MAY 21, 2010
New Electoral Officer Wise
After a several month vacancy, the Public Service Commission has named new staff to the Marshall Islands Electoral Administration. Long time Ministry of Internal Affairs staff member Wise Amram is the new Chief Electoral Officer and Joseph Jorlang, a former Chief Electoral Officer, is a consultant to the CEO.
MICAP set to help students
go to college
Students of the Marshall Islands can expect a stronger emphasis on college preparation following Thursday’s creation of the Non-Government Organization (NGO) Marshall Islands College Access Partners (MICAP). Spearheaded by Marshall Islands High School counselor SK Lipson, the need for an organization to focus on helping students gain admittance to tertiary institutions was supported by a number of interested individuals, including Women United Together in the Marshall Islands’ (WUTMI) Mona Levy-Strauss, EZ Price Mart’s manager Liz Rodick, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Kino Kabua, and Marshall Islands Council of Non-Government Organizations’ (MICNGOs) Bonny Taggart.
ROC helps copra farmers
A diesel engine truck was handed over this week by Republic of China/Taiwan Ambassador Bruce J.D. Linghu to Namdrik Mayor Clarence Luther and Minister Mattlan Zackhras, who represents Namdrik Atoll. The handover was also witnessed by the Minister’s wife Angela Zackhras, ROC Deputy Chief of Mission Herbert Hsu, and Henry Lin of ELM Motors along with some members of Taiwanese community.
Australia welcomes
RMI as a partner
Australian Ambassador Susan Cox recently visited Majuro to have bilateral meetings on the Pacific Partnership for Development and sign a bilateral tax treaty with the RMI government for the exchange of tax information.
This signing is a significant landmark in the Rudd Government’s program to improve tax transparency in the global economy, according to the Assistant Treasurer of the Australian Treasury Senator Nick Sherry.
Grant to improve disability programs
A three-year grant for half a million dollars has been put in place to help the Marshall Islands improve disability infrastructure within the community. This grant provided money to the Newborn Hearing and Screening Program that just started at Majuro Hospital. This program tests all newborns to see if they have hearing problems. There is a room at the hospital that will be used for doing testing.
GED graduation
Juanita Chinoska, Meriana Bollong, and Lucinda Lobwij were three of 63 students graduating with a General Equivalency Diploma (GED) on Tuesday at MIHS.
GIFF JOHNSON
A prime time American TV host bashed the Marshall Islands and two multinational corporations last week for the registration in the RMI of an oil rig that exploded in late April, causing a disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Rachel Maddow (pictured above), who hosts a popular daily show on MSNBC TV, used a delivery heavy with sarcasm suggesting the inability of these far-flung islands to operate a credible ship registry. While RMI ship registry and national government officials have declined to comment
Click here to book a room
RMI-flagged oil rig “Deepwater Horizon,” Kwajalein Senator Tony deBrum responded to Maddow, telling her in a letter that US officials closely associated with President George H.W. Bush established the ship registry in the Marshall Islands. on the disaster involving the RMI-flagged oil rig “Deepwater Horizon,” Kwajalein Senator Tony deBrum responded to Maddow, telling her in a letter that US officials closely associated with President George H.W. Bush established the ship registry in the Marshall Islands. “While it is easy to cast these islands and their ship’s registry in a sarcastic and predatory role with respect to the British Petroleum debacle, that is really not the case,” deBrum said. “Do you want to know where this Swiss rig leased by a British company to drill American oil is flagged?” asked Maddow on her TV show last week. “It flies the flag of the Marshall Islands. Huh? Where are the Marshall Islands? All the way over — yes — oh, keep going. Keep going. Oh, yes. Over here. A tiny cluster of islands, sort of off the (Continued below)
TV host pours scorn on RMI
(Continued from above) northern coast of Australia maybe? Roughly the same size population as the town of Palo Alto, California. Now, was this giant rig built in the Marshall Islands? No, it was built in South Korea. Is this giant rig helmed by people from the Marshall Islands? “Not that anybody knows of. Are any of the companies involved here headquartered in the Marshall Islands? No. So, why does this giant oil rig fly the flag of this teeny, tiny, totally unrelated country? Oh, right, because the Marshall Islands have relatively lax maritime regulations.” But deBrum countered Maddow’s criticism by describing the Marshall Islands as “proud” of its unique free association relationship with the United States that provides the foundation for the ship registry.
“The ship registry program of the Marshall Islands was founded by former US Ambassador Fred Zeder, who was the final architect of this unique relationship,” deBrum said to Maddow. “His son, Howard Zeder, promoted the program to demonstrate to the world how this relationship between the Marshall Islands and the United States guarantees the security of the islands.
“Any ship flying the flag of the Marshall Islands is protected under the Compact of Free Association between the two countries as if it were a US citizen.”

