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FRIDAY, January 1, 2010
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Happy Holidays
The Sunday school team from the Rita Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints offered an entertaining dance show at the Long Island Church on Christmas Day.

Photo: Douglas Henry.
By GIFF JOHNSON
Monday is the launch of the first full Nitijela session under the Speakership of Alvin Jacklick (pictured above) and changes are already in motion. Senators will see some seats shuffled when they show up Monday to the opening. But the chair changes are just a hint of bigger reform on Jacklick’s agenda for the Marshall Islands parliament. “There is no question in my mind that the Nitijela must reform,” Jacklick told the Journal on		 Monday this week. The reform he wants is to refocus the members on their primary Constitutional duty: legislation. For the Nitijela staff, he wants to elevate their professionalism, capacity and provision of services to the members. The guiding goal: improve service. Among points that Jacklick made to the Journal:
• During December, he advised all Cabinet ministers to get needed legislation drafted and introduced to Nitijela during the		 first two weeks of the January session so that time is not wasted in the session waiting for bills to arrive.
• He is aiming to wrap up the first session of the year by mid-February to cut back on Nitijela spending.
• Nitijela staff will be provided more training to expand their work capacities, while he aims to bring on an assistant legislative counsel, to improve the flow of bill drafting, and possibly hire additional staff for		 specific needs of the Nitijela.
• Committee chairs and members need research assistance from Nitijela staff to improve the workings of the committees and their responsiveness to the public.
• There is a need to build a library that includes magazines and newspapers “so senators can see what is going on in other parts of the world,” and Internet-connected computers for members “to get information for their needs." (continued below)
This Week's
Inside Stories
Tuna talks don't address stocks
The recently concluded Tuna Commission meeting in Tahiti failed to agree on new actions on the biggest issue for Pacific island nations: the need to drastically cut catches of bigeye and yellowfin tuna to maintain the stocks at sustainable levels. Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority Director Glen Joseph, who attended the week of meetings in Tahiti earlier this month, said the islands did get two things they wanted: increased regulation for transshipment of tuna and fishing company use of mother ships and bunker vessels. But on the pressing issue of the health of tuna stocks in the Pacific, the Tuna Commission meeting was a failure, he said.
Census kitty
is still short
The Marshall Islands planning office has raised about half a million dollars to fund an overdue national census, but is still $300,000 short. This money shortfall has already caused postponement of the every-10-year population count, which was supposed to happen earlier in 2009, and could lead to cancellation altogether.
HIV is on the rise
The HIV problem in the Marshall Islands is increasing, with close to half of the 24 known cases since 1984 diagnosed in the past two years. The Ministry of Health in its report to Nitijela earlier this year said there were two HIV positive people diagnosed in 2007. The numbers jumped to five in 2008 and five more this year, with two of these babies that received the virus from their mothers. Both babies are reported to have died.
Double the
beds for TB
Majuro Hospital is doubling the number of beds in its TB isolation ward in a stepped-up effort to contain the escalating health problem in Majuro. Hospital administrator Dr. Marie Lanwi-Paul told the Journal this week that more than 200 people on Majuro have been identified as having had contact with patients with drug-resistant TB, a difficult- and costly-to-treat mutation of regular tuberculosis.
Twins talk on Enewetak line
Enewetak is the newest outer atoll to have telephone and Internet service thanks to a new calling center established by the National Telecommunications Authority last week. “Enewetak’s debut call was done at approximately 3pm Thursday, between Minister Jack Ading (on Majuro) and Mayor Jackson Ading (on Enewetak),” said NTA General Manager Tony Muller.
Speaker Jacklick in mode action
(Continued from above)
• When Nitijela is in session, he plans for morning and afternoon sessions to be held daily. “We have to justify the pay we are getting every two weeks,” he said.
• He’d like Nitijela to strengthen its ability to communicate and share ideas with parliamentarians in other island countries and territories.
“I want to elevate the integrity of the Nitijela,” he said. One point he made is that legislation needs to be screened through the Nitijela’s attorney and the Attorney General regarding constitutional and other legal requirements to eliminate what he called “unnecessary arguments on the floor.” He is seeking not only the support of all senators in this move to improve the functioning of the parliament, but is also attempting to gain the support of the wives of the members. This week a meeting was being called for the wives of members to discuss ideas for supporting the senators, he said. “The man is driving but he needs the woman telling him where to turn so he doesn’t hit the wall,” the Speaker said.
Jacklick said change will take time, and he is asking Cabinet for additional funding support for some of the developments on his agenda.
Imata drops the Kwaj lawsuit
Kwajalein Iroij and former President Imata Kabua agreed to drop his lawsuit against the RMI government as it relates to establishment of the Kwajalein Atoll Development Authority (KADA) during a meeting with President Jurelang Zedkaia on Ebeye Tuesday night.
“The meeting with the President was nice and friendly,” Kwajalein Senator Tony deBrum told the Journal Wednesday. “Bottom line is that Imata has agreed to drop the lawsuit he was contemplating against the government with respect to KADA.” Kwajalein leaders were happy to hear Zedkaia’s pledge that any dialogue with the United States regarding Kwajalein will be with the participation of and the blessing of the Kwajalein people, deBrum added.
The Kwajalein senator also updated progress on establishing an isolation ward for TB patients on Ebeye. “One trailer is on its way to the hospital site and the other one is slated for later today (Wednesday),” he said. “It is still slow going with getting the TB isolation units in place but at least there is some movement and we are very grateful to Charlie Domnick and his workers for their extraordinary efforts to help us out.”
The Marshall Islands High School Gospel Choir sings for the Journal staff (one of whom shed tears it was so beautiful). Photo: Karen Earnshaw

