Plenary reconvenes
I had a variety of side discussions prior to the day's plenary session including a discussion of Howard's tourism paper and a discussion of the FMI substantive change.
Two different people noted to me that the noise generated by the coronation interfered with their ability to hear during the sector sessions. Another person told me the environment sector left the sports center and moved to town apparently due to the noise factors.
Two sectors that could have met in a divided-up main court had to meet at the FSM capital. This prevented members of infrastructure and health from flowing freely among the sectors.
The choice of a day time coronation negatively impacted the summit. The choice also had a negative impact on learning coupled with the shortening of the school periods.
Any future coronations should be scheduled in the evening, whether or not there are other day time activities scheduled for the center. An evening coronation would have permitted both summit delegates and local parents to attend the coronation. The coronation is a chance for the college to invite the community and share in our activities. An evening coronation makes this possible.
There certainly should be no impact on academics for this wholly SOCIAL event.
The college has committed a faux pas and owes an apology to the summit organizers. This may come back to haunt us at some future date, in some future hearing. My apologies for speaking harshly. Maybe I am sitting to close to an outspoken former governor of Yap who always begins with apologizing for his contribution.
Reports to the plenary from the sectors.
Again I would note that these are notes and not a transcript. Plus the gym was hot and my set-up was less than ideal, so I often took typing breaks. Once again the appellations are solely mine: I have misidentified and misspelled people in this document, quite unintentionally. And this document presumes one has the revised matrices in hand. I have been told that the revised matrices will be posted to http://www.summit.fm or possibly the sister site http://www.empat.fm
Material in [square] brackets is generally my own notes in this document.
Environment sector
The matrix has been passed out. These will be highlights. Marine protected areas are increased. Pesticides have been reduced. We have mapped out ecologically important areas. Biologically important. We have a sustainable financing mechanism. The Micronesian Conservation Trust.
What do you want this nation to look like? Marine drive with massage parlors? We have to set the vision. We are anxious to develop but we do not know what we want to develop. I do not want to spend an hour in traffic, losing more hair, getting high blood pressure.
Output 2.1.5 looks to see at least one state ban either styrofoam cups or plastic bags by 2006.
Powerpoint slide on the screen shows dumped transformers that contained PCP laden oil – we need to increase renewable energy, reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
[ 4.2.4 Classes/training in ethnobotany and related subjects offered at College of Micronesia campuses in 2 states by 2006. Hmm.. a national mandate to offer my course. Cool. Disclaimer. I should note that I was NOT in the environment sector and did not ever recommend for my own benefit that my course be a national mandate. I wonder if this means I can apply to directly access compact funding from this sector to support my course? Just kidding... ]
COM is mentioned throughout the grid. We must study this document. Will all final sector documents go up on the summit site?
Then there is 6.3.3 requiring doubling of COM environmental holdings by 2006. Someone has to comb through these grids and cull out all mandates on us, produce a master list of mandates, and then prioritize those mandates.
Floor questions: Can mission statement be reduced to a statement from a paragraph?
[Reminds me of Marie Abram and her call for a college slogan that would double as a mission statement. Echoes of that desire live on in the opening triplet of the mission statement: historically diverse, uniquely Micronesian, and globally connected. How long should a mission statement be? Should it be pithy enough to be recited by anyone serving under that mission? I recall too Xerox spending some on the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars to consultants to help Xerox reorganize and refocus about ten or fifteen years ago. The result was four word statement: Xerox: the document company. As a result, however, Xerox shed all units that did not focus on producing documents, such as their money losing personal computer line. What is our four word mission?]
There is a need for uniform standards at the national government to place a fee on abandoned vehicles charged at the time of sales. Refunded only if you properly dispose of your car.
Has anyone looked at the cost of these outcomes, activities?
Sinkitchy: Strategic goal six, we all agree conservation is important, but I wonder if we can expand that to include the word managing: conserving and managing their country's national resources.
So noted.
Lt. Gov Jackson: I also think the co-chairs should ... with the membership. The new language under the amended compact for removal of PCPs, what is here that would implement that provision? This so called road map, would it be able to fully comply with sector plans and at the same time wholly resources that will be made available under that sector.
Joe: I did not get the PCP question.
Gerson: Is there specific language on the removal of PCP. Should be an output or activity.
Joe: It is under 2.1.4 but I am not familiar with amended compact language. Is there a specific mandate? Can JCN help us on that understanding? AUSAID is funding removal of PCP. In terms of road map funding, we are looking at other sources of funding. And also internal funding.
Dr. Pretrick: I have a practical comment. First, to sectoral committee, you have done an excellent job. The practical point, is that as we establish the EPA in the states then all of the environmental health personnel will transfer in under EPA. There is nothing in the matrix on how sanitation can improve public health. Sanitation is part of preventive public health. Consideration should be given that sanitation and sanitary activities should be returned to public health.
Chief Justice Amaraich: Uh, I do not have a copy of the report yet, so please pardon my ignorance. I thought I had a question but I will change to a comment. If the report does not reflect the fact that enforcement laws should be part of a program that enforces them, then it should: judicial should have a role in adjudicating claims. Therefore there is a need to train the court on environmental issues. Last September I attended a training of how to train judicial officers on the environment and environmental law to assist with enforcement of environmental laws. The conference should reflect this training need. The number and size of environmental issues are growing. We do not want the cases, the caseload, but when it comes we must handle it and we must be informed as a judiciary. We need training for court personnel especially judges. There was a suggestion of uniform environmental laws and regulations. Even if uniform it is environmental and it is the same everyplace, there is importance in transparency in enforcement. [There are also international standards that must be taken into account.]
