Pacific Magazine > Magazine > December 1, 2003

People Briefs

People Briefs


Prince Ulukalala Lavaka Ata (left), Dr. Sitiveni Halapua and East-West Center President Charles Morrison at press conference following the 7th Annual Pacific Leaders Conference. Credit: Scott Whitney

  • The Tongan Prime Minister, Prince Ulukalala Lavaka Ata, was chosen as chairman of the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders at their Honolulu meeting in October. The group, made up of heads of government from around the region, serves to set the research and policy agenda for the Pacific Islands Development Program at Honolulu’s East-West Center. PIDP acts as secretariat to the Conference. His Highness will serve for the next three years.

    —SW

    - ADVERTISEMENT -

  • University of Guam President Harold Allen is traveling through the U.S.-associated islands in an effort to build a regional education system that can fill human resources gaps in the Western Pacific. On a visit to Palau, Allen said he wants students to be able to transfer seamlessly to UOG from regional community colleges. He also wants the islands to work together to be a stronger lobbying voice in Washington, D.C. Allen has visited Pohnpei and plans to fly to Chuuk, Kosrae, Yap and Majuro by early next year.

    —SR

  • Guam bodybuilder Lori Cruz Hayden won a silver medal in the World Women’s Body Building, Fitness and Body Fitness Championships in Santa Susanna, Spain. She competed against almost 200 athletes from more than 40 countries to take second-place honors. Hayden won two gold medals in bodybuilding, including best overall female bodybuilder, at the 2003 South Pacific Games in Fiji.

    —FW

  • Alan Seid founder of Palau Micronesia Air (PMA), has become the first Micronesian to complete an executive seminar on airline management conducted by Boeing Aircraft Company. Palau based PMA is the newest airline in the Pacific region with its inaugural flight now scheduled for April. The seminar was also attended by selected executives from Japan Airlines, China Airlines, GE Aircraft, Alaska Airlines, Air Transport Association and South African Airways.

    —NC

  • Palau Vice-President and Minister of Health Sandra Pierantozzi, re-affirmed both the Republic’s position on terrorism and its support for Taiwan in a speech given before the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York on Sept. 30. Pierantozzi’s message followed the lead of the United States in almost all aspects of its war on terrorism; on the other hand it supported inclusion of the Republic of China (Taiwan) into the United Nations.

    —NC

  • Martin A. Manglona has been named chief of the division of immigration of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas. Manglona, who retired as Command Sergeant Major of the U.S. Army, was the special assistant for military affairs during Governor Lorenzo I. Deleon Guerrero administration in the early 1990s. He also was the deputy secretary of the Department of Public Works under Governor Froilan C. Tenorio. He became a businessman after a change in the administration in 1998.

    —FR

  • "The love of nature is the most important thing that children can learn, so they can respect and protect the environment," says Toshiyuki Alik Oda, a Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteer in Kosrae, who recently published the book, Green Missionaries: For Your Ecological Thinking. Green Missionaries is loaded with his illustrations, photos, sublime quotes, and several "self-activities" for the upper grade students on Kosrae. Copies of the book will be distributed to the schools this year.

    —OW

  • Majuro’s incumbent Mayor Mudge Samuel was banned in mid-October from seeking a second term in the November national election by Marshall Islands Chief Electoral Officer Hemly Benjamin. Samuel had one four-year term in office. Benjamin said that the mayor could not stand for reelection in Nov. 17 national vote because he had a criminal record.

    —GJ

    In Memoriam

  • Marshall Islands attorney Johnsay Riklon died unexpectedly in October after falling down a stairway in Majuro. Flags flew at half-mast for a week in honor of the former Senator from Rongelap Atoll. Most recently, Riklon had been in private practice.

    —GJ

     

    • - ADVERTISEMENT -