Better being homeless

Journal front pages from 1984, 1996, and 2007.

Journal 6/8/1984

P1 New hospital ready this fall A major portion of the new Marshall Islands hospital should be ready for use this coming fall, according to hospital project manager Tony Nagel.
P4 Class of 1984 Majuro Cooperative School: Joe Bigler, Shirley Davis, Wanda Graham, Eric Heine, Primrose Jones, Sharlynn Lang, Jessy Waltz.

P6 Reiher fryers killed by dog A dog walked the reef to Willy Reiher’s chicken range and killed 25 chickens. Willy has about 600 of those famous Reiher’s Fryers about ready for processing and while he was in town businessing, the dog attacked his flock.

P9 Quote of the week Overheard at the Yacht Club: “Now that Ron’s got a gas station, how long’s it going to be till Jerry opens one too?”

Journal 6/7/1996

P1 Not just talk Marshall Islands and Asian Development Bank officials signed an agreement Friday in Majuro that will pave the way for a major loan to ease the trauma of heavy cutbacks in the government’s workforce. The plan is for ADB to provide up to $10 million, primarily for severance packages for terminated workers.

P1 Assumption tops list Graduation was not the only thing being celebrated at Assumption High School last Sunday. It was announced at the ceremony that the school will be accredited for six years by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

P4 Bikini is now open It’s a go! Bikini opened the doors to its long-untouched lagoon this week, as the first group of tourists visited to scuba dive on the battleships sunk in the lagoon by US nuclear weapons tests in 1946.

Journal 6/8/2007

P3 Kessai meets Nancy in DC The US’s first female Speaker of the House, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, met RMI President Kessai Note and First Lady Mary Note when the Speaker made a surprise visit to the annual Island Night function hosted at the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC last week. Pelosi addressed the leaders saying that “Congress is about the future — therefore looking at the Pacific island is looking to the future.”
P5 RMI needs to change now With funding for education and health set to decline, there is a serious need for Marshall Islands government offices to “drastically improve efficiency,” said the RMI government’s national planner. “Any remaining attitudes associated with just managing inputs (funding) and not paying serious attention to the program or outcomes (performance) need to be dumped for good and as soon as possible,” Economic Policy, Planning and Statistics Office Director Carl Hacker said in a statement circulated to numerous RMI government officials recently.

P16 ‘I’m better off like this’ Take a drive down to Ala Moana Park in Honolulu or to Kaka’ako Park next to UH John Burns Medical School. There you’ll find different groups of people from the Marshall Islands and Micronesia on a patch of grass in front of the Kaka’ako parking lot. There are children playing and parents sitting on blankets and beach towels. There are toddlers in diapers, single mothers with children, young teenage girls and boys talking story. To the unsuspecting eye, it looks like an island gathering, just your regular day at the park. But it’s far from that. There are no barbecues, no tables full of food or coolers of colas. No volleyball or softball games. Everyone is waiting, waiting for their children who are in school or for spouses who work to come “home.” They are waiting for the homeless shelter to open.

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