Another week of updates and briefs from across Micronesia and in places where Micronesians are making news.
It is the 75th Anniversary of the UN as I write this update. The UN for Micronesia has been an important organization. It was the formulation of the UN after World War II that allowed the strategic Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) to come into existence, administered by the United States of America. From this TTPI came the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), the Republic of Palau, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). So a special thanks and congratulations to this influential and important global organization.
Now, what is going on across Micronesia? Well, the Chuuk State Governor's Office, released their fourth press release... yes! Fourth! on the 22nd of October 2020. I think this is worth a hip, hip, hooray x 3!
The press release starts off like this:
WENO, Chuuk- October 22,2020. Once again Chuuk State has been the recipient
of false, unverified and unsubstantiated news about positive COVID-19 infection in
Chuuk State circulating in Chuuk State, the social media by irresponsible and
suspicious citizens and other nationalities thereby creating further fear and
restlessness to our people.
To set the record and facts straightforwardly, Chuuk State does not have any
COVID-19 positive patient or infection. Upon careful and diligent compliance with our
COVID-19 protocols and guidelines, all persons who are first responders that were
considered for mass testing show negative results.
Great job, Chuuk. Now if we can just get more updates from Chuuk moving forward?
Over in Pohnpei, Governor Oliver, recently received a dividend check from the former Governor of Pohnpei, Mr. Johnny David, in the amount of $412k. The check is from Pohnpei State Government's shares in Caroline Fishing Corporation (CFC). Pohnpei owns 42 percent of the company, a good investment indeed. In fact, why doesn't FSM find other ways to profit from all the fishing activities besides the fishing license fees? Like, sell our fish to the global market? Just thinking out loud here.
In Guam, the 75th COVID death has been recorded. Guam is one of our gateways and they continue to have cases. I know our leaders are checking that door and making sure Shifu COVID doesn't enter one of the last countries in the world that remain COVID-19 free :).
And in another COVID-19 free country, the RMI, the Marshall Islands High School recently celebrated World Food Day. I have a soft spot for the RMI. To see all these people making a living on these coral atolls with limited resources is just impressive. They are resilient and just great people. If you ever have a chance, pay them a visit.
On another Guam note, $5.7M in compact impact funds has been released to the Guam Department of Education. What are these compact impact funds, you say? Here is a good definition:
The $5.7 million in Compact Impact funds are part of the $30 million in Compact Impact funds that are provided under U.S. Public Law 108-188 and distributed across several jurisdictions—American Samoa, Guam, the CNMI, and Hawaii. The Compact Impact funds are meant to help defray costs associated with increased demands placed on health, education, or infrastructure related to such services provided to legal migrants from the freely associated states of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Marshall Islands (RMI), and Palau to these U.S. jurisdictions.
Legal immigrants with federal funding. This is what the Compact Impact funds mean. I only bring this up, because, in Guam and Hawaii, Micronesian immigrants are falsely accused of bringing nothing to the table, in fact, they have been called leeches or cockroaches. Even though they work and pay taxes like any legal resident, and on top of this, there has been $30 million every year, for the past 15 or 20 years? distributed across areas that Micronesians are plentiful to help 'defray costs'. What an amazing concept.
While we are on the compact topic, the Honolulu Civil Beat recently published an article, the US Says COFA talks Are On Track To Finish This Year about the Compact of Free Association re-negotiations. This will be the third compact negotiated between the US and the Freely Associated States (FSM, RMI, and Palau). What started in 1986 has continued to the mutual benefit of our nations. Micronesia finds itself in a very sweet spot with China exerting her influence and the US responding. Another article from the Pacific Island Times had this to say about the US/China situation for Micronesia:
National security experts have recommended a military buildup in the freely associated states, which have assumed greater importance as U.S. security partners amid China's growing threat in the region
Partners, how about that? It's great to be partners with a superpower and have diplomatic relations with the #2 economy in the world. All we have to do now is take advantage of this situation to get the best possible deals for our security and economy. How our leaders do this, will be the question that our people will ask now and for years to come.
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