Tourism 'A Big Contributor to Pacific Island Economies'
27 March 2008 - Source: South Pacific Travel

Figures recently released by the UN in its Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific 2007 rank 34 Asia Pacific countries in terms of Tourism’s contribution to GDP.

Topping the list is Palau, where tourism contributed 67 percent of GDP in 2005.

Cook Islands ranks third on the list, where Tourism has grown strongly to contribute 50 percent of GDP in 2005, up from 27 percent in 1990.

Other Pacific Island nations rank highly on the list. Samoa is in fifth slot, with Tourism contributing 18 percent of GDP in 2005. Fiji is 6th, at 15 percent. Federated States of Micronesia is in 9th slot, at 7 percent. Tonga is 13th, at 5 percent.

Large Pacific rim nations rank lower despite high and growing levels of Government support for their Tourism sectors. These include Singapore in 16th slot, where Tourism contributed 5 percent of GDP in 2005, down significantly from 13 percent in 1990. New Zealand is next in 17th slot – Tourism contributed 4 percent of GDP in 2005. Australia is in 20th slot at 2 percent. Japan is 32nd at less than 1 percent.

south-pacific.travel Chief Executive Tony Everitt said “the figures show Tourism continues to lead development in the Pacific Islands. However, there is no room for complacency. Clouds on the global economic horizon and increased competition from better resourced Asian destinations will pressure us. It is vital that the public and private sector maintain competitive levels of investment in our industry.”
 

Pacific rugby stars at Hong Kong Tens
23 March 2008 - Source: ABC Radio Australia

Samoa rugby union World Cup legend Brian Lima leads the list of Pacific island internationals playing at this week's Hong Kong Tens tournament.

Lima, the only player to appear at five World Cups, will play for the Hong Kong Barbarians.

Cook Islands' Amasio Valence, third on the list of all-time points scorers in the IRB Sevens World Series, and Fiji's Neumi Nanuku, will both appear for the Penguins, seeded second at this year's international Tens.

Former Australian Wallaby Toutai Kefu plays for the Yorkshire Panthers.

Fortis New Zealand Metro, the two-time defending Tens champions and top seeds, have already announced that Tonga's Rugby World Cup captain, Nili Latu, will be in their line-up.

The Tens are on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

Sixteen teams from around the globe will be going for glory in the Cup, Plate, Bowl and Shield.
 

Youth Specialists Discussing Regional Collaboration
19 March 2008 - Source: Pacific Magazine

Youth sector specialists from around the Pacific are meeting at SPC headquarters in Noumea this week to discuss how to improve regional coordination in the area of youth development.

Over the next three days, representatives of regional, international and civil society organizations, as well as donors and inter-governmental agencies, will share information on issues such as current and planned youth programmes, gaps and duplication in their work, and support for Pacific regional youth organizations. They will also discuss a coordination and monitoring mechanism to improve youth development in the region.

SPC’s Human Development Adviser for Youth, Rose Maebiru, says that work in the region’s youth sector has increased significantly in recent years. However, she says little has been done to coordinate these efforts.‘This meeting is an opportunity to learn more about what regional and international youth stakeholders are doing. It’s the first step in improving coordination of work in the sector,’ Ms Maebiru says. ‘Following the meeting, we hope to see organizations working in partnership to implement national youth priorities.’

Participants at the meeting will be presented with the findings of a survey carried out by SPC last year to chart youth issues throughout the region. The Pacific Youth Mapping Exercise (PYME) involved collecting data on ways in which SPC member governments, civil society organizations, youth groups and regional organizations were involving young people in their work.
Ms Maebiru says the PYME is a starting point for discussion. Other development agencies will present their own review findings. Representatives of key youth organizations, including the Pacific Youth Council and the Commonwealth’s Regional Youth Caucus, will participate in the discussions. The meeting will also enable participants to share current and proposed projects and activities.

‘Once we’ve established proper networks and systems to improve how we share information, we will be able to better assess the impact of youth programmes carried out in the region and improve the responses that we give,’ says Ms Maebiru. ‘We hope that organizations can complement each other’s work at country and regional levels through the sharing of expertise and resources.’

