GIFF JOHNSON The briefest amendment in the history of the Nitijela could have an outsized impact on the Marshall Islands. It is a one-word proposed amendment to the National Telecommunications Act that was introduced Tuesday this week by Nitijela Member David Paul. The one word change proposed by Bill 66 for the NTA Act is […]
GIFF JOHNSON The body of an I-Kiribati fisherman was hauled out of Majuro lagoon Tuesday morning after it was discovered during the offloading of containers from a vessel at Delap Dock.The body of Rubeiariki Beriki, 29, was discovered by Majuro Stevedore and Terminal employees who were offloading containers from a MELL container ship. The body […]
GIFF JOHNSON Fires have long been the scourge of Majuro and Sunday’s blaze that destroyed the Waan Aelon in Majel (Canoes of the Marshall Islands) two-story offices and workshops proved that point.Firefighting equipment and know-how is rarely able to stop a fire in progress. The best that can be hoped for in Majuro is that […]
The US Embassy hosted an art exhibition at the Ambassador’s residence earlier this month, an event that brought together students from four Majuro high schools with NGOs Jo-Jikum and Waan Aelon in Majel. The students viewed both locally made works of art that were displayed in the outdoor ground floor deck area under the main […]
GIFF JOHNSON The government ramped up its ongoing Covid vaccination program Monday this week by starting house-to-house immunizations throughout Majuro. The move takes a page out of the measles vaccine program three years ago and the initial start of Covid vaccines in January 2021 by taking the program into the community.Monday’s outreach effort showed the […]
GIFF JOHNSON Major changes are ongoing at Amata Kabua International Airport in the wake of United Airlines’ suspension of air service to the capital beginning last week Wednesday. But even with the emergency action that is moving with unprecedented speed, it appears that it could be March at the earliest that passenger service can be […]
GIFF JOHNSON A once in one thousand year natural disaster in Tonga last weekend broke its submarine fiber cable in two places, severing Tonga’s communication links to the outside world. Majuro, this week, also experienced a severing of links to the outside world in a different way. A man-made disaster in the form of lack […]
GIFF JOHNSON New Year’s fireworks will happen this weekend at the US Army base at Kwajalein after the RMI’s National Disaster Committee waived quarantine requirements for a technical team that arrived Tuesday this week to set up and operate the display. The Army asked for and was granted an exemption from the one-week Hawaii quarantine […]
GIFF JOHNSON Ocean and lagoon water flooded the lowest lying areas for three straight days throughout the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia this past weekend and Monday, causing sparse damage but requiring big cleanups in their wake. The road by Amata Kabua International Airport in Majuro was halted periodically by incoming waves […]
GIFF JOHNSONEditorial comment The United States is a clear but unfocused partner of the Marshall Islands. “Unfocused” in contrast to China, its primary competitor in the region. On the one hand, there are countless US Congress people and administration officials jumping up and down about the increasing importance of the “Indo-Pacific” region (by the way, […]
