The Republic of the Marshall Islands



The Republic of the Marshall Islands

Introduction

The Marshall Islands are scattered over more than 700,000 square miles of Central Pacific, which includes 5 individual and 29 atolls islands and sum of more than 850 reefs. The Marshall islands became independent in 1986 as a Free Associate after four decades of struggling under US Administration and then as the east side of the Pacific Island of UN Trust Territory. However, between late 1940s and early 1960s, several compensation claims were made as a consequence of United States nuclear experiments on few of the Islands. The territory shares a common border with multiple states such as Kiribati, a state of Micronesia, Wake Island, and Nauru.

Geographically the Republic of the Marshall Island or simply the Marshall islands is located on the northern side of Pacific Ocean and comes under the group of Micronesia at a larger scale (Sharp, Dev, Elson, & Costa, 2009). At estimate, the population is widely spread over more than 20 coral atolls around 1,150 individual islets and islands which is summing up to be around 70,000 people. The island shares a common border at the north with Wake Island, while on the South side with Nauru, and with Micronesia at West. The Marshall Islands shares a mutual border with Kiribati at South east. Majuro, being the most densely populated serves as a capital to the Marshall Islands.

Still, Marshall Islands are considered as least connected country worldwide. There is an individual assistance provider, the widely held state governed NTA-who`s 70% shares are with government, 14 percent with treasury stock and the remaining with private investors. The economic and technological status in the country seems poor comparative to other neighboring countries, as a matter of fact, only 35% population has access to the ICT applications and services. Furthermore, only 25 percent population use mobile phone service and percentage of people using internet facilities has been recorded as 2% only (ICDE, 2013). Yet, the cell phone broadband service has not been introduced, however internet broadband was initiated recently but with only 512kbs speed and yet only 520 users have subscribed. The only technological development happened in recent years was the installation of optic fiber cable with less than 10Gbps capacity that connected Kwajalein and Majuro linking Guam to Marshall Islands.

Discussion

Background

Initially settled by the Micronesian individuals roughly 3000 years prior, the Marshall Islands have had a progressing cooperation with different races. The Spanish initially went by in the 1600s, then the British and the Russians. Later, in 1885, the Germans asserted the area and made an unsuccessful endeavor to colonize the islands. In 1914, throughout the course of World War I, the Japanese started involving a portion of the islands, which they later asserted when Germany surrendered all Pacific terrains in 1919.

The Japanese Government asserted responsibility for one third of all land range before World War II. By the beginning of the war, numerous Japanese residents had resettled on the islands with Japanese taught in ...