The meeting has been jointly organized by SPC’s Human Development Programme (HDP), the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, UNESCO and the Commonwealth Youth Programme. Also attending the meeting are delegates from the governments of Vanuatu, Kiribati and Tonga as representatives of the Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian regions respectively.
 

Future Pacific Leaders Examine Their Role In Climate Change Debate
15 March 2008 - Source: Pacific Magazine

The second annual Pacific Future Environment Leaders Forum opened in Suva today with 40 young professionals from around the Pacific coming together to examine the role of leadership in the fight to combat climate change.

The Pacific Future Environment Leaders Forum, a joint initiative of the University of the South Pacific (USP), Secretariat of the Pacific Environment Programme (SPREP) and IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), aims to support participants in the process of examining what it means to be a good leader in the Pacific and how good leadership is vital to the process of countering the effects of climate change, a pressing issue for Pacific island countries and their communities.

“We want to see a cadre of motivated, caring and inspired individuals working together with their communities towards real and lasting changes in our region’s conservation, natural resource management and overall development practices,” says Taholo Kami, Director of IUCN’s Regional Programme for Oceania. “This Forum offers aspiring leaders a chance to reflect critically on their own leadership qualities.”

The Acting British High Commissioner Julia Painting said “One of my hopes for this Forum is that participants will go beyond the objective of agreeing the Vision for Leadership on Climate Change and take some real action - match words with deeds. Delegates' contributions through community based projects after this Forum gives youth a chance to put leadership into practice.”
The forum also aims to provide participants with the skills and support that will empower these ‘future leaders’ to build partnerships and momentum within their communities to foster adaptation to climate change.

“The future leaders of the Pacific must be able to not only understand the issue, but to take appropriate action in their own communities,” says conference co-convener, Ms Tamara Logan of SPREP.

According to Ms Logan, participants at the inaugural Pacific Future Environment Leaders Forum in Apia in 2007 agreed that climate change is a pressing issue that deserves more focus from the Pacific’s future leaders. “There is a real and urgent need to engage people on the issue of climate change. Our youth are our future and we need to start getting them involved now.”

Participants will explore areas such as “Leadership for the Future,” “Adapting to Climate Change” and “Engaging People in Community Based Projects” throughout the three-day forum. The Forum participants will also develop a “Vision for Leadership on Climate Change,” to be presented at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona later this year.

Dynamic leaders from various fields and experts in climate change issues will be sharing their experience at the Forum as presenters and keynote speakers. A highlight of the Forum is expected to be a panel discussion that will encourage further debate on what constitutes good leadership in today’s changing world.

The Forum, which is being held at Suva’s Southern Cross Hotel, is a joint initiative between SPREP, USP and IUCN with funding from the British High Commission, Suva.
 

Rioters in Nauru torch police station during weekend violence
11 March 2008 - Source: The Canadian Presse

Rioters on the Pacific island country Nauru set fire to the main police station during a weekend protest by about 100 young people, New Zealand's government said Monday.

No one was injured in the violence, although the police station was gutted and several people were arrested, said James Funnell, a spokesman for New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters.

Australia and New Zealand maintain close ties with Nauru and other small island countries in the region.

The cause of the Nauru rioting was not immediately clear. Political turmoil came to a head late last year when a breakaway group of cabinet ministers ousted President Ludwig Scotty in a no-confidence motion, accusing his government of taking no action on corruption allegations.

Marcus Stephens, Nauru's former champion weightlifter and a Commonwealth Games medalist, was elected president Dec. 19.

Funnell said the latest reports from the island said the situation was calm.

Officials in Nauru - a speck of land halfway between Australia and Hawaii - were not immediately available for comment.

"It appears from our inquiries the origin of the violence is a long-standing commercial dispute," Funnel said.

He did not give further details of the problem or say how many people were arrested in the violence.

"Police reservists were sworn under emergency authority to protect national infrastructure," he said.

Those detained were being held in a camp the Australian government set up on the island in 2001 to house foreign asylum-seekers, who were caught heading to Australia by boat, while their asylum requests were being processed. The program ended earlier this year and no asylum-seekers are still in the camp, Funnell said.

Nauru is the third South Pacific country to suffer rioting and arson in the last two years. Similar problems have hit Samoa and Tonga.

Nauru was once was a major supplier of phosphate, which is used for making fertilizer.

