Beginning with my June 2008 post "It's Been Five Years," the following is the continuing story of my travels from the United States into Micronesia ~ Pohnpei, Guam and Saipan ~ and my life since June 2003.
Wednesday, August 20, 2003 (continued) ~ Pohnpei
A package my mother sent from a month ago hasn't arrived yet. They say it's not unusual, but in the future, I would definitely recommend sending everything by air, not boat. Mail can get to Hawaii in a couple of days, but after that, it's anyone's guess.
Lynn's home with the kids. They're sick, cold or flu. We're trying to cool it a bit, anyway, for the sake of extended family domestic tranquility, which is a good idea, although I do need to go spend some quality time just with her mom. Lynn took the kids to the state hospital today. The public hospitals are atrocious. No medicine, no pharmacy to speak of.
There are private clinics and pharmacies, which is where 90% of the people with insurance or money go. I know this because I'm working with the Insurance Department about contracts with private and public hospitals, Micronesian managed health care, so-to-speak, reviewing contracts, memoranda of understanding, procedure manuals, handbooks, and advising on procedure.
I have this whacko tax case I'm supposed to be defending. Local merchants are supposed to take 3% sales on transactions for Pohnpei state sales tax. Somewhere in the last couple of years, someone in my office decided to invoke sovereign immunity on behalf of the FSM national government against state sales taxes on retail purchases and refused to pay it, if it was separately itemized. Then the same idiot suggested, in writing, that if it was "embedded," i.e., didn't show on the receipt that it was a separate tax, then we would pay it. So you have someone from the AG's office advising merchants, in effect, to lie in their reporting to the state and national governments. And whether it's "embedded" or not, whether the national government pays or not, the state of Pohnpei is charging the tax to the merchants, and assessing penalties if they don't. So, the state of Pohnpei is taxing the merchants for taxes they're supposed to collect from us that we don't pay....
Add to that a separate issue: the national government taxes gross receipts. And we've been taxing gross receipts to include state sales taxes collected. So, we're taxing them on taxes they collect for the state that are not in any way "receipts" to them. Absurd legal reasoning coming from my office from people long gone. Common sense out the window with lawyering shenanigans.
So, I'm going to settle the case as fast as I can. We'll pay the state sales tax, we won't tax the state taxes they collect as part of gross receipts, and we'll have to calculate who we owe what back to. That'll make a lot of powerful merchants around here rather happy.
Next month, I'm going to stand in for one of our lawyers who'll be out of the office in a parole hearing. The guy killed two other guys with a diving knife when he was 17, alcohol induced. He was also charged with carrying a weapon while under the influence. He got 6 years for one manslaughter, 10 years for the other, unknown about the "carrying" charge, but I think it ran concurrent. While in prison he plead guilty to aggravated assault on another inmate. He attacked another inmate with a machete' while doing grounds work somewhere. Add three years on top of that for a total of 19 years. Doesn't sound like much by our standards for two murders and a separate assault, but it is by theirs. Nineteen years in a Pohnpeian prison is a long time. He's 46 now, and has a year and a half to go. They're eligible for parole consideration after serving 1/3 of their term.
We're not opposing his parole, but going with the ombudsman's recommendation. It's absolutely intriguing. The ombudsman is a court official who investigates these things and makes recommendations. What's so fascinating is the incorporation of Micronesian culture, customs and tradition into legal proceedings, criminal and civil. He spoke to the victim of the assault, who's given his "forgiveness," a ritual ceremony often involving the families of the wrongdoer and the victim. He's spoken to the family of the manslaughter victims who've forgiven him, except for the father of one and the sister of the other, who want him to serve the whole 19 years.
Now, this is fascinating, because back in the States there's been a big controvery among prosecutors and defense lawyers about "victim impact" statements. And many groups like VOCAL (Victims of Crime and Leniency) are really making a lot of headway in being heard in the courts opposing parole, and making statements about sentencing. But the culture here has already had that sort of thing incorporated in its justice system. For centuries. And combined with the ritual of the forgiveness ceremony, where the family of the wrongdoer goes and asks forgiveness of the family of the actual victim, is just really something. Totally unheard of in our culture.
The ombudsman spoke to family members of the defendant who say they'll be there to help keep him on the straight and narrow, and want him back to help farm the land and feed the family. (Land ownership and working the land is a whole 'nother thing that is absolutely fascinating for someone who never cared about that area of the law.) He spoke to the corrections and police officials, who say he's been a model prisoner the last few years, and should be given a chance. He spoke to clan leaders who say they'll make sure he does what he's supposed to. They have a built-in parole/probation system here, all based on family and clan hierarchy, loyalty and respect that's totally foreign to western sensibilities.
The only problem is that after he's paroled, he'll be moving into my neighborhood. Although I daresay, he won't have anything against me personally, since I'm not opposing his parole.
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