William Gallagher (pictured), President of International Registries, Inc., the Virginia-based company that administers the Marshall Islands ship registry, will be visiting the Marshall Islands later this week. The visit was planned some months ago for Gallagher. He is expected to meet with government officials on ship registry issues.
$14 million emergency facility unveiled
People gathered at Amata Kabua International Airport last Friday for the dedication of the Ports Authority’s new Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) facility. Built at a cost of $14 million, the facility will house fire fighting equipment and a tower that has full view of the runway from end to end. US Embassy Charge Eric Watnik told the group that the US Federal Aviation Administration has now invested more than $50 million into improving the Majuro airport, including repaving, lights, new fire trucks, the new ARFF building and ongoing training.
At first, US officials in the US balked at the high price tag for a facility that in the US would cost $5 million to build. The bulk of this cost was for landfill to create the space for the facility on what used to be lagoon. FAA District Office Manager Ron Simpson, who is based in Honolulu, said
when he realized that the $14 million cost would be questioned by officials in FAA’s Washington headquarters, he took aerial photos of the location that Ports Director Jack Chong Gum had given him and circulated them to all people involved in the decision. When the American officials saw the proposed atoll location for the facility, they quickly approved the additional funding, Simpson said. “They say a picture is worth a thousand words,” he said. “Those pictures sent to Washington were worth $14 million.” He described the job done by Pacific International Inc. in building the facility as a “very professional, quality job.” “The FAA mission is safety and emergency response capability in the region,” Simpson said. With US funding, “there has been a fundamental transformation at Amata Kabua International Airport.”
The exterior view of the new Ports Authority’s Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting facility.
Photo: Giff Johnson.
Lads of Lady E in the Philippines
The Enewetak ship Lady E is getting a much-needed overhaul at a dockyard in Subic, the Philippines. The yard routinely flies the flags of the nationalities of its clients, hence this snap of the crew and Minister Jack Ading (white shirt center) and Mayor Jackson Ading (black shirt). Photo: Cary Evarts

Journal 5/24/1985

Journal 5/22/1971
P1 The exiled people of Enewetak Atoll, twin blast site of the world famous Bikini bomb tests, are making an attempt to return to their home atoll. In an interview with Micronitor this week…Ujelang magistrate Herties stated that the people and rioij of Enewetak want to return now to their home island because of information they received from the captain of the MV Pacifica, a Ponape district vessel which stopped at Ujelang after picking up a large supply of P5 By Mason Altiery: The men wade onto the beach from the Boston Whaler and get wet and sandy. But there is fresh water to wash off with, and clean towels, and a cold Heineken from a refrigerator stamped: PROPERTY OF THE US GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY. A sign in front of the barracks says: “Mainland Refugees to Hodge Podge Lodge Island Paradise BikLanda Vodka.” The island’s lush and green with many varieties of plants and coconut trees cover the land from shore to shore. The long, white beaches sparks in the noonday sun. But there are no fishermen on the reef, no children playing in the shade of the trees, no women sitting in the doorways. The forest is taking over the houses that were abandoned in 1978. Some of the roofs are gone, young trees and vines grow through the windows
surveyed military equipment from Enewetak. On its return to Ponape with the building materials, Herties states the Pacifica Captain told the Ujelangese that there were under 10 Americans on the island. This, said Herties, made the people sure that the island was no longer being used and agitated the desire to return to their home island.
“We are the only people in the Trust Territory who are being kept away from our island now,” Herties said. The people were moved from their island in late 1940s and have experienced extreme hardships during their exile. For years on Ujelang there was a six-month wait between field trip ships and usually the people had no money to buy from the ships when they did receive services.
Herties told Micronitor that the Marshalls District Administrator Oscar deBrum was sympathetic to his request. He also said he held talks with the iroijs of Ujelang and that they urged him to press for the immediate return of their island.		 and a boat trailer sits rusting in somebody’s front yard. This is Bikini, 1985. The only people here are a few scientists from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California. They visit here periodically. They are studying radiation. Some people in Majuro had said the clean up of Bikini had already begun; that several acres had been cleared and a foot of radioactive topsoil removed. More misinformation. The clean up has not begun. A scientist from Lawrence Livermore says it will not begin for a long time. “That’s why we’re here,” he said, “to figure out how to do that.”

Journal 5/21/1993
P5 A study of Rongelap eating patterns began this week on Mejatto Island in Kwajaelin. A group of Mejatto residents were trained in Majuro last week by South Pacific Commission nutritionist Cecily Dignan and headed back to do the survey. “The survey is being done to establish how much radiation the Rongelapese will receive if they go back to Rongelap,” said scientist Bernd Franke. “It is one more piece of the Rongelap resettlement Project puzzle.”
The Rongelap community has agreed that if radiation levels for a diet based on local foods only are below 100 millirem, they will return. The challenge, said Franke, “is that there isn’t anyone in the Marshall Islands eating only local food. In the survey we’ll try to get an accurate picture of the diet and extrapolate how much radiation
they’ll get by eating the same local food items on Rongelap. If it’s above 100, there’ll be a clean up; if it’s below that, the people can go back.”