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FRIDAY, July 3, 2009
Beautify the islands... Keep trash off the streets & beaches.
Teens brutally assault captain
$1m in Compact money not spent
By GIFF JOHNSON
A Koo’s Fishing Company captain was brutally assaulted by a gang of Marshallese teenagers Sunday night as he walked from a restaurant to his vessel at Uliga Dock.
The unprovoked attack calls into question safety for local and foreign fishing companies that employ dozens of Marshallese, pay fees to the Ports Authority and Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority, and patronize local stores and restaurants.
Captain Tian — who captains one of Koo’s purse seine fishing vessels — finished dinner at Uliga Restaurant about 9:30pm Sunday with two crewmembers. Tian then made the short 80-yard walk from the restaurant to Uliga Dock.He was within a few feet of the gate that is patrolled by Ports Authority security guards when he was accosted by five teenage boys who asked him for cigarettes. When he didn’t have any, the boys attacked him, hitting Tian with a rock, dragging him across the road by the dock entrance and beating him.
He received no assistance from the Ports Authority security guard, although Tian’s friends were able to make a call to police from the Ports Authority booth at the dock after the assault, according to Chinese Association President James Wang.
Police arrived about 15 minutes after the call, and transported the captain to Majuro Hospital’s emergency room for treatment. He required seven stitches to close a gash over his left eye, and two on his right eye.
Why is the security situation so bad around Uliga Dock where there is dock security?” Wang asked. “Why did nobody come and help?” “This is getting common, especially at Uliga Dock,” said Koo’s Fishing Company Manager Eugene Muller. “This is the first time it has happened to one of my crews, but it has happened to other Chinese fishermen.” On Wednesday afternoon, national police went to Koo’s to interview the captain about the assault on Sunday. “The detectives are confident they will be making some arrests soon,” Muller said, adding Tian is “still recovering at the hospital.”
Ports Authority deputy director Captain Joe Tiobech said Tuesday he had not received a report from his security staff regarding the incident. Police Commissioner George Lanwi said Wednesday the matter was under investigation. “This kind of case happens pretty often recently,” Wang said. “We really hope our government and police will do something to prevent this.”
The Marshall Islands government did not spend nearly $1 million of Compact funds provided in fiscal year 2008, requiring it to be returned to the US government recently for reallocation to a future fiscal year. Nearly half of the $978,587 unspent by September 30, 2008 has already been given back to the RMI, with the balance to be put into FY2010, which starts October 1 this year. This unused balance is the highest ever since the new Compact went into effect in 2004. It also includes $153,852 in unspent money from FY2006.
The US Embassy provided a breakdown of the unused Compact funds for FY2008:
• Education: $0
• Health: $252,862
• Kwajalein Environmental Impact: $7,554
• Public Sector Capacity Building: $128,891
• Ebeye Special Needs Education: $326,644
• Ebeye Special Needs Health: $108,784
• FY06 Unused Carryover: $153,852.
In FY 2004, the first year of the new Compact, unspent funding amounted to $198,770. It has increased every year since then, to $295,154 (FY2005), $573,436 (FY2006), $601,830 (FY2007) and $824,735 (FY2008) plus $153,852 (FY2006) for the FY2008 total of $978,587. “All FY04-FY07 carryover funds have been re-granted to the RMI,” said US Embassy-based Interior Department grants official Alan Fowler. “Out of the $978,587 in FY08 carryover funds, $435,428 has already been re-granted in FY2009 as per a RMI government request for use by KAJUR on Ebeye. “These were the Ebeye Special Needs funds for Education and Health (listed above). These funds were drawn down by the RMI in March. The remaining $543,159 is included in the FY 2010 Compact allocations and will be available for use on October 1, 2009.”
This Week's
Inside Stories
Fish farm stops production
A major foreign investor has temporarily suspended operations in the RMI. GFB Fisheries RMI Inc., which has been operating a fish hatchery in Majuro for more than a year, said that uncertainty over logistics and cost issues relating to shipping live fish from Majuro to Asia and the United States have forced the company to put its commercial fisheries development on hold.
Diver rushed to Kwajalein
Another Majuro diver suffered the “bends” while diving last Saturday, forcing the Ministry of Health to pay for a medical referral to Kwajalein Hospital because Majuro Hospital’s hyperbaric chamber does not work. He is the second diver during June to seek treatment at Majuro Hospital for the bends.
Danz: No 'initial
NCT payment'
The Nuclear Claims Tribunal confirmed what most people know: It is almost broke. In a June 24 order, Tribunal Chairman Gregory Danz ruled that there will be no “initial payments” — the first time this has happened since the Tribunal began issuing award payments in 1991. The Nuclear Claims Fund was down to $120,852.87 on May 27.
MICNGOs to highlight efforts
The Marshall Islands Council of Non-Government Organizations (MICNGOs) is planning a conference of NGOs in Majuro later this year to, in part, show government ministries and the private sector what MICNGO’s member organizations are achieving in RMI. “The purpose is also to get each organization to recognize what each other is doing,” said acting volunteer director Bonny Taggart at a general membership meeting at the Marshall Islands Resort last Thursday.
Nauru gets Digicel
Digicel has been awarded a license to provide cell phone service in Nauru, expanding its Pacific–wide GSM network. Nauru is the sixth Pacific country to sign up with Digicel, following Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.
Pictured: Waka Silk, 13, Junior Batlok, six, Zomile Joseph, 16, and David Joran, 10, play chess on one of the children’s computers at the Alele Library.
Copra being loaded at Enelok Island, Ebon, for transport out to a Marshall Islands Shipping Corporation vessel. Ebon is one of the top copra-producing atolls and it seemed that a bumper crop was being taken on board.

