THANK God, Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. is upbeat that the visit of 250 Filipino-Canadians and other foreigners to Negros Occidental will prove to be a magnet to attract more tourists and investors to the province.
Crowed the Governor, “These visitors have visited our tourist attractions and tasted our food, we hope that on their return to their countries they will spread the word about their experience here so more tourists will come to the province.”
During the recent visit of my elder brother Erik and his family, all Fil-Ams, the come-on to visit Negros Occidental is not even to visit me, but to taste the noted Negrense inasal.
I told them it’s a visit they won’t regret. There are inasals and inasals all over the country but only Negrense inasal – and sinugbas, for that matter – that are mouth-watering.
And for once, there was no longer any talk of sugarlandia. There might be some truth to the Negrense tikal that “diri sa Negros ginapiko kag ginapala ang cuarta.”
Not anymore. Not here in Negros Occidental, not in the state of Hawaii.
There, the Aloha state has said aloha (goodbye) to sugar as the state says aloha (hello) to tourism, its top industry.
It used to be that with a tropical climate, Hawaii is a producer of many agricultural products such as sugarcane production and the first in the nation for pineapple production. Specialty crops – such as flowers, coffee, and macadamia nuts – are a large part of the state’s exports.
For over a century, the sugar industry dominated Hawaii’s economy, notes the National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of over 1,000 public radio stations in the United States.
Not anymore. The Hawaiian sugar industry struggled to keep up with the mechanization in mills on mainland US. That and rising labor costs have caused Hawaii’s sugar mills to shut down, shrinking the industry to this one last mill. Does that sound familiar here in Negros Occidental?
It certainly is, according to newly retired Major General Jon Aying. I met him last week. Still feeling soldiery, Jon thinks of the declining sugar industry in terms of national security.
But not entirely. He also thinks of addressing the insurgency problem from a social-economic, cultural dimensions. He believes that so long as Negros Occidental remained tied to a mono-cultural economy, the local economy continues to be a tinderbox for armed conflict.
Jon sees the handwriting on the wall. So do Governor Marañon and Lito Coscolluela. We are given a warning thru the Hawaiian experience.
Diversify. Or die.
(bqsanc@yahoo.com)