NEWSPAGE 01 February
2010

(Photo: BBC)

NEW ZEALAND: Pauly Fuemana mourned

(Photo: Samoa Government)

SAMOA: Parliamentary Updates
Source: Government Press Secretariat Press Release
 

Government give $5 Million funding assistance for Private and Mission schools

Cabinet ha approved the distribution of $5 million as funding assistance for Private and mission schools, Continuing Education and Early Childhood Education Centre (ECEC).

The distribution of this fund is as follows:

Mission and Private schools                 $4,156,250

Continuing Education and CECEs            $218,750

Special Schools                                    $250,000

Pre Schools                                           $84,750

Catholic Missions                                    $40,875

Village Women’s Committee                    $31,125

Private                                                 $159,000

Faaea                                                    $59,250

Funds were presented to schools’ Directors last Wednesday, 27^th January 2010 in a ceremony held at the Cabinet Room, FMFM II Building, Matagialalua.

Police Band and Don Bosco invited to the American Samoa Flag Day

Cabinet has approved the participation by the Police Band and Don Bosco Technical College to the commemoration of American Samoa’s Flag Day on the 16 and 17 o January 2010.

Don Bosco’s longboat (fautasi) will also be competing in American Samoa’s race.

 

February Fuel Prices 2010
 

Cabinet has approved the retail petroleum products prices for February 2010.

As stated above, petrol price will increase by 5.93sene per litre, 2.25sene per litre increase for diesel and 3.75sene per litre increase for kerosene.

The new costs will come into effect on the 1^st of February 2010.

Fuel costs for other Pacific countries are shown in the table below.

Report on Dialysis patients for November and December 2009

Cabinet has approved the report on Dialysis patients in the months of November and December 2009.

There was one visiting patient in November and two in December. The overall number of patients in November was 47 and 48 in December.


“Education Act 2009” enforces on 01 February 2010

Cabinet has approved the 1st of February 2010 to be the commencement date of the Education Act 2009, except for sections 27 and 65 that will be enforced after 12 months since the Act’s commencement date.

The aim of the Act is Compulsory Education which enforces compulsory attendance of school by compulsory-aged children which are children between 5 to 14 years old. Carer s breach of their responsibilities will incur a penalty as provided by the Act.

The Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture is handling promotional activities for the commencement of the Act through advertisements on Radio 2AP and newspapers, as well as setting in place of awareness programmes for the awareness of the public.
 

(Photos: J. Kneubuhl)

AMERICAN SAMOA: ASCC/SSI students participate in innovate ePathways project
Source: American Samoa Community College Press Release

Students from several Samoan Studies Institute (SSI) classes at the American Samoa Community College (ASCC) will take part this semester in an innovating learning program initiated by the National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM). The program called ePathway enables students of Samoan language and culture at ASCC to meet online to exchange academic and social information with students taking similar courses at UHM and Farrington High School in Honolulu. While still in its developmental stages, ePathway has already earned an enthusiastic response from participating students, according to SSI instructor and ASCC ePathway Coordinator Evile F. Feleti.

Feleti explained how selected students, mostly from his class SAM 111 (Introduction to Samoan Language) go online on their own time to visit a Pathways Café set up by the NFLRC. In this “virtual café”, students dialogue on line with peers and facilitators in a learning community via forums or threaded discussions. The café features a social area for free chat, a discussion area for instructor-guided interaction, a grammar clinic for focus on form, and a gallery for sharing pictures of the students’ schools and communities.

Since the first SSI students at ASCC participated in ePathway in fall 2008, over the next three semesters Feleti and other SSI staff continued to work with their partners in Hawaii to refine the program. Describing their progress so far, Feleti said, “Many students expressed their support and interest in the ePathways project by showing a lot of enthusiasm in their postings and also when meeting face to face with their off island partners via Video Teleconference. Results from our evaluations suggest that students are very keen to learn through the medium of online connections. Our ASCC students take noticeable pride in sharing information concerning the Samoan language and culture with their fellow participants at UHM and Farrington. They also act as role models to encourage their high school brothers and sisters at Farrington to continue their education on to college after high school. In this sense, in addition to helping students learn Samoan, ePathways, represents a path to help guide them from high school to community college to the university level.”

