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Inside Stories
Friday, February 19, 2010
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Will we be going down route 66?
Majuro senators Vice Speaker Alik Alik and Wilfred Kendall want to ban most business activity on Sundays to keep that day “holy.” Bill 66 calls for observing “the Lord’s Day, commonly called Sunday” and to “prohibit engagement of commercial activities on Sunday.”
Dry days in
store for RMI
US Weather officials are warning of continuing dry months ahead for the Marshall Islands. Although the current El Niño is not considered as severe as those experienced here in 1983 and 1998, the US Climate Prediction Center has declared it a “strong El Niño.”
US Army
bans RMI liaison's wife
Kwajalein Senator Tony deBrum is angry over US Army action taken to ban from the base the wife of the RMI’s official representative at Kwajalein. In remarks to the Nitijela, he called on the RMI government to take action. Jeltan Anjain’s wife, Joanna, was “suspended and banned from Kwajalein” after she was “caught” purchasing a soda for an Ebeye resident. “This is not just a personal and professional insult, it is also a sovereign assault,” deBrum said.
No new jobs around town
Employment levels in the RMI have remained virtually unchanged over the past six years, according to a statistical report issued by the RMI’s Economic Policy, Planning and Statistics Office. Total employment went down slightly in 2009 compared to 2008. In 2009, 10,216 people were employed in RMI.
Water access
is big issue
A water survey of Majuro and Kwajalein shows that four of every 10 homes (42 percent) did not have “suitable” household water storage capacity. Water surveyors working for the Economic Policy, Planning and Statistics Office (EPPSO) surveyed 4,652 households in the two centers, finding 1,963 without adequate water catchments.
Dr. Charles Ahn examines an Ebeye man’s eyes. Canvasback doctors restored sight to 192 Ebeye patients with cataract operations late last month.
Photo: Jacque Spence.
$14m loan from ADB
The ADB’s largest loan to the Marshall Islands — and the first since the early 2000s — is moving through the approval process at ADB headquarters in Manila following endorsement in Majuro.
The proposed $14 million loan would be focused on helping the RMI to stabilize its energy sector through support to the Marshalls Energy Company and to help the RMI to improve financial management and reduce spending, according to the Asian Development Bank’s RMI desk officer Kiyoshi Nakamitsu, who was in Majuro for several days this week.
“The ADB approval process is ongoing,” he said, adding the ADB is “seriously considering the loan.” Relations between ADB and RMI have smoothed out in the past two years during Finance Minister Jack Ading’s tenure, with the RMI maintaining its debt payments on schedule. “ADB management is extremely happy with the RMI,” Nakamitsu said. “We see a lot of initiatives being taken by government.” He particularly praised Ading. A separate project proposal focusing on poverty reduction that includes funding for the planned RMI national census is now pending with a donor, Nakamitsu said. The proposal was submitted, returned to ADB for revision and is now back with the potential donor. “We need statistics to track poverty alleviation activity,” he said. The ADB was criticized by RMI government planning office Director Carl Hacker for not supporting a census earlier. The RMI needs about $350,000 in addition to what it has raised to conduct the census. Nakamitsu said ADB had never promised to fund the census, but is doing what it can to gain support for it.
MIR sale kept on hold
A hold on the possible sale of the government-owned Marshall Islands Resort was extended last week. MISSA attorney David Strauss (pictured), Attorney General Frederick Canavor, Jr. and RC International attorney Philip Okney signed an agreement leading to a High Court order that no sale can be made without 25 days prior written notice to the Marshall Islands Social Security Administration. MISSA sued the Resort in 2008 over unpaid tax debt. The Resort is alleged to owe MISSA $400,000. In December, MISSA attorney Strauss went to court and obtained an order preventing the then-impending sale of the MIR until February 15. Since that time, the US Embassy weighed in to the RMI government with objection to a “permanent residency” status for foreigners being included as part of the sale that “gave the impression that passports are being sold.” Foreign Minister John Silk told Nitijela recently that “permanent residency” is not legal and cannot be part of the deal. RC International’s announced plan is to close the hotel and sell the individual units as condominiums with “permanent residency” as part of the purchase package.”
“In the event the sale of Marshall Islands Resort to prospective purchaser, RC International Inc., or any other purchaser, is approved,” wrote Judge Plasman last week, “no closing shall occur and no money shall be paid by prospective purchaser(s) to defendant (Marshall Islands Resort) or the RMI government until 25-days written notice is given to the plaintiff (MISSA) through its counsel (Strauss), or such notice is waived by the parties or by a future order of this court.”
Journal sample
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Kwajalein fund nears $27 million
The Kwajalein Escrow Account at Bank of Guam continues to grow. As of February 6, the balance in the account was $26,832,159.92, according to the Ministry of Finance, which oversees the US rental payments for use of Kwajalein Atoll.
Book for Sale
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.
Send US money check/money order to the address below.

