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Inside Stories
Friday, February 5, 2010
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Admiral learns to sail outrigger
Admiral Patrick Walsh, the US Pacific Fleet commander, stopped off in Majuro on Saturday on his return to Hawaii from Australia and Papua New Guinea. He was welcomed by RMI government officials, including Foreign Minister John Silk and Speaker Alvin Jacklick.
Ensuring our survival
The Marshall Islands government issued its political support late last week for the Copenhagen Accord, the rushed and controversial political agreement offered at last December’s global climate negotiations in Denmark. But the Marshall Islands, which face the risk of losing its statehood to rising seas, also linked its support to a demand for progress this year toward the adoption of a legally-binding treaty of sufficient ambition to ensure the survival of the most vulnerable nations, according to a Foreign Affairs release. The RMI also promised to cut its own “greenhouse gas” emissions by 40 percent.
Riklon heads
to US
Speakers come and go — moving on to become President — but one fixture in Nitijela has been constant for nearly 20 years, not subject to the vagaries of national elections or changing political affiliations. That fixture — Clerk Joe Riklon (pictured) — will leave his post on February 12 as he prepares to head to Hawaii.
Only ri-Majol
in top jobs
Top-level government positions held by non-Marshallese are being targeted as the government aims to ensure only Marshallese hold such positions. “The aim of the government is to ensure that all top-level government posts are filled by Marshallese,” said Minister in Assistance Ruben Zackhras responding to a request by Jabot Senator Kessai Note on the status of the director’s post for the Economic Policy, Planning and Statistics Office, which has been held by Carl Hacker since its establishment.
Lagoon hot spots
Ten downtown lagoon areas and three locations in Laura are polluted, according to the RMI EPA coastal water quality report issued this week. EPA Chief of Water Quality Management Abraham Hicking said the “public should not swim, wade or fish within 400 feet of these polluted areas.”
Marshall Islands High
School students are busy rehearsing
for the
Shake-
speare
play
Hamlet.
Pictured
are Marcellus
(Peterson Larry),
Fransisco
(Wilson Aneo),
Horatio (Paul
Andress),
Bernardo (Mario
Kobaia), and
Ghost (Alex Jacklick).
Photo: Douglas Henry
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CDC: Threat of Tuberculosis in RMI
By GIFF JOHNSON
Underlining the health threat of drug resistant TB, three of 10 Marshallese with drug resistant TB have died, including one of two discovered in recent months, according to a recent report from the US Centers for Disease Control.
The report, based on a CDC investigation conducted in November at the request of the Ministry of Health, shows six patients were on Ebeye and four on Majuro. The drug resistant problem first developed in 2004.
CDC’s investigation estimated there are 480 people who had contact with the active drug resistant TB patients, and of those, 168 were “anticipated” to be infected.
CDC describes the outbreak of drug resistant TB as “a public health emergency.”
“This threat is an emergency,” said Assistant Attorney General Rosania Bennett at Tuesday’s hearing on a TB-related bill. “It can impact us all as it’s hard to monitor and cure.” As debate swirled in Nitijela this week over bill 65 to give the Ministry of Health power to quarantine people who are deemed a health threat to the public, the CDC report offers a window into the difficulty of
other patients with confirmed multi-drug resistant TB had also relocated to the US (California and Hawaii).” None of the patients getting drug resistant TB are children — ages ranged from 27 top 68, and nine of the 10 had diabetes. One of those exposed was a nurse who was caring for a patient. The CDC said that people who are diabetic are “two-to-four times” more likely to develop TB.
CDC noted that the nurse who contracted drug resistant TB did not follow infection control procedures, and Patient A “was not effectively isolated because unprotected visitors, including this health care worker, slept in the room with her during her infectious period.”
CDC made 17 recommendations for diagnosing, treating and managing TB in the RMI, including that all TB patients receive direct observation treatment (DOT) — nurse providing the daily pill and watching the patient take it — assign each DOT worker no more than 15 patients, and establish standard for patients who do not take their medication and use legal interventions to isolate and detain patients who do not cooperate with DOT.
CDC: 'Public health emergency'
tracking TB patients and people who came into contact with them who are highly mobile — including several who moved to the United States. CDC reported that it notified the relevant state health authorities where Marshallese TB patients and contacts moved for follow up evaluations, and CDC is working with the Ministry of Health to ensure that US states get notified within one week when a TB patient or contact moves to the USA. “At least seven household contacts of ‘Patient A’ had relocated to the state of Washington before clinical evaluations were completed,” CDC reported. “Four household contacts of ‘Patient E’ were in Oklahoma. Because ‘Patient E’ may have still had infectious multi-drug resistant TB other contacts were possible in Tennessee. Two
Government and NGO leaders turned out for the week-long Universal Periodic Review at ICC. Photo: Giff Johnson.
Focus on human rights
The Marshall Islands began preparation this week for a United Nations review of human rights activity in the RMI that will happen later this year.
The week-long workshop happening at the ICC “will give the RMI a chance to catch up” in an area long-neglected by government, said Kwajalein Senator Tony deBrum.
Journal sample
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Eminent imminent?
