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Marshall Islands Journal newspaper
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August 27, 2010
The national women’s group WUTMI organized a march from the College of the Marshall Islands to the courthouse Tuesday to protest violence against women. The march coincided with a hearing for Morton Makroro, who is charged with murdering his wife, Emson (pictured in poster above).
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Morton waives court hearing
A preliminary hearing for Morton Makroro lasted less than two minutes Tuesday morning as Makroro’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Karotu Tiba, filed a written waiver from his client that allowed him not to appear at his preliminary hearing in a courtroom packed by people who turned out to show their opposition to domestic violence.
Women United Together Marshall Islands organized a rare display of public protest in Majuro, with women and men — most wearing black WUTMI logoed T-shirts — marching from the College of the Marshall Islands to the High Court. Makroro is charged with murdering his wife, Emson Makroro, who taught at CMI. Judge Plasman acknowledged that the lawyers had agreed to probable cause and he found good cause to proceed to trial on the charge of second-degree murder.
Jeban:
Kwaj, RMI buddy up
Kwajalein Atoll and the national government may not be married but presently relations have improved to the point that they can be referred to now as close buddies, Kwajalein Senator Jeban Riklon told Nitijela on Wednesday. Riklon, using the Marshallese word “ambulale” (walking along with arms around each other’s shoulder) to describe increasingly friendly relations between the national government and Kwajalein Atoll leadership, said the completion of the LUA is in sight.
Medical referral deal with Taipei
Dr. Lin Shoei-Loong, Superintendent of Taipei Hospital of the Republic of China/Taiwan’s Department of Health will lead a seven-member delegation from Taipei Hospital to Majuro, from August 28 to September 1. During Superintendent Lin and his delegation’s stay in Majuro, the delegation will meet with Ministry of Health officials on health issues, to attend the opening ceremony of the second “Collaborative Training Workshop,” and the opening ceremony for a new Hemodialysis Center.
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police, who also grabbed two-by-four lengths of lumber and rebar to ward off the attacking prisoners, the Journal learned. Several were injured in the violence. To contain the fighting, police at the Uliga police headquarters called for reinforcements. “Off duty personnel were called in to help in stabilizing the situation,” the National Police said in a statement, adding “The disorder was contained soon afterwards.” “Contraband items were found in the prison leading the officers to believe that an escape was planned.” But, said the police, “No prisoners actually escaped from jail.” The police shut down the jail and, after the reinforcements arrived, took all the inmates into the police parking lot to to calm everyone down.
“Prisoners locked up in the west-wing of the jail were found fighting with each other (Thursday around 10pm) and when the on duty shift tried to stop the fight the prisoners began attacking the officers,” the National Police said in a statement issued Friday. According to Journal reports, the prisoners were intoxicated on vodka when the violence broke out. They reportedly used pry bars and other tools and pieces of wood to fight each other, then turned to breaking down a door securing the west wing from other sections of the jail as well as breaking apart ongoing new construction work in the jail. The fight reportedly started among a handful of inmates and then quickly spread to a riot of 10 or more that threatened the safety of other prisoners and the
Six days after a melee in Majuro jail injured several prisoners and policemen, a group of prisoners who instigated the fight continued to be handcuffed on the stairway of the fire department building next to the police station.Police spokesman Capt. Eric Jorbon told the Journal Monday that this group of prisoners is being isolated from the main prison population while an investigation into Thursday’s eruption of violence is conducted. After the disturbance was contained overnight Thursday to early Friday morning, five prisoners were shackled to the stairway as punishment and to get them away from the rest of the prisoners — and have remained on display to the public, apparently only moving from this publicly visible location to use the restroom.
Jacklick plans Nitijela shake-up
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By issuing the first corporate plan for the Nitijela last week, Speaker Alvin Jacklick is putting the power of his office behind the most far-reaching accountability changes proposed for government since Constitutional government was established in 1979. “A radical course change is laid out for steering the Nitijela and the Marshall Islands efficiently and effectively into a better, sustainable future for Aelin Kein Ad,” the Speaker said in his introduction to the corporate plan that was distributed to all members during the opening ceremony. Jacklick is calling for major changes to the Constitution and laws of the RMI, and to Nitijela rules to affect a range of reforms aimed at changing the composition of the Nitijela and the Council of Iroij, beefing up accountability requirements for elected and other government leaders in the RMI, and creating a legislative and regulatory environment to support business development, stimulate development opportunities for outer islands communities, and increase the number of women in local and national leadership positions. Jacklick said he knows the plan is being issued on the eve of a national election. “Unfortunately we are on the clock. The time to remedy the ailments in our nation is rapidly running out and we can no longer afford to conduct the business of the Nitijela as it has been done in the past.”
The Speaker said future leaders “must put politics aside and subscribe to and support the implementation of the priorities already established in Vision 2018 and articulated in this plan. “To do otherwise puts the future of our nation and the well being of our people in serious jeopardy.”
CMI's fast data helps improve services
One day after CMI’s student registration closed earlier this month, the college issued a detailed enrolment report. This statistics report lets administrators, planners, teachers and the public know how many students are female and male, what percentage are full or part time, how many are new, what year each of the 844 students started at the college, what their majors are, how many male and female students are taking particular courses, and much more. What’s the significance of this lightning-quick report for the College of the Marshall Islands? The government seems to struggle to produce timely reports but for the College of the Marshall Islands, which distributed its Enrollment Report on Friday August 13, one day after registration finished, producing usable statistics is a key part of the ongoing process of analyzing services and finding solutions to problems.
Men stand against spouse abuse
Senator Dennis Momotaro, third from right, with members of Youth to Youth in Health and the public at Tuesday’s Court House protest. The posters include one stating ‘Real Men don’t Hit Women.’



Photos:
Suzanne Chutaro
NEWS UPDATE: Friday, August 27, 2010
The Marshall Islands government should reform or stop subsidizing the worst performing public entities, said a hard-hitting report issued last week by the Nitijela's Public Accounts Committee. Following three weeks of hearings involving virtually every ministry, agency and enterprise, the committee chaired by Ujae Senator Frederick Muller issued a 12-page report that concluded bluntly: “The Committee is concerned that almost all public entities are under-performing or are not performing.” The RMI government, except for the Marshall Islands Shipping Corporation, has unqualified audits. “While this means that the public entities are in conformity with the accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, this does not, however, necessarily reflect their financial and operational performance,” the report said.
Read more about this in the September 3 edition.
One Year on a Disappearing Island by Peter
Rudiak-Gould.
Read excerpts from his book about Ujae Atoll.
This book explodes the "myth of the four atolls" maintained by the US government since the Bravo hydrogen bomb test in 1954; relies heavily on previously secret US studies to show how US officials consistently underestimated or underreported fallout exposures; and points out, among other findings, that more than 40 years after the US nuclear testing program ended, the US government has still not released complete fallout data on 50 of the 67 tests conducted at Bikini and Enewetak.
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