful sight.

I went to campus this afternoon and as I drove up, looking down the road, lo and behold, no surprise, I noticed that a new old boonie car has appeared in the approximate place where the old wrecks had been before they were hauled off yesterday.

Part of the problem is that people have come to expect this free clean-up service to be provided by the nearly bankrupt government. And GovGuam enables this entitlement mentality. Why not just abandon your dead car on the roadside? If you care, you know that the government will eventually come by to pick it all up.

So, here is my solution. Governor Camacho, I hope you're reading this because it will also solve most (if not all) of GovGuam's financial woes -- very very quickly. It's not complicated. Dispatch a police officer to photograph each abandoned car as evidence (you can borrow my digital camera if you need it) and to document the VIN number. Then slap the last registered owner of the car with a $3,000 mega-gross-littering fine. Put these cases high on the docket so you can generate the income to keep the courtroom doors open -- and so you can continue to milk this cash cow.

BTW, Mr Governor, I've got other low-investment high-return options that could relieve your throbbing head of that incessant financial aching. I'm easy to find. And the littering fine idea is a freebie.