Its population of about 12,500 had one of the world's highest per-capita incomes about 25 years ago. The country's fortunes dwindled as its phosphate reserves ran out, however, and have been worsened by bad investments and poor economic management by its government.
 

Pacific People To Name World's First International Marine Reserves
07 March 2008 - Source: Saipan Tribune

Eleven countries from Oceania recently formed the Oceania University Sports Association to represent the region in the International University Sports Federation or Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire, FISU.

FISU, which is based in Brussels, Belgium, is the world governing body of over 100 national university sports federations that organizes the Winter and Summer Universiades in uneven years and the World University Championships in even years.

The Universiade is an international sporting and cultural festival, which is staged every two years in a different city and which is second in importance only to the Olympics.

Representatives from American Samoa, Australia, the CNMI, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and Vanuatu held a meeting from Feb. 23 to 25 in Apia, Samoa with FISU officials to form OUSA.

Northern Mariana Islands Tennis Federation vice president and former Pacific Oceania Davis Cup team captain Jeff Race attended and represented the CNMI in the meeting.

OUSA will be the Oceania regions representative to FISU-organized Universiade Games, World Championships, and other competitions.
Race said OUSA's purpose is to facilitate greater participation of Oceania tertiary or college student athletes in global and regional sporting events. “In order for this organization to successfully become a FISU member they have to get 12 other Oceania nations to join the world body.”

Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea are the only Oceania countries that are FISU members, while the CNMI has applied to become a member and is awaiting the approval from the FISU executive committee.

Race said OUSA needed to get two-thirds or more of Oceania-member nations to join FISU in order for the newly formed sports body to be recognized as the official regional representative in the Oceania region.

Executive committee vice president Stephan Bergh and director of protocol and education Kole Gjeloshaj represented FISU where they met with CNMI's Race, American Samoa's Ed Imo, the Cook Islands' Ray Preston, Vanuatu's Jean Pierre Nirua, Australia's Don Knapp, Fiji's Cliff Benson, New Zealand's Hamish Hopkins, Nauru's Rayong Isimaera, PNG's Molly Geno, FSM's Castro Joab, and Samoa's Karen Nelson.
 

Pacific People To Name World's First International Marine Reserves
03 March 2008 - Source: Greenpeace Press Release

Greenpeace today launched a competition inviting Pacific people to name three areas of international waters as proposed marine reserves.

In between Pacific Island countries Papua New Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Nauru, Marshall Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia and the Cook Islands - are three large areas of international waters that belong to everyone.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific Oceans Team Leader Nilesh Goundar said from these international waters the Pacific's greatest resource, tuna, is being stolen, with minimal or no benefits to Island nations.

"Greenpeace is working to protect these areas from overfishing and tuna pirates, by pushing for them to be closed to foreign fishing fleets," Mr Goundar added.

The three proposed marine reserves cover extensive areas that include biologically rich undersea mountains, migration routes of tuna species, habitat of endangered leatherback turtles and breeding areas of skipjack, albacore and bigeye tuna.

"This is an opportunity for the people in the Pacific to draw that line in the waves and enter the competition to name these future marine reserves."

Marine reserves are areas of the sea that are fully protected from human activities and are like national parks for the oceans.

Anyone can enter the competition. They can send an inspiring name for any of the three areas, and say why they have chosen that name for their Pacific heritage. Entries can be posted to Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Private Mail Bag, Suva.

Mr Goundar said in order to reverse the current decline in the health of oceans worldwide, and in the Pacific where bigeye and yellow fin tuna stocks are in trouble, Greenpeace is calling for 40% of the oceans to be protected by marine reserves in addition to 50% reduction in tuna fishing.

"It is undisputable that Marine reserves benefit sea life by protecting breeding areas, ocean habitats and fish that have been unsustainably targeted by fishing. We have the chance to create three tabu areas in the international waters that are sandwiched between Pacific Island nations, which will become marine reserves - the first ever in international waters. Tabu areas are not new to the Pacific as the peoples of the Pacific have already managed their oceans sustainably for thousands of years.

The Greenpeace Oceans team will be at the Pacifika festival in Auckland, New Zealand from March 6-8, 2008 to promote the competition.
 

