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Taiwan for a friend?
Its victory in replacing China as Kiribati's preferred friend obviously
came at some cost to Taiwan. The word is that the landing of the triumphant
Taiwanese is worth A$10 million a year, about five times more than the
former Kiribati government was said to be collecting from Beijing. And
the Taiwanese said they'll finish off the sports stadium and a few other
things the mainlanders abandoned in a huff after the opening of a Taiwan
embassy at Tarawa. Other intelligence is that the Chinese were always
insistent that the satellite tracking station they maintained at Tarawa
until the big upheaval was in no way targetted at the hush-hush American
missile range at nearby Kwajalein. It's said the Kiribati government had
a standing offer to invite any expert from anywhere they liked to inspect
the outfit, including American ones.
The Nigerian influence:
Dr Beno Boeha, the former director of Papua New Guinea National Research
Institute, must be wishing he'd done a lot of research on the issue of
those famous Nigerian letters before plunging into this one. In December,
he was sacked with two staff, after the institute discovered that without
authorisation he had invested 800,000 Kina in a fast moneymaking scheme.
The money went to a Swiss bank account, some of it by way of Japanese
and American accounts. Boeha's family company was implicated also. The
money subsequently disappeared. Investigators reported that a payment
was made to Charles and James Taylor of Monrovia, in Africa. Apparently,
the investment was supposed to yield a US$24 million profit. Boeha claimed
he'd been trying to make some money for the institute, which he complained
was badly funded.
AIDS reality:
Figures for HIV/AIDS in Papua New Guinea read grimmer and grimmer; nearly
6500 confirmed cases and an estimated total now of 70,000 cases. A Port
Moresby resident related that of two physicians he's acquainted with,
one encounters an average of four new cases a week in surgery, and the
other eight.
Advice to travellers:
Honiara's not now an easy place in which to hire a rental car or a room
at one's preferred hostelry. Blame it on RAMSI, the Solomon Islands rescue
and rebuild force, whose representatives hog the available cars and rooms
to a heavy degree. It's good business for the locals after a long drought.
What do RAMSI folks do for rest and recreation? Some swan off at weeks
to local resorts, which have also suffered a long drought. And, around
town, the number of potbellied, wide back-sided characters projecting
their attention on the local ladies must be the largest since WWII.
Life in PNG:
If you spot an Asian driving a more expensive car, then it's highly unlikely
he'll be a local one. The locals are savvy that Asians spotted in smart
cars are likely to be held up by other locals in the belief that they're
driven by swells from Malaysia, Indonesia or China, who will be prepared
to readily part with a kina or two as a tribute for being allowed to continue
on their way without further trouble.
Copying Tuvalu:
Tuvalu's famous trust fund, opened in 1987 with A$26,372,771 in donations
from the British, Australians, New Zealanders, Koreans and the Tuvaluans
themselves, had grown to an estimated value of A$71,488,682 by the end
of March 2003, according to a survey by an Australian economist, Colin
Mellor. The fund yields several million bucks a year as a booster for
Tuvalu's treasury. The Americans are now copying the idea as a wheeze
for cutting aid to the Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia.
Air Fiji or Air Beijing?
By the way, how firm is Tuvalu's hand in the affairs of Air Fiji, which
operates domestically within Fiji and regionally to Tuvalu and Tonga?
Tuvalu owns half of a holding company that has a controlling stake in
the airline. The other half is owned by the mainland Chinese suppliers
of an aircraft the airline's executives have never been happy with. Technically,
Tuvalu is supposed to have the final say in how the airline is run. But
after boardroom battles, some of the airline people are wondering whether
the airline shouldn't be renamed as Air Beijing or something.
Fishy politics:
Fiji's fishing politics are becoming murkier and murkier as one side of
the industry says the local tuna stocks have been ruined by overfishing
and another claims that poor fishing is just a matter of unfavourable
weather and ocean temperatures. Really, it's all to do with licences,
especially the number reserved for Fijians but actually exploited to the
hilt by fishermen who are far, far from being Fijian. The infighting features
a few political personalities, all anxious for a big cut of tuna stakeouts.
Sope on a comeback:
After a by-election restored to him the parliamentary seat he lost after
being jailed for fraud, former Vanuatu prime minister Barak Sope is sauntering
around Port Vila promising to fix everyone who landed him in jail. Recalling
past times in which Sope was associated with an accoutrement of body-type
guards, it is a threat not to be dismissed lightly. Meanwhile, the Edward
Natapei government is scoffing at Sope's insistence that since he was
somewhat mysteriously freed from jail on presidential orders after just
a few months of a three-year sentence, he's not to be described as an
ex-con. Sope's argument is that presidential clemency washed away his
past sins to make him a shining new man.
Backpackers on the rise:
Going or gone are the days when backpacker travellers were treated by
the tourist trade as the dirt they appear to prefer to parsimoniously
bask in rather than expend their pennies paying the extravagant mark-ups
extracted by overpriced hotels. According to a survey by the South Pacific
Tourism Organisation, backpackers stay twice the time and most of what
they spend remains in local hands rather than being leached out by foreign-owned
hotel and tour businesses. In 2002, they were 19% of all Fiji's visitors.
Globally, they were 20% or 138.6 million of all tourists, a proportion
expected to rise to 25% or 251 million by 2010.
Bad tuna news:
Here's bad news for tuna fishermen, tuna canners and tuna traders. The
United States Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection
Agency have decided that mothers-about-to-be, young children and women
of childbearing age should limit their intake of tuna and shellfish to
12 ounces a week, so as to avoid mercury poisoning. Whether this advice
applies to tuna and shellfish from the Pacific Islands' neck of the woods
isn't clear; maybe as a precaution, the region's mums should restrict
their diet to North America style burgers and fried chicken. But remember,
lamb flaps are now out.
Shark proof:
Next time you're in Pago Pago, don't count on being able to have a bowl
or a bucket of shark fin soup. American Samoa's government has just banned
shark finning‹that's landing shark fins at Pago Pago after cutting them
from sharks that are then dumped back alive into the sea for a slow but
sure death. That's a common Asian fish boat practice. At Pago Pago, you
are now required to produce the corpse of the shark you hacked the fins
from.
MPs' outbursts:
Papua New Guinea's prime minister, Sir Michael Somare, long ago once briefly
a journalist, raised eyebrows during a November parliamentary debate by
attacking local journalists he accused of harming the country's image
by running bad news stories. Somare inferred that he advocated press controls
but quickly backed off from that idea. But how can Papua New Guinea's
journalists conscientiously ignore statements made in parliament like
that from internal security minister Bire Kimisopa, who before Somare's
outburst, declared that the high rate of robbery, hold-ups, rape and of
firing guns since the collapse of a highway patrol project, was having
a ³negative impact² on economic growth. He said he was considering slapping
a curfew on all main highway travels. A few months earlier, political
veteran Sir Moi Avei called for the reintroduction of the public hanging
of violent criminals.
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