Journal 7/4/1970

Journal 7/1/1974
P1 Checks totaling $446,288.50 have arrived Majuro. This money is the payment for the Long Island wetos that will be used for Majuro’s new airport. Right now the land management office is distributing notices to move off the land to parties having any buildings on the land. P1 “It was agreed that there were inequities with regard to the wages paid Micronesian employees at the Kwajalein Missile Range,” said Marshalls Congress of Micronesia Senator Wilfred Kendall of a recent meeting he had with US Army, Labor and Interior Department representatives. A Labor Department representative said every effort would be made to correct these problems, Kendall said.
P7 You Marshallese people are getting the screws again! You know what the latest word is from Majuro Airport? The new airport, Marshallese ground, has been used by the French military for transporting nuclear bomb material from Europe via Asia and Guam down to the central Pacific. The United States, which has an agreement with the Russkies not to set bombs off in the air, is letting the ignorant French continue to use US controlled air strips to support their nuclear activities. If you notice all the complaints around the Pacific about the French conducting their tests, you will remember that you never heard an official American voice condemning the tests because the Americans have a vested interest in conducting the tests in cooperation with the French. Remember Bikini? How about Lekoj Anjain? How does it feel to know that Marshallese land is still being used to support bomb testing? Give you a lump in your throat? Well, don’t feel too proud to serve unless you know for sure that the lump is caused by pride and not increased atmospheric radiation.
P1 Seven Trust Territory Power Plant employees resigned their jobs this week rather than accept a new work schedule introduced to the men by District Public Works Officer Jim Pualoa. According to Carl Clarence, Power Plant foreman and spokesman for the men, the resignations were caused by a new work schedule he was instructed to introduce Monday.
P1 Joseph N. Lanwi has been selected Social Security Representative for the Marshalls District, according to a dispatch received from the Social Security main office in Saipan. Lanwi, 29, is a graduate of Pacific Islands Central High School.

Journal 7/3/1992
P1 The Bikinians are sitting on a gold mine and they know it. They are holding all of the cards, and they know that, too. Which means that although they expect to make a decision on a joint venture “dive Bikini” operation during meetings in Las Vegas next week, they plan to take a long, hard look at the numerous proposals from scuba dive operators who want to cash in with them, Jack Niedenthal, the Bikinians’ liaison, said.
P7 David C. Fields, recently nominated by President Bush to be the US Ambassador to the RMI, told the Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing on June 24 that he is “excited to have the opportunity to play a supportive role in the development of a recently independent nation…”
P14 Very few people are alive in the Marshall Islands today who lived during the German period of rule from 1885-1914. Likiep resident Helen deBrum not only lived through it, but recalls it as the happiest period in her long life of 96 years.
P15 Before departing Majuro Sunday night, US Ambassador William Bodde told the Journal that one of the most significant accomplishments of the Marshalls during his two year term was the attainment of membership in the United Nations.
P23 A workshop for important Majuro landowners was held last week to encourage home gardening to increase the supply of local goods available. MALGov Mayor Amatlain Kabua addressed the group, as did Social Services staff Stephen Lepton and Zed Zedkaia.