Why Palau’s Traditional Law Must Endure By J. Ngoriakl “Are we wrong?” This was a question I kept asking myself during a dark time of my life. It was October 2022, and while I was getting myself situated to work in the private sector as a contractor consultant for an international organization, I received the […]
Category: Features
Posted inFeatures
A Letter to the President
Deportees Are Not Refugees Dear Editor, Mr. President, you spoke at a news conference before the nation and told us the deportees are not criminals. That their only crime was being in the United States illegally. But if that is true, if they are not criminals, then why doesn’t the United States send them home? […]
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Refugees or Deportees? Palau Must Put Its People First
Dear Editor, When President Whipps announced the creation of a Refugee Working Group, many Palauans paused in confusion. The United States proposal, as it turns out, does not speak of refugees—it speaks of deportees. That single word changes everything. Refugees flee war and persecution; deportees are people ordered to leave another country because they violated […]
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Sorrow and Grief
Success is a journey not destination. In that journey you’ll be walking out of a storm, walk into a storm or walk through a storm. They come to teach you something or remind you that you’re not alone in the storm. And you must avoid trees, poles and don’t run in the rainstorm. It’s wiser […]
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Where Is Our President?
Dear Editor, In every village across Palau, people are whispering the same question: Where is our President? While our families struggle with rising prices, stagnant wages, and a growing crisis of drug abuse, the highest office in the land seems absent, physically and morally. Once again, he is off island, speaking on the global stage, […]
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Leadership at Home
Why Our Focus Must Be on Palau Dear Editor, It has become increasingly difficult to ignore the pattern: our President spends nearly three weeks every month outside of Palau attending global meetings, a question arises that every Palauan is asking: are there domestic issues that are being left unattended in his absence? Leadership is not […]