Friday, January 30, 2009
|
E-mail: |
|
Phone: |
|
Fax:
(692) 625-3136 |
|
Mail:
PO Box 14 Majuro, MH 96960 Marshall Islands |
|
In Person:
On the ocean road behind Formosa in Uliga, Majuro |
| "We're in" National Telecommunications Authority General Manager Tony Muller confirmed Wednesday that NTA has signed the agreement and made its initial deposit for the submarine fiber optic cable to be extended from Kwajalein to Ebeye and Majuro. “In short,” he said, “we’re in.” Police academy set for this June A Marshall Islands Police Academy is set to happen this summer in Majuro, the first in more than a decade. Justice Minister David Kramer told the Nitijela Monday that he and Police Commissioner George Lanwi are working with an Australian-funded police training program to hold the academy for both local and national police officers in Majuro. Japan donates $$ for RMI energy & transportation President Litokwa Tomeing and Japan Charge Dr. Kazuyuki Ohdaira signed agreements last week that will lead to the Japan government providing $2.2 million for development of the energy sector in the RMI. In related news Japan Embassy Charge Kazuyuki Ohdaira and Maloelap Mayor Hemley Benjamin signed a grant contract earlier this week for $88,250 from Japan’s Grassroots Grant program to improve ocean transportation for the northern atoll. Bing offers huge fuel price drop Majuro Fuel Depot is now selling MEC-supplied diesel to Marshallese residents at the low price of $3.43 a gallon, by far the lowest rate in Majuro. Mobil-supplied diesel is being sold for over $5 per gallon at downtown stations. The new station is located next to Special Restaurant in Batkan, Long Island area. Local entrepreneur Chris Bing is the owner. Alcohol is big business issue Local employers highlighted alcohol abuse and high rates of absenteeism as key problems in the workforce, according to a National Training Council survey. On Tuesday at Melele Room, National Training Council consultant Ken Taggart presented the results of a survey of businesses. The survey was conducted to give direction, based on business needs, for future NTC-funded training programs. |
Eight nations — including the Marshall Islands — that control most of the fish in the Pacific are flexing their muscles. And, says Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority Director Glen Joseph, it is not just time our islands get more benefits from fishing, the first steps have already been taken putting Asian, American and other fishing countries on notice of changing times in the fishing world. The so-called "Parties to the Nauru Agreement" (PNA) — eight countries from the RMI to Papua New Guinea — are no longer satisfied with getting less than five percent of the $3 billion annual revenue from the tuna harvest in the Pacific, most of it taken from within the 200 mile zones of these countries. “The status quo is not satisfactory,” said Joseph, whose organization earned a paltry $1 million from licensing vessels to catch tuna in RMI in 2007, a 50 percent drop over the $2 million the year before. The current level of tuna fishing is “not sustainable, equitable or beneficial to Pacific islands,” Joseph said. The two key issues for Pacific islands are over-fishing of yellowfin and bigeye tuna and the desire to get more than licensing revenue from the fishing industry, Joseph said. Key to the new, aggressive posture on both these fronts is what happened at the Tuna Commission meeting in S. Korea in December. The backdrop to the S. Korea meeting is that the previous December,
|
||||||||||||||
The US government is delaying a new $10 million grant for Majuro airport improvements for a year in hope that conflicts between US policy and a landfill law passed by Nitijela last year can be resolved. RMI officials are expressing concern over the development and the possibility that the US funding for RMI could be diverted to the Federated States of Micronesia. “The Federal Aviation Administration has communicated with the Ports Authority on this,” Chief Secretary Casten Nemra told the Journal last week. “We’re looking into it with other relevant agencies.” The FAA has injected about $40 million in improvements at Amata Kabua International Airport over the last several years, but the next multi-million dollar grant in line is in jeopardy. “The FAA is continuing to fund the grant for the design of the Airport Safety Area (ASA), however, since it will require land reclamation to relocate the public roadway, we have deferred the Airport Improvement Program construction grant for the ASA to fiscal year 2010, until the land reclamation matter is cleared up,” US Ambassador Clyde Bishop told the Journal this week. Nemra said Ports Authority had issued a letter to him outlining its concerns over this hold up in US grant funding. This does not affect the current Majuro Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting Building, which includes land reclamation and relocation of the public roadway because “that grant was signed and executed prior to RMI establishing its land reclamation law,” Bishop said. Ports Authority board
|
Ports Authority board Chairman James Matayoshi wrote Nemra earlier this month explaining the FAA says no future Airport Improvement Project funds can be used to finance any work involving land reclamation “until the issue with the RMI law regarding land ownership on reclaimed land is resolved.”
|
KEEP OUR ISLANDS CLEAN... Stop importation and betel nut chewing.
P1 It was late Monday afternoon, just before the quitting whistle when literally out of the blue came the never-before-heard in Majuro pitched buzz of small airplanes. People, young
P1 Trust Territory employees can get cash awards for ideas that save the government a lot of time, money or effort. A description of the idea should be sent to The Incentive Awards Committee, Department of Public Affairs, Saipan, which decides which ideas to use and makes awards.
P3 Two applications to operate cable TV in Truk, by Holmes Management Company and Pacific Communications, were disapproved on the grounds of high cost to install the equipment, hardship to Trukese consumers because of high prices of the consumer goods advertised on TV, possible increase in juvenile delinquency due to the programs with violence, the unfairness of only homes with electricity being able to have the TV service...
P7 Ad Hey! Majuro’s got one — a real 24-hour place. Name’s Zackius’ Restaurant. Like 3am? We’re open. For the guys at the hospital, the police on patrol, the graveyard shift at the power plant and LITTLE HUNGRY YOU, after late night pokering, partying or dancing. Eat in or take out.
“And they are only this big,” added one elderly Marshallese lady, indicating the length of her forearm. The planes, three of them, were actually a little bigger than that when they were down on the ground. But still they were impressively smaller than the DC-4, and the occasional SA-16 that land here. Still more impressive was the fact that each one was being flown singlehandedly across the Pacific. Miss Louise Sacchio of Philadelphia, who is very likely the first lady pilot over these islands since the legendary Amelia Earhart, is the only female among the select group of fliers that deliver private planes around the world.
P5 Operation Exodus statistics show that for the six-month period to December, 1,853 persons left Ebeye. About 700 of these were illegal residents or left voluntarily, and the rest were visitors that were returned home. From an approximate population of 4,500 people in July, this leaves an estimated population of about 4,000 on Ebeye.
P9 Letter I cannot imagine anyone, except possibly some ignorant newspaper editor, extolling the virtues of the bean soup made by Wyatt McMillin (a likely name) when the world renowned and undisputed master of bean cookery lives right here in Majuro, and it is not this so-called Wyatt McMillin. My good friend and benefactor, Mr. John P. Jones, makes beans fit for the gods, the nectar of grand potentates, the joy of emperors and monarchs of all kinds. Jones’ beans are as famous throughout the world as Hershey Bars, Campbell’s Soup, Budweiser beer…So, Mr. Editor, let’s not have any more idle chit chat about bean soup…You have yet to experience the supreme thrill of feasting on a bowl of Jones’ bean soup; your life to date has been meaningless. —George P. “Trader” Brewster
P1 The embryonic new Nitijela was cloaked in a warm