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FRIDAY, September 25, 2009
It was a bit of a challenge for their small hands but in celebration of
Culture Week, Majuro Coop School second graders learned how to weave these ‘enra’ (food baskets) on Monday. Other activities at the school this week included making Marshallese food like lukor and jukjuk in binana, sharing Marshallese stories and songs, and weaving head leis.
Photo:
Jessica Risley.
By GIFF JOHNSON
Adding a new degree of uncertainty to an already challenged business environment in Majuro, MEC General Manager David Paul warned Wednesday’s Chamber of Commerce meeting that power for the capital is in an unpredictable phase and electricity service could be interrupted if one of the two large engines break down. “I don’t want to panic anyone, but the assessment from our mechanical engineers is that the big engines in the new power plant could go tomorrow, next month or in six months,” Paul said. “We’re aggressively working to get parts in and the generators overhauled.” But, said the new Marshalls Energy Company general manager, “as a responsible manager, I don’t want people to panic but this is the reality (of the power situation in Majuro). I don’t have a crystal ball.”
Several of the smaller generators in the old plant are still ‘down’ as a result of a fire three years ago, and while one was recently returned to service, Majuro’s electricity usage is at the point where MEC currently has almost no backup generating capacity. And if one of the big six megawatt engines is forced to shut down — as happened recently — it will put MEC in the position of rationing power. The new plant’s two engines “are in
This Week's
Inside Stories
Special
auction of mats
Two traditional Marshallese mats made in 1889 will be on display at the third annual Jaki-ed Exhibit and Auction, helping to make it a must-see event. In all 27 mats, known as ‘jaki-ed,’ will be on display at the exhibit, which is being held at the Marshall Island Resort’s Melele Room at 7pm Thursday. The 120-year-old works of art are on loan from the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, and have been loaned thanks to the help of MaryLou Foley, an old friend of the Marshalls.
Arno tops
copra tonnage
Copra production looks set to drop this year after three consecutive years of increasing tonnage. From January through the end of August, Tobolar Copra Processing Authority had received 3,870.15 tons of copra. This works out to a monthly average of 483.77 tons compared to last year’s monthly average of 636.77.
Downtime hits our airline hard
The 2008 audit of Air Marshall Islands demonstrates the financial devastation that more than seven months without regular air service caused for the national airline. It shows that while revenues were more than $3.4 million in fiscal year 2007, the airline’s revenues tanked last year, dropping to $1 million. Coupled with virtually no reduction in spending, AMI — before its government bailout money — had a more than $2.5 million deficit, compared to “just” $500,000 in losses in 2007.
15 ri-Majol
join US Army
A group of 15 Marshall Islanders and one American was sworn in aboard the USNS Richard E. Byrd last week in a ceremony attended by US Ambassador Martha Campbell and parents and relatives of the group. Navy Commodore Andrew Cully spoke to the group, telling the Marshallese that they were being sworn in to defend a nation “that is not fully theirs,” and to endure the same sacrifices as their American comrades even though they are not yet US citizens.
MEC warns of serious plant problems
Rien 'Need to check hospital'
a state of disrepair,” he said. “They require a major overhaul.”
MEC has been financially strapped the past three years, with little money available for major engine work. For the new plant’s two Deutz engines, it can take many months lead-time to fabricate new parts, which also have to be paid for in advance, Paul said. A Marshall Islands Social Security Administration official said Paul, who is on the MISSA board, advised the board to purchase a generator, which the retirement agency is now planning to do. “On Tuesday, we briefed the Cabinet regarding the financial situation of the company, and I expect the Minister of Public Works (Maynard Alfred) who chairs the MEC board will go on Nitijela to explain the situation to the public,” Paul told the Chamber. Paul concluded by asking if there were any questions. The normally voluble Chamber crowd responded with an unusual silence.
Jaluit Senator Rien Morris on Tuesday at Nitijela called for Nitijela members to take a tour of Majuro Hospital so that they can see first hand for themselves the problems that need to be resolved. His recommendation was supported by several senators, and Kwaj-alein Senator Tony deBrum added that he’d like to see a tour of the main jail included in the tour by senators. Minister in Assistance Ruben Zackhras observed that the hospital is very old, and the government is plan-ning to replace it with a new facility. Morris interrupted the Minister, saying “we are avoiding the problem by not visit-ing,” adding that the problem is one of “no maintenance.” Zackhras said he was not against visiting the hospital and in fact welcomed the idea, but wanted to point out the condition of the facility as a factor in the current situation. “I want the members to have a feeling for the problem and to awaken these guys to what needs to be done,”
Morris told the Journal after the session. “It may be they don’t have the money or technical people to maintain the delicate machines like the decompression chamber, x-ray machine, scanners and air conditioners,” he said. Morris said he was not attempting to blame anyone. “It’s good for us to see it with our own eyes,” he said. “It’s different from hearing (stories).” The Jaluit senator acknowledged the facility is old. “But at least let’s fix it so the condition can be good for patients for the time being,” he said.

