JUNE 4, 2010
Dornier set
to fly home
A test flight on Tuesday of Air Marshall Islands’ Dornier, which has undergone a nearly $1.4 million overhaul in Taiwan, has AMI officials on Majuro smiling a sigh of relief. This good news couldn’t come at a better time for AMI as the Dash-8 has been grounded for the past three weeks due to a problem indentified on the right side of the window in the cockpit. Then on Monday AMI grounded its leased Dornier from Australia because the compass had become faulty.
Ri-Majol gradute from Xavier
Three Marshallese have graduated with the Class of 2010 at Xavier High School. Jerry Anjolok, HaNedalynn Kabua, and Keanu Reimers, all of Majuro, were among the Jesuit college preparatory school’s 29 graduates at Xavier High. The Class of 2010 also included students from the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia, as well as Palau.
The war on weapons
A Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile test from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to the Ronald Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll is planned for Sunday, June 6 (US time). The missile is expected to carry one or more ‘unarmed’ warheads. Reports are that this test will be one of two set for Kwajalein in June.
HPO survey of Joachim's house
The Historic Preservation Office, which is under The Ministry of Internal Affairs, received funding recently from the National Park Service for the initial survey work required to secure the funding necessary for the historical renovation of the Joachim deBrum House on Likiep. The survey team arrived on Likiep Monday, May 10 and stayed until Friday, May 14.
Thousands visit RMI exhibit
A total of 764,934 people visited the Pacific Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo in May, according to pavilion manager Bernadette Rounds-Ganilau. The Marshall Islands exhibit is being run by two Internal Affairs staffers, Arden Sorimle and Carl Alik. On display is a canoe built on site by members of Waan Aelon in Majel, handicrafts and some local products including coconut oil.
The RMI recognized 'World No Tobacco Day' Monday, with tons of kids joining in the activities at Youth to Youth in Health in Uliga. Pictured are Lesson Bam, Wilber Anjel, and Meliana Balos with relevant posters. Photo: Shima Seese.
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The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — the worst ever in waters of the United States — is leading to greater media scrutiny of the oil rig’s registration under the Marshall Islands flag. Excerpts from an article published earlier this week in the Guardian (London) follow.
Oil rig disaster under potential criminal scrutiny
US President
Barack Obama
KAREN EARNSHAW
The Obama administration this week opened criminal and civil investigations into the events leading up to, surrounding and following the explosion and sinking of British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig, and BP’s response to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
The oil rig was registered in the Marshall Islands and carried the RMI flag.
US Attorney General Eric Holder announced the investigations on Wednesday, RMI time, stating that federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are participating in the probe and said “if we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be forceful in our response.”(Continued below)
Political ripples from the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster have travelled as far as the north Pacific, where authorities of the remote Marshall Islands have been found to be the ones technically responsible for scrutinizing safety standards on the doomed BP rig.
The rig, which was owned by Transocean, but under lease to BP when it exploded and sank on 20 April, is regarded as an ocean-going vessel in legal terms.
In common with 34 other Transocean oil rigs, Deepwater Horizon was registered under the flag of convenience of the Marshall Islands, a country of barely 65,000 people halfway between Hawaii and Papua New Guinea. That status means the Marshall Islands’ shipping registry was responsible for ensuring compliance with quality standards for construction, equipment and operation on the rig. The island nation is also obliged to investigate any accidents that occur on its maritime vessels, including the loss of the Deepwater Horizon, which caused the biggest oil spill in US history. At hearings convened by the US coastguard and oil industry regulators in New Orleans, the Marshall Islands is listed (Continued below)
Top colleges host students
Sylvia Avicks, Talei Savu, Lulani Ritok, Ambassador Martha Campbell, Anthony Dujmovic Jr., and Selvenious Marvin.
DOUGLAS HENRY
Six high school students have been awarded full scholarships offered by the US Department of Interior to attend a Junior Statesmen Summer School in the United States this summer.
High school student leaders from grades 9-11 will join the three-week summer school program being held at Stanford, Princeton, and Georgetown Universities.
Students will take college level courses while developing and polishing their leadership skills by meeting and questioning elected officials, judges, reporters, political campaign consultants, and others in the political arenas.
