Journal 2/13/1987

P1 Eye fixer
The hospital’s new laser unit was checked by administrator Skip Cole and Health Secretary Marie Maddison. Donated by the Maui Rotary Club, the machine will benefit patients with hemorrhaging of the retina.

P2 Doomsday machine: Man not the bombs
Dennis O’Rourke, an Australian filmmaker, objects to moral sloth. His documentary Half Life reveals few new facts about its subject, but O’Rourke puts the facts before us with direct and compelling human presence — to jog us. He reminds us of the world’s ability to file and forget, an ability not exactly absent from the American mind, and he does it chiefly by showing us people, faces, children playing. The United States detonated its first H-bomb on March 1, 1954 at Bikini…The results have been catastrophic for those (downwind) people: tumors, cancer, miscarriages, genetic disruptions…O’Rourke, who has had much experience with films about Pacific Islanders and who is not, as it happens, an anti-nuclear activist, was appalled by what had happened to these particular people on these particular atolls. In this decently crafted film, he merely shows them to us and lets them speak. What these people tell us, through their beings and their stories, is essentially what Dr. Strangelove told us over 20 years ago: The Doomsday machine is not the bomb but man. —Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic

P4 Salvation Army getting ready to open
The Salvation Army has set its sights on June for getting its Marshall Islands program off the ground, said two officials visiting from Hawaii this week. “Overton Clarence labored by himself for 14 years. He had a dream and we are hoping to realize his dream this year,” said Major James Schaal, Salvation Army’s Divisional Secretary based in Hawaii.

Journal 2/12/1999

P6 Big event
The Trust Company of the Marshall Islands is going to officially dedicate its Ajeltake office facility next Monday. Archibald Stewart, who chairs the Trust Company’s board, and is based in Virginia, is coming for the event, as is Gerhard Kurz, president of Mobil Shipping.

P15 Makali’i bringing Mau
The Hawaiian voyaging canoe Makali’i is expected to sail from Honolulu in the next few days, first stop: Majuro. The twin-hull canoe is expected to arrive in Majuro in about three weeks, bringing a crew of 15 that includes Marshall Islander Alson Kelen, who manages the local Waan Aelon Kein project. The voyage’s motto in Hawaiian language is “E Mau” — a dedication to Mau Piailug, the well-known navigator from Satawal in the Federated States of Micronesia who has taught many Hawaiians the lost art of navigation.

Journal 2/12/2010

P10 Canoe ready for ocean voyage
Waan Aelon in Majel is preparing its sails to embark on an inter-atoll voyage that will help revive and preserve the heart of the Marshall Islands: traditional navigation. WAM Director Alson Kelen, who is coordinating the voyage, said University of Hawaii anthropologist Joe Genz will document the trip. Leading the journey are master navigator Korent Joel and Isao Eknilang aboard the National Training Council-funded voyaging canoe Jitdam Kapeel that can hold up to 20 people.

P1 Garrod creates a tragedy
What does a Fijian wedding dance, a skull, fencing swords and the Marshallese language have in common? They are all elements in the upcoming theater production at Marshall Islands High School of Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. Director Andrew Garrod is a veteran at pulling together Shakespeare plays with MIHS students.