Daisy's Escapades

It’s been an interesting few weeks.  I’ve worked with and consulted for a government body.  I’ve met new people of various walks of life and experienced plenty of tradition and varieties of food.  This summer was a good one.

The Banking Commission + Nik and I

Yesterday, we had a send-off party hosted by the Banking Commission.  The party demonstrated the hospitality of, not only the employees of the Banking Commission but by extension, that of the Marshallese.  It was great.  There was a barbeque done, sushi, fish.  Sultan’s wife is an excellent pastry maker and she baked two cakes which were delicious!  Sultan and all the other managers gave speeches.  We gave our speeches as well.  Everyone was in a light mood and this brought a great end to a successful project. 

Additionally, some staff of the banking commission were kind enough to give us gifts.  I had a Marshallese headband called a wut, bracelet and matching earrings.   Today, Marlynn, one of the staff in FSD department also gifted me with another beautifully designed wut and earrings.

We finally made it to Arno!  Ever since I heard about this atoll, I’ve wanted to visit.  Arno covers a land area of 5 square miles and has a population of about 1500.  I was impressed with the white sandy lagoon. 

The Reimers* charters a boat there every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  We were able to get time off work and get on the ride on Friday.  When we got to the dock at Arno, we hitched a ride with some workers from the Ministry of Education who were spending the weekend there.  The car ride was expensive compared to fares in Majuro, $5 one way compared to $0.75 in Majuro!  This is mainly due to the fact that gas is shipped from Majuro to Arno.

The photos don’t do the atoll justice!

I love the crafts that the Marshallese make with pandanus leaves and local tools.  It reminds be of the Cameroonian cultural artifacts I have at home.  Now that I think about it, I hope I can get through American customs with these.

Pandanus leaves is sort of a staple in the Marshall Islands.  It’s found everywhere.  The museum’s name, Alele,  is derived from the Alele basket.  This basket is made from pandanus leaves and host a family’s valuables*.  It is kept by the eldest female in the family and passed down matrilineally.

Clothing

The Marshallese were known to have some of the most intricate woven designs of clothing in those days.  The clothes were made out of pandanus leaves and are very sturdy.  Large floor mats were also made form pandanus leaves.

Tattoos

A lot of Marshallese have tattoos.  Coming from a culture where there isn’t a lot of tattooing, it was unexpected.   Marshallese tattoos have significant meaning relating to culture and tradition.  For example, some designs can only be done by people of chiefly ranks. Before Christianity in the Marshall Islands, all Marshallese had tattoos.  Nowadays, Marshallese who do have tattoos wear western motifs.

Nuclear Tests

The US carried out 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands mainly in Bikini and Enewatak.  The nuclear fallout was disastrous.  To put it in perspective, the fallout experienced by these tests is compared to dropping 1.6 Hiroshima bombs everyday for 12 years.  Marshallese and their progeny are still suffering from the side effects of the radiation they experienced.  This has rendered Bikini uninhabitable to this day.

Sea Life

The Marshallese are expert fishermen, boat makers and circumnavigators.  The Wu pictured below is a wooden fish trap made from twigs like bob (pandanus roots). It is immersed about 15 feet in water and left for a few days to trap fish.  Marshallese have always been known to be great navigators.  In the past, only a few people were taught the secrets of navigating the oceans.  Stick charts were constructed to interpret the wave patterns and other natural phenomena. When people went on voyages, the stick charts weren’t taken on the trips.  They were memorized.  Today, very few can interpret the stick charts although almost all government offices have some variation of the stick chart/picture of a stick chart hanging on the wall.

Wu

Stick chart

Eneko is one of the small islands in the Majuro Atoll.   From the main dock in Uliga, it takes about 30mins of cruising by boat to get to the island.  A day after I came to the Marshall Islands, Matt, the IT specialist invited Nik and I to Eneko.  His daughter was graduating from high school and the graduates’ families decided to have a barbecue on the island to celebrate.

L-R:Matt, me, Jabto(Matt’s wife) and Nik, first week in the Marshall Islands

Last weekend, we had our second trip to Eneko.  Our friend, Grant, who is part of the Yacht club in Majuro sailed us to the Island.  By us here, I mean, Nik, Doug(a friend) and me.  I even got to steer his boat (a Pacific Seacraft) at one point, reading all the instruments and making my way through the bit of turbulence we had.

Once we got to Eneko, I paddled around with Grant’s paddle board.  The kids there had fun using the paddle board as a diving board.  Doug’s extended family was having a picnic there and they shared some of their food with us as well.  Later, when we got back to Uliga dock, we watched the sunset.

Steering the boat to Eneko!  Do you see the compass?

Can never get tired of looking at this scenery.

Other smaller islands

Under the Compact of Free Association, the Marshall Islands uses the United States dollar as currency.  However, there is a threat that the Marshall Islands will lose its only correspondent banking relationship (CBR) with First Hawaiian Bank.

There are three banks in the Marshall Islands.

