Pacific Notes
Pacific Notes
Marshall Islands
'Unexposed' Group Sues For N-Test Compensation
- ADVERTISEMENT -
A far-flung atoll population in the Marshall Islands that United States government officials acknowledge was dusted with nuclear test fallout from the Bravo hydrogen blast in 1954, but never evacuated because the population was too large, filed a claim for nuclear test compensation and health care funding with the Nuclear Claims Tribunal in Majuro in early March.
 |
|
Ailuk
Islanders march through downtown Majuro, Marshall Islands.
Photo: Suzanne M. Chutaro
|
With the filing of the compensation claim, Ailuk Atoll has become the first so-called "unexposed" atoll to present a case for compensation to the Tribunal-a body established by a U.S.-Marshall Islands agreement in the mid-1980s to judge nuclear compensation claims.
Ailuk islanders say that they have experienced severe health problems-including a high rate of miscarriages and stillbirths among women-as a result of living in a radioactive environment since the 1950s. The 15-page Ailuk claim filed with the Tribunal states that although U.S. officials were "aware that Ailuk was receiving levels of radioactive fallout similar in magnitude to those received by (nearby) Utrik, the United States decided not to evacuate Ailuk, which at the time had approximately 400 residents. The United States' decision not to evacuate Ailuk was based in part on the costs and burdens of evacuating and providing for the 400 inhabitants."
U.S. test officials evacuated Rongelap and Utrik atolls two-to-three days after the Bravo test, the largest hydrogen bomb at 15 megatons ever exploded by the U.S., but ignored Ailuk. Since then there has been no acknowledgement-despite the evidence of U.S. reports on Bravo fallout at the time-that this atoll was, in fact, exposed to similar levels of fallout to Utrik, which receives compensation and medical care.
-Giff Johnson
FSM
Typhoon Sudal 'One Of The Worst' In History Of Yap
Typhoon Sudal struck Yap State as daylight broke on April 9. The eye of the storm passed 33-miles offshore, and Sudal brought five hours of 132 mph winds that splintered scores of buildings and homes, snapped utilities poles and trees, and decimated food crops. Waves reached 35 feet in height and low-lying areas disappeared. Boats were found in places they should not have been.
"This is one of the worst typhoons in the history of these islands," says Carolyn Wilson, an information officer at the Yap Disaster Command Post. There were no casualties from the storm. But aftermath assessments on Yap Proper revealed staggering destruction. 90 percent of public buildings were damaged or destroyed, including the island's one hospital, which lost parts of its roof, Wilson says.
"Many homes with tin lost their roofs. If the homes were wood they lost a wall or completely lost the home," Wilson says. 90 percent of the highland and lowland crops were lost. Telephone service, power and water was all but gone for a few pockets near the Yap commercial and government center of Colonia. Of the 8,000 residents of Yap Proper, 900 were living in the few churches and schools with intact roofs. Sudal also hit several outer islands.
Yap State and the Federated States of Micronesia national government both declared a state of emergency. The United States declared Yap a disaster area and mobilized to send emergency assistance through its Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Supplies were shuttled down from Guam on C-130 military planes. The Ayuda Foundation in Guam packed Continental flights with medical supplies, tarps and blankets.
Wilson said the biggest concern after the storm was protecting public health and that means supplying potable water. To do that, Yap needs to restore its mangled power system so the water pump stations can be turned back on. Generators were also on their way from FEMA. In the meantime, Yap braced itself for a possible second wave of damage from the typhoon. "We are working to restock the hospital (now roofed partly with tarps) with medical supplies," Wilson says. "We want to be prepared for any disease outbreak in the near future."
But Wilson adds the Yapese are resilient. "Overall, the outlook is very hopeful and everyone is working together to restore power and water and businesses. Yap will bounce back from this. Quickly."
-Scott Radway
Samoa
World Bank Offers Assistance
The Samoan cabinet has approved negotiations between the government and the World Bank for funding of a Cyclone Emergency Recovery Project, in the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Heta. The financial assistance which is partly grant, credit and counterpart funding, will go towards rebuilding of public access roads and seawalls destroyed by Heta.
Heta, the first tropical cyclone of the season, plowed through American Samoa and neighboring Samoa on January 4 with winds up to 200 mph. No deaths were caused by the cyclone in either Samoa or American Samoa, but both countries reported damage to public and private properties.
World Bank senior officials were in the country in March to assess damage and analyze costs in relation to the financial request put forward by government.
Any agreement terms are subject to cabinet approval. Samoa's negotiation team is made up of chief executive officers of various government ministries. The government has already made the most urgent repairs to various infrastructures using an emergency supplementary budget. Samoa also received financial aid and assistance from countries such as Australia, New Zealand and China following the cyclone.
On March 2nd, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi accepted three containers of donated food, water, clothing and linen, through a Hawaii relief drive organized by American Samoa Senate liaison officer, Gus Hannemann. Hannemann was in Apia to hand over the donation, which is said to be worth about $50,000.
The Hawaii drive was aided by a $10,000 donation from wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who is part Samoan. He is the son of the late professional wrestler Peter Maivia.
