Jurelang Zedkaia – President of the Marshall Islands
In addition to president, Jurelang Zedkaia is also the Iroijlaplap of the Marshall Islands. With this title, and that president, one might wonder why the 29 atolls and 5 islands that comprise this Micronesian Republic got lumbered with such a mundane name.
The islands were in fact named after Captain James Marshall, who “discovered” them in 1788. He initially named them Lord Mulgrave’s Range after Henry Phipps, the 1st Earl of Mulgrave. They had in fact been settled by the Micronesians in the 2nd millennium BC, but if they ever got round to giving the range a collective name then it is long since forgotten.
The president of the Marshall Islands, population 68,000, now stands shoulder to naked shoulder with heads of state from many more populous nations around the world and Willy Telavi, Prime Minister of Tuvalu (population 10,000) and the Captains Regent of San Marino (population 32,000).