Book for Sale
with its extension of US use through 2066 and beyond, with the amount of rent above that provided in the first Compact being put into an escrow account until landowners approve a new LUA. “Discussions between the government of the Marshall Islands and the landowners of Kwajalein Atoll are still pending for the extension of the occupation of lands, waters and airspace on Kwajalein atoll for missile practices,” the RMI said. “While negotiations continue, the existing LUA does not expire until 2016, which would allow the defendant (RMI) time to commence eminent domain proceedings if necessary pursuant to Article II, Section 5 of the Constitution of the RMI.”
The RMI government answered Iroij Imata Kabua’s (pictured) lawsuit last week, raising the possibility of future government eminent domain action at Kwajalein Atoll.
The response, filed by the Attorney General’s office, also suggests that jurisdiction in RMI courts over Kwajalein may be limited by the Compact of Free Association. Kabua’s suit filed late last year said the RMI government is violating his Constitutional rights by agreeing to long-term US use of Kwajalein without gaining his and other landowner approval through a land use agreement. The RMI is asking the High Court to deny Kabua’s claims for damages.
The RMI government’s response
offers a brief history of the first Compact and LUA that was approved giving US use of Kwajalein through 2016, and details the amended Compact
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 2/4/1977

Journal 2/8/1985
P1 A still-secret report written in 1963 at the request of US National Security Action Memorandum Number 145 included recommendations to bring about a 95 percent vote in the Trust Territory in favor of permanent affiliation with the United States as one of its long-range political goals. Less controversial parts of the 400-page document, known as the Solomon Report, have been published in the past, namely its economic and social recommendations. But the first volume of the report, titled “The Political Development of Micronesia,” remains classified to date for obvious reasons.
P4 The US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on January 25 recessed its hearing into the alleged bugging of rooms and telephones in Micronesia by the CIA, Gannett News Service reported. The hearings,closed to the public
P1 This week the police department launched a new phase in its school safety program to educate students and to control traffic near schools in the morning and afternoons when pedestrian traffic is the heaviest.
P1 The Reagan administration has cut $98 million out of its territories’ budget request for fiscal year 1986 in anticipation that the Congress will approve the Compact of Free Association.
P1 The Attorney General’s office this week
filed a law suit in the High Court against Global Associates and Panelfab International Corporation for breaching their contract to complete the new Majuro Hospital. Late last year, Panelfab defaulted on the $4.7 million contract.
P2 Unfortunate radio announcements aired over WSZO at the instigation of our local hospital point to a definite problem adopted by the citizens of the Republic: the problem of assuming medical care is something the government is supposed to provide. The radio messages have been requesting that those of us with outstanding bills at the hospital come forward and pay up. The total amount due is understood to be in excess of $100,000.
P2 Marshall Islands High School senior honor roll: Clena Pero, Jimmy Langley, Helmer Lang, Jibella Lamille, George Hitchfield and Runiston Gideon.
P3 Iroij Michael Kabua and Leroij Atama Zedkaia were sworn in as chairman and vice-chairman of the Council of Iroij by Nitijela Speaker Atlan Anien.
P3 The fact that 28 High Court felony cases have been filed so far this year and the record of 41 cases last year will be broken shortly indicates a “crime spree” in the islands. But it’s more a case of the police department doing a better job of apprehending law-breakers and the AG’s office making sure the offenders are prosecuted.
because they “involved sources and methods of intelligane,” will resume subject to the call of the chair, committee chairman Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii said. No information was released on testimony given at the hearings Monday and Tuesday, but Tuesday’s main witness was Ambassador F. Haydn Williams, formerly the President’s Personal Representative for Micronesian Status.
P9 A group of senior citizens from Palau arrived on Saipan Monday night after enjoying their first airplane flight and in many instances their first time away from isolated Choll Hamlet in Ngarrard Municipality. The group of 18 women and their two leaders will enjoy a week of tours and sightseeing about the island while staying in the homes of family and friends.

Journal 2/5/1993
P5 Folks on Ebeye pride themselves on being well informed about world events. With access to 24-hour TV courtesy of the Army, many Ebeye residents are almost news junkies. The other day, one of those well informed local residents — who had obviously just been watching news on CNN — offered a comment. Standing on the cordoned off mainroad outside a house where approximately 2,000 people crowded around to get their plates of food at an “eraak” (the gathering after the burial), this sage fellow said: “Hmmm, just like Somalia.”
P10 The seniors of Ebeye SDA High School visited the Ebeye power/desalination plant as part of the career education class. Helmer Ishoda, supervisor at the Ebeye power plant, organized tours to show the students the various parts of the facility and to acquaint them with job opportunities there. A highlight for the students
was the chance to actually start one of the engines.
P16 Living on an outer island in the Marshalls defines the term isolated. When an engine or a bicycle breaks, you cannot simply walk into Ace Hardware to tuy the part you need. Innovation, creativity and talent are watchwords for residents on the outer islands. And that is just what two young men from Rongelap use to keep a variety of mechanical equipment up and running on remote Mejatto Island in Kwajalein. Egineer Richard “Alice” Leney recently spent two months on Mejatto working with Arson Almond and Ajji Kun to develop skills needed to repair engines, generators, kerosene lanterns, bicycles and other equipment.