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Friday, March 7, 2008
E-mail:
journal@ntamar.net
Phone:
(692) 625-8143
(692) 625-8146
Fax:
(692) 625-3136
Mail:
PO Box 14
Majuro, MH 96960
Marshall Islands
In Person:
On the ocean road
behind Formosa
in Uliga, Majuro
President Litokwa Tomeing is scheduled to make his first state visit to Taiwan starting Monday next week.
He and First Lady Arlene Tomeing are being joined by Foreign Minister Tony deBrum and his wife, Rosalie, as well as RMI staff for the five-day visit. Tomeing is expected to present Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian with a new economic aid proposal for discussion during the visit.
US Army snubs billionaire Allen
Although the US Army turned down Paul Allen’s request to briefly transit Kwajalein on his way to Bikini last Friday, the billionaire computer mogul showed “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” His 414-foot mega-yacht Octopus, which had been at Bikini Atoll since last Thursday, moved to within helicopter range of Majuro, dispatching one of its two helicopters to Majuro Saturday to pick him up.
Top US Boy Scouts visit Marshall Islands
A high-level delegation from the Boy Scouts of America will be visiting Majuro next week, and their visit links with a big two-night campout involving several hundred Majuro Boy Scouts at Enemanet Island. Hirobo Obeketang, director of the Boy Scout program locally, said they are gearing up for the group’s three-day visit to Majuro that starts next Wednesday. The US-based 10-member Boy Scouts group includes Bob Mazucca, chief scout executive, who heads the Boy Scouts of America.
N-Day: Problems still apparent
Speakers at Saturday’s well-attended Nuclear Victims and Survivors Remembrance Day ceremony said that while it is 62 years since the start of the first nuclear tests, there continue to be unresolved problems, particularly related to health, from radiation exposure. They outlined concerns about a continuing tide of cancers afflicting islanders exposed to fallout, radiation contamination of islands in Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap and Utrik, lack of funding from the US to allow the Nuclear Claims Tribunal to fully pay compensation awards, and the fate of proposed US Senate legislation proposing to fund the 177 Health Program for the next 15 years.
The first mooring buoy in the Mieco Beach Yacht Club’s reef protection project was installed at Enemanet Island last Saturday morning. A CMI scuba diving class witnessed the ‘dropping’ of the mooring into about 50 feet of water. “The mooring project will really help to protect the reef by alleviating the problems of anchor damage,” Candice Guavis, a MIMRA fisheries officer, told the Journal. Guavis began studying marine science at CMI in 2001, then continued her studies at University of Hawaii, Hilo. To help Marshallese to ‘identify’ with the moorings, which are intended for fishing boats, sports boats, and yachts, it was decided to name the moorings and, ta-da, first up is coral-lover Candice. The project is being funded by a grant from the United Nations Development Program’s Global Environment Facility Small Grants Program.
Close to 100 Marshallese are to be laid off at Kwajalein this year, while 650 workers will see their workweek reduced by four hours, Kwajalein Commander Col. Stevenson Reed told the Journal last Thursday following a briefing to President Tomeing and his Cabinet about the cutbacks. Reed’s briefing produced a statement of concern Tuesday from the RMI government, with Minister in Assistance Christopher Loeak saying the news of layoffs “was a surprise” to RMI leaders. He and Foreign Minister Tony deBrum expressed “dismay” at the “abrupt USAKA reduction in force.” A total of 89 Marshall Islands Kwajalein Range Service (KRS) workers are to be laid off in 2008, while up to 10 more non-KRS workers could also lose their jobs, the Army said. The Army must cut $21 million off its base budget between fiscal year 2008 and FY2011, with $6 million being chopped this year from an approximately $250 million annual budget, Reed told the Journal. “The global war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan costs money and it has to come from somewhere,” Reed said. “We’re not immune” from these costs. But Reed said that despite these planned cuts, the future of the Reagan Test Site is “bright.” Originally the number of Marshall Islands workers facing layoff was significantly higher, Reed said. But the Army through negotiations with KRS was able to reduce the cutback to 89, he said. Of the approximately 1,050 US contractor workers there, 64 are being let go this year, too. Budget cuts aside, two other factors driving the changes are the distribution of range operations to other locations and fewer missions/customers using the Reagan Test Site, he said. “The footprint of USAKA/Reagan Test Site is being reduced as we move toward a future way of doing business in a transformed way,” Reed said.
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Four children shot in Jenrok Tuesday were hospitalized for their injuries and scheduled for surgery Thursday. The four children were rushed to Majuro Hospital on Tuesday afternoon after family members discovered, hours after the shooting, that their children were victims of an anonymous shooting. Three of the children were shot around 12 noon, with the fourth, a three-year-old boy, hit around 2 pm the same day. Police Captain Vincent Tani told the Journal that police questioned a Jenrok man who owns a pellet gun, but released him, and are continuing their investigation. Police suspect that a pellet gun was used. But until the projectiles are removed from the four children through surgery, the type of gun used cannot be confirmed. Family member of the victims told the Journal “it was the shooting of the three-year-old boy that made us realize what happened to the other older children.” Three of the male victims, a 13-year-old, an eight-year-old and the three-year-old are all related, living next door to each other.
The stories shown here are just a sample from this week's paper.