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I know it has been a while since I posted the last update on what is happening at the FSM National Government so please allow me this opportunity to bring all of you, honorable members of the Ifagalz Community and honor guests, up to date on the latest development at the FSM National Government.

Last week a proposed Bill to re-organize the Executive Branch of the National Government was transmitted to the 15 th FSM Congress Speaker, the Honorable Isaac Figir, from His Excellency Emanuel Mori, the President of the FSM. In the proposed Bill, the FSM President proposed the following changes to the Departments:

The current Department of Health Education and Social Affairs (HESA) to be split into two separate departments. The Department of Education and the Department of Health & Social Affairs and the rationale of splitting the current into two separate departments is to allow the separated areas to effectively focus on it specific needs and challenges. This will also enable the Department of Education to concentrate its attention and efforts towards the nation’s various educational challenges and to enable the Department of Health & Social Affairs to concentrate its efforts on growing number of health and social issues that are no longer confined to the national and state borders. I may note here that these are the two biggest sectors, receiving the Amended Compact funds.

The Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), which used to be known as the Department of Resources & Development until after the late President Olter’s Administration has its name now changed back to its original name (Dept. of Resources & Development) in the re-structuring Bill. The slightest change within the Department beside the name change is that a new Division of Energy has been added and the Division of Economic Planning & Statistics migrating out to the new proposed Office of Statistics, Budget, Overseas Development Assistance & Compact Management.

The current Office of Compact Management (OCM) is proposed to be enlarged to a bigger Office which is mentioned above and the intent now is to centralize all government’s economic planning and macro-management functions to coordinate their efforts and to provide an effective and permenant management tool for the government to meet the Amended Compact requirements. The Division of Budget currently rested under the Department of Finance & Administration is proposed to migrate to this new Office.

In the same bill, the current Division of Historic & Preservation under the Department of HESA is proposed to be an independent Office as the Office of National Archives, Culture and Historic Preservation and the rationale behind President Mori’s proposal to have this Office as a stand alone office is that recognition of how important Micronesian history and cultural identity must be underscored. President Mori in his transmittal communication to Speaker Figir refered to various provisions of the FSM Constitution which calls for preservation and respect of the Micronesian Culture and for us now to fulfill this Constitutional Commitment.

The Bill also highlights a proposed change to the current Office of National DisasterManagement which is currently headed by a Special Assistant to the President on Disaster Matters. The new Office will be called Office of Environment and Emergency Management Agency. Please note that currently the Unit of Sustainable Development which handles environmental matters is rested under the Department of Economic Affairs and also the Unit of Environmental Protection is currently rested under the Department of HESA and the proposal now is to amalgamate these offices under the proposed new Office so as to avoid duplication of efforts and functions. President Mori also underscored in the letter to Speaker that in light of the severity and urgency of today’s daunting environmental challenges to the island nations, this proposed new Office is to elevate environmental protection function as priority of this Administration.

The only proposed changes to the Department of Finance & Administration is that the Division of Budget will be moved out to the new Office already mentioned and the current two divisions of Investment and Treasury will be merged into one Division.

The only proposed change to the current Department of Justice is that the functions of the Registrar of Corporations currently rested under the Department of Economic Affairs will be moved to this Department.

The Department of Foreign Affairs remains unchanged and so as the Department of Transportation, Communication and Ifrastructure (DOTC&I).

In close I would like to highlight a very important note here that the President underscored in his letter to Speaker Figir to accompany the Bill is that this proposed reform is part of this Administration’s over all efforts to “increase management efficiency within our National Government and to better enable those departments and offices to deal with evolving issues and challenges facing our islands people today. This is also an effort to seek a balance between quality public service and cost efficiency and should have a very minimal impact on the national budget.” (Not more than .5% of the fiscal year budget for FY 2008.

Just through the grapevines, I heard that the next important task now for this Administration is to submit to the 15 th FSM Congress for advice and consent (confirmation) this week a list of nominees for the Cabinet Positions and Office Directors’ posts. Potential candidates have been interviewed and shortlisted. Once that is out for public information, I will let you know.

FSM President and the US Department of Interior Secretary

Thank you all for allowing me to give you this update and God bless you and our leaders.

The honorable guests to the Ifagalz and honorary members. Although this is an old photo of the 13 th Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia covening it special session in Yap, please allow me to use it here to show you that most members of the 13 th and 14 th FSM Congress still remain in the 15 th Congress of the FSM which convened on the 11 th of May this year and chose new Leadership for the Government of the Federated States of Micronesia. As many of you should already know by now, the 15 th FSM Congress held its caucus for two days on the 9-10 May, 2007 and by the evening of the 2 nd day, a decision was made by election on who were going to be the new FSM President and Vice President and Officers of the 15 th FSM Congress.