Feleti clarified that at this point participation in ePathway is not a course requirement for his SSI students, but rather an extra credit option similar to the Service Learning options now incorporated into many ASCC classes. Nevertheless, he expressed high optimism that ePathway represents an exciting new trend for the future of Samoan language instruction.

“I think this will eventually lead to the introduction of Samoan Online courses,” said Feleti. “We’re in the pioneering stages of a program that I believe will put more and more Samoan instruction online. Because we believe strongly in this direction, we’re currently looking for grants to support further development of the ePathways project.” Feleti shared that besides the current partners in Hawaii, the ePathway project has attracted the interest of one Samoan cultural group in California as well as a number of schools in New Zealand.

In order to improve the nation's capacity for teaching and learning foreign languages, the United States Department of Education provides grants under the Language Resource Centers program for the establishment and operation of centers that serve as national resources through teacher training, research, materials development, and dissemination projects. In 1990, UHM was granted funds to develop the National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC), one of three such centers at the time--the number has since grown to fourteen.

More information on the NFLRC, visit their website at: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu.

For more information on the American Samoa ePathway project, contact Evile F. Feleti by calling ASCC at 699-9155 and asking for ext. 326, or by emailing [email protected].

Photo Captions: Faculty of the Samoan Studies Institute at ASCC gather with students participating in the ePathway project. ePathway makes it possible for students here to work alongside their counterparts in Hawaii via the internet in the study of Samoan language and culture.
 

(Photo: Cook Islands Tourism)

COOK ISLANDS: Eclipsing events in the Cook Islands
Source: Breaking Travel News

Visitors to the Cook Islands can expect far more than idyllic beaches and water activities, with an array of events taking place throughout the year. With any visit to the Cook Islands visitors can experience every inch of the Cook Islands’ culture, tradition and adventure.

The beautiful Cook Islands comprise of 15 islands randomly scattered across the heart of the South Pacific creating a breathtaking paradise for holiday makers wanting to get away from the everyday hustle and bustle back home.

With any visit to the Cook Islands be immersed with South Pacific passion. Cook Islands dancers are described as being among the best in the world and the traditional dancing is considered the most sensual and energetic dancing of the South Pacific. Visitors can see the best dancers during the annual Te Mire Kapa ‘Dancer of the Year’ festival for the junior and intermediate dancers taking place from 16 to 23 April and Te Mire Ura for the senior dancers on May 6th.

On July 11, the Cook Islands sees the natural wonder that is a Total Eclipse of the Sun. Visit the South Pacific island of Mangaia, laze on the beach and marvel as the phenomenon traverses a narrow corridor of the Southern Hemisphere.

The Te Maeva Nui Celebrations will be held on Rarotonga, the main island of the Cook Islands at the National Auditorium from the 2nd - 7th August 2010. This is the major annual cultural event of the Cook Islands and includes dance, chant and choir competitions as well as demonstrations of traditional arts. This is an event not to be missed.

Explore the Cooks during the 33rd annual Round Rarotonga Road Race, taking place in September. The Race attracts many overseas participants as it presents a selection of varied and fun events for all the family. Apart from the 31km main race around Rarotonga, many further races are organised such as the 5km fun run which opens the event and where dressing up is essential! The main objective of the whole event is to have as much fun as possible and not to take anything too seriously.

From 19-26 November visitors can watch 200 paddlers from all over the world from countries such as Hawaii, Italy, NZ, Australia and Tahiti at the Rarotonga ‘Vaka Eiva Canoeing Regatta’. This is a chance to see paddlers sharing and valuing the traditional significance and importance of the canoe to Pacific culture in a week of competition in one of the largest annual sporting events in the Cook Islands.

