NEWSPAGE 02 July
2010

(Photo: New Zealand Department of Corrections)

(Photo: Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet)

SAMOA: PM would support new Pacific media body
Source: Australia Network News

The Prime Minister of Samoa says he will give his full support to a new media organisation being established in his country.

His comments come following the resignation of vice-president of the Pacific Islands News Association, John Woods.

Mr Woods has criticised PINA for being too politicised, and failing to advocate on behalf of journalists - particularly in Fiji - and says he would like to see a new media group set up, possibly in Samoa.

Prime Minster Tuilaepa has told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program he hasn't been asked about the idea but thinks it would be a good decision.

"Oh yes, I will give them support," he said.

"We respect the freedom of free speech here in Samoa, something which PINA has been facing a lot of problems with in Fiji, so I see no problem in their quest to be established in Apia."

He also says journalists will find it difficult to speak out under Fiji's new media laws, and it is clear that the interests of Fiji's interim-leader, Frank Bainimarama, are contrary to the objectives that any newspaper in any country would stand for.

"I think what the Commodore is doing is exactly what any dictator will do, publish only the news that a dictator wants to publish."

Photo Caption: Prime Minster Tuilaepa says he hasn't been asked about the idea but thinks it would be a good decision.
 

(Photos: Australia-Pacific Technical College)

AUSTRALIA: Gourmet weekend at Rakiraki for friends of APTC
Source: Australia-Pacific Technical College

Once again, APTC full-time residential students in Certificate III Hospitality Operations, and in Hospitality Cookery and their trainers have hosted a 'Friends of APTC Rakiraki, Escape Weekend' at the Tanoa Hotel, Rakiraki, in Fiji.

Thirty guests from Nadi, Suva and Australia attended the recent escape, which began with a Saturday lunch of three courses, featuring Fijian ingredients and flavours - notably the kava-crusted supreme of chicken with chili coconut crème sauce.

This was followed by an afternoon of lawn bowls on the green, where students kept guests supplied with refreshing beverages and cold towels.

Saturday evening featured a degustation dinner of six courses, matched with wines from the Pacific-rim nations of Chile, New Zealand and Australia, and was preceded by a pre-dinner service of a range of cocktails and mock-tails that had been created by the students.

A highlight of the evening was the cultural show featuring the song, dance and tradition of the ATPC students from seven Pacific nations, who are students in the residential 'Hotel School' environment.

The Friends of APTC Rakiraki stayed overnight in rooms prepared and set with guest amenities by the students.

Sunday morning saw the guests partaking of a buffet brunch, with appetites bouncing back after the six course degustation dinner. The guests then departed to explore the Rakiraki region after a late-morning checkout.

The Rakiraki Hotel School is a joint initiative between the APTC School of Tourism and Hospitality and the Tanoa Hotel Group in Fiji, which each semester, hosts around 36 full-time residential tourism and hospitality students from Pacific Island Forum countries.

Photo Captions:

Photo 1 - The cultural show presented by students from seven Pacific nations.

Photo 2 - Sunday buffet brunch.
 

USA: Faleomavaega says tax extenders bill is not dead
Source: Office of Congressman Faleomavaega Press Release

Congressman Faleomavaega announced recently that although the Senate did not get the 60 votes it needs to overcome a Republican filibuster of the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010, or H.R. 4213, which includes an $18 million request for American Samoa in lieu of 30A tax benefits, he is still hopeful that an agreement will be reached.

“The $18 million request for American Samoa is only a small provision in a $112 billion bill. Democrats have found ways to cover the entire cost of this bill with the exception of the $35.5 billion it needs to extend unemployment benefits to the millions of Americans without jobs,” Faleomavaega said.

“Regrettably, on June 24, 2010, all Republicans in the Senate and one Democrat voted against moving the bill to the floor for consideration citing that they would not support any increase in the deficit, not even for the sake of the unemployed,” Faleomavaega said. “But Republicans had no problem increasing the deficit for unfunded Bush tax cuts aimed at helping the wealthy.”

“When one considers that President Obama inherited about a $1.4 trillion deficit from the Bush Administration, we can clearly see that the Republican filibuster of H.R. 4213 is not about the deficit. It’s about politics, as usual. As has been reported, unless the Republicans change their course of action, a million people every five weeks will lose unemployment benefits, and this is not right.”

“Eventually, I believe our country will pull together and get a tax extenders bill done and extend unemployment benefits for the millions of Americans who need help and need help now. This may mean that Congress will re-bundle tax extenders or unemployment benefits in different packages but, whatever the case, I will continue to do everything I can to make sure American Samoa’s $18 million request for economic development moves forward since it is necessary for our recovery efforts in the aftermath of a devastating tsunami and the closure of one our main employers that has outsourced some 2,000 of our jobs to low-wage countries like Thailand,” Faleomavaega concluded.
 