1. The Bank of Guam which is a US based bank with a branch in Majuro.

2. The Bank of the Marshall Islands with majority owned by the Marshallese government.

3. The Marshall Islands Development Bank owned by the Marshallese government.

Both Bank of Guam and Bank of the Marshall Islands are commercial banks.  Deposits and transactions made to the Bank of Guam are backed by the Fed and the Federal Deposit Insurance Cooperation.  These institutions provide the resources to ensure that the financial system in the United States is secure and stable and that money deposited is insured (up to 250,000 USD).

Due to stricter enforcement of anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism laws, banks worldwide are de-risking (terminating banking relationships with customers considered as high risk). 

An outcome of de-risking is the termination of CBR, where larger financial institutions provide financial services to smaller financial instructions as in the case of First Hawaiian with Bank of the Marshall Islands.  Without this relationship, the Marshall Islands will be at risk of losing access to a regulated and global financial system (which could lead to transactions being carried out in unregulated channels)

Unlike the Bank of Guam, the Bank of the Marshall Islands is backed by Marshallese legislation.  This puts the Marshallese government in a position of introducing directives, policy and resources to ensure a safe and sound financial system.

There has been talk lately about cryptocurrency in the country.  The country is planning to introduce its own cryptocurrency called SOV which will be used alongside the US dollar.  It was first introduced by Neema, a start-up based in Israel.  There will be 24 million units of SOV some of which will be available to investors.  The financial sector is not in a position to engage in cryptocurrency.  However, the parliament seems to think differently.  There is uncertainty as to when the initial coin offering will commence.

The banking commission endeavors to advance the financial sector in the Marshall Islands by:

Ensuring soundness of the licensed banks through prudential supervision.

Developing financial intelligence from transaction reports submitted by financial institutions

Developing and implementing key strategies for the success of the financial sector of the Republic of the Marshall Island.

There was a lot of activity this week.  There wasn’t any electricity on our part of the island last weekend so I got to know more about the neighbors, who like me, had come out to the front porch to get away from the heat in the house.  The banking commissioner, Sultan had us over for the 7th year death celebration of his father.  We met the US ambassador to the Marshall Islands at the embassy and we attended the American Independence day celebrations the embassy hosted.

(Left - front to back)  Nik, Matt, Tracy

This week was a good one.  Nik and I carried out our first (of three) presentation.  We’ve got a few weeks left to complete our projects and things are going according to plan.  Last week, I created the website wireframes and this week, I added some content.  I’ll be working with Matt, the IT technician, to ensure the site is sustainable after I leave.  One thing I’ll need to focus on in the coming weeks is a streamlined process for acquiring content from the different departments in the banking commission.

When I go to a new country, I like to try out the local food.  A few days ago, decided to try some Marshallese snacks.  I went into a shop and bought a drink called ‘Noni Juice’.  I thought is was some sort of fruit juice.  The packaging signaled that it had been produced on a small scale for local consumption.

I eagerly picked it up the shelf, paid for it and went home to chug it down.  When I got home, I looked at the back of the bottle and it had a ‘Recommended Usage’ section.  On further inspection, I realised it was medicine!  I was later told that Noni Juice was used as medicine for a variety of diseases including diabetes.  I’m hoping I can return it later.

Earlier today, I went to another shop and found some reddish snacks on the payment counter.  I imagined, it was some sort of confectionery that you could pick up when about to pay for produce.  One of them is pronounced plum and the other pronounced red peace (don’t know if that’s how they’re spelt).  They tasted horrible.  If you’ve got a sweet tooth like I do, then these snacks are not for you!

Red peace and plum

Plum

The financial supervision sector is charged with looking at financial data of the two banks in the Marshall Islands (Bank of Marshall Islands and Bank of Guam) and creating reports on how they are doing. He also advises them if there should be an area of their financial data which is not healthy.

The financial intelligence unit is the anti-money laundering arm of the banking commission.  The purpose of this department is to ensure that money that enters and leaves the country is not used for illegal activities.  They receive reports from banks and carry out analysis to weed out suspicious activity.

Then there is the financial development sector. This is the policy branch of the banking commission.  This sector works closely with both the supervision and intelligence sectors to implement strategies to further develop the financial capacity of the Marshall Islands. These three departments report to the banking commissioner, Sultan Korean.  

It was late night in Adelaide when I got the call.  I was in a friend’s apartment saying my goodbyes to her before she left for her internship in the US.  We would see each other again in August when the semester resumed.  It was also a chance to say goodbye, perhaps forever, to another friend who had come to say his goodbyes as well.  He would graduate later in the year.  We were from three different continents but all three of us had become good friends.

The call was unexpected.  It was Professor Mertz of Technology Consulting in the Global Community (TCinGC) asking if I wanted to do a consulting project with the banking commission in the Marshall Islands.  It would be very different from the projects I was used to doing but it was an exciting opportunity, so I said yes. 

Fast forward a few weeks.

My flight from Adelaide, Australia was at 6am.  I got up early and got to the airport just as check-in was opening up.  I got through check-in without a hitch and waited to board.  My itinerary was as such: Adelaide to Melbourne to Hong Kong to Guam then finally to the Marshall Islands.  I had the necessary documents needed for entry into the Marshall Islands.  It was going to be a long 32 hours of travel, I thought to myself.