Journal 6/6/1975
P2 Hearing grievances The Trust Territory Personnel Board spent the past week on Majuro to review several grievance cases involving hospital personnel. After formal review sessions, the board was invited to question and answer in a session with the Marshall Islands Nurses Association. Board members on Majuro were: Boyd Mackenzie, former Distad and project director of the Jaluit Rehab program after the 1958 typhoon, and Dr. Jack Helkena, a son of the Marshalls who is now Chief, Dental Division at Headquarters and Chairman of the Personnel Board.
P2 Summer programs Plans have been made to bring from 150 to 200 elementary school teachers to attend a summer program designed to upgrade teaching skills from July 14-August 22.
P6 Nuclear tests Why should the Marshallese people, and especially the people of Rongelap, have been accorded anything less than the complete truth? Don’t they deserve it? Is the American attitude towards the people of these islands exactly the same as it was on March 1, 1954 when hydrogen ash tumbled from the skies on Rongelap and Rongerik? The Americans on Rongerik were forewarned about potential danger and knew not to touch the snow as it fell and lay on the ground. The people of Rongelap knew nothing. They still know nothing.
Journal 6/12/1992
P3 Outer islands not forgotten, says RMI Disaster office The disaster-related needs of outer islanders have not been forgotten, the Marshall Islands Disaster Office said this week. Building materials and personal property items that were destroyed or damaged by Typhoon Axel in January are now in the process of being purchased, a release said.
P11 Likiep celebrates new Catholic Church Bishop Martin Neylon traveled from his base in the Federated States of Micronesia to Likiep to bless the Catholic church last month, and was greeted at the Holy Rosary Mission. The church was built on the site of the old Catholic church that went up in 1950. In addition, 14 eighth graders graduated from Likiep Elementary School, the second year it has been under management of the Maryknoll Sisters.
P23 Outer island tour guides trained The Historic Preservation Office at Interior and R&D’s Division of Trade and Tourism teamed up to organize a training for outer islanders to become tour guides for their respective atolls. The participants came from Maloelap, Mili, Wotje and Likiep for the four-day workshop.
Journal 6/6/2003
P2 Hacker’s last trip home Father Leonard Hacker, SJ, died over the weekend in New York State. The Catholic priest, who had a huge impact on the growth of the Catholic Church and educational advancement in the Marshall Islands, particularly on Majuro and Ebeye, had left to the US last year to begin residing in a Jesuit rest home at the Fordham University campus. Flags are flying at half mast until next Tuesday as Acting President Brenson Wase declared a week of national mourning in respect for Hacker, who was 89. Fr. Hacker is to be cremated in New York and his remains will be transported to the Marshall Islands for burial.
P3 People facing more hardships in 2003 People in the Marshall Islands are not starving but “many people are poor and facing hardship, and the problem seems to be getting worse, reports a just-published booklet by the Asian Development Bank. The ADB report pointed out that in the 1999 Pacific Human Development Report, the Marshall Islands had fallen from fifth to eighth place of 12 countries in the region.