NEWSROOM: 13 January - 26 January 2007

Special accommodation and rental car deals announced for boxing fans
26 January 2007 - Source: eventpolynesia.com
 
Overseas interest in the upcoming Samoa International Pro-Am Boxing event in Apia on Saturday 2nd February 2008 will see up to 200 boxing fans and supporters arriving in Samoa next week.

Many more are expected to book a ticket to Samoa with the announcement over the week end of special accommodation and rental car deals for boxing fans and supporters.

Hotel Kitano Samoa is offering an accommodation special $200 SAT per room per day for up to three people with ELAVA at Vaitele is offering $120 SAT per room per day up to two people with continental breakfast included.

Apia Rental is offering a 15% discount to all their vehicles with DAT Car Rentals is offering a special $165 per day for their Hyundai Tucson fleet.

This was confirmed by Mr. Teleiai Su’atapulolo’o Edwin Puni, Managing Director of Event Polynesia, “For the next two weeks, Hotel Kitano Samoa and ELAVA Resort will be the home of international boxing with Apia Rental and DAT Car Rentals as the preferred rental car service.”

The inaugural Samoa International Pro-Am Boxing is an initiative of Event Polynesia Boxing in association with SPBI and SABA to provide our Samoan boxers both amateur and professional a pathway to boxing world titles by setting up the needed top international competitions right here in Samoa.

Mr. Puni credits the support from media partners Samoa Observer, Le Samoa Post, SBC, TV3, Vaiala Beach TV and Radio Polynesia in promoting the upcoming fight.

Mr. Puni goes on to say, “Staging international title fights in Samoa is very good for tourism and local businesses and also allows for our people to see the action LIVE and up close.”

WBO Oriental Cruiserweight title contender and current IBF Australasian Cruiserweight champion Mr. Lawrence Tauasa arrived in Samoa on Sunday with his manager Mr. Lincoln Hudson to prepare for the upcoming fight.

For more information contact Mr. Tuilagi Maiava Saipele Esera on (+685) 751-9458 or email: saipele@eventpolynesia.com.
 

Tough love is the key to Nauru’s future says Helen Hughes
24 January 2007 - Source: Executive Highlights

The Rudd Government has an unparalleled opportunity to make a contribution to the evolution of real solutions for small Pacific islands by removing the asylum seekers facility that delivers 20% of Nauru’s current income.

Nauru’s twenty-one square kilometres of land are just south of the equator. Its nearest neighbour, Banaba Island in Kiribati, is also a mineral phosphate deposit, now abandoned. Fiji, New Caledonia, and Australia are thousands of kilometres away. Nauru has a population of 13,000, about the same as Gunnedah Shire in New South Wales.

Nauru’s marine phosphate, to which it negotiated full access in 1963, gave it great potential wealth. If sensible management and investment advice had been followed, Nauruans could have been educated and lived well. Every Nauruan family could have had investments worth a million dollars when the phosphate ran out. Instead, more than $2.5 billion dollars were wasted on pretensions to statehood, lost in investments that promised unrealistic returns and, more simply, stolen. Nauru has gone from being one of the richest communities in the world in per capita terms in the 1960s to being a mendicant living on Australian aid. Taiwan makes a significant contribution by keeping the uneconomic Nauru airline flying.

Living standards are abysmal. Educational levels have declined steeply. The population’s fishing skills have been lost. Unlimited leisure and the consumption of highly processed foods have resulted in terrible health. Nauru has perhaps the highest level of diabetes in the world—evident in amputated limbs—compounded by obesity and alcoholism. Some Nauruans have escaped to work and live in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and the United States. A reform government has been elected to try to put Nauru together, but totally unrealistic expectations persist.

Although Australian high commissioners were in Nauru for the forty years of its existence as an ‘independent state,’ Australian officialdom sat on its hands as Nauru’s tragedy evolved.

No nation that is dependent on aid can call itself independent. An Australian finance team and an Australian police commissioner in effect run Nauru. They are attempting to restore services and balance the budget, but a government and public service establishment way beyond the means of a Gunnedah Shire make this impossible.