Journal 9/26/1970

Journal 10/1/1976
P1 Lead headline: “Crisis in Education” Out of the 640 students who graduated from the Marshalls district eighth grades last June, only 190 will be able to attend high school this year in the district center. This alarming statistic was provided to Micronitor by Marshall Islands High School Principal John Heine. Limitations in space and the number of teachers at the high school made it necessary to refuse admittance to hundreds of eligible students.
P1 William Vitarelli, nominally the coordinator of the Trust Territory’s Adult Education program and in reality a self-appointed spokesman of a future Micronesia for Micronesians, visited Majuro this week. He had some interesting
P1 July hearings of a US Congressional Committee in the Marshall Islands have resulted in a strongly worded demand for an end to discriminatory practices at Kwajalein Atoll. Letters
signed by Reps. Phillip Burton, Patsy Mink and Antonio Won Pat to the Secretaries of the Army and Interior, contained demands for “fast strong, corrective action” to end exclusion of Trust Territory citizens from the Kwajalein hospital and from shipping facilities on Kwajalein. The Congressional demands were hailed by George M. Allen, lawyer for Marshallese workers at Kwajalein, as “an encouraging development.”
P6 As the old man looked glassy-eyed into the furnished apartment, he turned slowly toward his visitor with an increasingly apparent interest. “It’s funny you should ask how I knew it was over, I’ve asked myself the same question time and time again. I think it was when the Army stopped referring to us as the native population and started calling us ‘civilians.’”
P8 Marshalls District Administrator Oscar deBrum has signed into law a bill calling for a Constitutional Convention to be held in the Marshall Islands next year.
interesting things to say. For one, he expressed alarm at the way foreign investments in the TT have been handled so far and cited the Van Camp Cannery in Palau and the Royal Taga in Saipan as examples of exploitation in Micronesia. “Most people don’t realize that the cannery operation in Palau is the third largest in the world and yet Micronesians receive almost no benefits from it,” he said. “There are about 30 Micronesians employed who average 80 cents an hour — that’s the extent of Van Camp’s contribution to Micronesia.” Vitarelli noted with alarm the recent large increase in the TT budget. “The United States is now bumping the budget so that Micronesians will get hooked. If development goes in the direction of sophistication, and by this I mean a bureaucracy that Micronesia can’t maintain, then Micronesians will be permanently dependent on American specialists. You can have an educational system geared to the United States state structures where masses of waste are involved or you can have something uniquely tailored to Micronesia, which can be run by Micronesians. Unfortunately, the present trend is toward the more sophisticated and wasteful American style.”
P8 Climbing into Whitney Brothers restaurant last Tuesday morning with two long-handled spades, Senator Isaac Lanwi complained: “What are we going to do about these airplane hijackers? If we don’t do something, who knows but maybe they’ll hijack our plane and fly to New Caledonia. That would leave us without a plane.” Evidently his concern for someone stealing our one and only plane was sincere for when asked what he was doing with the two spades he replied that he was carrying them with him to make sure no one stole them. We wonder how the Senator likes sleeping in his car at night.
P8 Ebon Magistrate Mau Silk, a man who maintains his Marshallese Christianity in KITCO Bar by artfully arguing that he makes a point of only drinking wine and never touching the devil’s beer or whiskey, made some rather thoughtful comments recently in KITCO about the political status issue. “The Americans have an agreement with the people of the Trust Territory,” said Mau, “and now they are doing a lot of talking about Free Association, commonwealth and Independence. Why? We never complained about anything. They just want to stop taking care of us. Joe Stalin and Truman and Churchill got together and made an agreement — so why break it? Things are alright as they are now.”

Journal 9/25/1992
P3 This Friday, Alele Week culminates with a special presentation of dances by performers from Namdrik and Arno who have been practicing for months in preparation for the Pacific Festival of Arts in the Cook Islands. Museum Curator Alfred Capelle said the two dance troupes are coming to Majuro specially for the Lutok Kobban Alele Festival on Friday.
P3 Marshallese youth are smiling but are they in school? A recent government report advised that thousands of primary school age children are not attending school. The recent establishment of the Majuro Middle School is one effort to open urgently needed new classroom space.
P5 $70 million from US to Marshalls. That’s right, $70 million was sent to the Marshall Islands by the US government last Tuesday, a whopping $5 million more than is being currently being agonized over in Nitijela as our lawmakers wrestle with next year’s budget. Only one hitch to the problem, of course, is that the $70 million didn’t come in the form of cash. No, it was just an Air Force-launched “Peacekeeper” missile. It traveled 4,200 miles and arrived here approximately 25 minutes after liftoff. Makes you think, doesn’t it, about other possibilities of what to do with all that money when you see photographs of malnourished children begging for food.
P1 Oscar deBrum’s retirement, after close to 40 years of service to the Trust Territory and Marshall Islands governments, marks the end of an era in the Marshalls. His name is virtually synonymous with the administration, in the Marshalls and in Washington, DC and other distant capitals of the world. Phillip Kabua, who has been deBrum’s deputy for many years, officially took over as Chief
Secretary when deBrum stepped down last week.
P1 The long-stalled iroij title dispute between Kabua Kabua and Imata Kabua will get underway soon following Cabinet appointment of a special judge to hear the case. High Court Chief Justice Neil Rutledge signed an order Friday assigning Samuel King, a retired judge of the US District Court from Hawaii, as a temporary associated justice of the High Court. The case was originally filed in 1984.