GIFF JOHNSON Veterans from the Marshall Islands and the other freely associated states, all nations aligned with the US through Compacts, must travel at great personal expense to take advantage of health benefits they earned by their service in the US military. The practical impact of this situation is that most Marshallese veterans are completely […]
GIFF JOHNSON Pacific International Inc. received a mediation award in its construction dispute with the FSM government over US government-funded road work it did in Chuuk state from 2009-2013. But the FSM refused to pay the mediation award of an initial $2 million on a total $6 million award. More recently, PII received a $9.5 […]
GIFF JOHNSON RMI government authorities are making special arrangements for Guam-based couriers to bring an overdue delivery of cash for local banks and, separately, for a handful of Marshallese stranded in Pohnpei to return to Majuro. Although planning has progressed, it is unclear if either of these initiatives will happen, based on: • The reluctance […]
GIFF JOHNSON Pohnpei strengthened its ban on incoming travelers Saturday in the face of the escalating spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus in the region. Pohnpei Governor Reed Oliver issued an amended emergency order March 21 the same day as Pohnpei health authorities announced the second “person under investigation” (PUI) for Covid-19. The island, which hosts […]
GIFF JOHNSON President Hilda Heine joined with Palau and Federated States of Micronesia presidents in a historic meeting with President Donald Trump Wednesday (Majuro date) at the White House — the first time the three presidents from the freely associated states have met an American president as a group. In lead up meetings with Interior […]
Journal 4/6/1982 P6 Yap Governor: Development a matter of survival Yap Governor John Mangefel declared last week that emphasis would shift to economic development as his administration’s number one priority. “The state of Yap, like the rest of the FSM, needs economic development: not as a matter of principle or because ‘it would be nice’ […]
More than forty emergency response experts met in Majuro last week to identify locally-led solutions to overcome logistics challenges that can hinder disaster response in the North Pacific region. Efficient logistics can make or break a humanitarian response, and the workshop focused on ensuring that when the next emergency strikes, affected islanders can respond quickly […]
REBECCA LATHROP A workshop, “Forecasting Managing Fishing Revenues,” opened in Majuro on Monday. In his opening remarks RMI Minister of Finance Brenson Wase welcomed the group of 49 participants and stressed the importance and timeliness of the workshop. Wase pointed out that as fishing revenue has increased dramatically over the past ten years and with the […]
The Micronesian Women’s Conference opened Tuesday at the University of the South Pacific Conference Center in Majuro. Delegates from the RMI, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, and the US territories of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam are meeting to identify opportunities and challenges to increase progress towards gender […]
MAKERETA KIMAI, PACNEWS Editor at last week’s UN Oceans Conference A number of Pacific leaders used last week’s UN Oceans Conference to bring global attention to nuclear contamination and World War Two wrecks that have become environment hazards. Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands led the charge in highlighting what they call ‘real […]