Journal 4/20/1984
P1 Electricity costs reduced The RMI reported impressive savings in fuel costs for its new power generating facility in Majuro. MEC’s British-built power plant is producing electricity at a cost of 5.1 cents per kilowatt hour, a substantial savings compared with the 18-to-20 cents per kilowatt hour cost at the old power plant.
P3 Amata to meet Reagan President Amata Kabua is scheduled to leave Majuro April 22 for a meeting with US President Ronald Reagan in Guam. Reagan will be on a stopover on his far east trip and will meet with Micronesian leaders to discuss the Compact of Free Association and other matters.
P4 Jaluit students’ strike finished The head of food services, Saeko Shoniber, reported April 18 that the two-month student boycott of Jaluit High School cafeteria is over. Students returned to the food service’s meals last Thursday after the Education Department threatened to close the school if the kids didn’t shape up. However, food services did make two changes at JHS: They removed two cooks who were alleged to have cursed the students and replaced them with Jabor Elementary School cooks.
P7 Stolen food Last week, Ajeltake Elementary School cafeteria was broken into and all the USDA food stolen. If someone offers you some of that good old USDA pork, it may be some of the stolen stuff. Call the police at 3666 and let them know. After dinner, of course.
P9 chap. 66 Ponape in the evening is just like every place else in Micronesia — cool and renewing, a preview (or perhaps a remembrance) of the biblical form of paradise. And in all of paradise there is perhaps no geographical center more attuned to the obvious intent of biblical writers than the Village Hotel bar, as pleasant a surrounding one could wish for, but inhabited, unfortunately, with a very unbiblical cast of life runaways. These latter, of course, all under the able direction of the main character of our protracted narrative: Dick Tullis.
Journal 4/19/1996
P1 Judge Philippo opts for private practice High Court Acting Chief Justice Witten Philippo ended nearly seven years on the bench this week. Judge Daniel Cadra is now acting chief justice and the only judge on the High Court bench. Philippo was the first and only Marshall Islander on the High Court.
P3 Surf the net in the Marshalls Whether you’re a computer novice or have never been in the same room as one it’s likely that you’ve heard the word “Internet” crop up in conversation and wondered what it’s all about. The Internet and the age of the information super-highway could soon be open to you in Majuro and Ebeye.
Journal 4/20/2007
P1 Rongelap wins biggest Tribunal award Rongelap Islanders were awarded more than $1 billion in compensation Tuesday by the Nuclear Claims Tribunal — but are not likely to receive even $1 from the Tribunal, which has virtually no funding to pay the award and has labeled United Sates-provided compensation ‘manifestly inadequate.’
P31 Yap’s first governor dies John Mangefel, whose career spanned the American administration through formation of the independent Federated States of Micronesia, died in Yap. He was 75. Mangefel was a leading statesman and was Yap’s first elected governor. He was along-term member of the Congress of Micronesia. Many local educators will recall Mangefel attending the Rethinking Education in Micronesia Conference held in Majuro in 2004 where he sat at the back of the room alternately chewing betel nut and appearing to be fast asleep, only to suddenly pop his hand up to offer an observation or a question to tease out an important point from one of the presenters. He was a proud Micronesian, whose culture underpinned his thinking, particularly the phrase, “wisdom comes out of the betel nut basket.” Mangefel explained: “We say, ‘let’s stop and chew some betel nut.’” As people reach into their bags to prepare their betel nut and begin chewing, “they start thinking about how to get along with each other and ways to reach agreement,” he said. “Stopping and chewing betel nut means to consider and think how to reach consensus so there’s no ill feeling.”