Pacific Magazine > Magazine > April 1, 2003
Briefs
People
American attorney Carl B. Ingram was confirmed by the Nitijela (Parliament) in early March as a new associate justice of the Marshall Islands High Court. Ingram, who has lived in the Marshall Islands since 1979 when he arrived as a Peace Corps Volunteer, has been appointed to a 10-year term. “It’s a great honor and also a great challenge,” Ingram says. A graduate of Stanford Law School, Ingram was Attorney General from 1982 to 1983, then legal advisor to President Amata Kabua during the approval process for the first Compact of Free Association in the 1983-85 period. He’s been in private practice in Majuro since.
—GJ
Palau is now the proud new recipient of Wall #90 A & B painted by artist Wyland. At the request of President Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr. and Shallum and Mandy Etpison, the world renowned muralist of monumental undersea landscapes, known simply as “Wyland,” spent four days in February donating his time to paint walls at Etpison Museum and the entrance to the newly constructed terminal at Palau International Airport. As he painted, Wyland visited casually with passersby who wished to chat with him about his work. He also spent two days visiting with Palauan school children who, modeling the Wyland technique, produced some paintings of their own. Wyland’s brilliantly painted scenes depict the watery world of dugongs, turtles, and other endangered Palauan creatures of the sea and mirror his message of environmental awareness to the school children—and to us all.
—NC
Daniel P. Morgan took over as Continental Micronesia’s managing director of operations on February 21. Morgan has 22 years of experience with Continental Airlines, including executive level positions in airport operations planning and policy. He will be responsible for safety and operations at Continental Micronesia, including flight operations, technical operations, purchasing, in-flight dining services and ground operations.
—FW
John Fitzgerald was promoted to chief executive officer of the Samoan government-owned Polynesian Airlines in February, and in early March Fatu Tielu was named to Fitzgerald’s former position of general manager of finance and administration. Tielu has worked in both private sector and government posts in Samoa and New Zealand, and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand, as well as the Samoa Society of Accountants.
—FS
The Bank of Guam announced new appointments to high-level management positions. William D. Leon Guerrero, executive vice president and chief operating officer since 1992 was elected to the bank’s board of directors. Jacqueline A. Marati was promoted to vice president/special assistant to the president; she had been vice president of bank’s Corporate Banking Group. The bank’s new vice president for marketing and strategic planning is Francisco M. Atalig. Former executive director of the Guam Housing and Urban Renewal Authority, Taling Taitano is the bank’s new vice president and chief financial officer. Craig R. Wade was promoted to vice president of the Corporate Banking Group from his position as vice president of the loan adjustment department.
—FW
Guam resident Steven Cruz, a Volkswagen enthusiast and president of a newly formed GuamVolks group, is appealing to local owners of Volkswagens not to dump them. “We want every Volkswagen out there, whether it’s collecting dust in someone’s garage or rusting away under a pile of trash in the back,” he says. “Our goal is get those cars back on the street.” The recently formed group has 25 members and some classic VW’s in use.
—GJ
Ramona Jones of Guam has been named by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior David B. Cohen as special advisor for economic policy for the insular areas under Interior’s jurisdiction. This includes all of the U.S.-affiliated islands in the Pacific and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Cohen says Jones’ primary job will be to promote private sector investment and economic development. Previously she worked as a deputy White House liaison for Secretary of State Colin Powell. After September 11, 2001, she was moved to the White House to assist with the Office of Homeland Security and other agencies.
—GJ
The Guam branch of the U.S. Small Business Administration in mid-February named John C. J. Shen, owner of BMW dealership Prestige Automobiles, its 2003 Small Business Person of the Year. Shen was nominated by First Hawaiian Bank Vice President Wilton Wong who recognized Shen for turning a failed automobile dealership into one with overall financial solidity and high customer satisfaction. Other 2003 Guam SBA award winners include Financial Services Advocate of the Year, Richard H. Northey, executive vice president of Citizens Security Bank; Small Business Research Advocate of the Year, Roseanne M. Jones, associate professor of economics at the University of Guam; Entrepreneurial Success Award, Hoo Cho Kim, president of Modern International, Inc., a construction company, and Small Business Journalist of the Year, Maureen N. Maratita, editor of Guam Business magazine.
—FW
The first piece of legislation introduced in the U. S. Congress by new Guam Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo passed unanimously in the House of Representatives. H.R. 672 renames Guam South Elementary/Middle School, a Department of Defense school for military dependents, in honor of Navy Lieutenant Commander William C. McCool, one of the astronauts who died on the Columbia space shuttle. McCool lived in Guam for two years during his teen years while his father was stationed at Naval Air Station Agana and his widow is from Guam.
—FW
A new book, Cook Islands Culture; Akono’anga Maori, containing the personal views of Cook Islanders on their patterns of culture, has been launched in Rarotonga. The book was coordinated and edited by husband and wife team Professor Ron and Marjorie Crocombe, widely known for their own writings on Island history and culture and as facilitators of Islander-based projects. A project of the University of the South Pacific that took three years to bring to fruition, the work is dedicated to one of the great authorities on the culture of the Cooks, the late Kauraka Kauraka. Ron Crocombe says that each chapter represented the personal view of its author; there were “no right or wrong answers.”
—ND
Reginald Lyndon, an American citizen wanted in the U.S. on charges relating to the importation and distribution of up to nine tons of marijuana, has had his application for Fiji government-funded legal aid rejected by the high court in Suva. Lyndon had sought the assistance in order to fight his extradition to the U.S. He was appealing against an earlier rejection of his application by Fiji’s Legal Aid Commission, claiming that under the terms of Fiji’s 1997 constitution he was entitled to equal treatment with citizens of the country. The judge hearing the application said that Fiji’s impoverished citizens should not be expected to pay for Lyndon’s defence.
—ND
Sir Mekere Morauta, the former prime minister of Papua New Guinea, has been reinstalled as leader of the opposition, as the country’s Parliament resumed for 2003. Morauta was dropped from the position last December, following moves against him by members of his own party, in favor of another former PM, Paias Wingti, as party leader, backed by Wingti supporter John Muingnepe.
—ND
Cook Islands artist Ian George, a curriculum adviser with the Cook Islands ministry of education, has been awarded a Masters Degree by Auckland University. The degree, undertaken with the university’s Elam School of Fine Art, was based on George’s research into the topic of indigenousness in Cook Islands art. The artist said that he plans further higher degree studies and will undertake a Ph.D. on the subject of contemporary art in the Cooks. He hopes to publish the study as a reference work for use in schools in the Cooks and New Zealand. Among the issues dealt with will be the effect of tourism on the art of the Cook Islands over the past 40 years.
—ND
Guam Business magazine named Thomas G. Ahillen, general manager of Matson Navigation Company, as its 2002 Executive of the Year at a mid-February ceremony. Ahillen is a veteran of more than 30 years in the shipping industry, and is active with many non-profit organizations on Guam.
—GJ
—Contributors: Giff Johnson, Nancy Chism, Frank Whitman, Fili Sagapolutele, Norman Douglas
