Pacific Notes
Pacific Notes
SOLOMON ISLANDS
Remote Islands Devastated By Earthquake, Tsunami
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| Three men lower a wooden box, being used as a coffin, into a grave after the body of four-year-old Tekapu was found dead amongst the rubble. -PHOTO: Associated Press |
The death toll is likely to rise, too. It stood at 40 one week after the disaster, but bodies were still being discovered on a daily basis.
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“A team of assessors including personnel from the Solomon Islands Water Authority, the Seismology division, UN Disaster Awareness Coordination and experts from the University of Texas, USA will be deployed to affected areas. Relief supplies… will continue for an indefinite period,” Maka’a added.
NORTHERN MARIANAS ISLANDS
Bishop Urges Changes To Funeral Custom
A death in the family is an event that evokes a series of elaborate customary obligations in most, if not all, Pacific Islands. The Northern Marianas, which is predominantly Roman Catholic, is no exception. Financial burdens, however, have escalated for families who lost loved ones. They include hospital expenses, church fees, coffins and providing food for nine straight nights for rosaries held at Roman Catholic churches.
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| PHOTO: JACQUELINE HERNANDEZ |
To try to ease the financial burden, Northern Marianas Bishop Tomas A. Camacho has banned the serving of food in any parish or Roman Catholic social halls for the first eight days of lisayo (rosaries). The bishop allows food to be served on the ninth day, which is also the day of the funeral. Anyone wanting to serve food during rosaries can do so at home.
In a March 11 pastoral letter, Bishop Camacho urges faithful to focus on prayer during rosaries. It has only been over the past 20 years that local residents have started conducting their nightly rosaries in churches, and the following nine more days are held at family homes. Families are then forced to provide fiesta-style food for nine days to show their appreciation to friends and families who join them for nightly prayers.
Bishop Camacho says the local customs in the past meant coffee and biscocho (biscuits or other pastries) during rosaries. Then after the ninth day, a cow was butchered and meat is distributed to those who attended rosaries. That started to change about 20 years ago, when families began serving meals on the final day. That custom eventually evolved when families started conducting rosaries at churches and started serving food every night.
“This practice, as we are all aware, places so much financial burdens on the family that a phrase has been coined out of this: ‘Matataina I manlala’la kinu I matai’ (“Those left behind are even deader than the dead),’” Bishop Camacho stated in his pastoral letter.
REGION
Epic Voyage Across The Western Pacific
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| Hokule‘a at anchor in Pohnpei. PHOTO: Floyd K. Takeuchi |
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MSG leaders in Vanuatu. PHOTO: Ben Bohane |
During the opening Sogavare said that Fiji needed to be included to promote solidarity and because the MSG “represents our common people and culture, not necessarily our governments.”
Officer in Charge of the MSG Secretariat, Johnny Koanapo, confirmed that a future MSG “family” would likely include East Timor and West Papua when the time was right.
“The MSG in no way undermines our respect for the Forum Secretariat, but from now on we will present Melanesian policy as a bloc rather than bi-laterally as before,” said Koanapo.
FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA
Tosiwo Nakayama’s Enduring Legacy
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| PHOTO: University of Hawaii’s Pacific collection |
If there was ever a man for his times, it was Tosiwo Nakayama, the soft-spoken Chuukese who led a rag-tag group of divisive Pacific Islanders and made them citizens of a nation. The first president of the Federated States of Micronesia died in Hawaii on March 29 of long-standing medical complications. He was 75.
Nakayama, whose father was from Japan, came of age in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Chuuk, then called Truk. It was a time when the American administration was identifying bright islanders who could become the region’s leaders. Nakayama was part of that early group, most of whom became first-generation leaders in what are now the FSM, Marshall Islands, Palau and the Northern Marianas.
As a member of the first Congress of Micronesia, a bold experiment to develop a democratic voice for a region stretching from the Marshalls through the Central Carolines to Palau, Nakayama already stood out in a crowd of highly talented and ambitious islanders. He quickly assumed a leadership role and led the difficult effort to establish independence for islanders who had been subjugated for over 400 years by four colonial powers.
An early vision of a unified Micronesia gave way by the late 1970s to the realities of more than nine different languages, multiple cultural traditions, competing leadership aspirations and the tyranny of distance. The last vestige of the dream of regional unity was the grouping of Kosrae, Pohnpei, Chuuk and Yap as the Federated States of Micronesia. They held to the belief, however tenuously, that they could gain more working together.