“It’s all about speaking and interacting with leaders,” said US Ambassador Martha Campbell. The students who will represent the RMI and the university they will attend are:
• Anthony Dujmovic, Jr., Princeton University
• Ida Nejera, Stanford University
• Lulani Ritok, Stanford University
• Selvenious Marvin, Stanford University
• Sylvia Avicks, Princeton University
• Talei Savu, Stanford University
This program brings high school students from US affiliated countries of the US Virgin Islands, the Northern Marians, Guam, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and America Samoa.
The six RMI candidates are expected to depart the Marshall Islands in the next four weeks.
Oil spill: World's eyes focus on the RMI
It's time to quit
DOUGLAS HENRY
In an effort to offset Tobacco’s push to increase its consumer base, the World Health Organization (WHO) is urging global action and launching a campaign to protect women and young girls against tobacco use.
On Monday the Marshall Islands recognized “World No Tobacco Day” as government and non-government organizations gathered at the weather station to kick start the event with a parade, which culminated at the Youth to Youth in Health grounds with fun activities and tobacco abuse awareness. This year’s theme ‘Gender and Tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women’ highlights WHO’s concern and statistics which show that tobacco industries are targeting women to increase their consumer base.
In some countries tobacco use among men is on a slow decline, meanwhile use among women is increasing.
Highlighting how serious a problem tobacco use is and how can it impact one generation to the next, a recent CNN World News report: “Mom of toddler smoker seeks help” reveals shocking video clips of a two-year-old Indonesian child smoking a cigarette. According to this toddler’s mother she smoked while she was pregnant but quit after her child’s birth. To view this CNN documentary you can log on to: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/05/31/
indonesia.smoking.baby/index.html.
(Continued from stories above)
as the “substantially interested state” in the disaster.
Questions have been raised in the US Congress about why Transocean registers its rigs in a country 7,000 miles from Washington with a gross domestic product of $133 million — 700 times less than BP’s market capitalization.
Jim Oberstar, a Democratic congressman from Minnesota, suggested last week that the move was to scrimp on safety inspections: “Coastguard inspection of a US-flagged mobile offshore drilling unit takes two to three weeks, but the safety examination of a foreign flag offshore drilling unit, such as Deepwater Horizon, takes four to eight hours.”
During a hearing on Capitol Hill, Judy Chu, a Democratic member of Congress, from California, asked why Transocean had its headquarters in Switzerland, where it had a dozen or so employees, and why it registered its rigs in the Pacific: She said it raised the question of “whether such companies seek to avoid safety regulations by flagging the vessel outside the US”.
The Marshall Islands, in common with a handful of other small nations, including Panama, Liberia and the Bahamas, actively markets its “flag” as a convenient registration. In January, 2,012 vessels weighing a total of 52 million tons operated under its flag.
 The International Transport Workers’ Federation claims such flags are simply a way of avoiding taxes, paying cheap registration fees and enabling ship owners to employ cheap labor.
Transocean admitted there was a “financial tax benefit” in registering its rigs in the Marshall Islands. But the company’s co-general counsel, Rachel Clingman, said there were practical issues, too. The lawyer said registering in the US would mean rigs being captained by a US citizen and needing to be physically inspected by the US coastguard each year. “When the rig is traveling around the world and is sometimes in the middle east or far east, that becomes a logistical issue.”
The Marshall Islands, a string of 29 atolls and five islands economically dependent upon US aid, were once best known as a testing ground for US nuclear bombs. Local industries include fishing, handicrafts and the production of coconut oil.
The country’s shipping registry is administered by a private firm, International Registries Inc, which has its headquarters in Reston, Washington DC.
A spokeswoman, Laura Sherman, said Marshall Islands representatives had been in the Gulf of Mexico since the rig exploded. She said the islands had a commitment to “working with ship owners, operators and other industry stakeholders to ensure the safety and security of passengers and crews, their cargos and their ships, along with the protection of the marine environment.”
AG takes tough line
(Continued from stories above)
“We will prosecute to the full extent any violations of the law.”
The oil rig exploded in late April and has now spewed up to 800,000 gallons of crude oil a day from a well 5,000 feet underwater.
BP’s attempt to stop the flow of fuel by injecting heavy fluids into it has failed and the company is now using underwater robotic vessels to try to cut off the pipe attached to the blowout preventer — the 48-foot-tall device that sits over the well — and install a cap on of it. BP spokesman John Curry said the cap will have piping that will suck oil up to a surface vessel.
