Cram @ passport office

Over 70 people crammed the stairs, balcony and the reception area of the Attorney General's office in Delap on Monday. Photo: Hilary Hosia
Over 70 people crammed the stairs, balcony and the reception area of the Attorney General’s office in Delap on Monday. Photo: Hilary Hosia

America these days is ablaze with controversy surrounding the presidential election combat featuring billionaire Donald Trump. Here in the Marshalls, however, the blaze is fueled by that well-known word from the Bible: Exodus. Monday we factored the viability of the concrete steps at the Will Mart building on the Laura Road.

First floor of the edifice is the wholesale operation of Will Mart, but on the second floor, crowded with customers, is the RMI attorney general offices. But you wouldn’t be right in assuming the herding people on the stairway leading to the government-rented office were intent upon filing a report of a crime or other such matter.

No sir, The crowd is basically nothing other than people filing passport applications, documents to enable them to climb United’s loading ramp at Amata Kabua International and fly off to America where they can join the already there thousands of Marshallese who constitute the current Exodus of the Marshalls. The phenomenon is the talk of the town and what it portends, who can say. Suffice for this comment it would seem proper to note that the parking lot in front of Will Mart was packed with expensive looking vehicles. It does not project a refugee exodus. It is an exodus that appears on the surface to be well-funded, one that is fast emptying the outer islands and various Majuro residential locations, leaving space behind for others to fill.