Journal 2/21/1971

Journal 2/23/1985
P1 Majuro Atoll, a sleepy little turquoise kind of a thing located in the middle of what everybody thought was the last place pollution would hit, has finally had it. The District Department of Health Services just spent the week putting up signs on the lagoon beech warning that the water is contaminated and unsafe for swimming, following a precedent in the Marshalls that was set by Ebeye Island one year ago. A study said the lagoon beach is “grossly polluted.” Credit for this wonderful job of crapping up our lagoon is extended to everyone of course, but special mention in the report was made of the leaking pipeline (there is a large hole in the pipeline about five yards off shore which allows large amounts of sewage to escape, and the sewer line from MIECO Hotel, which does not extend much beyond 15 yards from the shore — an especially dangerous condition as there are always childen playing in the water area of the sewer line.
P1 The people of Rongelap Atoll are preparing to evacuate their home islands fearing high levels of residual radiation from nuclear tests of the 1950s. Rongelap Senator Jeton Anjain is currently on Rongelap discussing resettlement plans with the 250 people residing there. The Rongelapese want to move to Ebadon or an adjacent island in Kwajalein Atoll, and have been meeting with Kwajalein landowners during the past several months to gain approval.
P1 Chief Secretary Oscar deBrum will
tell US Rep. John Seiberling at a February 25 budget hearing that it will be impossible to open certain departments in the new hospital without additional Congressional assistance for more hospital staff. The Sisters of Mercy transition report on the hospital is “somewhat disturbing,” he said. The report concluded that a “bare minimum” of 55 new staff would be needed to open parts of the new hospital.

Journal 2/19/1993
P1 Titus Langrine, Supervisor for Parks and Recreation in Majuro Atoll Local Government, said MALGov has been
looking into the garbage situation on Majuro. Langrine said MALGov has set up a schedule to collect garbage in DUD. He said MALGov does not have enough equipment to collect all the garbage in DUD. MALGov plans to bring 55-gallon drums from Kwajalein to use as dumpsters.
P1 On February 9, the RMI denied permission for the Panamanian ship East Wood to enter its jurisdiction. The next day, however, after a meeting between President Amata Kabua and US Ambassador David Fields, the RMI government approved the United States’ request to allow the East Wood to dock at USAKA port in Kwjalaein. The East Wood, reportedly hijacked by some of its Chinese passengers while enroute from Hong Kong to Hawaii two weeks ago, has headed toward RMI waters under tow by the US Coast Guard. After the Coast Guard took control of the vessel, fights broke out between crew and passengers. Extra security at Kwajalein — which included a contingent of 175 Army and Air Force personnel from Hawaii in addition to 175 on board the Coast Guard vessel — proved to be unnecessary when the passengers disembarked. “Everyone was so anxious to get off the ship they probably would have rushed the Green Bay Packers to get onto dry land,” said Col. Crosby Hazel, Kwajalein commander. Passengers said that about 400 of the 527 passengers spent the entire 47-day journey below decks in a dirty hold, reeking or urine and feces. Most paid up to $20,000 to get to the United States. The Army erected a temporary tent camp on Kwajalein on the golf course to hold the Chinese until their destination is determined.