Joe: It is about time the attorney generals got together, stopped arguing, and create uniform standards.
Report adopted. SC/SS 115 now has a national mandate to exist.
Tourism presented by Bill Aker and Gardenia Walter.
Bill: We had so much information to consider, we had a wonderful draft matrix. It was a daunting task to review this information, we are thankful we had that information.
The tourism sector is the most viable sector to move to the forefront as the leading economic activity for the nation. The committee is confident we can do this. We have even moved forward outcome, activity, and output dates.
We needed to agree to goals, and then subcommittees worked on the eleven goals. Concluded late last night. We had a suggested mission statement.
There is an in-gym handout that Bill reads from, I cannot replicate that here.
The sector agreed that tourism should be our leading economic sector. Our matrix is about thirty pages long.
Gardenia: The committee tried to consolidate the eleven goals and then set that aside due to the complexity of the task. Goals were adopted with revisions.
Reads goals. Dana read document in hand in lieu of listening and typing.
... sector anticipates generating 1,250 new self-sustaining tourism jobs by 2008 with 5% increase per year thereafter.
Howard's World Park designation proposal was adopted into goal nine.
Gardenia's text differs from hand out, hers has some specifics on percentage targets and dates not in the handout prepared by Catherine Allen.
[In documents from day one and day two I misidentified John Mangefel as James]
Q and A:
Kikuo Apis: We have to face the truth, my experience has been that first impression is important. Chuuk, fill up the form, go to Pohnpei, fill up the form, is there anyway we can have one form. When you go to the US, no form after Honolulu. No new form for other states. How are we welcoming our tourists? Secondly we should also, we have to have our people be friendly when people come in. I am not saying we are friendly or not friendly. But when you come in the first thing they ask you is when are you leaving. We want them to stay longer, our first words should not be when are you leaving, where are you staying. [Maybe, "How long will you be staying with us?" ]
John Mangefel: I was just wondering and I agree, but I have a problem, were there in your group Continental representatives? Airlines are quite important in our planning.
Gardenia: There was none. We were hoping from representatives from airlines, education, and government.
John: I heard a rumor that Continental may pull out. Then all of your plans will not work. I may be wrong, I could be wrong. But our plans depend on an airline, to bring the tourists. [Continental is a single point failure point]
Bill: That is a good question. In the end we can only plan what we can control. Continental pulling out? We bailed them out of bankruptcy twice. We did not consider them pulling out. Air transport is a major problem, but we cannot take that into account.
Senator Walter: Papanek suggested policy changes. Did you look at these recommended policy changes?
Alik: We have a document from the select committee regarding the high growth scenario and tourism and the airline that we can share with you at a later time.
[ominous]
??: No mention of potential market for holding meetings in the FSM. The western pacific tuna commission may be hosted in the FSM. 600 to 800 visitors a year if meetings are held here. I do not see this reflected in the matrix. [something about a road into the interior?? outside funding to do this??]
Bill: There is another supporting document tourism and marketing plan, about 18 months old, not all in matrix, conventions and government meetings are important to us. This conference is itself important to Pohnpei. We know these are important.
??: If we succeed in marketing, then we will stress infrastructure. A medium size hotel will exceed sewage treatment plant capacity. We need to put infrastructure first and then market tourism.
Gardenia: We would hope that with tourism we would also develop the infrastructure hand-in-hand with tourism.
Bill: We are less than 30% occupied. We have room to grow without additional load on the infrastructure.
Anwar: On goal six, I appreciate integration. Sale and display of local handicrafts and for the use of locally produced soap etc and detergents. Locally produced at PCP and it should be included in the matrix.
Gender sector in four speakers
Mr. Hillary Tutilio...
Hillary: There are four S's. Our presentation on gender, men women youth boys and girls as you can see on our shirts. Our issue is on the women's gender and looking at the world through women's eyes and women's issues. We know for a fact that men can advance in any field without restriction due to society's expectations that men are more capable. Women always feel they have to give in to men to make peace in the family. There are no women in the highest level of leadership.
At one time, the desire to protect women led to men being sent out into risky encounters. This evolved to where women were not given a public role in life.
Women do contribute to economic growth. Nothing we deliberated on contradicts our culture, tradition, or custom.
The four S's, stand-up, speak up, shut up, sit down. There follow the four K's: Kalangahn, kulo, kinisou, k___.
Tina??: Broad statement on Powerpoint presentation. Five goals. Today's situation. There is no policy on gender. We have only one salaried personnel in government offices. There is no budget for women's services.
Goal one: Enhance social, economic status of women. Adopt a national policy on gender. This would facilitate government pursuit of strategic goals.
Establish FSM commission on the status of women. Oversee government and NGOs on roles of womens.
Goal two: Enhance capacity of leadership roles for women. Increase female leaderships.
Remove gender based practices unfavorable to girls.
Third: Keep gender goals into consideration.. missed it.