On May 11, 2007, the 15 th Congress formalized its decision by bringing it to the eyes of those who were present in the FSM Congress Chamber in Palikir, Pohnpei and to the ears of the entire Nation which was tuned in to the live broadcast over the radio stations and enternet. In their elections by secret ballots on the 10 th of May, 2007, majority of the 15 th Congress voted His Excellency Emanual (Manny) Mori of Chuuk as the new FSM President, the Honorable Alik Alik of Kosrae as the new Vice President, the Honorable Isaac Figir of Yap as the new FSM Congress Speaker, the Honorable Resio Moses of Pohnpei as the new FSM Congress Vice Speaker and the freshman in the FSM Congress, the Honorable Joe Suka from Chuuk as the new Floor Leader of the FSM Congress.

For the various Standing Committees in the FSM Congress, the Honorable Peter Sitan of Chuuk was elected Chairman of the J &GO Committee, the Honorable Dohsis Halbert of Pohnpei as the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, the Honorable Dion Neth as the Chairman of the R&D Committee, the Honorable Moses Nelson of Chuuk as the Chairman of the TC&I Committee and the Honorable Joseph Urusemal of Yap (former FSM President) as the Chairman of the HESA Committee.

The elections of the new Leadership of the FSM National Government was formally made on the 11 th of May the first day of the 15 th Congress Regular Session where nominations were announced and voted on and during which time all the newly elected leaders were formally taking their oath of offices.

At this juncture, the new FSM President and the FSM Vice President are working hard to put together their team consisting of cabinet members and special assistants and the politically appointed positions at the Executive Branch to be submitted to the 15 th FSM Congress for confirmation while the 15 th FSM Congress is also working hard to organize by selecting key staff and Committee members. What I know now is that as required by law, the cabinet members for the former Administration under former President Joseph Urusemal have tendered their resignations and are now contracted as consultants to the departments they were heading until August, 2007 until their re-appointments by the New Administration if they are to be re-appointed. If not re-appointed, then they are to ensure a smooth transition of office to their successors. I may note here that even if they are re-appointed for a cabinet position, their re-appointment is subject to confirmation by the FSM Congress so the final approval is with the FSM Congress.

I wish all the best to the new FSM Leadership and God bless them in all their work to serve for the best interest of the entire populous of the Federation.

Posted by Francis Itimai

The Waiting Time is Over! MyCoconut is here and here to stay. We had to overcome many difficulties, most are out of our hands, but we still manage to pull out of it and bring you a better product.

We have to apologize yet again to our valued members for being unable to use the database from our old server, thereby requiring you again to re-register. We know this is pain in the bottom but we trust that you understand everything we do is to better the product we are to give. It is nothing else but to improve the services and features for your enjoyment.

We were faced with two choices, one is to delay the re-Launch of MyCoconut, to give us amble time to work on re-using the data from the old server, and two is to go ahead and launch today fresh from the beginning. We chose the latter for some very important reasons with which we think you would agree. It is the easiest way and the better way! It is the fastest way to get back online so you can continue with what you have done, conversing with your peers, islandmates, friends, and families.

This latest product is one of the best we have yet to produce. Many thanks go to the Ifa-Tech team for not relaxing a bit the entire time to bring you the best. We salute our dearest and valuable members for being patiently awaiting under the palm trees for the return of MyCoconut. Here we are and we are here to stay!

Enjoy! On behalf of all the Ifagalz Community as well as the MyCoconutese, I say Thank you very much, Kallangan, Kinisou Chapur, Kammagar, Gosa Hachigchig, Salamat Po, Gracias!, Sijuuse Ma'se.... So long.

Cal T

Ladies and Gentlemen (Honorary members and distinguished guests of the Ifagalz Community). It has been a while since I last contributed an article for your ease reading so please allow me to rise to this occasion to share with you another article on which in my humble opinion will be worth reading and commenting. However, before I do so I would be remised if I do not take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to the Ifagalz webmaster and his family, who have been working so hard behind the scene to avail this medium for all of us to share our candid opinions on issues and comments on practical matters which are of great concerns to our lovely small islets and atolls as well as to share opinions on governmental and social matters and activities at the political frontier if you may. I know for certain that some of you may have been bored and tired of reading my articles but the mere purpose of my articles is to share with you real stories of what is happening and what had happened at your home islands, most especially for those of you who are far away from home and would like to once in a while get updates on what is happening at home so if you get bored doing nothing, just browse through the articles.

To make the long story short, I would like to share my experience of the trip I was privileged to take with the former FSM President, His Excellency Leo A. Falcam to the islands of the Northwest and Pattiw Region in Chuuk. This trip began in Weno, Chuuk after all the National and Chuuk State Governments employed were rallied by the former President and the Chuuk State Governor, who was then the Honorable Ansito Walter and I was honored to be designated by the two leaders to be their field trip officer for the Delegation that was traveling on the FSS Caroline Voyager, the FSM landing craft while Mr. Jesse Sydney from the Department of Health, Education and Social Affairs in short known as HESA was designated the field trip officer for the delegation that was traveling on the FSS Micronesia, one of the FSM Patrol Boats.

