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Friday, November 14, 2008
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PO Box 14 Majuro, MH 96960 Marshall Islands
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On the ocean road behind Formosa in Uliga, Majuro
$20 million: The
Litokwa to Pohnpei for president talks
President Litokwa Tomeing will head a delegation from the Marshall Islands to the Micronesian Chief Executives meeting and the Micronesia Presidents’ Summit, which will be held in Pohnpei from Monday through Thursday next week. The Presidents’ Summit will be held on November 19-20. Foreign Minister Tony deBrum will join the President and other officials in the delegation. The agenda for the summit will include the upcoming five-year Compact review with the US. “We will be sharing what is good and bad about the Compact, and what changes are needed,” deBrum said.
AMI to rent Dornier-228
Air Marshall Islands expects to lease a Dornier-228 for service in the RMI in the next several weeks, according to General Manager Bill Capelle. The resumption of service by its Dash-8 has been delayed again by delays in the arrival of parts. In the meantime, arrangements are being made to get a Dornier leased to be in service prior to Christmas, Capelle said.
Mobil drops price by 30¢
Mobil Oil Micronesia dropped its gas price to local dealers 30 cents per gallon on Saturday, its biggest reduction since prices began declining in July. The 30-cent cut is triple the reduction of previous Mobil reductions since the end of July, when the price of gas began going down in Majuro.
With Saturday’s 30-cent reduction, Mobil has lowered its wholesale price to dealers by $1.17 since July. Mobil’s wholesale price to dealers is now under $4.50 per gallon. On Wednesday, SEPS and Riwut stations dropped a full 30 cents to $5.79 — the first time in nearly a year that gas prices have been under $5 a gallon at the pump.
Fish club feels the
tuna drought
The Marshalls Billfish Club board of directors and the general membership is feeling the scarcity of tuna schools in Majuro and Arno atoll waters, the main sport fishing grounds, the club said in a statement to the Journal this week. “Ten years ago, schools or boils of tuna, yellowfin and bigeye were abundant,” said MBC President Chris deBrum. “Nowadays it is very difficult to run into a yellowfin school.” He said, “over-fishing and illegal fishing are directly contributing” to the problem.
Wages down by $2.5 million
Confirming what any business will tell you — that the economy has been slack this past year — is a report issued this week by the government’s Economic Policy, Planning and Statistics Office (EPPSO). The report shows that there was an increase of only 15 new jobs in the RMI between fiscal year 2007 and fiscal year 2008.
Happy start for WUTMI gals
Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI) kicked off its ninth General Assembly before a packed ICC on Monday. The attendance of President Litokwa Tomeing and top RMI leaders, coupled with the live broadcast of the event on V7AB radio, demonstrated a level of harmony between WUTMI and the national government not seen in years.
clock's ticking
By GIFF JOHNSON
With fewer than five weeks left to Kwajalein’s December 17 money deadline — when $20.7 million either gets paid to the landowners or returns to the US possibly never to be seen again — there appears to be little progress to get a new land use agreement or to extend the deadline, despite RMI appeals for action to the US. Foreign Minister Tony deBrum (pictured) told the Journal last week he would like to
'The RMI has honored and we expect it will continue to honor (the terms of the Compact).' – Clyde Bishop
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see the “lame duck” Republican administration give President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team “the opportunity to look at it before the drop dead deadline.” Pushing back the deadline could be “the way out” of the problem. But in a talk Monday at the College of the Marshall Islands’ Public Policy Institute, US Ambassador Clyde Bishop made it plain that the Compact approved in 2004 is a contract between the two nations through which the US has been granted use of Kwajalein by the RMI government until 2066. “The US will continue to abide by the provisions (of the Compact),” he said. “The RMI has honored and we expect it will continue to honor (the terms of the Compact).” He also stated that without a new land use agreement (LUA) by December 17, the estimated $20.7 million now in escrow “will return to the US Treasury.” The one new development on the Kwajalein front is a recent letter from Kwajalein alabs (clan heads) to the RMI government, saying in essence that if the RMI can get US agreement in writing to address several issues, they are prepared to “advise” Kwajalein iroij to work out a new LUA with the RMI government. But the issues identified by deBrum as needing action — full faith and credit provisions for overall Compact funding, power and water for the Marshallese community at Kwajalein and moving up previously agreed Kwajalein payments from 2014 to 2010 — are clearly deal breakers by US estimation. DeBrum, who represents Kwajalein in the Nitijela, acknowledged there has been no indication from the US government that it is willing to discuss issues in the military use and operating rights agreement (MUORA) in Compact II. But deBrum said the RMI has to be able to offer something to get the landowners on board. “The US says the LUA is between the landowners and the RMI government,” deBrum said. “But the RMI can’t offer what the US has already offered (and the landowners have rejected).” DeBrum said he will be traveling to Washington later this month to see what the US Congress can do regarding Kwajalein. “There’s too much emphasis on the (December 17) deadline,” he said. “The traditional leaders say if it can’t be done, then start talking about 2016 (the end of the current LUA allowing US presence at Kwajalein). But we think we can produce a result both sides are happy with. But not if the US just stonewalls and says ‘we have a deal.’ As far as the landowners are concerned, there is no deal.”