(Photo: Vanuatu Daily Post)

VANUATU: Without culture we have no roots: President Abbil
Source: Vanuatu Daily Post

Head of State President Iolu Abbil has said he was most impressed with the collection of ancients artifacts that were collected before Independence and well preserved by a well known radio personality and arts collector Paul Gardissat, who was then a school teacher, serving in the northern and central islands of the then New Hebrides and today Vanuatu.

The President made the comments during his visit last Friday to the European Union premises where the ancient artifacts are currently being on display.

The vast collections of artifacts come from the Banks and Torres, to the Small Nambas tribes of Malekula and to Tanna in the Southern Vanuatu.

One particular piece of artifact from Malekula, a rare wooden spear is said to be 200 years old.

“We can speak our languages well, but if we do not have our good valued cultural way of life kept alive and practiced, we will have not roots.

“Our good cultures that form the basis of our daily traditional way of life: cooking, hunting, fishing, gardening, traditional way of constructing houses, custom dances and weaving and much much more are the very basis of our customary existence. Without these good customary way of life, even our spoken languages will become like other countries where they speak a language but have no cultural basis of it,” President Abbil said.

Paul Gardissat explained to president Abbil that, some of the ancient artifacts have attracted masses of people and particularly celebrities such as movie actors.

“Young people may not appreciate nor value their own cultural way of life today, but when they get older and begin to search their own roots, that is the time when they realize how far and important these very cultural roots are to their identity as Vanuatu people,” said President Abbil.

EU Charge Affairs in Vanuatu, Nicolas Berlanga Martinez said: “We see this exhibition as part of the social and economic development of this nation and equally important -this is the engine of the heart of this nation the very roots of the people’s identity and for this reason we feel it is of great importance to us to be involved in the promotion of this exhibition.

The Head of State sums it up: “Our good customs and cultures are our very roots that motivate and mould people to become leaders in their families, their communities and our nation- it is the process of way of life without which we don’t have the real cultural identity”.

Photo Caption: President Abbil viewing some of the ancient artifacts accompanied by Arts Collector Gardissat and EU Charges Affairs Berlanga Martinez.
 

WORLDWIDE: Call for more global support to battle epidemic
Source: Secretariat of the Pacific Community / World Health Organization Joint Press Release

Health specialists have appealed for increased United Nations support in the battle against the epidemic in the Pacific of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, heart attacks and cancer.

A meeting at the Tanoa Hotel in Nadi last week backed a call on the UN to hold a global summit on NCDs, to include them in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to create a global fund for NCD prevention and control.

This ‘upstreaming’ (to product sources) on efforts to reduce salt, sugar and fat in imported food in the Pacific recognises that pressure is required on food industries at the global level.

Participants noted that campaigns to reduce NCDs did not receive as much support as those against HIV/AIDS.

The Pacific Non-communicable Disease Forum - which brought together 75 doctors, health workers, international organisations, NGOs and academics from 22 countries - also called on governments, the private sector, neighbouring countries and the international community to give due recognition to the prevention and control of these diseases, which can cause premature, painful and slow death.

The forum was organised by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) under the Pacific NCD 2-1-22 Programme (two organisations, one team and 22 Pacific Islands countries and territories) with financial support from the governments of Australia and New Zealand.

The meeting focused on building capacity in monitoring, evaluation and surveillance of NCD interventions, and provided an opportunity for network building, information sharing and collaboration within PICTs.

WHO estimates that 75 per cent of deaths in the Pacific are caused by NCDs. It has also identified high levels of associated risk factors such as obesity, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, poor nutrition and lack of physical activity.

The AUD 26million 2-1-22 programme provides grants to countries to help them reduce these risk factors through education, health promotion, and environmental and clinical interventions. The SPC and WHO administered programme is looking for results in countries from the many remedial campaigns now under way.

At regional and national levels, the meeting noted the increasing efforts to promote greater consumption of nutritious local fruits and vegetables, which are plentiful but often left to rot, in preference to less nutritious canned and packaged food.

Countries were encouraged to push through legislation addressing the risk factors, especially tobacco control, and to follow up with effective regulation.

Recognising that many of the causes of NCDs lie outside of the health sector, participants shared their experience of initiatives to include other sectors in activities addressing these diseases.

At the meeting, countries were also given assistance on the important task of monitoring and evaluating the progress of these campaigns, and adjusting them where necessary.

Given that reducing the prevalence of these diseases is a long-term project, indications of how countries are faring are expected to start showing up over the next three years in national WHO-administered NCD STEPS surveys, which provide scientific, updated, national and comparable data and are conducted in countries at least every seven years at different times.