Nakayama was the natural choice to be the country’s first president, elected then as now from among the members of the national Congress. His easy smile and soft-spoken public manner brought the competing states together, while recognizing that his home state of Chuuk comprised half of the nation’s population.
Nakayama served as president from 1979 to 1987, when he retired from elected politics.
If Nakayama was soft-spoken in public, he also knew how to influence votes and knock heads in private. He managed with an astuteness that stunned his opponents, throughout Micronesia and in Washington.
Tosiwo Nakayama came to regional politics at a time when everything seemed possible; when the best leaders and most of the public believed the civic lessons they learned in school; when the dream of fighting for political independence diverted attention away from the realities of limited resources and growing expectations.
Today, when the FSM at times seems frozen by a lack of vision and optimism, Tosiwo Nakayama’s greatest legacy could be his example of the power of dreaming what might be.
—Floyd K. Takeuchi
Rare Good News For Tourism Industry
Kumho Asiana, the parent company of Asiana Airlines, purchased in the 36-hole golf resort, considered the best among the five golf courses on Saipan, from United Micronesian Development Association (UMDA) in early March. UMDA purchased the golf course a little over a year ago for $8 million from a Japanese company. The purchase included plans to develop up-market homes along the golf course. While the new purchase price was not revealed, sources interviewed by Pacific Magazine said the price ranged anywhere from $15 to $18 million.
“This is good news,” said Governor Benigno R. Fitial, “and a milestone in our economic recovery that the CNMI really needs right now. This speaks clearly of the confidence and commitment they have in the future of the Northern Marianas as a tourist destination.”
“The Korean market is a very significant market for CNMI tourism, and we want to thank Asiana Airlines for their partnership as a key player in bringing in tourists to the islands,” said MVA Chairman Jerry Tan in a press statement. “Their investment shows the depth of their commitment to helping our economy and people, and this should be a good reason for everyone to be optimistic and supportive.”
Asiana Airlines Saipan Manager Kwang Joong Kim said his company is confident in doing more business on Saipan, adding that the airline plans to increase air-seat capacity in its daily flight to Saipan.
Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands (HANMI) Chairperson Lynn Knight echoed statements of local leaders. “To see an airline like Asiana invest in the destination means that they consider Saipan a strategic tourist destination for their future,” she said. Although Japan is the top tourist market for the Northern Marianas, the number of Japanese tourists continues to drop after Japan Airlines, which had been flying directly from Narita to Saipan, pulled out of Saipan after 28 years of service, citing a decline in travelers and increased operating costs. Korean arrivals on Saipan, however, continue to increase annually.
The eighth largest family-run conglomerate in South Korea, Kumho Asiana has more than two dozen subsidiaries in such industries as automotive, construction, leisure, logistics, real estate development, chemicals, and airlines. Established in 1946, the group headquarters are in Seoul, South Korea.
NEW CALEDONIA
Citizenship Changes Benefit Long-Term Residents
In February, a special sitting of the French Congress in Versailles passed changes to the French Constitution, defining requirements for New Caledonian citizenship. The decision has important implications for voting rights in the Pacific territory, and has been welcomed by Kanak leaders who have been pushing for electoral reform since the signing of the Noumea Accord in 1998.
The decision ends a long-running dispute over who should vote for New Caledonia's three provincial assemblies and local Congress.
An estimated 8,000 people arrived in New Caledonia in the decade after the 1988 Matignon agreement, which ended violent conflict in the 1980s between the FLNKS independence movement, anti-independence settlers and the French State. To address concerns over this immigration, the 1998 Noumea Accord proposed that voting for local political institutions be restricted to a special electoral roll of New Caledonian citizens, rather than all French residents. The Accord set out a requirement for 10 years residency, but was unclear whether voting would be “frozen” (restricted to those people already resident in 1988) or “sliding” (with 10 years’ residency determined from the date of future elections).
The problem was supposed to be resolved with changes to the French Constitution at a joint sitting of the French National Assembly and Senate in January 2000. But this meeting of the French Congress was cancelled, and Kanak independence leaders have been demanding action ever since.
The February vote of the French Congress has finally resolved this dispute, accepting the more restrictive “frozen” residency requirement. The final passage of the legislation is a sharp break from the French tradition of universal citizenship. The Noumea Accord places special recognition of the rights of the indigenous Kanak population and other long-term New Caledonian residents, limiting some rights for other French nationals.