If you happen to miss any of the Cook Island’s annual events, never fear as every day is a party in the Cook Islands and visitors can catch a glimpse of the Cook Islands culture by attending an Island Night, which are run by most resorts. These events are a magnificent display of the local native costume and dance routines will get every visitor clapping. So no matter whether you want to take on the locals at their own game or simply marvel at the magnificence of their diverse culture, the Cook Islands are sure to deliver.
 

(Photo: Fiji Times)

FIJI: Suva enjoys piped water
Source: Fiji Times

Some parts of Suva that were experiencing water disruptions on Saturday now have normal water supply.

Cunningham Stage 4 resident Agnes Rataletoka said water supply normalised yesterday.

But the same could not be said for residents of Rokovoka Road in Delainavesi who have been without water for more than a month.

"The water tanks have helped ease the problem a bit but our taps are still dry," a resident said yesterday.

"The weather has been hot nowadays and this is a time when we need water the most. A lot of families in the area depend on this water tank for water supply.

"It's good that water trucks cart water to areas like ours who have continuous supply disruptions."

SCC worker Ilai Taukena said a lot of people from Lami and Delainavesi continued to collect water and bathe at the old rubbish dump site in Delainavesi.

"The tap at the old dump site has water all the time so people in areas nearby that have no water fetch water from here," he said.

"Some of them come very early in the morning to have their bath."

Water Authority of Fiji said in a statement last week that tanks have been placed at Rogovoka Road, Bulou Road, Nakauvadra Road, Powell Crescent and Lami High School to allow resident easy access to clean water.

The Authority said water tanks were also placed at Baka Drive and Kaunitoni Street.

"To this end, tanks have been placed at central locations in the affected areas of Delainavesi and Lami so that they can be easily accessed by all within those communities," the statement said.

"These tanks are replenished twice daily - in the morning and early evening.

"Areas not provided with water tanks are being serviced by water trucks."

Photo Caption: Jone Qalotuberi, 12, of Delainavesi, fills his bottles.
 

WORLDWIDE: Dropping “Grow First, Clean Up Later” development for Green Growth
Source: United Nations Development Programme Press Release

In light of the current economic crisis, aligning development approaches to environmental sustainability is the best solution to rebuild more resilient, socially inclusive economies.

“Green Growth is a policy focus for the Asia and Pacific region that emphasizes environmentally sustainable economic progress to foster low-carbon, socially inclusive development” explains Mr. Iosefa Maiava, Head of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) Pacific Operations Centre, in Suva, Fiji.

In the Asia and Pacific region, the concept of Environmentally Sustainable Economic Growth or Green Growth was developed at the 5th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development (MCED 2005) held in Seoul, Republic of Korea.

While promoting Green Growth amongst 62 countries of the East Asia and Pacific region, UNESCAP’s initiative to “green the UN” also supports the reconciliation between the achievement of two significant Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), namely poverty alleviation (MDG 1) and environmental sustainability (MDG7).

The Asia and Pacific region represents 40 per cent of the earth’s land area and is inhabited by 61 per cent of the world’s population. The region is facing environmental degradation, climate change and decreasing natural resources as well as dealing with the recent fuel, food and financial crisis. It is imperative that the region adjusts its development strategies towards a more responsible and long-term perspective.

Mr. Maiava said that “given the region’s limited ecological carrying capacity and the enormous need for further economic growth to reduce poverty and meet the basic needs of its vast and expanding population, the region has to find ways and means to reduce the environmental impact of its economic growth.”

To accomplish the goals designed by the concept of Green Growth, UNESCAP is supporting governments to establish policy measures based on six “green development paths”, namely sustainable consumption and production, greening businesses and markets, sustainable infrastructure, green tax and budget reform, eco-efficiency indicators and investment in natural capital.

UNESCAP is also helping Pacific countries develop Green Growth’s conceptual and analytical framework and provides capacity building.

“The past axiom of “grow first, clean up later”, can not apply in a region that has such a limited natural resource base and a rapidly growing population directly dependent on natural resources.” says Mr. Maiava, adding that “Green Growth is the foremost strategy to ensure environmental and economic sustainability of the countries in the Asia and Pacific region.”