Nauruans are being treated like children by Australian officialdom, the UN, and the thirty other international organisations that have signed the country up as a member. They are not being informed about their options, which are fairly straightforward because there are no economic possibilities on the horizon that could gainfully employ Nauru’s population.

Nauru can opt to continue to live on aid without meaningful jobs for most of its people. Few of the children and youngsters now growing up will have fulfilling lives under this option. Worldwide experience suggests that the dysfunctional effects of welfare dependence would continue to grow despite efforts to contain them. A few more lucky Nauruans would escape abroad.

But Nauru could negotiate an ‘association’ status with Australia that would give its people access to work and residence in Australia. Aid would immediately be focused on education, perhaps including the technical college sought by Nauru’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Kieren Keke, so that Nauruans could opt for permanent employment in and hence emigration to Australia. This would not be a ‘guest worker’ scheme that would only give Nauruans a few months in Australia followed by months of doing and earning nothing on Nauru. After finding work, Nauruans would be able to bring their families and settle in Australia as do other Pacific island immigrants.

There would be a corresponding timetable for sharply reducing aid. Australian taxpayers would cease to fund Canberra-style government, international embassies, and public services for what is in effect a country shire. The police commissioner’s establishment would become a country cop shop. A shire engineer would be employed to run the public utilities. A voluntary council would run Nauru’s affairs. This arrangement works extremely well in Norfolk Island, where living standards are ten to twenty times better than those of the rest of the Pacific islands.

Many Nauruans working and living in Australia would no doubt wish to retain ties with their island and spend their holidays with their relatives. Remittances would flow back home. The Nauruan language and traditions would be preserved. Young people would have a future. There are many successful models to follow. For example, there are more people of Maltese origin in Australia than in Malta. Australia would have contributed far more to Nauru by offering work opportunities that finally treated Nauruans as grown-ups than it can ever provide through aid.
 

Pacific anti-terror police to set up in north-east Australia
22 January 2007 - Source: ABC Radio Australia

Australia's north eastern city of Brisbane will be the home base for a new squad of elite federal anti-terror police overseeing Australia and the Pacific region.

The Australian Federal Police has confirmed that a crack Operational Response Group unit has been set up in Brisbane but refused to say how many officers were involved.

However a report in Queensland's Courier-Mail newspaper says 150 officers will be split into three units of 50.

It is believed Brisbane was chosen as the base because of its proximity to the Pacific region and its international airport.

But the new positions potentially affect the Queensland Police Service, which has already indicated it will not be able to continue its deployments to Timor and the Solomon Islands after June.

The Queensland Police Union's general secretary, Phil Hocken, says the drain on resources has taken its toll and could pose a major issue in the future.
 

AUSAID delays handing over of new Samoa police head-quarters
20 January 2007 - Source: Radio New Zealand International

The opening of Samoa’s new headquarters for the Ministry of Police and Prisons has again been delayed.

The Australian-funded project, which cost just under six million US dollars, is now being inspected by Australian engineers and architects.

Sources in the ministry of police say the delay is due to Australia’s building code not being met by a local company who won the construction tender.

Australia’s Agency for overseas development, AUSAID, says the delays are due to the builder finishing his work, and also in part due to its architects undertaking final safety and functional inspections of the building.

It says the inspections are to ensure the building work complies with all the necessary standards and conditions of the contract specifications.
 

Teleport firm to provide services to Pacific islands
18 January 2007 - Source: The Honolulu Advertiser

Hawaii Pacific Teleport, the largest commercial teleport in the state, said it has entered into a two-year contract with Australia-based Pacific Teleport to provide satellite-delivered telephony, Internet and television services to Pacific islands.

Hawaii Pacific Teleport said the joint marketing agreement allows the companies to offer services in an area stretching from the Northern Mariana Islands to French Polynesia.