Australia, NZ pledge democracy push in Pacific
28 February 2008 - Source: Reuters

Australia and New Zealand on Wednesday said they would unite to push for more democracy in the troubled South Pacific as they condemned a crackdown on critics by Fiji's military-installed government.

The two neighbours, both major donors to their smaller island neighbours, said they would also present a united front internationally on climate change after Australia agreed in December to sign the Kyoto climate change pact.

"You'll see that reflected in the combined positions we take across the many meetings which will occur across the international community in the two difficult years which lie ahead," Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said after meeting his New Zealand counterpart Helen Clark in Canberra.

Both leaders condemned the Fiji government's decision this week to expel the Australian publisher of the Fiji Sun newspaper over a series of articles accusing the country's Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry of tax evasion.

"It's inconceivable that you can hold open, free and fair elections if you have media intimidation," Clark said.

Fiji's military commander Commodore Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, who seized power in a coup in December 2006 after accusing the elected government of corruption, has promised to hold elections in 2009.

Australia and New Zealand, the South Pacific's major military powers, have joined Europe and the United States in demanding Bainimarama stick to the election schedule.

Both countries also have peacekeeping troops and police as part of a regional force maintaining stability in the Solomon Islands archipelago.

After their second meeting since Rudd's November election win, which ended almost 12 years of conservative government in Australia, Clark said Rudd's decision to ratify the Kyoto pact meant both countries could act together against climate shift.

"It puts us on the same page and the work we must now do and the intense international diplomacy around reaching the post 2012 agreement," Clark said.

"It makes a huge difference to New Zealand to have Australia in and for us to be able to combine diplomatic effort and muscle in the international negotiations."

New Zealand was an early signatory to the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gas emissions.

Rudd and Clark, who both lead left-leaning governments, said they were committed to a single economic market, with trade across the Tasman Sea already topping A$15 billion in 2006-07 under a 1983 trade deal billed as one of the world's freest. "I've reinforced the importance for New Zealand of the work that's been going on around the economic integration between the two economies and have been assured that's core business for the new Australian government as well," Clark said.
 

Industry Committee On Wages Hike Proposed During Congressional Hearing
24 February 2008 - Source: Radio New Zealand International

The U.S. Department of Interior has asked a congressional hearing to consider the establishment of a federal special industry committee to set minimum wages for American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands on a biennial basis.

The U.S. House subcommittee on insular areas four-hour hearing held at the Lee Auditorium in Pago Pago Friday gave the chance to DOI, local government leaders and representatives of the private sector to voice their opinion over the current federal wage law and future hikes.

The next increase of 50 cent per hour goes into effect May 25.

Nikolao Pula, DOI’s acting deputy secretary for insular affairs, was unable to address the hearing as planned but his five-page written testimony was presented to the subcommittee for its record.

In his written testimony, Pula recalled the U.S.

Department of Labor report which states that American Samoa and CNMI face unique challenges in attracting private sector businesses because of their geographic isolation and location in a part of the world where most neighboring economies have much lower minimum wage and living standards.

Under the current federal law, wage hikes of 50 cents per hour for American Samoa and CNMI will continue until wages reach the new federal level of $7.25 per hour.

The DOL report suggests that scheduled minimum wage increases could cause the canneries in American Samoa to relocate to lower cost countries long before they are force to pay $7.25 per hour and that more garment factories in the CNMI may close sooner than otherwise expected, said Pula.

Congresswoman Donna Christensen, chairperson of the subcommittee, said she is “concerned” that the report does not address the issue of quality of life and standard of living needs in the two territories.

In light of the risk to the American Samoa and CNMI economies, the Bush Administration suggests that Congress give “strong consideration” to amending the current law in order to avoid minimum wage increases that could result in significant job loss and harm to the economies of the two territories, said Pula in his written testimony.

“Broad language that would postpone an increase in minimum wage based on a finding of any adverse impact on the respective economies of the CNMI and American Samoa might have the effect of preventing all progress towards a higher minimum wage,” said Pula.

“Narrower language requiring a determination that the increase will not substantially curtail employment allows more flexibility, but the difficulties for the Secretary of Labor of obtaining reliable information upon which to based any determination will be significant,” he added.

Another point Congress may consider is the establishment of a special industry committee that set the minimum wage rates biennially.

