Briefs
People
- American Samoa’s stunning entry Lupe Aumavae was crowned Miss South Pacific at the ceremony in Rarotonga. She further distinguished herself and her territory by being named the contest’s Miss Personality and by winning the traditional costume section. The first runner up was Donna Tuara of the Cook Islands. On hand to film the excitement were TV crews from New Zealand and Germany.
—ND - Leonardo Rapadas, a prosecutor in the Guam attorney general’s office, was named by President George W. Bush as his nominee to be the next U.S. attorney for Guam and the Northern Marianas. Rapadas is a graduate of Father Duenas Memorial High School in Guam and began his career as a prosecutor with the Guam attorney general’s office after he received his law degree from Willamette University. The 43-year-old was Guam’s chief prosecutor from May 1997 to December 1999. Rapadas will replace current U.S. attorney Frederick Black, who has held the position since 1991. Black will continue to work in the office as a prosecutor.
—FW - Niuean bodybuilders made history in Samoa at the 7th South Pacific Bodybuilding Championships in mid-November by winning three medals. Catherine Etuata-Tauafiafi became the first woman from Niue to win a medal, taking a bronze. Meanwhile, Reagan Ioane won bronze in the men’s division, and the two Niueans teamed to win silver in mixed-pairs competition.
—GJ - Joe Yaya of Fiji, a third-year journalism student at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, was named journalism student of the year and received the Tanoa Award. He also received the best in-depth reporting prize for 2002. Other journalism student awards went to: Vicky Lepou of Samoa for “best editor”; Tamarisi Digitaki of Fiji for “best student radio journalism”; Talei Tora of Fiji for “best student TV journalism” and Ashwini Prabha of Fiji, who received the “all-media achievement” award. Naziah Ali of Fiji won the Fiji Times-sponsored “most promising first-year journalism student” award and Ewan Wasuka of the Solomon Islands won the French Embassy journalism prize, a six–week attachment with Pacific Weekly Review in Vanuatu.
—GJ - Belinda Brown has been named New Zealand’s new consul general for the three French territories in the Pacific. New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff made the appointment of Brown, who replaces current consul general Cecil Hillyer, in February 2003. She will be based in New Caledonia, but also represents New Zealand to French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna.
—GJ - Horace Rafael was elected to a second term as the governor of Palau’s Angaur State on November 20, defeating former governor Arkagius Orak Yamada by a nearly two-to-one margin. Rafael pledged to focus on three key priorities in his second term as governor of the island state: road building, the securing of Japanese funding for improvements to Angaur’s dock, and expanding employment opportunities for the island’s residents. Rafael left the door open to supporting a controversial casino project on Angaur, where gambling has been legal since mid-1990s, but the opening of gambling facilities has since become a sensitive political issue nationwide. “I’m pushing for anything that will provide employment,” he said.
—RS - Jefferson Butuna, the chief of the Office of Planning and Statistics in the Marshall Islands, has left for Washington, D.C. for a two-year attachment with the World Bank.
—GJ - American Samoa Bar Association president Curtis Sherwood announced that the organization’s Web site has reached a new milestone with the posting of a total of 32 volumes of High Court rulings dating to 1901. “This is not just for lawyers,” Sherwood says. “This resource will be useful to students, historians, government officials and average citizens.” The Web site is www.asbar.org.
—FS - The U.S. National Park Service is sending Douglas Neighbor to be the new superintendent of the national park of American Samoa starting in January. Neighbor, a 12-year veteran of the Park Service, has been working in Texas.
—FS - Donald F. Capelle is the new Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the Marshall Islands. He moved into the post in December, taking over a position that was vacant since Marie Maddison left in mid-2002. Capelle had been Secretary of Health since 1992. Justina R. Langidrik, long-time assistant secretary for primary health care at the Ministry of Health, moved into Capelle’s former job as head of that ministry.
—GJ - Haser H. Hainrick of Chuuk was sworn in as Public Auditor for the Federated States of Micronesia on November 14. FSM President Leo A. Falcam presided at the ceremony in Palikir. The FSM Public Auditor’s post has been vacant since 1998 when Rensley H. Sigrah became governor of the State of Kosrae. Hainrick graduated from Chaminade University in accounting and business administration.
—GJ - Taatiti Alofa has become the oldest member of Parliament in Samoa. The 90-year-old is a member of the opposition Samoa National Development Party. He won election to Parliament in a special election held following the recent death of MP Nonumalo Faiga
—FS - Orion Simion is the new Chuuk branch manager for the Federated States of Micronesia Social Security Administration. He has worked with the agency in Chuuk for more than 20 years and is replacing Danimoto James who died recently.
—GJ - Marshall Islander Bajo Tibon is a very lucky man. A sailor on Pacific International Inc.’s Mercy K cargo vessel, Tibon fell overboard with some lumber on a late November afternoon in heavy seas after the ship’s engines broke down about 30 miles from Kwajalein Atoll. Army officials at the missile range responded quickly with a search and rescue by boat and the Coast Guard flew over the area for hours—but failed to locate Tibon. PII dispatched a tugboat from Majuro to tow the Mercy K to safety. The next morning—more than 15 hours after Tibon had fallen overboard—as the sun was rising, Tibon was miraculously spotted about 100 feet off the bow of the tug boat and pulled to safety. “It was one in a million,” said PII’s Daniel Kramer of finding Tibon alive.
—GJ - The first Polynesian bishop in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Pio Taofinuu of Samoa recently announced his retirement at the age of 80. The Vatican has announced that Father Alapati Mataeliga is the new archbishop of the archdiocese of Samoa.
—FS - The newly-organized Majuro Lions Club elected Michael Pelto as president, David Kramer vice president, Tony Muller secretary and Harry Doulatram treasurer. Pohnpei Lions Club President Reed Oliver visited Majuro to officially swear in the new organization.
—GJ - The American Samoa High Court has ordered Faamausili Pola reinstated into the territorial legislature’s senate. He was removed by the Senate based on a request from chief leaders in his district, saying that his selection was not in accordance with local laws. The court disagreed and ruled that Pola is entitled to sit and receive his salary and allowances retroactive to his swearing in on August 9, 2002.
—FS - The Cook Islands has nominated Dr. Joe Williams for World Health Organisation director general as part of a push to get more Pacific Islanders into such international jobs.
The Cook Islands Health Ministry said support for a Pacific candidate like Williams, was generated during this year’s meeting of Regional Health Ministers in September. The former Cook Islands prime minister is one of nine international candidates for the position. Williams received good support from the Pacific Islands countries, particularly Samoa, the Health Ministry said. Pacific Islands states have become more proactive in projecting themselves on the international stage in recent times.
—PINA - American Samoa businessman Neil Scratch, founder of Ace American Industries in the village of Malaeimi, died in November at 64. He moved to American Samoa in the early 1960s, first working for the territorial government before going into private business in the 1980s.
—FS
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In Memoriam
Contributors: Rebecca Stanfel, Fili Sagapolutele, Frank Whitman, Norman Douglas, Giff Johnson, PINA Nius Online
