NEWSPAGE 01 September
2010

(Photos: Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Awards)

(Photos: eventpolynesia.com)

SAMOA: Tapulesatele Tamasone M. Metuli graduates from Otago University
Source: eventpolynesia.com

Friday 20th August 2010 was a happy day for the Esera Family in Samoa with the Graduation of Afioga Tapulesatele Tamasone MM II Esera at the Otago Univesitys Winter Graduation at Dunedin, New Zealand.

A Board Member of the Samoa Tourism Authority, Tapulesatele hails from the villages of Sataua, Vaimoso, Fogapoa, Lefaga, Solosolo, Leauva'a and Puapua.

The Graduation was held at Dunedin Town Hall and was attended by his family with wife Folole and son Vaitupu and niece Pe’u attending from their home in Whitby, Wellington.

A member of the EFKS Komiti Fa'amisionare, Tapulesatele was conferred a Masters of Indigenous Studies (with Credit) - ‘MIndS’ by Chancellor J.F. Ward of Otago University.

Photo Captions:

Photo 1 - Tapulesatele Tamasone MM II is conferred 'MIndS' from Otago University Chancellor J.F. Ward.

Photo 2 - Tapulesatele with family after the graduation ceremony.

AUSTRALIA: Towards a rights based approach for the achievement of MDGs
Source: United Nations Development Programme Press Release

Improving the attitudes and behaviour towards children, women, and persons with disability by working alongside them within their communities are some of the most effective ways of ensuring health and wellbeing in the Pacific Islands.

The prevalence of violence against women and children generated through unequal gender and power relations need to be urgently addressed in order ensure their health and security.

This was identified at a workshop held at the 63rd United Nations Department of Public Information/NGO Conference currently underway in Melbourne.

The workshop discussed the work of Pacific Island Non Government Organisations in the areas of health protection and promotion and highlighted examples of how community led initiatives need to address not only health issues, but factors like social, economic, cultural and political environments and gender inequality.

Presenting at the workshop were Pacific NGOs members of the Pacific Regional NGO Alliance (PRNGOs) which work both at the community level and advocate at a policy level for effective investment that address both the causes and consequences of ill health.
Disabled Women: Triple Discrimination

Margaret Eastgate who represented Pacific Disability Forum said that changing the mind sets of Pacific people towards and a disability inclusive approach was key to addressing disability issues.

“Pacific women who are disabled face triple discrimination - one because of their gender, the other discrimination because of their disability and thirdly because they are considered to be the poorest in the society,” said Ms Eastgate.

She said that many disabled women did not know their rights and did not have access to appropriate health services to meet their specific needs.

It is necessary to work with communities and organizations led and managed by people with disabilities, she said.


Working Through Children to Engage Communities

Chandra Shekhar, the Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children Fiji, emphasized that in order for mothers and children to access health services, health workers need to take their services into communities, if the health related Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) are to be achieved.

“A nation’s progress is dependant on the health of its people and promoting good health starts with children. Save the Children works with children, parents and communities to promote early education. This is also an entry point for us to promote access to safe water and good health practices.”

He said that hardship faced by marginalized communities led to children’s needs being compromised and cited that in many cases were not taken to hospital when they needed medical attention.

“Partnerships with the Ministry of Health have ensured medical clinics going into these communities and getting appropriate attention for children and the sick members of the communities.”


Advocating for a Rights Based Approach

Fiji Women Crisis Centre’s Edwina Kotoisuva emphasised that strong and consistent advocacy was needed to advance women’s rights and address unequal gender relations, if issues of violence against women and gender based violence were to be meaningfully addressed.

“Women are seen as the property of a man - whether it is her father or her husband - and this is used to as a reason for violence against women,” said Ms Kotoisuva.

Other attitudes that contributed to violence were that domestic violence was inappropriately viewed as a private matter or as “keeping women in their place.”

“Advocacy to change and mindsets against violence against women needs to be strong and consistent,” she said.

In summarizing the workshop, facilitator, Margaret Leniston Regional Health Programme Manager at the Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific International (FSPI) said a human rights based integrated community approach and investing in health promotion behavior change programmes in communities could positively contribute to the achievement of the MDGs.

“The most effective community based programmes are those which use integrated health and human rights based approaches and include collaboration, sharing of resources, capacity support, knowledge and skills between NGOs, governments, regional and UN agencies”.

The presenters at this workshop have been supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pacific Centre and AusAID.
 

(Photo: Barack Obama Presidential Library and Museum)

HAWAII: State pushes to host future Obama library
Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser

Hawaii has an early lead in pitching the islands as the future home of President Barack Obama's library, museum and think tank, but yet another Illinois-Hawaii smack-down is brewing over where it will actually end up.

The Hawaii Legislature has sent the White House a joint resolution that it passed last session urging Obama to pick Hawaii as the site for his library. Officials at the University of Hawaii are creating working groups in the next few weeks that will study a wide variety of issues, including finding a suitable site for the complex, designing it, deciding how to best manage the archives, designing museum exhibits and learning how best to create a related academic program and research center.