Pula said the industry committee could ensure the people who determine the minimum wage increases share first-hand knowledge of island economies, while representing different stake-holder groups within those economies as well as the public interest.

“When compared with proposals to vest the decision making authority in the Secretary of Labor, this model offers the advantage of ensuring that local knowledge is fully incorporated and that stakeholders in the territorial economies are able to play significant roles,” he added.

Prior to May last year when the current federal law was enacted, American Samoa’s minimum wage was reviewed every two years by a special industry committee appointed by the Secretary of Labor.

Lt. Gov. Ipulasi A. Sunia told the subcommittee that he supports the industry committee, adding that this system had worked for American Samoa in past years because wage hikes were based on local economic conditions.

He said the system is better than the new annual wage increases mandated by Congress.

Congressman Faleomavaega Eni, however, disagrees saying that the industry committee implements two to three cents an hour and he believes this is the first time in many years that a 50 cent hike was implemented.

“I do not support the industry committee but I support a neutral party such as the Department of Labor,” he said. “The industry committee didn’t speak well for the workers.”

Ipulasi called on Congress “to enact legislation that is fair and just for the Territory of American Samoa.”

The Fono, the two canneries and the Chamber of Commerce support Faleomavaega’s bill which would make future increases in minimum wage rates in American Samoa or the CNMI conditional n a determination by the Secretary of Labor that an increase will not have an adverse impact on the economies of the two territories.
 

IRB confident three Pacific teams present at 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand
20 February 2008 - Source: Radio New Zealand International

The IRB chief executive, Mike Miller is confident there will be a good Pacific representation at the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand.

Fiji and Tonga are automatically through after making the quarter finals in France last year.

However, Samoa who had a dismal World Cup will have to qualify for New Zealand.

But Miller is confident there will be at least three teams present.

“Two of them are in because they are in the top 12, and you would expect the third one would qualify as well so I would expect we will definitely see Tonga, Fiji and Samoa in the next World cup.”
 

Event Polynesia to market and promote Toa Samoa RLWC campaign
16 February 2008 - Source: eventpolynesia.com

Samoa Rugby League has announced the appointment of Event Polynesia to market and promote Toa Samoa for the upcoming Rugby League World Cup, to be held in Australia starting in October. The arrangement includes marketing, promotion and fundraising, starting as soon as possible and includes all commercial arrangements from now up to and after the Rugby League World Cup. Details of the partnership are yet to be finalised, but the two parties are keen to work together for the betterment of Toa Samoa’s World Cup Campaign and commercial arrangements going forward.

“We are so delighted to be working with Event Polynesia for the World Cup and going forward" said SRL President Mr Peter Paul.

Toa Samoa RLWC Fundraising will kick-off in mid April with corporate fights pitching rugby league legends against those from other sports. It will also include fights between corporate professionals pitching CEO’s of the public and private sector against one another. This will be the first time for corporate Samoa to enjoy corporate fights, including wining and dining and cheering on a professional partner, while at the same time, contributing to and fundraising for Toa Samoa’s Rugby League World Cup campaign.

“It is such a relief for us to bring in a professional event company to take care of marketing and commercial matters whilst we concentrate on the administration side of things for the World Cup” said SRL Secretary General Fritz Tuiavii.

The local Samoa Rugby League competition kicks-off in early April, with trials set for July and the World Cup squad to be finalised in August. With the high interest and participation of our premier Samoan professional rugby league stars from all over the world, Toa Samoa stands a very positive chance to make the Semi Finals of the World Cup.
 

Modern life means modern ills for obese Pacific islanders
12 February 2008 - Source: AFP

Glossy photographs in tourist brochures showing lean, fit and muscular Pacific islanders fishing with spears from canoes in azure lagoons and shimmying up coconut palms hide an ugly truth.

Pacific islands are in the midst of a crisis of obesity and its associated dangers of diabetes, strokes and heart disease.

A diet which used to be dominated by fish, root crops, green leaves, coconuts and fruit is now heavily reliant on fatty imported meats, rice, and sugar and fat-laden processed snack foods.

Many islanders are now urbanised and drive to the local shop to buy tins of corned beef, spam, cooking oil and rice instead of tending crops and gathering seafood in the lagoon and surrounding ocean.

