Olympic Updates, Fish & Meat Stories, and Yet More Politics

First, a few updates on Palauans in the Olympics.

Wrestler Elgin "Tulop" Elwais made a valiant showing against top Iranian wrestler and three-time world champ Hamid Soryan, holding Soryan off for more than a minute and not getting pinned.

Sprinter Peoria Koshiba finished eighth in her 100 meter heat, beating out Buthayna Al-Yacooubi of Oman and improving her season best time by half a second. Nice work Peoria! Next Olympics, Oman wants revenge.

Jesse Tamangrow also posted a personal best in the 100 m of 11.38 seconds.

Swimmer Amber Yobech performed well, placing third in her 50 m heat and (am I sensing a theme here?) setting a personal best time of 30.00 seconds.

It may not have been the Olympics, but Ngardmau's own Aughenbaugh siblings (living in Saipan) enjoyed their trip to Palau to compete in the Belau 18-and-Under Youth Games.

And finally, one more slightly idiotic mention of Palau in an Olympic blog: John Helm of The Huddersfield Daily Examiner asks, "where on earth are Tuvalu, Palau and Micronesia?" I have a better question for you, John: Where on earth is Huddersfield? Seriously. I've never heard of it. Oh, I can find it easily by Googling it? Guess what: You can do that with Palau too. Stunning, isn't it?

Back to politics: Seven women are running for the Palau Senate this year, a record for any Palauan election. Three women are also running for the House of Delegates. Looks like the matriarchs are set to take the power back...and it's about time. The good ol' boys are getting a little too heady with their "power" in the "government."

Good news on the Pacific Savings Bank front: President Tommy Remengesau has renewed the contract of independent counsel Lewis Harley, who can now continue his investigation of the bank's collapse. Thanks, Prez. Myself and thousands of others would like to know what happened to our money.

Breaking news! British researchers have captured the bright blue damselfish off the coast of Palau! Authorities have been hunting the damselfish for years, as it was on the run for the crime of resisting scientific arrest. The photo caption says it all: "The bright blue damselfish is finally in the hands of science." Score one for the good guys.

Now here's a real fish story: The Philippine government plans to make a push for access to Palauan fishing grounds, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The interesting part? They're doing this "in preparation for a possible ban of Philippine fishing vessels in Indonesian waters." This may have to do with the Indonesian government wanting Philippine boats to register in Indonesia and carry its flag, as well as do part of the processing there.

Continuing the ocean theme, The Knack suggests buying T-shirts that help save Palauan reefs in a post on "Crazy Cool Back to School Gear." Only $45.00! As the article says, to protect the environment, "All you have to do is shop." Right...I guess I haven't been protecting the environment enough lately... Get out the credit card!

Military.com (what is this site about, anyway?) has a story on the Navy's Civic Action Team (the Seabees of Camp Katuu, if I'm not mistaken) offering emergency medical technician (EMT) courses to the Palau Ministry of Justice, with the ultimate goal of "increasing patient survival." I guess that evens out how they lower Palauans' chances of survival by recruiting them into the military.

Let's conclude with a different sort of recruitment. The Des Moines Register reports that a meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa is apparently recruiting Palauans to come work there—this after nearly 400 of its (illegal) workers were arrested in a May immigration raid. The United Food and Commercial Workers, a union who tried to organize Agriprocessors workers, sent a letter to Palau's Division of Labor warning of problems reported with the company, including child labor, sexual harassment, and physical abuse.

What really catches my eye from this article are the comments posted by sweetladyviv. Here are a choice few: "Do these people speak English?"; "Why bring more people into the US who don't belong here"; and my personal favorite, "Keep them out we have enough low lives in Iowa."

Way to prove your point, sweetlady.