The Opening of the New Capitol

October 1 is Independence Day in Palau. This was the 12th anniversary of its independence. Ever since its formation, the government has resided in the central downtown Koror in old concrete and tin buildings left over from World War II. The city of Koror is on a small island and is congested with the majority of people of Palau. As Koror is the "big" city, it drew people away from their traditional homes in other parts of the islands, especially the large island to the North called Babeldaob. The idea from the beginning of the government was to build a permanent capitol back on Babeldaob and begin repopulating the larger island away from congested Koror. They decided to build the new capitol in Melekeok, about 20 miles from Koror on the eastern side of Babeldaob.

After considerable planning, cost, and time, the capitol is finally finished. The building is heavily influenced by the U.S. Capitol. The opening ceremony was Sunday, Independence Day. All of the clerks and I headed up together in the late afternoon. In was dark by the time we arrived and the capitol looks amazing at night. Imagine driving in a jungle environment and then all of a sudden on a hill in the distance is the U.S. Capitol. A very odd sight, especially since nothing else is around it yet. The rest of the new capitol city will be built up over time, but for now there is not much nearby.

The ceremony itself was interesting. There is an inherent difficulty in official ceremonies like this because half of it is in Palauan. We got to hear some of the dignitaries speak and then they got the President, OEK members (Palauan Congress) and the Chief Justice to cut a big red ribbon. They estimated that 5,000 people attended and when you're dealing with a small nation, that means that nearly a third of the population was at this one place witnessing the ceremony.

After a fireworks show, we decided to walk around the capitol complex. The central OEK building has the dome on it and the executive ad judiciary are off to either sides. The judiciary was closed, but we got to peak in and we saw the three court counsel offices. The OEK and executive are moving to the capitol next week. [brief tangent: On paper, they officially moved October 1, however no one has physically moved yet and the capitol will remain empty until October 8, the first full moon. It is considered bad luck to move before then.] The judiciary is dragging its heels about moving. It is unclear when we will be moving full time to the Capitol. For the foreseeable future, we will remain here in Koror and go up to the Capitol once or twice a month. When we are there, I will have a nice little office.

Continuing on, we walked through the OEK building and looked up into the dome. It is much smaller than the U.S. Capitol, but its a decent sized building. Apparently they had just finished laying the flooring in a mad rush to finish the building in time for the ceremony. The OEK building led out into the dignitary area so we decided to go visit the judges. I got to meet some of the other judges I had not yet had to the chance to met and I got a chance to introduce myself. The ceremony had reached the food serving portion and the crowd was lined up at two large tables of food at either side of the stage. With so many people attending, the lines were quite long. However, as we were conversing with the dignitaries, we were shepherded over to the VIP food area. There was a large food table with an array of Palauan, Asian, and Western food. I ate lobster tail, a half coconut stuffed with crab, and roast pig (complete with the head on the serving platter. It was neat being able to eat and converse with the dignitaries at such a large ceremony.

After eating, we said good-bye to the judges, watched a few more fireworks, and then drove back to Koror.

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