Quirky Tales

From FijiLive, March 4, 2005

No More Hong Kong Trips

Government employees, particularly those in higher offices, will not be given approval for business trips to Hong Kong to watch the upcoming Hong Kong Sevens tournament.

Public Service Commission chief executive officer Anare Jale told Fijilive that the commission would under no circumstance entertain such requests.

In the past several high ranking government officials including ministers have used business trips as an excuse to go and watch the popular tournament. Labor Minister Kenneth Zinck was criticized few years back trip when he traveled to Hong Kong on an official trip during the tournament.

He was caught on television amongst the crowd cheering for Fiji. He later explained that he had gone on a business trip and had stopped over to Hong Kong on his way back to Fiji.

Jale said this type of practice would no longer be accepted, even if the officials paid from their own pockets.

From The National (Papua New Guinea) February 9, 2005

More Than An Apron

Ringed by dark blue mountains, Kigabah Estate is located at the bottom of the slopes of the Kigibah Hills situated directly in the centre of Waghi Valley in Western Highlands province.

Kigabah Estate, a 100 percent nationally-owned coffee company has put PNG back on the world map as a producer of premium coffee. It recently won Starbucks Coffee's prestigious "Black Apron" award, which acknowledges the winner as a producer of a "rare and premium coffee."

The Seattle-based Starbucks Coffee Company has a chain of over 9,000 outlets worldwide. To be a supplier to Starbucks ensures good prices for a commodity that has suffered its lowest prices in recent times, said William Gardner, managing director and owner of Kigabah Estate.

However, to be a winner of the "Black Apron" means a promotion throughout all Starbucks outlets, with that supplier's coffee sold as a single source coffee with a story on where that coffee comes from in an enclosed leaflet.

What this means, is that every person who purchases that coffee, somewhere throughout the world, will read about a "rare, premium coffee" that comes from Papua New Guinea, specifically from Kigabah Estate. The prize for that coffee is a community development grant from Starbucks Coffee.

From TahitiPresse, March 8, 2005

French Rower Halfway In Pacific Crossing

Maud Fontenoy has covered 5,000 kilometers of her adventure to row 8,000 kms across the Pacific Ocean single-handedly from Peru to French Polynesia.

The 27-year-old French woman has been rowing for 53 days since she left the Peruvian coast on Jan. 13. Having covered 63% of the distance, she faces only 3,000 more kms (1,864) before she enters the history books as the first woman to have ever crossed the Pacific Ocean from west to east.

But the voyage so far has taken its toll both physically and mentally.

Fontenoy could arrive in Papeete Harbor during the month of May.

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