"What we have in this country is a raging epidemic. We have 6,000 to 8,000 cases of diabetes out of a population of 53,000 people," says Carl Hacker, the Marshall Islands director of economic policy, planning and statistics.

"What is unfolding here is a physical disaster and a fiscal disaster," he told AFP.

The pattern is being repeated through the Pacific. World Health Organisation (WHO) figures show Pacific Island nations make up eight of the world's 10 most obese countries.

Nauru, once prosperous through exports of now nearly exhausted phosphate deposits, heads the list with 94.5 percent of people older than 15 defined as obese.

It also heads world tables for diabetes rates, which in Nauru is estimated to afflict as many as 45 percent of all adults.

Hospital wards from the Marshall Islands to Nauru and Tonga and throughout the region are bulging with patients suffering non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that are a direct result of obesity -- diabetes, stroke and heart disease.

Hacker says treating a single patient over the 15-30 year span of type two diabetes -- which usually strikes in adulthood and is caused by poor diet and inactivity -- can cost his poor country hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The symptoms of advanced diabetes include kidney failure, blindness and, in extreme cases, the amputation of limbs.

The cost of long-term rehabilitation for stroke victims is another huge burden, says Dr Jan Pryor, director of research at the Fiji School of Medicine.

"In the past it was unusual for anyone to have a stroke under 50, now people are having strokes in their 20s and 30s, you see it every day," he said.

The battle against bad health is hampered by the traditional perception of obesity as a sign of beauty and status in the Pacific Islands. In the past, traditional diets and lifestyle ensured that generally only senior chiefs and their families grew fat.

"When I was a child, there was less imported food, we would eat local food, which was high carbohydrate, low sugar and high fibre," says Dr Malokai Ake, chief medical officer for public health in Tonga.

"Usually we would only have pork or chicken on Sundays and fresh fish was a regular part of our diet along with other seafood. We would walk or ride on a horse to work in the plantations and spend a lot of time fishing, swimming or diving.

"The way we lived meant any excess calories were used up during the day. The amount of calories people have every day now, we used to only have on feast days."

Urbanisation means fewer people grow their own food or go fishing and in the Marshall Islands for example about 70 percent of the population of around 53,000 live on two crowded urban islands.

Population growth also means there is more pressure on natural resources, especially seafood.

The village of Votua, near Ba in the north of Fiji's main island of Viti Levu in January banned fishing in its traditional fishing grounds for five years to restore fish stocks.

Chief Ratu Pio Naulu was quoted by the Fiji Times saying that there had been a sharp decline in the number of fish in local water due to overfishing, including the use of dynamite.

The problem of obesity has been getting worse over the last 30 years and it is no longer confined to urban areas.

"Even if you go into a store in a remote village, you'll find shelves of spam and corned beef," says Pryor.

Researchers have suggested Pacific Islanders have a genetic disposition to obesity and its associated health problems. They say their metabolism has learned to cope over thousands of years with times of plenty and periods of famine by adapting to quickly store any surplus calories as fat.

But education about the importance of a healthy diet has been going on for 20 years among many island communities.

In Tonga, the late King Taufa'ahau Tupou, once renowned as the world's heaviest monarch, led attempts to improve the lifestyle of his subjects by taking up -- in his seventies -- regular bicycle rides up and down the runway of the country's international airport.

Education has not been enough however to curb the growth of obesity and most experts put this down to economics.

It's cheaper to buy fatty mutton flaps from New Zealand and Australia or turkey tails from the US than fresh local fish, or white rice rather than the local root crops.

"There is plenty of fresh fish in Tonga but fishermen have raised the price beyond the purchasing power of most people," Ake says.

Experts agree that governments in the region have to take the lead, coordinating a response through all their agencies and imposing "sin taxes" on unhealthy imports.

Some countries have tried banning some unhealthy imports. Fiji for example banned the importation of mutton flaps in 2000 and Samoa last year banned imports of turkey tails.

But most of the action has been piecemeal and many people just do not have access to cheap healthy food.

"Where is the leadership on these kinds of issues?" Hacker said.

"We have to have leadership to at least acknowledge these problems exist."
 