This mainly affects retired French public servants resident in Noumea, soldiers and short term contract workers. By the time of the next Assembly and Congressional elections in 2009, the reforms will only affect a few hundred people amongst the territory’s 139,000 general electors. But an estimated 14,000 residents will be affected over the next decade, especially in the Southern Province where most Europeans reside.
— Nic Maclellan
VANUATU
Vanuatu Crisis Highlights The Role of Sorcery
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An Ambrym "Kleva" hands kastom medicine to a woman. PHOTO: BEN BOHANE
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But given March’s ethnic clash in Port Vila over claims of sorcery, some Ni-Vanuatu people are asking if the region also needs to deal with the issue in both legal and health terms.
The use of sorcery, known as “nakaimas” in Vanuatu, and “puri puri” in PNG and the Solomon Islands, is an everyday part of life for many people throughout Melanesia. They claim to use both black sorcery for hurting, even killing people, and white sorcery for healing sick people, even creating “love spells” to attract desirable partners.
“It is a grey area for law enforcement because how can you prove it?” asks Superintendent Willy Ben Calo, who was Acting Commissioner of Police when a group of Tannese islanders went on a rampage through an Ambrym island community in March. Three people died in the violence, a dozen were wounded and the crisis prompted a State of Emergency in the small island nation.
While many agree that the use of nakaimas should be punished, the role played by “klevas” (men and women who use the arts of sorcery for good or ill) is also a source of pride in some communities where traditional kastom is strong.
Mary-anne, a “kleva woman” from Ambrym island who didn’t want to give her real name because of the current tensions, says she only uses her skills to heal sick people and, for a small fee, will also help people attract a sexual mate using special herbs and incantations.
More practically, these “klevas” are often the only source of knowledge of traditional bush medicine in remote islands along way from hospitals and modern medicine.
“A lot of grass-roots people don’t have access to proper health posts and often they can’t afford the medicine anyway” says Mary-anne.
The debate fired up when an MP from Efate island, home to the national capital Port Vila, blamed the Vanuatu Cultural Centre for encouraging the use of nakaimas and old customs, implying that it shared responsibility for the recent deaths. MP Joshua Kalsakau said that Ni-Vanuatu people are Christian now and should move on.
“The Cultural Centre does not promote black magic but we are responsible for making sure that our valuable customs are preserved” Center Director Marcellino Abong told the Vanuatu Daily Post.
Abong suggests that Parliament passes legislation making it compulsory for autopsies to be done on alleged victims of sorcery “to end speculations about black magic”.
That would clear up a number of cases, but widely-held belief in ancestral spirits and sorcery – good and bad – is likely to be remain a part of island life for some time to come.
—Ben Bohane
The Polynesian Voyaging Society Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hokule’a and a sister canoe, the Alinganu Maisu, completed an epic voyage from Hawaii to Satawal island in the Federated States of Micronesia in February and March.
The Hokule’a was accompanying the Alinganu Maisu, which was a gift to Satawal navigator Mau Pialug, the Micronesian who taught contemporary Hawaiians the ancient skills of traditional navigation. The canoes, and an escort ship, sailed from Hawaii to Majuro, Marshall Islands, and then on to Pohnpei, Chuuk, and Satawal in the FSM.
The Hokule’a, Alinganu Maisu and their escort ship Kama Hele went on to Ulithi, and Yap, also in the FSM. The three vessels then sailed to Palau. The ships then returned to Yap, which will be homeport for the Alinganu Maisu. From there, Hokule’a and Kama Hele will sail to Japan.
REGION
Powerful Melanesian Bloc Launched
Melanesian leaders gathered in Vanuatu in March to sign an historic document bringing their countries together in a bloc that will have significant repercussions for Australian policy and other regional powers.
The signing of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Constitution by Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and the FLNKS representing New Caledonia, signals the establishment of what is likely to become the key policy-making body representing Melanesian countries, on a range of issues from trade and security to assisting other Melanesian states win their independence “to join the family of Melanesia.” In September this year an MSG Secretariat, funded and built by China, will be established in Port Vila. It is arguably the most important political development in the region since many of its founding countries achieved their independence.
The inclusion of Fiji appears to have been a last-minute decision. Insiders say that the PNG government was initially against having Fiji included in the launch given the nature of its current administration, but brokering by the Solomon’s Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare eventually brought Fiji to the table.
