At the margin of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIFS) Leaders meeting last week in Tuvalu, President Hilda Heine met with Jerry Velasquez, Director of the Green Climate Fund’s Division of Mitigation and Adaptation. The meeting was to discuss the on-going GCF program, in particular the Water and Coastal Adaptation Program in the Marshall Islands. President […]
HILARY HOSIA Marshall Islands Resort has a lot to celebrate in its 23rd anniversary this week Friday and Saturday — for starters the state-owned enterprise performs in an outstanding manner for a once heavily-subsidized entity. RMI government audits of the Resort show a well-managed entity. Perhaps most important is the bottom line in the latest […]
GIFF JOHNSON The first suspected cases of dengue fever were reported late last week in Majuro, as the outbreak on Ebeye Island continues. Majuro numbers continued to increased this week. Ebeye was the focus last week of a major mosquito spraying and cleanup program to eradicate mosquito-breeding areas. Health authorities said this week the count […]
GIFF JOHNSON The Marshall Islands put domestic travel restrictions into force last week in the wake of an outbreak of dengue fever on Ebeye Island. One dengue case was confirmed the first week of August, with 21 additional cases listed as “probable.” Health authorities confirmed the dengue as “Type 3.” By early this week, the […]
KELLY LORENNIJ The Micronesian region is transitioning to sustainable ocean transport for inter-island services, a move that is spearheaded by the Micronesian Center for Sustainable Transport that is based in the University of the South Pacific in the Marshall Islands. The Center’s Michael Traut outlined the steps that are being taken to make this transition […]
GIFF JOHNSON World War II battlegrounds, 1950s hydrogen bomb test sites, and prized real estate controlled by the United States during the Cold War era with the former Soviet Union, the islands of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands in the north Pacific were relegated to backwater outposts the past three decades […]
KELLY LORENNIJ The front line defense against climate change is renewable energy – solar, wind, water, and waste as alternative sources that will provide power in lieu of carbon-emitting fossil fuels such as diesel. Renewable energy was the focus of the Association of Pacific Legislatures general assembly held at the Nitijela recently, and such alternative […]
GIFF JOHNSON The big news coming from several hours of meetings on Pohnpei Monday between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President Hilda Heine and leaders of the FSM and Palau is Pompeo’s announcement that negotiations to extend Compact funding agreements have begun. The post-2023 period, when US grant funding for RMI and FSM […]
Representatives of the COFA Alliance National Network (CANN) met with President Hilda Heine late last month during a visit to Majuro to participate in the Association of Pacific Island Legislatures (APIL) meeting. Project Coordinator David Anitok and Board Member Loyd Henion, both of whom were founders of the organization, met with the President. Heine conveyed […]
FLOYD K. TAKEUCHI Majuro Atoll in the late 1950s defined a quiet, slightly shabby backwater Pacific port town. There were still many reminders of the war, which had ended only about 15 years earlier. Among the obvious reminders were Quonset huts, pre-fabricated half-moon structures whose skin was corrugated metal, which were commonplace. Two of the […]
