My alma mater, Weipat High School, located on the remote outer island of Onoun in Chuuk State officially made one giant virtual leap toward bridging the huge digital divide. They are now hooked up to the internet via a solar powered satellite dish thanks to Deacon Bill Hagen and a team from his Guam-based Cuthbert Project and TR Mori from Chuuk-based iSolutions.com which completed in a week what our own inept state and national government leaders could not complete...

I was touched today by the following speech by social critic and philosopher, the late Monsignor Ivan Illich. In the speech, which he delivered in 1968 to the Conference on InterAmerican Student Projects (CIASP), he courageously challenged the American youth doing volunteer services in Cuernavaca, Mexico, to guard against paternalism. His words resonated with me on so many levels personally and professionally. As an indigenous Micronesian I hope that we...

FSM Congress has recently appropriated funds (Public Law No. 17-30 on December 29, 2011) to each of the Election Districts in Chuuk. The Northwest Election District #5 (Pafeng, Namonweito, and Pattiw) received a total of $200,000 for what appears to be an exact replica of the last appropriations. Once again, of that amount only $9,000 is set aside for education by way of financial assistance; the rest appears to be going straight into a few people’s pockets,...

The Hawai’i Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice has just released a report entitled, “Broken Promises, Shattered Lives: The Case for Justice for Micronesians in Hawai’i,” which should be read by anyone who wants to understand the historical background,  language, cultural, social barriers facing the Micronesians who have legally migrated to the Hawaiian islands based on the treaties between the United States and those Pacific...

I’ve just seen Steve Goodall’s film entitled, “Someplace with a Mountain” which left me speechless and flabbergasted. Having seen the YouTube trailer over the summer, I was anxious to see the film to revisit life as I knew it on Polowat and support the efforts to educate people on the real negative impact of global warming on low-lying islands such as the outer islands in Chuuk, Micronesia. I was born and raised on the nearby islands of...

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report which does not fully support Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) overzealous efforts to curb legal migration of Pacific islanders from the freely associated states (FAS) to the U.S.  Using the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the American Community Survey (ACS), the report from the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress cited inaccuracies and other issues with which Hawaii and Guam have...

We join the nation of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in mourning the untimely passing of FSM’s Ambassador to the United Nations, His Excellency Masao Nakayama who passed away last night in Nevada where he has been hospitalized since he suffered a major stroke a few months ago. Papa Mas was survived by his wife, seven children and numerous grandchildren many of whom were at his side when he passed away peacefully leaving behind a mourning nation. For...

Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) is exercising racial discrimination against the legal immigrants from the Pacific island nations of Micronesia, Palau, and the Marshall Islands. Ironically, Senator Inouye claims on his vimeo site to have been responsible for breaking the racist attitude and segration in the House of Representatives. Now he and his usually socially aware and compassionate leaders in the Democratic Party have decided to discriminate against the...