GIFF JOHNSON The November 18 national election is arguably the most significant in the RMI’s history. The vote will elect national leadership that will be responsible to oversee negotiations with the US for post-2023 Compact funding and to guide the RMI through a period of increasingly contentious relations between China and the US, which has […]
GIFF JOHNSON Shorelines around Majuro Atoll were repeatedly inundated this past week during high tides that approached all-time records. Flooding began early morning Sunday September 29 and continued at each high tide through Tuesday, when the tide levels began dropping with the new moon phase. “Water level was 20cm (7.8 inches) higher than predicted at […]
A hearing scheduled for this week in the High Court for two lawsuits seeking to restore voting by postal ballots for off-island Marshallese was cancelled as the judge sent the dispute to the RMI Supreme Court. The two lawsuits had been scheduled for their first hearing in the High Court August 27. Although the plaintiffs […]
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 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 […]
GIFF JOHNSON From a modest start as a retail facility for fresh fish and handicrafts, the Misco Market in Majuro continues to expand, adding a wholesale operation, food processing, local produce, and soon a sizable walk-in freezer and cold storage facility to store fish for both local and export markets. The Misco Market is a […]
GIFF JOHNSON Local students in Majuro and Ebeye were given the chance to show their audiovisual creativity in a series of workshops that will lead to a soon-to-be-released film and graphic adaptations of Marshallese legends. A team from the United Kingdom collaborated with the local organization Jambo Arts to sponsor drawing and animation workshops involving […]
GIFF JOHNSON After decades of no one outside the Marshall Islands paying attention to the nuclear waste storage facility known as the Runit Dome, it is increasingly in the international spotlight with attention like never before. Following UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ comments of concern last month about possible leakage of radioactivity from the Runit […]
GIFF JOHNSON A small fire on an electrical panel in the TB ward Monday caused power to go off for the facility at Majuro hospital. It confirms ongoing power issues that plague Majuro hospital’s electrical system — problems highlighted in an assessment of the electrical system conducted late last month by a US expert. “The […]
GIFF JOHNSON The 18-kiloton atomic bomb test “Cactus” detonated at Enewetak Atoll in May 1958 was, by all accounts, unremarkable. At 18 kilotons, it was smaller than the atomic bombs that had leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War Two, and paled in contrast to the massive hydrogen bomb tests that were […]
