Journal 3/13/1987
P6 New WSZO radio goes international
Last Tuesday, WSZO radio dedicated its new station and equipment with a brief ceremony outside the refurbished building. President Amata Kabua, Interior and Outer Islands Minister Ruben Zackhras and representatives of the two Japanese companies which carried out the work all praised the project. “This is definitely a step forward,” said IOIA Secretary Nathan Karben. “We can see that it will have real significance for people on the outer islands to be able to hear radio news from Majuro.” With the new 10KW transmitter, the remotest islands in the Marshalls can listen to WSZO, he said. Last Friday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Melbourne telephoned WSZO to say they had heard the Marshall Islands broadcast.
P11 Kwaj school opens 5 slots to Ebeye
After some years of Marshallese requests for access to schools at Kwajalein, the Army has allowed a group of students to begin attending Kwajalein’s kindergarten. Five Marshallese children were selected by Ebeye and Kwajalein leaders to begin the program. Commander Col. Richard Chapman sees the step by step process resulting in having five Marshallese students at every grade level by the end of a 12-year period.”
P15 Jaluit High School Honor Roll, 12th grade
Jilia Chutaro, Billy Enos, Marilyn Miano, Mios Maddison, Richard Rang, Witon Rakin, Rubon Rubon and Miko Shem.
Journal 3/12/1999
P1 His eyes told the story
It was the glow in the Micronesian navigator’s eyes that reassured the Hawaiian crew. Repeated storms were buffeting the voyaging canoe, blotting out the horizon and covering the stars with layers of cloud and rain. Ten days west of Hawaii on what is one of the first-ever voyages by a Hawaiian canoe into the waters of Micronesia, stormy weather was making navigation by the stars difficult, forcing the crew to steer largely by the waves and wind. But Mau Piailug, the famed navigator from tiny Satawal Atoll in Micronesia who is credited with the rebirth of traditional navigation and ocean voyaging in Hawaii, couldn’t have been happier on board the 54-foot canoe, Makali’i, as it neared the Marshall Islands. “It was a funny thing,” said Chadd Paishon, the Makali’i captain. “Mau was used to the constant rain squalls. For us it was a dramatic difference from Hawaii. Every time a squall blew in, it was like, whoa, more weather coming. But Mau, the closer we got to the Marshalls, we could see it in his reaction. His eyes started to glitter with happiness.” Both Mau and Makalai’i navigator Shorty Bertelmann said there is no history of Polynesians sailing into Micronesia and vice versa. Meanwhile, Waan Aelon Kein projet manager Alson Kelen got to hold his new baby girl, “Makali’i,” for the first time after arriving on the Hawaiian canoe last week. She was born while he was preparing to sail to Majuro on the Hawaiian canoe.
P13 Bikini Day
Bikini Islanders onMonday marked the 53rd anniversary of their removal fromBikini by the US navy for nuclear tests with a big ceremony on Kili. A parade on the small island featured groups of youth and adults holding banners decorated with mushroom clouds. One sign read: “1946— bombs; 1970-1999 — money; 2000 — nobody knows?”
Journal 3/12/2010
P2: Ships get priority
While an $8 million Japan-funded fisheries construction project is moving forward on schedule in Majuro, frequently changing priorities by RMI political leaders have ensured that the Marshall Islands received only one Japan-funded construction project from 2000-2010 — and the latest priority projects are still far from the approval stage. The Marshall Islands has been eligible for a major Japan-funded infrastructure project annually dating back to the 1980s. But the government has been unable to manage the program to bring in Japan-funded projects on a regular basis. The fish market now being built by Uliga Dock is funded through Japan’s international fisheries program, and is in addition to funding available for large infrastructure projects such as the hospital and road paving projects — the only two in the past dozen years.