Even through rough weather and seas, the trip was a success as we landed safely at the beaches of every island that we visited and I was astounded to see all the smiling faces of small children and adults who were chanting songs and performing dances at the beach front in welcoming the President and the Governor and their delegations to the beautiful islands. After meeting with the island communities at which time candid dialogues on the needs of the island communities and progress of governmental activities would take place, the islanders would then welcome the delegations with festivities such island traditional dances and delicious food such as cooked lobsters, land crabs, meat something that we cannot describe on this site and other local dishes. For some of the islands, this was my first time to visit and believe me, I cannot describe well how beautiful they are and the people were just so hospitable and friendly. I have never experienced such a warm and receptive welcome in my life and believe it or not, this was the first time that I have seen a leader of a Nation being carried by a group of women in an outrigger canoe from the reef breakers all the way to the meeting hall while the men and children were chanting some sort of a ritual. This happened in almost every island that we visited.

What I did appreciate so much is the fantastic reception that the islanders rendered to our delegation and I said this is a magnificent experience for me that I will always cherish and will never erase from my memory. I will be most indebted to the people of those islands forever and the friendship that we have established will remain as part of me all my life and that is why I named this article “The Trip Worth Taking”. I was just amazed on how well organized the festivities are which made us feel so welcome at home and I feel awkward to say that perhaps this will be a challenge for our islands in Yap to possibly stand up and do the same to the leaders of our State and Nation. I want to tell you more about the trip but it is going to take up a lot of space on this site so just enjoy seeing the few pictures that I have attached and be the judge yourself of what happened then. Thank you so much for allowing me to share my article and enjoy reading.

Posted by Francis Itimai

Hello Ladies and Gentleman,

Guess what? Right after I wrote the bottom article, I realized I had to do something because it is not right for you, our beloved members to write to your webmasters to do your registration. I know you would rather do it yourself. Right? I hope you say yes. Of course we will always remain open for your inquiries.

Here is the latest Update:

You can now register! We find a way to work around the problems we've had and now are able to have you register right here, right now. So please go ahead and join the rest that had succesfully registered. I just have to remind that you do not have to wait 24 hours to check on the email from your ifagalz. Right after you done register here, go ahead and check your email. The registration or confirmation link in the email must be activated before the 24 hours is up or you will have to re-register again.

As always, I wish you join us and participate in the discussions. If you have a specific topic you wish to be addressed here, please by all means let us know. We encourage your participation! If you have a news article you want to be featured on our home page, please forward it to us.
 
We are always willing to honor people's work. Please keep an eye open for our April FEATURED SINGER! We will post his her picture, any links to his/her website and his/her songs will be played on Radio Ifagalz for a MONTH. This month's candidate will be revealed next week no later than Monday evening Pacific Standard Time.

Please check back to see the updates...

MyCoconut is up and running and waiting for you to join on there. You need to check out the chat room as well as we have installed that one too... Check it out. Something interesting though; You do not have to be a member of MyCoconut to use the Chat room. So go in there with your friend or partner and chat away... Show everyone your creativity by putting on the best profile... We maybe showing your profile and creativity on your Ifagalz soon! You maybe the next to be chosen.

I would like to request the usual assistance of the webmaster of the Ifagalz to post this short article which I would like to dedicate to all my classmates at Xavier High School who may be around the globe now contributing one way or the other to the well being of the people they serve. I know some of you maybe guests or members to this website but I do think that we should establish communication to share some of the good old memories of our class. Our class to me is always special because no matter what happened to any member of our class while we were still at Xavier High School, we always stick together and work together as a team. The sense of camaraderie amongst us was just fabulous and I remember very vividly the time that some of us were about to be expelled for failing a course; we all walked out and had a brief strike at the senior pond and told the faculty that we all volunteered to be expelled from the school. Our action then collectively as a class prevented those who failed the course from being expelled.

Our class, I know, won Xavier Day from when we were freshmen until senior year and that was sort of a history breaking for Xavier High School. I still recall when Father Francis Hezel, SJ., who was then the Director of the School during our freshmen year would instruct some of us for coming late to fitness session to take 20 lapse around the field, then the whole class would just jump in and volunteer to take the 20 lapse. Most of the underclassmen looked up to this class as a role model class for showing good examples and the class that showed good leadership and teamwork. There were times that some of us would misbehave but the most unique characteristic of our class was that we would all rally behind each other and help those who misbehaved to rectify their actions and at the end behave themselves. These special characters of the class made our teachers and class advisors happy and like the class so much, so the end result was all of us graduated and many of us are now successful in whatever we are doing in life to help those who need our help. So why not plan a re-union my classmates? Don’t you want to re-unit and reminisce about our good old days? For those of you who are not here in the FSM, let me try to tell you who is here and what he or she is doing and perhaps this may stimulate more discussions amongst ourselves so we can talk about the good old days and let each other know of where the rest of us are and what we are doing.