Enhance incorporation of strategic goals in gender into planning. [ She reading from the grid. I do not have the grid. Too fast. ]
Bender: Four: To maximize women's contribution to development process, number one to provide a safe environment and at home and and output number two examine the recruitment of women into commercial network to ensure wider participation in income generating activities. Three: look at division of responsibilities between men and woman in the home four: more woman on policy making bodies. Our last goal looks at strengthening the capacity of women's " need high level women in health, education an, and social affairs. Appropriate staff is hired to run the programs under these positions. [I just cannot keep up this morning]
Third outcome improves technical access, information access.
John: Men may hide, including this in the summit should not have occurred. This sector may bring problems. The only problem is men abusing women.
Walter: I believe you have seen the situation, there are no obvious problems, but they are hiding. They are not obvious, but [they are there].
Lam?: I have mixed feelings on your sector: we lost the best female minds in the nation into that committee to the detriment of the other committees. Maybe...
Editor: the jist of his longer statement was along the lines that maybe we have damaged women's position in decision making by separating the powerful women into a single sector. The loss will hurt women for the next twenty years as their absence has left critical issues out of the formative compact II matrices. The gender sector should never have been formed and every sector should have addressed gender as it relates to their sector. And consideration should have been given to having the sectors mirror those in the compact sectors.
Walter: Thank you
Lt. Gov: The matrix only speaks to rights of women, where are the youth, the senior citizens, we need a twenty year plan for everyone.
Walter: That concern came up at the end of the day while the report was being worked upon.
??: This sector should have focused on productivity, while health sector should address health and social services. Gender should not be focused on social services.
Tina: We felt that a policy needed to be developed within social affairs. Social affairs has a women's sector, youth, history and archiving. We feel we have role under our mandate to comment on social affairs and services. Nine and ten o'clock last night we learned that we should have included youth.
Chief Justice George: We need some policies and laws to be put into place. But in the opening report there was a mention of a problem, of societal stereotyping, my question is how do we address that? Maybe these problems started in the home?
Tina: We hope to do awareness training. Teach parenting, nutrition. More focus on programming for gender development.
[Bear in mind John Mangefel is wearing a gender t-shirt from the gender group]
Eliuel: There are some hidden factors we cannot express, that is true. I want to congratulate congress for ratifying CEDAW. It is now up to the women to reach what you want to reach. Do not think you will be selected just because you are woman. You must be qualified.
??: I have experiences with the problems women have. We have to not let ourselves down. Get up, speak out, you will get your way. We should not just look at women but get equal opportunity for everyone.
Joakim Peter: I wanted to say something after gender. As I look through the matrix I can see the same problem that face those conveniently labeled as disabled. There is very little effort to identify those of us with special needs. I do not know if it by oversight, but parents of children with disabilities or people with disabilities were not invited to this gathering. I have learned that when able bodied people say they will do something for me, they generally screw it up. Maybe we can later contribute to this category.
First lady Gardenia: We should encourage men to get involved in roles of women. If we all share then it is an equal sharing.
Hans (Williander?): I was not going to talk, but I have register I now take a deeper view. In 1995 I read a report that 25 female lawyers in Palau. What about Chuuk? FSM? 18 female doctors in Palau. Where are you FSM? It is not that we like to restrict women, it is because of custom. Are you proposing we break our custom? Do we break our custom? When [Chuukese] women see their brothers, they go down on their knees. Do men tell them to go down? No. That is our custom. At the same time I want to see a women be the next president. Keep quiet and be the next speaker [of congress]. Under Ancito the director of finance is a woman. Must government regulate this? There is nothing to keep you [out of positions], I disagree that your positions should be guaranteed by law. Keep marching and [one day you will] replace chief justice Amaraich.
Senator Walter: Yes, the culture is strong and yes that is a barrier. We are not here to change the culture. Only to remove discrimination. People ask me, "What are you doing, a man's job?"
Hillary: The intent is not to wreck the culture, custom, or traditions. It is hard. Things are changing. We have problems in my own state of Yap where on one island the chiefs would not let women go to school. I went there and explained to the chiefs that things are changing, we cannot go that way into the future. Now we are getting smart girls, a few, from that island going on to high school.
Editor: Report from the President's select committee: see handout. Select committee endorses Papanek high growth committee. The whole thing, hook, line, and sinker.
Redley: We have to do certain things to achieve high growth scenario. Continue tax reform. Increase revenue. Improvement of tax collection. Restructure tax system. Improve existing public infrastructure. Special committee on infrastructure will present draft IDP later. Power, roads, water, sewers, health: basic infrastructure must improve. Improvement of air transportation. We cannot realize that potential unless we address air transportation. Environmental and cultural protection measures must be taken. Revision of foreign investment laws. We attempted to revise foreign investment laws. [More reform needed]. President will convene consultative group to present outcome of this summit, strategic plan, and our high growth strategy. To request president to submit request to world bank to provide a pre-technical assistance team in aviation, airport construction, fisheries, and economics.
Chief Justice George: Decline in compact grant, some immediate. Are we to replace lost revenues or are we to restructure our taxes to maintain services or are you still thinking about [alternatives].
Redley: we need to improve tax collection. Up to 40% or 60% improved support can be gained. [?]
John: I seems to speak all of the time and I am sorry about that. I have having some problem with it. I do not mind asking the country to invest their money in the FSM, but I having a problem with asking our president to ask other nations ask for donations. I may be reading this wrong. I do not want president to select some donor country, but to prepare us for investment I have no problem. I have a problem with ... sorry for speaking out of turn.'
