People Briefs
People Briefs
With diseases like diabetes, hypertension and dengue fever presenting growing risks, the president of the Pacific Islands Health Association Joseph K. Villagomez told health chiefs during a recent Guam meeting to invest in preventive health programs. Villagomez, who is also secretary of health for the N. Marianas, said “the shift in thinking from curative to preventive health in achieving long-term positive changes needs to be translated to shifting funding also to more preventive, public health programs.”
Bibbie Kumangai, a 17 year old student at Mindzenty High School in Palau, has won a World Health Organization essay contest on the mental health theme — “Stop exclusion: Dare to Care” — of April’s World Health Day. She won the global writing award competing with thousands of students from 64 countries worldwide. She and an adult escort won an all-expenses paid trip to Geneva, Switzerland during May to read her essay to the WHO’s World Health Assembly.
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Alfred Alfred, Jr. was named in April as the new banking commissioner for the Marshall Islands. Previously the economic advisor to the Japanese Embassy in Majuro, Alfred’s first task is to implement newly passed anti-money laundering legislation in an effort to remove the Marshalls from the international Financial Action Task Force’s blacklist.
The American Samoa Bar Association (ASBA) elected in April, Assistant Public Defender Bentley Adams as its new president, replacing Virginia Sudbury. Other recently elected officers include vice president Curtis Sherwood, secretary Marie Ala’ilima-Lafaele and treasurer Mark Ude. One of the important projects the association is working on is creating a Web site that will make it easy for off-island attorneys to access local cases pending in court.
Guam teacher Beverly San Agustin got a chance in April to see the historic sites in Washington, D.C. that she’s been teaching students about for 23 years in government and social studies classes at Simon Sanchez High School. Chosen as Guam’s Teacher of the Year recently, she went to the U.S. as part of the National Teacher of the Year program. During the visit she and other similarly honored U.S. teachers met President George W. Bush.
San Francisco’s Goldman Foundation in late April awarded New Caledonia environmental leader Bruno Van Peteghem with its annual award for his struggle to protect the territory’s coral reefs. Often called the “Nobel environmental prize”, the award given to eight individuals globally carries with it a total cash prize of $750,000. Van Peteghem said that his share of the money and the recognition will enable the local Green association, which he heads, “to open doors that until now remained closed.”
Longtime Saipan attorney David Wiseman was confirmed in March by the Senate as a Superior Court associate judge. Wiseman was nominated by Governor Pedro P. Tenorio last January to replace former judge John A. Manglona, who was confirmed as a Supreme Court associate justice last year.
The Palau Senate refused in April to seat Senator-elect Elias Camsek Chin by a vote of 5-3. He was elected in November to the OEK, Palau’s National Congress, and the Supreme Court recently ruled that he met all the residency requirements to be sworn in. The Senate believes that Chin, formerly an officer in the U.S. Army, is not a Palau citizen. Thousands of Palauan voters and the two leading traditional chiefs have petitioned the Senate to seat Chin.
In Memoriam
Former Samoa Prime Minister Vaai Kolone died on April 20 at the age of 89. The day of his burial in his home village of Asau on Savaii was declared a national holiday in tribute to his four decades of public service. Prior to politics he was a teacher. He made his mark by developing one
of the largest cocoa plantations
in Samoa.
Senator Wagner Lawrence of Pohnpei died in early April just short of his 49th birthday. He was first elected to the Federated States of Micronesia Congress in 1989 and had just been elected to his sixth consecutive term of office at the time of his death.
