Journal 11/19/1976
P1 TT-wide law of sea conference underway Micronesian leaders convened the first territory-wide conference on Law of the Sea in Truk November 15. Elected and traditional leaders from the five districts and Kusaie began the historic meeting with briefings from members of the Micronesian delegation on Law of the Sea. The delegation, headed by Rep. Charles Domnick, has attended four international conference on the issue.
P1 Carter’s choice to replace Kissinger? Will Jimmy Carter’s election affect the Micronesian status negotiations? President’s Ford’s failure to win the election may mean that no new initiatives can be expected from Washington toward the Trust Territory during the remaining 11-weeks of Ford’s lame-duck administration. A possible replacement for Henry Kissinger, now famous for his often repeated quote — “…Micronesia, who gives a damn?” — is Paul Warnke, a prominent Washington, DC attorney and former member of President Johnson’s administration who is said to “give a damn” for the islands.
P5 Shocked Rep. Patsy Mink of Hawaii and Rep. Won Pat of Guam represented a subcommittee of the US House of Representatives during hearings on Ebeye in July 1976. After hearing several hours of testimony from Ebeye residents, Kwajalein workers and medical authorities, Rep. Mink publicly stated for the record that she was “shocked” at the Ebeye situation.
Journal 11/15/1991
P1 Channel project, new fish base operational Another weekend of politics wended its way into history, as the Marshall Islands progressed toward the final week of hectic preparations for the election to be held Monday November 18. This second to the last week saw most politically-related activity coming from the majority party camp of the government. For starters, Thursday evening was handled out of Lanai, with a ceremony to celebrate handing over of the local fishery development project, which included a widening of the small boat channel’s entrance and construction of a substantial jetty, found necessary due to the fact that small boats using the channel were experiencing too many difficulties in entering and exiting the lagoon. The next big event was very, very informal: the grand opening celebration of the new Majuro Fishing Base.
P26 $100 million sought A claim for $100 million for damage to the lands of the people of Rongelap was filed November 11 with the Nuclear Claims Tribunal. According to a hand out accompanying the claim, Rongelap’s alabs have joined together in filing a class action land damage claim.
Journal 11/17/2000
P3 Chamber on government corruption The greatest impediment to development in the Marshall Islands is the “massive, endemic corruption in government,” the Chamber of Commerce told government and Asian Development Bank officials in response to a draft ADB report on the RMI economy. Reporting to last week’s Chamber meeting at RRE, businessman Jerry Kramer said that while the Chamber believes the ADB report is a “good start,” it wasn’t thorough enough in certain areas and did not adequately address the pervasive corruption problem.
P8 Big do The man about town, aka Don Hess, reports that you should start getting your party plans in order for a lot of fund this New Year’s eve: It’s block party time again!
P8 Who’s big? The Chamber got to discussing the upcoming awards that will be made in December. There are going to be awards for the small businesswoman and small businessman of the year, government agency of the year, and so on. Attorney David Strauss raised his had and said he couldn’t decide who to nominate — Bill Weza or Kirt Pinho — for the “large” businessman of the year.