By Nancy I. Maanao
Gov. Ralph Torres recently chided anyone who criticized him, and said he feels the pain and the suffering of the people of the Northern Marianas.
Indeed, the people of the Marianas are suffering through higher costs, much of which can be attributed to shipping, taxes, and inefficient government. The pandemic, though it has bamboozled normal private sector activity, caused the national government to replace and even exceed gross island product with federal funds.
But the suffering has been going on way before the pandemic. Homelessness, joblessness, and poor health have been plaguing the Marianas for years, now. This was especially felt in the aftermath of Supertyphoon Yutu.
You know what Governor Torres was doing while you were suffering after Yutu? Look at the receipts below.
He was dining on foie gras. At your expense.
Governor Torres loves to eat foie gras when dining out and has charged this delicacy to taxpayers several times while swearing upon penalty of perjury that such meals are in the best interests of the Commonwealth.
But what exactly is foie gras?
To produce “foie gras” (the French term means “fatty liver”), workers ram pipes down the throats of male ducks twice each day, pumping up to 2.2 pounds of grain and fat into their stomachs, or geese three times a day, up to 4 pounds daily, in a process known as “gavage.” The force-feeding causes the birds’ livers to swell to up to 10 times their normal size.
Foie gras production is banned in several countries, including most of the Austrian provinces, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. It is also banned in California and will be banned statewide in New York in 2022.