Mathew Chigyal is employed by the National Oceanic Resource Management Authority as one of the supervisors after getting his masters degree from an University in Australia and married to Jane Jimmy Chigyal, one of the Assistant Secretaries at the Department of Foreign Affairs, National Government. Moses Pretrick is heading the Environmental Program at the National Government overseeing the Bioterrorism and Food Inspection Programs after finishing his undergraduate studies at Park University in Parkville, Mo. and married to Sophia Henry Pretrick, who is a white collar crime investigator at the FSM National Police who graduated from the same university. Fabian Nimea after getting his master degree from Creighton University in Nebraska, is a successful consultant here in the FSM after being employed as a Vice President of the FSM Bank and is married to Julie. Alexander Narruhn after getting his master degree from a University in Arizona is currently the Administrator of the FSM Social Security Administration and is married to Lynn Narruhn, the Special Assistant to the President on Public Information. Augustine Sue is the principal of the Pohnpei Catholic School after being the principal of PATS which was closed down. Relina Wilson is a school teacher in her respective municipality and so as Constantino Victor our class guitarist. Last time I heard,Nixon Maras was a cop in the State of Chuuk after returning from school in the US mainland. Andy Musrasrik, I just met last week is a successful businessman here in Pohnpei. As for me, I am re-employed by the National Government with the Department of Finance & Administration after taking the post as the former Director of Planning & Budget in Yap and I am married to a beautiful lady (Anna) from the beautiful island of Satawal in Yap and we have two daughters and two sons. Can some of you classmates of ours tell us what you are doing and where you are now? Thank you very much and I hope to hear from all of you. Sail on class of 1985 and hope to be re-united with some of you if not all soon. I am certain the other Xavierites would like to do the same and keep up the Xavier motto, “ut omnes unom sin”, translated that all maybe one.

Posted by Francis Itimai.

Greetings to the Ifagalz Community, both members and honor guests, from your friends, relatives and colleagues in Pohnpei. I would like to contribute here for your ease reading and comments, if you have any, another article that is focused on the bottom line question that most of us if not all concerned citizens of the great State should cautiously ask ourselves and that is “is Yap State ready for any natural or man made calamities?” I am certain that most of the governments in the four states including the National Government are raising the same question and I can tell you that for those of us who were or are still one way or the other involved in the work of disaster management( the work of managing the aftermath of disasters) it will continue to be a question for us to find better and practical answers to and arrive at common solutions to make our work better and to ultimately safe lives of many.

It was a great day for me! It all happened the moment I fired up my email program. I saw this wonderfully written letter addressed to the webmasters of Ifagalz! The author claimed his name to be Gallett (Sun) or as we islanders know it, the Sun! in the brightest sense, as he described, "a name made by his students." My eyes were rolling and my mind was flickering like I was in a movie or something. I pictured myself sitting in a man's house next to the "ELDERS" on this lovely island listening to the most amazing person in the entire universe. 

It brought back memories of those beautiful days when the "ELDERS" would welcomed these young "NEWCOMERS" and brought them under their wings as the "SONS of the CHIEFS." It felt like the "ELDERS" were with me speaking to the author of this email. I was truly amazed by the contents especially when the author was speaking to me in my own tongue! It was an amazing feeling and an amazing moment! "Iwe nge gosa gachigchig gamas, gami illigami!," the author concluded.
 
I immediately responded and immediately got a response plus a phone call. It was the author! He was on the other end of the line and we started chatting away like brothers and like we knew each other for a long time. I guess the SPIRIT of IFALUK is alive and kicking and still with this high spirited Gentleman. I addressed him by his title as a well respected Dr. but he told me to address him by his first name which confirmed to me that he has the island spirit within him. The phone call lasted for a while as he was telling me all he had experienced and I know this is the start of a good relationship and I am happy to meet up with this gentleman.

Thank you Dr. Bill for the wonderful letter and for being there on Ifalik to experience something even I wasn't able to do. I was born late and I can imagine the many wonderful happenings of the "GOLDEN DAYS!" Just talking with you got me the feeling that you were enjoying your life there. What an experience for you! Please, Welcome to the true place for Islanders, your Ifagalz!

Please meet Dr. Bill, a peace corp volunteer on Ifalik atoll from 1966 to 1968. Following is the transcript of the first letter he wrote to your Ifagalz's webmasters.