Redley: To accelerate growth we need money. Compact is reduced. The only way to go is to go out and seek assistance and I guess there is no other way. From Compact not enough, our own money not enough. Our high growth scenario that we are trying to adopt will not be achieved. There is nothing wrong with asking for help. [Editor: The nation as a beggar, without pride...?]
Alik: The president will not be going from door to door to get money.
Epel Ilon: Four D, to ensure that it is primarily Micronesians who benefit from high growth. All should benefit from it, not just Micronesians. It indicates an attitude contrary to what we are trying to do to attract foreign investment.
Redley: I think the reference is directed to our citizens to develop the FSM so they do not need to leave to go elsewhere. This should not be taken as discrimination.
Willy: Thank you. Simple request, if we could just put in a technical team including someone from the environment. Maybe we should not present ourselves as desperate and take our time, if you put in huge infrastructure you cannot fold it out later. Be careful what you listen to, be careful how you move forward. The environment team has to be involved. You let the camel in the tent and then ask the environment to come and pull the camel out by the tail. You need to invite the environment team into the tent before you let the camel in the tent so we can keep the camel out of the tent.
??: We should tighten our belts first before we seek outside money.
John Mangefel: I seems to be talking too much. Our theme should be economic growth AND SELF RELIANCE. How does this plan lead to self reliance. Why did you print that and put that banner behind you on the stage. We need to be mindful of the need of self reliance.
Adopt resolution? Scattered non majority clapping. Does not sound like a consensus.
Editor: Tourism may yet regret going first. A number of other sectors were lured by the honey tongued Papanek and his promise of prosperity for all. Reminds this editor of the plans consultants laid out for Africa in the 1970s. And where did that get Africa?
Jack: I understand that there are papers underlying the high growth scenario. I have not seen those papers. Can we see those papers on transportation? The other papers.
=
Lunch at the Joy. My thanks to the good doctor from Yap for treating us to lunch.
=
All matrices will be put up tonight to the web site according to Mr. Lebehn.
Fisheries
Fisheries. Four goals. Inshore fisheries goals to use these resources within maximum sustainable levels. The term sustainable has been used and abused. We add the precautionary principal: if you err, err on the conservative and cautious side. Fisheries science per se is young and inexact. Many unknowns. Assessment is based on catch per unit effort, which is post hoc and only tells you in retrospect the health of the resource. Reef resources need to be prioritized. Some states are considering banning reef fish export, some are banning specific species, others are exporting reef fish. Although we only contribute 2% to GDP, we are very self-reliant. We eat fish every day, we as a sector feed the nation. Politicians blame fisheries for failures, but who is really at fault? Let me ask another question, how many of you had fish for lunch. How many had canned fish?
We are offering an alternative in fisheries. We propose using aquaculture to build an export sector. With caution. We must be careful about not bringing in invasive species.
??: This looks like the old concepts, the old ideas. I see only a stagnant industry. How can we move up from 2%.
Mario: We own the resource, one recommendation is to recommend that there are lot of fishing ships out there. We want to require transshipment out of the FSM.
??: Can we get 100 million a year [from fisheries]?
Mario: Yes, if you over fish. Also, if you overcharge the boats you will close down the zone. The boats are struggling. We cannot go beyond a fee level because the boats cannot support it.
Speaker Perman: Why is there no date set for the boats to based in FSM. Boats should base in FSM.
Mario: We were told it to keep the matrix flexible. You want one or two years? It is a policy issue.
Perman: We should force basing boats within one or two years. The fish processing plant is lacking resources. If we have 50 to 60 boats based in Pohnpei it will help fish processing plant. Help the nation as a whole. Strongly recommend to have all fishing boats based in FSM. A year from now.
[Editor: Does the right honorable speaker realize what Kolonia harbor will look like if 50 to 60 boats were based there permanently? Or even a quarter of that? The damage to the environment, the befouled water? I suspect the state legislature would be among the first demanding that the EPA crack down on the pollution and would ask who invited all of these foreigners into our harbor. And then the social impact of what, maybe 120 to 500 foreign fishermen in our towns? Does anyone remember Subic bay? Or the time of the whalers for that matter?]
Redley: Our national government has been trying to attract more foreign boats to base in our states. Economic benefits, etc. That has not been successful. We have seen the trend over the years. Inappropriate policies at the state level made it too much for those foreign boats to be based in the states. Not easy to attract them due to other factors. We have seen the boats fleeing our ports.
NORMA board: Make it a policy that boats fishing in EEZ that boats must base in FSM. We cannot force basing in FSM. These boats are licensed everywhere. This is not realistic to force them to home base here. We are a member of forum fisheries, we negotiate agreements, it is not realistic to force basing in the FSM. Licensing in the FSM does not mean these boats will only fish here.
Mario: Purse seiners can fish here and steam to south America off load. A home base FSM policy is not realistic. Only long liners shipping fresh tuna from FSM waters are going to use our ports. Are ports cannot handle the purse seiners. But we can still transship and indeed some purse seiners transship in the FSM. But be careful of environmental effect. Long liners move seasonally to follow the fish. Two years ago NFC required at least one transshipment during boat license duration. This supported chartering flights into the FSM.
