According to the council’s acting executive director, Scott Russell, schools from Saipan, Tinian and Rota are being asked to select two poets each to compete in a junior division (7th-8th grades) and a senior division (9th -12th grades).
Poems addressing themes of culture, identity and change in the islands may be written in a variety of styles including rhymed or free verse, sonnet or ode, up to a maximum length of 250 words.
Entries must be received by the Council on or before 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009.
Contestants will recite their poems at a final event at the Visitors Center Theater, American Memorial Park, starting at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 27.
Poets will be judged by two criteria: content and recital quality.
First place finishers in both divisions will have their names inscribed on perpetual trophies that will be kept by the winning schools until next year’s competition.
The top three finishers in each division will also receive cash prizes and certificates.
Interested schools are invited to contact the Humanities Council at 235-4785 for additional information regarding this event.
Rules and scoring rubrics are available on the Council’s Web site at www.nmihumanities.org.
Update on the Chamorro-English dictionary project
(NMI Humanities Council) —The Northern Mariana Islands Council for the Humanities Chamorro-English Dictionary Revision Project is now in its third month of implementation.
The first set of ninety pages of the 1975 Chamorro-English Dictionary by Topping, Ogo and Dungca is being reviewed and expanded by the six working groups on Saipan, Tinian and Rota.
The goal is to revise and update as much of the entries as possible by the third year of the project in 2011.
The six working groups of three members each are headed by Carmen S. Taimanao, Bernie P. Sablan, Jose Sanchez, Vicente Borja, Tita Hocog and Angie C. Fitial.
Another component of the project includes new entries with emphasis on cultural words that are not in the original dictionary.
A special group of cultural experts in areas such as traditional fishing, customs and rituals, traditional medicine, etc., have been identified to serve as possible consultants.
Upon completion of all the new entries and revisions during Year 3, another group of Chamorro language experts, particularly the elders, will be consulted on specific words and meanings, as needed.
Other components of the project include a series of oral history video productions that will begin in Year 2, and several workshops related to the revision of the dictionary, language endangerment issues, orthography, and others.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation as a collaborative project between the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the NMI Council for the Humanities.
The principal investigators for this collaborative project are: Dr. Sandra Chung, a linguist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Dr. Elizabeth Diaz Rechebei, of EDR Consulting, for the NMI Council for the Humanities. Dr. Rita Hocog Inos is the work group leader for the six working groups and the thematic groups.
The principal local partner in this project in the CNMI is the Chamorro/Carolinian Language Policy Commission.
Other supporters of the project include the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library, the Public School System, the Indigenous Affairs Office, and several other organizations and volunteers in the CNMI and Guam.
Everyone is encouraged and invited to contribute words that are not in the current dictionary by contacting the principal investigator or the working group leader by e-mail.
For more information about the project, visit the NMI Humanities Web site: www.nmihuma nities.org, or e-mail Dr. Elizabeth D. Rechebei at [email protected] or Dr. Rita H. Inos at ritahocog [email protected].
Safety milestone
SUVA (Telesource) — Local and overseas workers representing Telesource SHBC (Fiji) Ltd. and their subcontractor Fletcher Construction at the new American Embassy complex site in Tamavua, Suva are celebrating a remarkable achievement: a million work hours without any disabling injury.
The supervisory Project Director Tracy Thomas for the U.S. Department of States overseas buildings operations stated that this safety milestone is a direct result of the contractor’s commitment to health and safety awareness as well as practices.
Based on statistics from the Fiji Labor Ministry’s Health and Safety at Work Act, this is the first time a project has reached this marked record on any construction projects in the Fiji islands.
Telesource chief executive officer Nidal Zayed said safety is Telesource’s most important care value and this team was doing an exemplary job.
“We will focus even more so now and ensure our record is preserved and more importantly that all site personnel remain safe and out of harms way,” he said. “The more than $30 million-project, once completed, will encompass a 4.3-hectare compound hosting a state of the art embassy facility set in a lush garden with both American and local design elements, providing 4,600 square meters of safe, secure, and functional office space.”
OES PTSA meeting
(OES) — The PTSA of Oleai Elementary School will meet on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 6:15 p.m. in the school cafeteria. Everyone is encouraged to attend.
