Whispers
Whispers
Pacific unity in doubt: Pacific delegates to last month's Central Pacific Tuna Commission meeting in the Philippines introduced a new version of the 'Pacific Way.' Trying to secure a unanimous choice to host the commission was abandoned, and each island nation threw in its own bid. By the last count, six members of the Forum Fisheries Agency wanted to host the new fisheries body, and this comes despite members' decision earlier in the year to give Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) the right to host its first ever-regional institution. But Papua New Guinea, which narrowly lost the bid to FSM, cried foul soon after and vowed to outbid its northern neighbour in Manila. When Pacific islands nations met in Manila, Papua New Guinea realised it was not alone. Five other nations (Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati, Fiji and meeting host, the Philippines) were in the race too.
Trade pact under threat? Unimpressive too has been the possible termination of the Melanesian Spearhead Group trade pact, an agreement that aims to see more trading between Melanesian countries of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji. However, no sooner had the pact come into effect, Solomon Islands cried foul saying it had only resulted in cheaper Papua New Guinea and Fiji goods flooding its market. Solomon Islands opted out and last month, Vanuatu followed suit for similar reasons. Imports for a number of Papua New Guinea and Fiji goods will now cop a 40% tariff in Vanuatu, a move which a Fiji exporter says gives him no other option but to pull out from the deal altogether.
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NGO under the microscope: The image that non-state actors (or actresses) are better utilisers of aid money is being shattered with the present performance of a regional civil society group. Staff members of this non-government (NGO) organisation are said to be up in arms over the behaviour of their head whose been accused of piling up huge debts in personal telephone calls and debt repayments. The debt, insiders say, came about when money belonging to staff members mysteriously disappeared only to be traced to relatives of the NGO head. Claims of nepotism are also in the air. Letters have already been exchanged between staff and the NGO board.
Touch of irony: On the subject of journalism, there was more than a touch of irony in the strike in November by most of the staff of the Fiji Daily Post, a newspaper partly owned by government. The Post is a problem for the government, which keeps complaining ruefully that the newspaper strikes it as being anti-government, not pro-government. The Post couldn't be called a striking financial success. In desperation, the newspaper's board hired a local magazine, public relations and cell phone sales business proprietor, Yashwant Gounder to run the rag for them. Striking hands had all sorts of allegations to make about their boss; lousy pay, lousy conditions, lousy hours. They had the impression they were expected to work for his own publication as well. This was ironic in the view of people who recalled Gounder's heroic days as the leader of an unsuccessful trade union for journalists. Reporters who tried to coax Gounder to comment on calls for his sacking discovered he wouldn't. That struck them as being ironic too.
Where's the 'P'? Once upon a time PATA meant Pacific Area Travel Association. After a while it more and more got to mean Asia and Hawaii Travel Association, and eventually was renamed as Pacific and Asia Travel Association, although still really meaning Asia and Hawaii Travel Association. A PATA official fronted up in Suva in November to talk about whether a trace of the Pacific could be restored to PATA, perhaps working with the South Pacific Tourism Organisation.
A new beginning? The University of the South Pacific's journalism school wound up its year with more than a bit of a difference. Welcoming guests to an annual awards function Dr Som Prakash, head of the department of literature and language, said he'd never seen so many journalists present at it. That could have been so because many of the faces seen there for the very first time hadn't ever been invited before since they were not approved of by the lately departed lecturer who previously ran the show. Prakash remarked that the departure (a somewhat premature one) had been given as the cause of the apparent near collapse of the journalism programme. On the other hand, he added, there were those who might hold the opinion that the programme has survived because of the departure. The departed one's successor will be a chap from India, so it is rumoured.
More armouries: Australia will build three armouries for the Papua New Guinea Defence Force at Lae, Wewak and Manus to add to the three it built recently in Port Moresby. This is in a bid to improve security of military weapons. Why? Because pinched army weaponry is daily being wielded by gangsters responsible for the state of near anarchy apparent in such regions as the Southern Highlands. The purpose of the new armouries is to contain military firepower to the military. That's if some non-military bloke doesn't pinch the keys.
Change's in the air: A change of command was in the air at Air Nauru in mid-November. South African chief executive, Ken McDonald was whispered to be preparing to leave with a negotiated settlement after the board decided he should no longer be chairperson, just managing director. McDonald went to Air Nauru on the condition that he be chairperson and managing director.
Weiss back in PNG: Papua New Guinea's new government has lifted a ban on a foreigner expelled by the previous government for allegedly interfering with local politics and with government administration. Australian businessman Dan Weiss, ejected by the Morauta government, has been hired by the government of Sir Michael Somare to advise on the sale of state assets.
Opposition leader, Sir Mekere Morauta complained to Parliament in November that Weiss was deported recently from another Pacific island country. He said given his questionable background it was against national interest to allow him back.
Somare replied that the government had taken note of the recommendations from the Managing Director of the Independent Public Business Corporation, Masket Iangalio, adding that if Weiss resorted to his "old habits", he would be dealt with under the law.
Here's hoping: Mangaia, in the southern Cook Islands, hopes that by April up to 25 percent of its electricity will be humming from two 20-kilowatt windmills built on its highest hills, thus cutting the cost of imported diesel fuel and also, of course, cutting greenhouse gas output as well. That's a lot of hope.
Building the biggest: The Pentecostal Assemblies of the World says a new church it will construct at Lae will be the largest in the South Pacific.
Visiting Bishop Theophilus Price, head of the 43 dioceses of the South Pacific District Council, of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, of Kansas, visiting Papua New Guinea said Lae would get a Pentecostal chicken farm too.
The church could excite competition from Samoa, where villages spend so much in vying to have the biggest and best church that church construction is counted as being a significant factor in national economic growth. Over the next few years, Samoa's construction business expects to handle orders for more than S$50 million worth from the Mormon church alone.
Osama in PNG? Imported T-shirts bearing the smiling features of one Osama bin Laden are appearing on the streets of Port Moresby. The shirts annoyed some people. One spluttering protester told the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier newspaper that he's ripped a shirt from one young man's back so as to be able to use it (the shirt, not the back) for shooting practice.
The fight against terrorism: The American Samoan government has just bought US$1 million worth of personal protective equipment and detection devices to deal with nuclear, chemical and biological disease outbreaks. It is planning to jab the territory's entire population with vaccine within two days of a smallpox outbreak. It has already put the heat on visiting Muslims by barring foreign ones. It has also fashionably hired a homeland security advisor, Leiataua Birdcall Alicia, who told a recent regional meeting in Rome, that if anything was learnt about security in the post-September 11 period, it was that security was not just a law enforcement or intellectual gathering activity. Now you know!