Vince Waterson, Hawaii Pacific Teleport vice president of business development, said the service is made possible through the use of a powerful General Electric satellite that was previously used by Boeing to provide Internet service on trans-Pacific flights. Using the high-power satellite means subscribers to the services will only need a dish that's about 4 feet across.

Hawaii Pacific Teleport said the service will start at a few hundred dollars a month, or less than what Waterson said was charged for telecommunications provided by the Inmarsat satellite.

It expects businesses, nongovernmental organizations and wealthy homeowners will be attracted to the service.

Waterson said there is a possibility the company will offer some U.S. television services to the islands and that it may seek additional satellite capacity to offer a similar array of services that could be received in remote Hawai'i locations.

It has launched a Web site, www.islandinternetlink.com, to service the market.
 

Solomons PM to visit Australia next week
16 January 2007 - Source: Xinhua

Newly-elected Solomons Prime Minister David Derek Sikua will pay his first official visit to Australia on Jan. 22-23 to meet his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd, to ease political tension between the two countries over the past 18 months, the Pacnews reported on Tuesday.

Sikua and his Foreign Minister William Haomae will be in Canberra next week for their first official visit, the Suva-based regional news agency reported.

Solomon Islands High Commissioner to Australia Victor Ngele will meet Australian government's Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Affairs Duncan Kerr in Canberra on Wednesday to set the framework for the two leaders' meeting next week.

Wednesday's meeting is regarded as the first high-level contact between the two governments since the change in leadership in their respective countries, and also the first step toward easing political tension between the two countries over the past 18 months.

Ngele said the recent changes of governments in both Honiara and Canberra provided the opportunity for the two countries to resolve the various differences that had arisen during that period.
 

Rumble in Apia for the WBO Oriental Cruiserweight Title
14 January 2007 - Source: eventpolynesia.com

Mr. Teleiai Su’atapulolo’o Edwin Puni, Managing Director of Event Polynesia this week confirmed receipt of Certification Letter from World Boxing Organisation Asia Pacific Chairman Mr. Leon Panoncillo.

In his letter Mr. Panoncillo wrote “Herewith, is the letter to confirm that World Boxing Organization Asia Pacific have certify that the boxing match on Saturday, February 02, 2008, at Apia, Samoa between Lawrence Tauasa vs. Charles Baou for the WBO Oriental vacant Cruiserweight title has been officially sanctioned and recognized by the WBO.”

According to Mr. Puni, “This is history in the making and the start of great things for Samoa boxing going forward. WBO is one of the four major organizations including WBA, WBC and IBF which sanction world championship boxing bouts.”

Mr. Puni also confirmed that Mr. Lon Panoncillo will be in Samoa for the upcoming fight night.

“Samoa’s success in the recent South Pacific Games and the Oceania Tournament 2007 is a welcome sign and comes as no surprise with Samoa being strong in amateur boxing over many years. Unfortunately, Samoa is not able to capitalize on this local talent in the transition to international professional boxing,” Mr Puni said.

The inaugural Samoa International Pro-Am Boxing is an initiative of Event Polynesia Boxing in association with SPBI and SABA to provide our Samoan boxers both amateur and professional a pathway forward by setting up the needed top international competitions right here in Samoa.

Mr. Puni however goes on to say,” Unfortunately we are finding it very hard to raise the funds required to bring such international bouts to Samoa.”

Teleiai Su’atapulolo’o credits the determination and commitment of both the Samoa Amateur Boxing Association (SABA) and the South Pacific Boxing Incorporated (SPBI) in keeping boxing alive in Samoa despite of the lack of financial resources, especially with professional boxing.

The main under card is also a title fight of twelve rounds by three minutes between the rugged Walter Pupu’a of Tonga up against Lupematasila Bob Gasio of Samoa for the South Seas Cruiserweight title fight. Other bouts include the ‘Prime Minister Challenge Cup’ between a top New Zealand Amateur Invitation Team verses a top Samoa Amateur Invitational Team.

For more information contact Mr. Tuilagi Maiava Saipele Esera on (+685) 751-9458 or email: saipele@eventpolynesia.com.
 

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