The haka heard around the world

Weekender #50

You’re reading The Husk's Weekender, a countdown/roundup of miscellanea from Micronesia, Guam, and Earth.

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shifts in the Micronesian journalism landscape

• The Saipan Tribune, one of the dailies covering the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, will shutter at the end of this year.

• The Island Times, which covers Palau, is facing a defamation lawsuit. Surangel and Sons Company filed suit days before the election as President Surangel S. Whipps Jr. sought reelection. The election has since concluded and Whipps retained his seat as president. For context about the lawsuit, from the Nov. 1 Benar News report:

Palau’s largest newspaper is being sued for defamation by the company of President Surangel Whipps Jr.’s father, just days ahead of general elections in the Pacific nation.

Surangel and Sons alleges “negligence and defamation” by the Island Times and its editor Leilani Reklai for an article published on Tuesday with “false and unsubstantiated allegations,” owner Surangel Whipps Sr. said in a press release on Thursday.

Reklai has rejected the company’s allegations and said the “lawsuit is trying to control how media here in Palau tells a story,” a news article about the case in the Island Times reported on Friday.

“I feel like we are being intimidated, we are being forced to speak a certain narrative rather than present diverse community perspectives,” said Reklai, who is also a stringer for BenarNews.

• A new independent media organization Marianas Press has launched, helmed by Thomas Mangloña II. Biba, Thomas! Follow Marianas Press on Facebook and Instagram, and support local independent journalism.

marianaspress

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links to get you caught up with news around the Pacific

• Subscribe to the Pacific Islands Report https://pireport.org/

  PIR has you covered with COP29 news, news on Kanaky, and more. Important stuff. Plus, PIR just pushed Angela Edward’s article for Visions & Voices on racial imposter syndrome and Micronesian mental health.

• OK, that haka in New Zealand parliament went so unbelievably HARD on so many levels. I’m still thinking about it.

  Here’s RNZ’s live blog of the Treaty Principles Bill that the haka challenged, a handy list of stories up until Nov. 18: https://rnz.liveblog.pro/lb-rnz/blogs/6739b6ced5640612c70cab01/index.html?liveblog._id=urn:newsml:localhost:2024-11-17T10:29:38.351640:45454651-f256-4d0a-baa9-af5e331650d1->editorial

  Plus, RNZ’s report on what’s next for the Treaty Principles Bill: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/534246/what-now-for-the-treaty-principles-bill

teaomaorinews

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quote from Bligh Madris

Bligh Madris, the first Palauan to play in Major League Baseball, was in Palau with ESPN analyst and Olympian Jessica Mendoza as U.S. Embassy sports envoys. We love to see it! In an article from the Island Times, Bligh said,

“Being able to represent Palau, a beautiful place with beautiful people, means so much to me. Coming back here reminds me of who I represent every time I step onto the field.”

Read the entire article here: https://islandtimes.org/bligh-madris/

📌Oh also a reminder: The last day to apply for the 2025 Resilient Pacific Islands Leaders fellowship is Nov. 22 11:59 p.m. HST. https://www.eastwestcenter.org/apply/resilient-pacific-islands-leaders-rpil-fellowship. You already know how much I love RPIL and PIDP, and I encourage anyone with even an inkling of interest to apply.

With every issue of the Weekender, we’ll leave you with a send-off song (not necessarily from a Micronesian artist) curated by my brother, Henry, whose musical tastes have left a lifelong impression on me and, now hopefully, you.

This week’s send-off song is “Shipwrecked” by Microchild. A longtime fave. It emanates big bring-on-the-weekend vibes to me.

We’re building a send-off song playlist on Spotify that includes the songs mentioned in past Weekender posts. Check it out.

Thank you for reading!¹

1. Sneaking in this piece, if you don’t mind. This is kind of a long-ish read and it’s not related to the islands but it is something that I’ve been thinking about for a while now. Writer Thea Lim so eloquently articulates some of the thoughts I’ve been chewing over when it comes to existing online, existing in general, social media, living, creating, etc., etc. Lim, writes in part, “As data collection technology hollows out our inner worlds, all of us experience the working artist’s plight: our lot is to numericize and monetize the most private and personal parts of our experience.” ➤ The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age. Also, please tell me your thoughts. I feel like I can think about this forever.