Right now if costs more to ship fish from Pohnpei to Guam than from Guam to Japan. One problem we have is no large tourist industry, no 747s. Out of Guam we ship tuna in the belly of wide body birds. But you try to ship tuna in a 737 and no go, Continental cannot load the weight.
Alik: Ilon?
Epel Ilon: I must compliment those two gentlemen. Especially as they cannot fish. I hope they [put together policies better than they fish.] Did you make training recommendations? What about facilities? Fishing boats cannot get needed repairs here in the FSM.
Jesse Subolmar-Raglmar??: We are also fishermen, we need to be to survive. FMI has to practically force the people to go into fishing by saying that if you want to graduate you have to fish. Most want to be captains and engineers, but not fishermen. So the training is comprehensive [if unpopular].
Editor: Being born in Nebraska does not make one necessarily want to raise cattle. There is a false assumption here that being a good subsistence fishermen is in any way connected with wanting to work in the fisheries industry. Illinois may be number one in soybeans and corn, but that did not make me want to grow corn. My wife enjoys sewing, but that does not mean she wants to work in a garment factory. Fishing for your family on your own schedule is, I would assert, completely unrelated to having either a desire or a natural ability to engage in commercial fishing. But that is merely my humble opinion. And this is, if I may be so bold, the fundamental fallacy in the fisheries and agriculture sectors: a love for subsistence fishing and farming is no indicator that these sectors are going to attract the academic youth of the nation into programs in fisheries and agriculture.
Mario: Few FMI graduates go into the field. Training will not make students go into the field necessarily. Meanwhile, on the maintenance side, we have a dry dock in Kosrae crying for business. Boats, meanwhile, dry dock at home so their crew can enjoy home leave.
??: There is too much bureaucracy at our ports. Eight to ten people from a number of different agencies come to check out even a small boat. A small plane from Mortlocks this week and it took two government employees to meet it and the first thing they said was, "Did you bring any fruit?" This is not friendly.
(Sinkitchy?) George: Can we if focus on only one destination nation, benefit more?
Mario: It was put forward and a lot of realized two problems. There are purse seiners and long liners. If we go only with the USA then we are stuck with purse seiners only. If we go with Japan, USA is going to be cut out. We need to work cooperatively with other nations. The chairman of NORMA has traditionally come from foreign affairs.
Perman: I do not want to leave this summit without the motion to base some of the boats in the FSM. The NORMA director once told me we cannot do that. So then why issue a license at all?
Kikuo: We have not addressed the situation where we created local private companies, what is our course of action with these? We spent a lot of money, such as on NMFC, and I know there are problems.
Mario: NMFC was established via and ADB loan and ADB consultants. Consultants are not accountable for their recommendations, I wish we could make them accountable. We are operating one boat for three months and we put cash in the bank. I do not know why other boats cannot do the same.
Jesse?: The work has to be done by the people in the field. Encourage basing, encourage the formation of local companies. Problem stems from amount of capital you put in. We were mandated to do the matrix.
Agriculture
Stan, land grant yap: Briefly present overview of meetings. Representation were well attended with representation from state, national, COMFSM, COM Land Grant, SPC Plant Protection, and other organizations. Five PhDs. Reading from handout.
On delivery systems issues and was not addressed directly in the sector meetings. Present were members of the college and the consensus is that the proposed matrix is a good working document. We may not propose to the north or the south in the agriculture sector. The mission statement is... [reads mission statement.] Nena Nena has been a master navigator and he led us through the rough waters and completed work at midnight last night. He was present in the prior two summits.
Nena Nena: There is a letter in KP written by professor at COMFSM, he was not a part of our sector. We hope we can increase the sector and we want to promote the concept of the wide body plane. The policies and strategies goals stress reversing the current situation in the FSM. Some issues deliberated includes food security and scholarship program. [an aside on the KP article that riled NN] We also look at how do we involve the farmers to be more productive, financial or support services.
Agriculture knows the primary steps would be the local production for subsistence and import substitution. In order the questions raised in fisheries, we would all claim we are farmers. When we come to the second goal we call for commercial production, these are where we need training and scholarships.
Lam: I have trouble with four, PATS was a jewel of agricultural in Micronesia. It shut down four years ago due to lack of interest. COMFSM has had no agriculture graduates for four years. Not for a lack of scholarships. How do you address this? Is this the right time to create a national agricultural institute? Where is the money going to come from? The college is being tasked, but they do not have the money either.
NN: If there is a curriculum across all levels then the public awareness of the importance of agriculture, then the youth might change their mind. Ag has been a priority area for a long time. Yes, we see the difficulties, We feel these activities will help. Under research institutions there are research projects going on. There is no national research institute. We believe there is useful need for a national research institute.
Kikuo: If every family can produce their own food, that is the right way to start. Focus on subsistence agriculture first. Then, should a family has excess, then let them export. And keep the government out of the way and out of competition. But focus on subsistence agriculture first. And do not set up government in competition with private sector in agriculture.
Kyoshi: Try to answer to what Dan was alluding to. Number one, in agriculture enrollment is a problem. You mentioned PATS because of lack of interest of other competitive areas that bring in more money. Maybe parents have a lot to do with it. If you cannot make it academically, then you get to stay home and feed the pigs. That kind of attitude has to be changed. And we have four graduates with Agriculture degree.