A more permanent solution of drilling two relief wells won’t be completed until August, by which time more than 50 million gallons of oil will have spilled into the Gulf.

Journal 7/5/1985

Journal 8/8/1970
Motorola Company of California has refused to fill a Citizen Band radio order placed by Headquarters Trust Territory Communication Department.
According to Marshalls Community Action Agency (MCAA) Director Tony DeBrum, Motorola’s California representative George Funkie refused to fill the order for PT 400 VHF radios because the radio would not fulfill the requirements of their intended use and might harm Motorola’s reputation. “Motorola said that in the case of Aerok and Kavin Maloelap, you would need either one 800’ tower or two 400’ towers in conjunction with the PT 400 sets,” said DeBrum.		 BORN AGAIN
We got born again Christians, born again alcoholics, born again politicians, and born again cows, all of which (except for the latter) are obvious enough in the society we call home here in the Marshall Islands. But the latest born-again has to be the born again businessmen’s association of this fair Republic. Yes sir, the Majuro Chamber of Commerce is back in the swing – fatter and more energetic than she ever was, and full of community-wide representation that does everybody’s heart good.
It is no secret that for the last five years the Chamber (or Businessmen’s Association as it was called) was a hollow shell, never meeting, never grumbling and never doing anybody any good. Happily the long, long drought is over and the new revitalized organization has come along strappingly well since its reincarnation three
short months ago. Much of the credit for this new energy field must be directed to the Chamber’s present president who sidesteps delay with the professionalism of a Jimmy Brown. He is an organizer who found something sorely in need of organization, a veritable Lee Iaaocca restructuring as motley a crew of insolents as ever filed for a business license. So, three cheers for the new Chamber of Commerce of the Marshall Islands: we look forward to the enrichment of our total community by your future works and undertakings!
“The actual systems planning for the radio net was left to Saipan Communications Department under John M. Welch.
“After Saipan recommended the PT 400 radios for intra-atoll communications system OEO San Francisco was contacted for final approval.
“Approval was obtained but when Motorola was approached they said they would not sell the equipment.”
But Headquarters disagreed with Motorola, said DeBrum.
“Saipan says the sets would have a rangeof from 20 to 30 miles while Motorola maintains the set is good for only 5 miles.
“At a meeting last week the Trust Territory Chief Engineer George Wiseman told CAA representatives that he did not agree with Motorola and that the equipment will do the job,” said DeBrum.
The outcome of the Saipan meeting was an agreement by the T.T. to request Motorola to conduct a field test of the PT 400 in the Marshalls to determine actual capabilities of the PT 400.
“What this means,” DeBrum concluded, “is that the communication program in the Marshalls will be delayed for the next few months.
A $100,000 fund has been set aside for an outer island radio communication system in the Marshalls. $49,000 is provided by the Department of Public Health and $50,000 by MCAA.
The impetus to improve radio communications on an intra atoll basis began in earnest last April when Peace Corps Volunteer died in Tripler Army Hospital after a prolonged sickness on Longar Island in Arno Atoll.
While no direct relationship between McCarthy’s death and poor radio communication is alleged, some grave concern is alive to see that such cases do not arise in the future.

Journal 1/1/1993
Week of 12/07—12/12/92
SUNDAY: On Dec. 6, the following burglars were arrested from inside the Yacht Club as they were breaking into the said club: Jibli Helkena, Neil Rosen, James Helkena and Marcus Tres. The suspects are being detained for further investigation by the CID personnel.
MONDAY: On Dec. 7 at 6:50 p.m., Feliciano Santos residing in Uliga Town reported to police station that he wants to file criminal charge against Dennis Carlmi for assaulting.
TUESDAY – Sister Aroira Tauti of Assumption High School reported that her house had been burglarized by unknown person. Some of her belongings were stolen. Case is being investigated by the CID personnel.
THURSDAY – Inok Jorout resident of Long Island reported that he wishes to file a complaint against Center Arelong also of Long Island for unlawfully deprive the peace and maliciously damaged his house.
SATURDAY - Taai Tamare of Long Island reported that a male individual known as Junior Waju stole his VCR from his room while he was asleep. Suspect removed louvers and forced himself into the room and ran away with the VCR. Case is being assigned to CID personnel.