August 17, 2003 - Hawaii University: The following is the narration of what happened when the first Peace Corps arrived in Palau

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Palau: The Peace Corps in Palau: August 17, 2003 - Hawaii University: The following is the narration of what happened when the first Peace Corps arrived in Palau

By Admin1 (admin) on Sunday, August 17, 2003 - 2:06 pm: Edit Post

The following is the narration of what happened when the first Peace Corps arrived in Palau



The following is the narration of what happened when the first Peace Corps arrived in Palau

The following is the narration of what happened when the first Peace Corps arrived in Palau:

The first Peace Corps who came to Palau seemed to be anti militarism. In fact, one of the first volunteer lived with my parents who came in 1966. When I returned home after finishing high school in Guam, he often complained to my parents for sending their only child to Guam where she had been Americanized. This according to him was very bad. He (Kent Fry) also complained to my grand-father why did he let his son (Jacob Senior, first Micronesian), enlist in the U.S. military. We were amazed. In other words, we didn't understand why he was so angry with me and my uncle.

Peace Corps who came to Palau represented many kinds of professions. There were lawyers, teachers, economists, and even politicians to name a few, who influenced Palauans and the rest of Micronesians of the following:

1. That the islands can be developed by Palauans to certain aspects of development where they remain environmentally clean and beautiful.

2. That the islands are economically sustainable if no foreign countries come and ruin the economic sources (fishing for one) that we have already.

3. That we could eventually become a self-governing nation (independent).

This encouraged our leaders (members of Congress of Micronesia) to begin the negotiation for our future political status that began in the mid-seventies (Rechebei & McPhetres, 1997). The members of the Congress of Micronesia felt that they couldn't negotiate together so Saipan moved to negotiate for Common Wealth, while all the islands in Micronesia chose to negotiate for the Compact of Free Association. Even so, Roman Tmetucher, a congressman representing Palau moved to get Palau out while Amata Kabua from the Marshall island did the same thing. The Trust Territory was split into three entities such as: Republic of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. Each entity negotiated for their own political status with the United States.

Palau Constitutional Convention was created with 38 members elected out of 89 candidates. On January 28,1979, the members met for the first time under the terms of PL 6-5S-l and concluded its work on April 2, 1979. This was chaired by Haruo Remeliik, who was first elected President in 1980.



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Story Source: Hawaii University

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Palau

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