??: The limiting factor for agriculture is land, labor, and marketing. The emphasis here is training, manpower. But land is limited. It is good for subsistence, but for commercial our land is restricted. There is a problem of land ownership. That is a limited factor, land tenure is restrictive. [The matrix does not mention the critical role land issues play in limiting the development of agriculture.]
NN: There is what we consider adaptations, adapt commercial agriculture to our small land area.
Willy Kostka: I did not see some type of specialized agriculture. We cannot compete in mass production, but like the pepper was for Pohnpei we have to look at that. The question of students, its a money problem. The PATS students were learning how to grow Chinese cabbage. It was a problem of money, only a certain number of people can grow Chinese cabbage. So the graduates went and grew sakau.
Josekutty: I do not have a question, comments. A national research institute is a necessary thing. We have a lack of locally trained people. The canker on Kosrae got out of control because we lacked the trained people to move out into the field fast enough. There is betel canker in Guam. We do not have the means to tackle this issue should the threat come onto one of our islands. It will also improve the college and their programs.
Jack Fritz: I see no reference to the use of our plants in medicine in the sector. No traditional use of plants.
NN: There was a mention the property rights to our own plants. Conserving our germ plasm. We did not address medical aspect of our trees and plants.
[Editor: I think everyone lack the critical knowledge that our plants are not unique: it appears that the vast majority of local plant based medicines are based on plants used the same way across the Pacific. There is no IPR to be gained from Ocimum sanctum, Clerodendrum inerme, Morinda citrifolia. There is no sense either in conserving germ plasm for such introduced plants. I think more people need to take SC/SS 115]
James: I do not see much on the environmental side in the grids... organic farming.
NN: We have a lot of other scientists here who could answer. Organic farming is addressed in three. All are in here somewhere.
Stan: That was loaded question, lots of activities spread out across five goals. Some might be under one goal and some under other goals. We cannot specify everything in there.
John Mangefel: First summit agriculture was first priority. In second it was a high priority. In third summit we said the same thing. We need drastic measures to apply here instead of just talking. If you are serious, then we have ban something. You have to ban importation of rice, or ramen, or bread, and then we will have to go back and grow taro. As long as we import rice no one will pay attention to agriculture, that is a fact of life I can assure you.
Stan: Being a papaya farmer myself. There have been layers of planning over the years. Then this Compact II we are dealing with an hourglass clock. A lot not going from one end to another end. Being a farmer I find that hard to believe. DOI should see that the transition years are smooth and not disruptive. I do not import any rice.
Alik: Ag is not a complete failure. We should be encouraged that our committee is helping us. Failure is not complete failure.
??: In Pohnpei, pigs are important. We wash the wastes into the dirt or streams. People are cited by the EPA law. You have to that away from any body of water. How do you maximize that commodity coming out of that pig. EPA would cite the farmer, but no solution is given to the farmer. Is there a way to protect the water and help the farmer who is using it to fertilize the land.
Senator Walter: I believe in using local food. Local food is harder to prepare. I am busy. Is there an easier way to use the local food?
Education 16:00
FACSO sitting up front
Midion reads a prepared written statement. Mission.
Weldis: FSM language policy will develop local language and enhance English learning.
Editor reads education hand out. He is surprised and bemused in alternation as he reads the mandates on COMFSM.
Weldis: ... all decisions will be reached consensually between state and national government. We have been process oriented. Very little has been concentrated on outputs. The format for the matrix was mutually agreed upon. Four goals are based on student learning and achievement. Goal one in direct education, goal two in improvement of education, three in workforce development, four in postsecondary education.
[Weldis describes the matrix and its layout. Our matrix differs in that we have objectives between activities and outputs. Outputs do not tell you quality. There is a quality element, baseline percentage data. The presentation is inappropriately long and Redley does not appear all that happy as Weldis drifts into a discussion of the sector meeting process. We are headed towards 30 plus minutes in presentation where 15 was allowed. It is not only professors who talk at length, it is educators. Education seems to attract those who enjoy talking to groups of people. At length. And are willing to continue long after their students, or in this case audience, has lost all interest.]
Alik: [interrupting] Can you be brief?
Weldis: OK... [Redley stares incredulously at Weldis as he launches on into scholarships. So the answer to can an educator be brief is, no, not really. ]
Weldis continues to read the matrix and expound upon it. He turns a page and continues to read. People slip out one by one from the center as the clock heads towards 17:00 on the wall. Our group is easily half the size of the 9:00 start. Now he launches into the definition of the education sector. The upside to the passage of time is that as the sun sets the center cools gradually.
Weldis: The education sector recommends that education become a separate department from health. They are separate priorities in the Compact and separate sectors under the Compact. They should be separated. Once education is separated, education becomes prioritized.
Weldis continues on.
Redley: Based on your presentation I can tell you are educators – you talk long. I hope you are not basing your matrix on US federal programs only. I also see blanks that are not filled in, why?
Weldis: We are still analyzing the test results for NST 2003. With that we will fill in the blanks. We are working on getting scanners to analyze the data and get it out – we need the blank forms.
Jackson: You never finished a sentence that I hoped you would finish. You said health is a different sector from education. Should health be separated from education.
Weldis: At the national level. The compact is not presenting this to us, but the two priority sectors, separately, are health and education.
Jackson: You are promoting this separation? Would there be an increase in funding or budget?