KBE council debates how to choose their new mayor
The Kili/Bikini/Ejit (KBE) Council is moving with surprising rancor to resolve the question of how to fill the vacancy created by the recent death of Mayor Kataejar Jibas. KBE leaders have packed the Bikini Town Hall since last Friday for daily meetings. On Tuesday, although agreement was reached in some areas, the meeting was halted after heated debate sparked a fight between two meeting participants. The two had to be separated by others. Meetings were continuing Wednesday as the Journal went to press. The challenge for the KBE Council is its constitution, which has conflicting provisions about how to resolve a vacancy in the mayor’s post. Under
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discussion now are a series of amendments to the constitution, according to KBE officials. A two-thirds majority — 12 of the 18-member council — is needed to approve any amendment, which also needs the okay from the Attorney General’s office and Internal Affairs. On Tuesday, the KBE Council had more than the needed two-thirds vote to amend the constitution to allow the Council to choose the mayor to serve the rest of the four-year term. A second issue that has not yet been decided — and which reportedly precipitated the altercation Tuesday — is whether the Mayor must be chosen from among the Council or can be from the community. Once a decision is reached by the KBE Council on these amendments, they are to be forwarded to the AG and Internal Affairs for review. Approval by the national government will pave the way for a Mayor to be selected by the Council to finish the term. If these amendments are approved, there would be no need for a special election. Since Mayor Jibas’ car accident, which resulted in his death, Councilman Alson Kelen (pictured) has been Acting Mayor.
Journal 10/73
Journal 10/83
P1 “It is clear that the US refused at Hana to discuss ‘free association’ as the Congress of Micronesia has defined it.” These are the words of Representative Hans Williander, member of the Congress of Micronesia and spokesman for the Micronesian Independence Coalition. He made the statement in reaction to an article carried in the October 28, 1971 Honolulu Star-Bulletin. According to Williander, Senator
P1 The Marshalls Sun Corporation Hotel and Restaurant began operations this past week with a soft opening. The 35-unit one story hotel already has six occupants and the restaurant has been presenting an excellent quality Japanese-style fare prepared by chief cook Koichi Oashi and his assistant Shuichi Ishizawa.
P2 (Editorial) It’s high time someone does something about the newest menace on Majuro’s roads: the evening jogger. These self-important trotters are making a national pastime out of running along our poorly lit roads just after dark and are creating a traffic hazard, not only to themselves, but more importantly to drivers and passengers of vehicles who are legally using the roads as they were intended: for vehicle traffic. It is the crazies who stink-sweat their way along the unshouldered causeway just past PII and Tobolar who are the real danger: they are sure to cause an accident, given enough time and opportunity, and the likely victims will not be the runners who cause a vehicle to swerve unexpectedly, but probably some other oncoming vehicle and driver. We urge the police to stop these runners who feel it is safe to run along this unshouldered road: they can confine themselves to the large area of the old runway, or at least confine their anti-social activity to daylight hours. The causeway is bad enough as it is. We don’t need additional stupidity added to this already dangerous passage.
Clifford Case remarked that he had heard there were plans to store nuclear weapons removed from Okinawa on Babelthuap Island in Palau. “Ambassador Franklin Haydn Williams solemnly promised that usage of land for military purposes would be requested only on specified locations and for specified purposes,” Williander said. “In contradiction to this, Secretary of Defense David Packard is said to have remarked that the United States could place ‘forces or installations on any of the islands.”
P3 Tony deBrum, Director of the Marshalls Community Action Agency (MCAA) has resigned his post with effect December 5. “It’s just that I feel three years is enough,” deBrum said. As for his future plans, he says he has nothing definite in mind.
Journal 10/98
P1 Calling Kwajalein the “gem in the crown,” Lt. Genral John Costello predicted the importance of the Kwajalein missile range will grow in the
coming years as missile defense programs move to a more advanced level of testing. The commander of the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command, Costello said in an interview with the Journal that Kwajalein is important today but will become “more significant in the future.”
P1 The Marshall Islands is not broke, Finance Minister Tony deBrum told Nitijela during the budget debate. This idea has been perpetuated by the Asian Development Bank, which has been telling the country that the Compact ends in 2001 so there won’t be any money and cutbacks are necessary, he said. He called it a serious misinterpretation of the situation.