One container was filled with corned beef, sausages, canned food, flour, rice, sugar, salt, bottled water, cooking oil and other foods. The other two containers were filled with clothing, sheets, towels and other household effects. The distribution of the supplies was handled by a special committee charged with ensuring that those in need will receive it. Recipients of the supplies included homes for the elderly and colleges.
-Fili Sagapolutele
Micronesia
A Stroke In The Right Direction
With the aim of improving quality of life in the region, leaders from Palau, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Yap agreed in March to some practical measures to pool their limited resources. From recycling, shipping lines and fuel costs to health care, education and tourism marketing, Palau President Tommy Remengesau, Jr., says the four leaders believe more can be achieved for the individual islands if everyone "paddles together, in the same direction."
The agreement comes after a meeting last year in March where Remengesau, Guam Gov. Felix Camacho, CNMI Gov. Juan Babauta, and Yap State Gov. Robert Ruecho agreed in principle to work together. The leaders divided a series of priority issues between the island states with the intention of coming back to the table with some practical approaches. Those nuts-and-bolts plans presented in March this year included starting a regional recycling initiative and a concerted push to get the U.S. Congress to fund a new, improved hospital on Guam to reduce the cost of medical referral out of the region. There is also a desire to expand these budding regional partnerships where it is feasible to the remaining states of the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
-Scott Radway
|
Pacific Pacific Islands Forum Gets A Spring Cleaning A unique special half-day summit of the Pacific Island Forum has given the creaking 33- year-old organization a long overdue spring clean. Touted by the Australian media as a "Pacific Union" summit, the meeting at Auckland's Government House April 6 was a little more prosaic than that, with the leaders considering what to do about a 60-page report, "Voices of the Region", written by a so-called eminent person's group (EPG).
Current Forum chair and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark says it had been the most important review ever of the Forum and was leading the Suva-based organization toward a new era of closer cooperation while "the sovereign and independent character of the individual states was upheld". Unspoken in the EPG report or on-the-record discussion around the summit was the issue of why the Forum's Secretariat was in a mess, largely of its own making, going back to the 1997 appointment of Noel Levi of Papua New Guinea as secretary general. Ahead of that summit in the Cook Islands a Samoan diplomat, Neroni Slade, was regarded as the best prospect. But PNG Prime Minister Bill Skate was barely clinging on to office and needed to do a favour for Levi, a political ally. In a bout of Pacific Way consensus, Samoan Prime Minister Tofilau Eti suddenly withdrew Slade's nomination to give the job to Levi. Soon after Skate lost his premiership, Slade transformed the Alliance of Small Island States into an effective lobby group, going on to become an International Criminal Court judge. Levi and the Forum became inert, rescued only by its specialist agencies beyond his control. If consensus had given the Pacific Islands Forum Noel Levi, brute voting produced new Secretary General Greg Urwin and the drive by Clark and Australian Prime Minister John Howard to transform the Forum back into the effective international grouping that had undeniably scored significant cooperation success over the years. The special summit resulted in the Auckland Declaration in which leaders adopted a lofty sounding "vision" in which they saw "a Pacific region that is respected for the quality of its governance, the sustainable management of its resources, the full observance of democratic values, and for its defense and promotion of human rights." The EPG had noted the Forum itself has to work for the practical and direct benefit of Pacific people: "If it does not do this-if it has no real connection with those it seeks to serve-then its value to the region is seriously limited." -Mike Field |
|
FSM Yap Day: A Study in Island Dignity Once every year, Yapese gather for a cultural celebration. As the most traditional island state in Micronesia, this is a special moment. Yap is place where a people firmly believe, for better or worse, that the turtle wins the race. Here life has changed slowly, and development has come even slower. And on Yap Day, the simple name of this festival held every March 1, tradition is paraded. This year, in an unadorned grass field, there was bamboo raft making, coconut husking, and spear throwing. A newly felled tree was hauled with traditional ropes and the guidance of a chant. There were displays of traditional tattoos and the varying styles of traditional dress that signify age and maturity. Then there was the carrying in of Yap's famous Stone Money, large disks of stone quarried long ago in Palau and brought back by canoe.
But when it comes to Yap Day, Yapese dance dominates. "Dance represents the Yapese way of life," says John Mangefel, the first governor of Yap and often a cultural ambassador for this tiny island state. "It makes me feel very, very proud." The forms of dance are few but variations many. There is the soft beauty of the sitting dance, where women sing, but remain seated dancing only with the swaying and gestures of their upper bodies. There is the standing dance and the bamboo dance that is punctuated by the percussion of smacking bamboo sticks. Yapese dance is a complex language in itself, governed by specific rules of movement that only certain elders are said to be truly able to judge. When it is good, it is so interconnected between sound and movement that those elders can see it with their eyes closed, or hear it even if they cover their ears. Yap dance is the ultimate in island cooperation. James Lukan, director of the Yap State Historic Preservation Office, says there is a Yapese word for how a person should dance: Towrug. When asked for a translation, he said, after some thought: "Doing what is appropriate for you in all action, with dignity." -Scott Radway |