Weldis: It would only be small, a small increase.
Jackson: Explain SEG.
Weldis: News of this came late. FSM Association of Chief Fiscal Officers asked grants not to go into cash out. When it came back it became supplemental education grant. They will not be used for supplanting but for... we have identified several things we want: state and national transition teams. We have identified tasks for the transition teams on the supplemental education grants. We are taking a program approach with program applications.
??: Matrix does not include private schools. We were invited. Historically we have produced good students.
Weldis: And there is no mention of public schools either. This is for everyone.
Sinkitchy George: Reading first strategy goal I assume this is what has been done over many years. It perhaps would be more meaningful to us to know where are we today and how are we going to go forward. I do not quite understand about the standard test. The impression is that we are not doing very well in that. And we hope in three years we will raise competency by 43%. But it does not tell us if we are satisfactory or not. It appears that we still l have uncertified teachers teaching our student. On postsecondary education, the departments quite an amount to support postsecondary programs. Have we been successful? What can be done?
Weldis: That 40% does not mean 40% of that class but rather 40% of the test items, 40% of the test items correct. Not 40% will pass.
SG: Is 43% over three years OK?
Weldis: We need to see what is wrong with the teaching quality? Are the teachers not delivering?
Director Robert: We are going to argue with you. Growth and self-reliance. We have quality teachers and weak teachers in our system. We have certification and it will continue for three years. We are going to test the teachers, not the students. We know the students will increase their scores as a result of this.
Bob Spegal: I've taught in the system here. These grades would be failing – 43% etc. and if this is on the test we are developing then either our test is wrong or something is wrong with the students. Second, 90% attendance with incentives. Education only happens when teachers are at school with students. Where does the 90% come from? Do teachers need an incentive to be in the classroom. Attendance must be addressed in a much stronger way.
Weldis. We will try to incorporate that.
??: There are six performance measures on the second page. Three on mathematics. Second three measure language arts. This matrix tells me we have only two standardized tests. Early childhood is what will lead the child into further steps in education. Math and language differ only in that one writes in numbers. Isn't there more to education?
Weldis. Reading, writing, listening are incorporated.
[I think Weldis or I missed that one: I thought the question was aimed at the lack of a broader education: fine arts, higher level thinking, humanities, social sciences, science, etc. Weldis thought the question was whether the whole curriculum was focused on writing and so he responded that reading and listening are also covered.]
Podis Pedrus: The fourth strategic goal: Education underpins all development and I do not see that here. We are trying to address the manpower needs of the nation. The teachers are trained at the college but we do not have it here. We need nurses. Where is that mentioned? Manpower needs are to be addressed. I thought education would address agriculture, and other sectors of this summit but I do not see it here. I feel education should encompass all of these areas. There is a mention of nation's needs, but what are they? We should have some priorities. We have limited resources. We want to be general, but we need to be specific in areas we want to concentrate on.
Weldis. Education is a priority, underpins economic growth. Maybe the college will assist in enhancing or creating in those areas we have little of such as fisheries.
John Mangefel. I apologize for dominating this summit. I have one question. I go around and around about asking. I have to do an illustration first. If you are sitting in your chair and see two faces that look alike. I do not have one strong feeling about education here in the FSM. I do not understand. I do know we feel that education is a really important area. It is developing our future leaders and future country. It is a very difficult country. We have a different way our brains are working. Then you have a bunch a kids and you look at them and that will be difficult for the teacher to bless or find a common ground where the children are different. Then how come all of education are in the lower pay scale in our society. If they do very important work, how come they get very low salary?
Lam: Strategic goal two was to provide training and assistance under amended compact. Does department of education want to get into training judges?
Midion: I just wanted to make sure I follow through on what Amaraich asked for yesterday that the board will provide money for training of judges.
Dr. Kennedy: Goal one. I want to thank you for recommending a divorce from health. You note 1000 will graduate from elementary school. You have increased population by 2000 per year and your objective is 1000, what happens to the rest?
Weldis: I noted that objectives are included just for future use. The C refers to Chuuk state.
Kanichy: Uh, I guess that is part of the challenge we face, we start out with 2000 in first grade and for twelve years, and for each succeeding year you have that number of students to complete. And without knowing exactly knowing how many will complete, we are getting baseline data. Over many years you have to have baseline data. Of course in Chuuk you have about 50,000 kids that you have to enroll each year. Problems of facilities, land, personnel. The FACSO has dealt with and recognized. How are we going to respond effectively. Basically that is what we have. I would also like to say that our collective efforts, with the question of how to improve school system, to try to handle annual increase. All the evidence that we want to improve quality, improve facilities, but we cannot have facilities without land. Land is very important. Whatever the situation is, we need good quality schools, facilities, roads, water for schools, and teachers and to attract teachers to teach on their islands. We have to learn more to live better, do more. How can we sustain the more than 2000 children who come in each year while mom and pop fly away to Guam to get a better paying job.
[50,000 kids in a state with a population of 54,000? Maybe I misheard.]
Alik: This concludes our discussion in this sector. We are discussing whether we are continuing or to break.
Weldis: We want to incorporate your comments and allow us to bring it back.
Director Robert will make a closing remark.
We have only a general outline. We all understand that the minimum requirement, we can always opt over the bar in each of the states. Thank you.