Journal 1/5/1968

Journal 1/3/1986
P1 The field trip ship MV Militobi has been pulled off the reef at Wotho Atoll with apparently little or no damage. According to Administrative Officer Oscar deBrum, the ship will proceed to Kwajalein after loading the cargo that was off-loaded to lighten the ship.
P1 District Administrator Dwight Heine left today aboard a special Army flight to Kwajalein to meet the US House of Representatives committee arriving there tomorrow.
P1 A new 6¢ stamp goes into effect with new postal rates. Starting Monday, all surface letters will require 6¢ postage and airmail letters will require 10¢.
P2 On January 11, the first of a series of cooking demonstrations will be held at the Young Women’s Club in Uliga from 4-5pm. The series will feature Marshallese,
P1 Nearly 800 crimes were committed in Majuro in 1984 by young people. Although no hard statistics are yet available, by all accounts the crime rate among youth appeared to rise in 1985. The largest number of crimes were in the category of “disturbing the peace,” but nearly 300 involved burglary or violence — and virtually 100 percent of youth crime was alcohol-related. These are among the problems confronting the Cabinet-appointed Task Force on Youth, which concluded three months of work in mid-December with a report filled with action recommendations
for Cabinet and Nitijela consideration.
P14 Bene Pinho got the honor of drawing the big winners in the Robert Reimers drawing last week. So many tickets were entered and in the basket that she was nearly submerged by the pile. Grand prize was a brand new Toyota sedan. The name written on the winning ticket was not legible and RRE is giving that person from Ebeye one more week to claim the prize.
P18 The Uliga Protestant Church Girl Scout Troops 56 and 21, wearing Merry Christmas faces, brought some sunshine and holiday cheer to the sick and perhaps sad in the hospital, and to the lonely and confined in the crowded Majuro “kalbuj” on a cloudy December 24. Gift giving ended the programs.
P19 Announcement: A two-man korkor (canoe) race will be held January 18. Only traditional Marshallese canoes eligible to enter. Register canoe and team and pick up rules and race regulations at Youth Services Bureau, Dept. of Social Services.
P19 Waitress wanted: Immediate openings, apply in person at Sun Hotel.
American and Japanese dishes. All women are cordially invited and a donation of 5¢ will be requested to defray food costs. Mrs. Betra Heran will demonstrate the preparation of fried breadfruit.
P2 A slow moving infectious hepatitis epidemic that has spread through the Trust Territory is showing signs of making Majuro its next stop. Between 11 and 15 cases have been diagnosed in the past three days.

Journal 1/1/1993
P1 What would the Christmas season be without a Christmas story? We’ve got a beauty. In fact, make that two. A young Arno woman, blown up to extraordinary proportions, gets forced out of her quarters and is driven hastily, and with no preparation, to the sanitized inner sanctum of Majuro Hospital where, after the appropriate throes, two infants, baby girls, are born. The young mother, totally without resources or even any close family members on hand, is distraught. It is on this same date, and approximately the same time,
that Nika Wase is at the hospital visiting a patient. Word is out in the corridors of a set of twins, just born, but not even the promise of a Pamper between them, not a baby7 blanket to share. Touched, Nika advances on the situation, takes quick stock, and goes out to use her own money to provide the immediate needs of the two infants. That’s the pocket of silver.
A short while later, she visits the young mother, and the young mom is crying with gratitude. She asks Nika if she could take the infants. Nika is overcome. She begins to cry herself. “Of course,” says Nika. That’s the heart of gold. So Nika and
Danny Wase now have two additional children along with their own two, a reason for joy at Christmas. And the two little girls are named Silver and Gold.
P1 US Drug Enforcement Agency tests in Hawaii have confirmed that packages discovered on Bikini Atoll contained about 40 pounds of cocaine and heroin valued in the millions of dollars.
P13-15 Ad “Happy New Year from all of the 586 employees of Robert Reimers Enterprises, Inc.” This is followed by three pages of signatures of the 586 workers.