And on Sunday a Hawaii delegation led by Reed Dasenbrock, UH vice chancellor for academic affairs, will fly to Washington, D.C., to meet with the head of the presidential library division of the National Archives and to Little Rock, Ark., to meet with the director of the Clinton Presidential Center and the Clinton Foundation.

Any group can lobby the president to build his library in their community.

"But I feel the stars are aligned in a certain way that we are really going to fight to win this," said Robert Perkinson, a UH associate professor of American studies who has been pushing to get Obama's library in Hawaii and hopes the institution would be affiliated with UH. "I think we're going to do what it takes. And that means over the next months and years developing an architectural proposal that is breathtaking and a museum that's innovative and has a really robust public education component that could benefit all of the kids of Hawaii and a policy center that could really help us meet Hawaii's challenges and those of the larger Pacific and the larger world."

As usual, Obama supporters in Chicago have their own claims on Obama and want to see his library in the Windy City.

So they're not about to let Hawaii get Obama's presidential library without a fight.

Illinois state Sen. Terry Link, a golfing and poker buddy of the president's who served with him in the Illinois state Senate, plans to push for Obama's library to be built in Obama's Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park -- when the time is right.

It's premature to begin laying the groundwork now, Link said, because of the economic climate and because Link hopes Obama has six more years to serve in the White House before worrying about where to build his library.

"At the proper time, though," Link said, "I'd like to lead the charge."

"I know Hawaii wants to claim his birthright there," Link said. "But what led him to the presidency was the state of Illinois. He was elected from the state of Illinois. He was the senator from the state of Illinois. He got his political feet wet in Illinois."

Link cited several presidential libraries that were not built in the president's birthplace, so Obama's hometown of Honolulu does not have a clear advantage on that fact alone, Link said.

"We call Illinois the Land of Lincoln, and in generations to come it will be considered the Land of Obama," Link said.

Officials at the University of Chicago, where Obama taught at the law school, have been quoted as saying they want to be part of an Obama presidential library in Chicago.

But a spokesman for the University of Chicago told the Star-Advertiser that university officials have no comment.

Alice Dewey knows that the folks in Chicago want Obama's library as badly as the people in Obama's birthplace.

She is a UH anthropology professor emeritus, an Obama family friend and formerly the adviser to Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, when Dunham studied at UH.

"We can claim him (Obama) and they can claim him," Dewey said. "We may have stiff competition. But a lot of who he is was shaped here by the local culture."
 

(Photo: Jin Liangkuai / Xinhua / Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee)

NAURU: A boy from Nauru who won the world over
Source: TODAYonline

Letter from Luke Tan

I marvel at the efforts of a boy named Dj Maaki from the nation of Nauru, a Pacific nation slightly smaller than Pulau Tekong, with a population of under 15,000. That's less than the number of volunteers performing at the Youth Olympic Games closing ceremony.

This young boxer won a silver medal to do his country proud. Per capita, Nauru is the best performer at the Games.

On this basis, cheers to Singapore, who also did well given the size of our population. Congratulations to other larger nations which also did well per capita, such as Australia and Hungary. It has been an exhilarating journey.

Photo Caption: Dj Maaki (in red) in his men's 51kg semi-final match against Kandel Dowden of Grenada.
 

TONGA: World Bank assistance to Tonga - TOP$70 Million
Source: Government of Tonga Press Release via Scoop Independent News

Tonga will receive a total of TOP$70 million (US$37.3m) in assistance, managed by the World Bank Group over the next 4 years. This was announced at a joint media conference between the Prime Minister, Dr. the Hon Feleti Vaka’uta Sevele, and the World Bank Country Director for the Pacific Islands, Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste, Mr. Ferid Belhaj, in Nuku’alofa last week.

The Hon Prime Minister said that the programs to which the World Bank Group’s assistance is committed are the: Post - Tsunami Reconstruction in Niuatoputapu (US$5m); Tonga Budget Support (US$5m); Tonga Energy Road Map (US$8m); Tonga Cable Project (US$10). The Bank will also manage a Tonga Transport Sector (US$9.3m) grant funded by the Australian Government. These programs form part of the new Country Partnership Agreement between Tonga and the World Bank Group, and reflect a more focused and increased World Bank engagement with Tonga.

Previously Tonga was one of the countries included in the World Bank’s strategy for the Pacific Island Countries as set out in a single “Regional Engagement Framework” covering the period 2006-2009. The new Country Partnership Strategy for Tonga is “custom-tailored” to reflect Tonga’s specific economic and political circumstances and incorporates the support that can be provided from across the World Bank Group.

According to Mr. Ferid Belhaj, Tonga has been selected as one of the first Pacific Island country to implement a Country Partnership Strategy with the World Bank in recognition of the improvements in human development indicators and the good progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) targets. “On top of that the present Tonga Government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sevele, has shown a consistent commitment towards economic and political reform”, Mr. Belhaj said.

As well as the projects outlined, a further US$10m in budgetary support will be available to the incoming Government over the next 2 years on the understanding that economic and financial reforms are continued to be implemented next year and beyond.