[Interesting: a tacit implication that there might be states which are setting the minimum]
Health Sector
John: Good evening. We deliberated in our sector and on the information in the compact to guide us in our deliberation. We did go through the strategic goals to ensure we have not left anything behind, that we have covered the health sector. You all have a copy, please look through it. We went through and noted changes. The major change was the last part we went further and considered policy recommendations. We have five strategic goals, reads five goals. Primary, secondary, promotion, financing, and capacity building.
We added breastfeeding up from 66 to 75 percent. We supervise and evaluate and train. We said we need community health provider. We put less emphasis on outputs to provide flexibility to the states to make decisions. Activity in two included a new hospital for Kosrae and other facilities in other states.
Under three we changed to 95% immunization. We wanted to ratify framework . Under four we amended various outcomes and activities. We noted a need to consider health maintenance programs in order to move to universal health care. Last goal, establish a nursing school at COMFSM. Strengthen pubic health financing mechanism. These are the mentioned changes.
We also looked at policy issues. The first, state and national government need to establish a standard salary structure. Second, review existing laws to make existing sanitation laws more effective. Sanitation is being ignored at present. Consider transferring sanitation to health services. Another is state and national should develop minimum standards. The next is referral facilities. Due to lack of analysis, viable business plan, logistics, water, power, and sewer, the committee was not able to endorse this concept at this time. Emphasis should be on primary health care.
Kikuo?: No mention about policies and working relations with health insurance. Should we work private clinics or are they too expensive. We have two family clinics, but as I understand it they cannot accept in-patient so we have to send off-island. Is that less expensive?
John: You are referring to high tech hospital to be able to address, if so, then one is to have a referral hospital in Chuuk. However, when we were looking into that, there is a problem here that we know. It is very good to have a referral hospital, but handling it is a problem.
Jeff: Health insurance program is getting better. It is approaching the right direction. We established board members. They are running as a business on their own and things we used to experience like political referral will be minimized. Now they are working on those kinds of things. Marcus is board chairman. They are looking into those things.
Podis: I am glad to see the recommendation that a nursing school be established at COMFSM. We need to have each sector note the training component. So for health we have nurses and doctors. Doctors are taken care of in another format, but nurses we can do. For education we train teachers. So we have nursing in the health sector. For private sector, for example apprenticeship program. Thank you very much.
Skilling: I have two questions. First, the licensure board. I wonder if there was discussion of reconstituting the licensure board for physicians. Second, policy number one, in regards to establishing salaries for health workers. Where would the funding come from? The 20% for health and education has been rescinded and put back to national government.
Jeff: I think that is a very good one that is not mentioned, but it would be covered under minimum standards. There is a move to amend existing board to create a more than one member board. Salary, yes, that is really a workforce issue and is true for other sectors. The doctors and nurses have different scales than the other states. This is a problem. Some form of uniform salary scale for health workers that way health workers from other states will not feel neglected. That is the idea. Where is the salary coming from?
??: There was a political decision made that there would be a referral hospital in Chuuk. Under goal two outcome 2xiii and activity 2.4 to me if they are both adopted by summit, then we would do away with the political decision.
Jeff. What was the last question of the question.
??: Since this will become part of SDP, this will do away with that decision of several years ago?
Jeff: This is very sensitive. The group spent so much time on this. What I am going to say I need to be careful, do not misquote me. EPIC said there should be a referral center, and even a location was identified. We recommend this in four, we talk about that. The group is saying there is so much that we to look at, look at the many factors, before the establishment of the facility. The concept is good. It is good to have a referral facility and we need to study it more. Cost analysis. Need to look at what kinds of patients will be referred. Currently we are focusing on existing secondary health care facilities. We think if we improve existing secondary facilities then we will reduce need for referrals. Of course there will still be some referrals. The concept is good. The concept will be there but implementation... but me, I hope we can do it.
John Mangefel: Again I apologize to the whole group. I may the missed the report I did not hear anything about local and traditional medicine. We have used the medicine for thousands of years. We should look at it and study it. I am concerned about, we talk about culture, custom, our own things, but in the medicinal area we seem to ignore culture and custom.
Eliuel: I think a lot of us appreciate local medicine. One is that there is no analysis of local medicine. There are differences in approaches: a natural medical doctor might see vomiting as bad, but a local doctor might see vomiting as bad. Anyone who has that local medicine knowledge they should use it but whether it should go into a policy matrix is another.
Bob: Unfortunate that health got the short end of the stick, like in the second summit, but we are being heard. Health is important to tourism, private sector: unhealthy workers are unproductive. We need to put our money where our mouth is: primary health care. Every referral is a failure of secondary health, every SHC patient is a failure of PHC. And no, PHC is not cheaper, it is more cost efficient. Traditional medicine is important and has an important role, but some might not work. Then the patient is sent to the hospital, dies, and the hospital is blamed. In the polio epidemic Dr. Savin found a cure in 1961, in 1962 Cuba went all out to cure polio and within one year it was wiped out. We can do the same thing in this country.
??: Was there any discussions on the use of the use of one pass mileage?
Jeff: It is between Continental and the person. That is something we should pursue, but we did not spend time on this one.
Editor: As the clock heads for six, Redley calls for an end to the session. With a reduced and exhausted audience, the health sector matrix is accepted. This is the third summit to call on the college to develop a nursing program.
All errors belong to Lee Ling!