A strong Samoan on and off the field
08 February 2008 - Source: Northwest Asian Weekly

The Seattle Seahawks third-year middle linebacker and defensive captain Lofa Tatupu will play in his second straight Pro Bowl, the National Football League’s annual All-Star game in Hawaii on Feb. 10. Tatupu, a Samoan American, and fellow NFL star Troy Polamalu, of the Pittsburgh Steelers, were recently honored by the United States congressman from American Samoa, Eni Faleomavaega, for making the Pro Bowl.

“I want to congratulate Lofa and Troy for their selection for the 2008 NFL Pro Bowl scheduled for Feb. 10, 2008,” said Faleomavaega. “This has been a tremendous season for both players and they are deserving of this opportunity to be playing once again in Hawaii.

“It is amazing that out of a population of about 70,000, these two young men of Samoan heritage and whose roots are from American Samoa, are able to reach the highest individual honor as an active player of the National Football League. This selection is cumulative of the opinions from their coaches, their peers and, importantly, their fans that continue to support them every day. I know this selection also recognizes their fellow Polynesian brothers throughout the league.”

Tatupu is very close to his family and will have a lot of support from the stands at Honolulu Stadium. His strongest supporters (in more ways than one) are probably his parents: His father Mosi was a fullback for the New England Patriots and his mother Linnea taught Lofa how to box when he was a child. To honor his parents, Tatupu has a tattoo on his forearm, inspired by a print on a tapa (bark cloth decorated with natural pigment) that served as the backdrop of his parents’ wedding ceremony.

Tatupu’s leadership and strength is evident on and off the football field. Not only did he lead the team with 109 tackles, he is also very active in the community. Tatupu participated in the Seahawk’s Captain Blitz Program, joining his teammates for patient hospital visits during the holiday season. He also helped children in need with a free shopping spree at Toys “R” Us. Just recently, after a second-grade class from Rock Creek Elementary in Tacoma created and mailed a “Lofa Memory Book” about Tatupu’s accomplishments, he made a surprise visit to the school and gave everyone Tatupu jerseys.
 

Ten Samoan boxing pioneers receive honorary awards
04 February 2008 - Source: eventpolynesia.com

Ten recipients of the Samoa International Pro-Am Boxing Honorary Awards were presented their awards at the Pre-fight Cocktail on Friday 1st February 2008.

According to Mr. Puni, “It is fitting that the pioneers of Samoa boxing are honoured at the inaugural Samoa International Pro-Am Boxing event for their service in boxing. This weekend Samoa will not only host representatives from the four main world boxing bodies, but will make boxing history with local referee and judges officiating the WBO Oriental Cruiserweight title.”

“Contrary to what most think, it is very hard to raise funds in Samoa to promote boxing and especially to stage international fights here. This is the first and very likely to be the last time Event Polynesia Boxing will bring such an international boxing gathering here to Samoa.”

“Event Polynesia Boxing is committed to promoting Samoan boxers. However, the international title fights will have to be in Auckland where we stage our New Zealand fights because of the huge expenses that we incur to bring such events to Samoa.”

Mr. Puni and boxing officials made a courtesy call to personally thank the Prime Minister, Hon. Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Sailele Malielegaoi and to thank the Samoa Government for the financial assistance towards the amateur expenses of this event.

Mr. Reginald Leca, President of Oceania Boxing Association and representative for PABA and WBA at a media conference yesterday, compared Samoa to Cuba as a force in world boxing. But unlike Cuba, Samoa needs to move its amateur boxers to professional boxing earlier rather than very late as is the case with Maselino Masoe.

“This requires amateur boxing to work together with professional boxing in Samoa in association with promoters such as Event Polynesia Boxing, who are helping Samoan professional boxers to get ranking for title fights.”

The 10 recipients of the Samoa International Pro-Am Boxing Honorary Awards are:
Hon Peter Paul – Promoter, Hon Sala Ulugia Suivai – Promoter / Coach,
Savaiinaea Malo Slade – Boxer / Trainer / Coach,
Oscar Meredith – Trainer / Coach,
Hon Fa’asootauloa Sam Saili – Promoter,
Galumalemana Afeleti Betham – Trainer / Coach / Promoter,
Hon Polataivao Fosi Schmidt – Boxer / Promoter / Coach,
Lesa Eric Fatupaito – Trainer / Coach,
Maposua Rudolf Keil – Promoter, and
Ulugia Elijah Stanley – Promoter.