NEWSPAGE 17 September
2010

(Photo: BEST Pacific Institute of Education)

(Photos: Lani Wendt Young)

SAMOA: Galu Afi - author's perspective
Source: Samoa Coconut Queen Blog

On September 29th, 2009 a tsunami struck the islands of Samoa, American Samoa and the Tongan island of Niuatoputapu. A book entitled 'Galu Afi - Wave of Fire' is being written about the 'deadliest tsunami' in the Pacific Region by Lani Wendt Young.

Lani shares her thoughts about her book;

I was invited to speak about the upcoming book at the annual Robert Louis Stevenon Memorial Gala held at the RLS Museum at Vailima. It was a great opportunity to promote the book and its stories. Thank you Tilafaiga Rex Maughn and the RLS Museum Foundation.

It is no surprise that Robert Louis Stevenson chose to make Samoa his home as the Samoan people are a poetic and lyrical people and great storytellers themselves. Speak with the survivors of the 2009 tsunami and they will tell you...

What a tsunami looks like. “It was a beast that leapt up out of the sea and ran towards us. It was a demon, a hungry animal. It was the colour of night and its foam crest was black smoke. It moved like fire across the land. I looked and all I saw was death coming.” What a tsunami sounds like. “It roared like a hundred bulldozers with gears stuck and grinding in first gear. It was a swarm of jet planes taking off. It was the sound of war and guns. It growled as it smashed houses and threw cars.” Why a tsunami is called ‘galu afi, wave of fire?’ "The water was hot. It brought many dead fish. The water burned inside my chest. It made me sick. My skin was scraped off from being dragged in the wave, like I was burned. It killed all the trees and the grass. The path of the wave in our village is all dry and dead. Now I know what the elders meant when they warned me about galu afi. No wave brings a fire except for this one.”
A week after the tsunami, Mr Joe Keil approached me. He said someone needs to gather the stories of the tsunami, to record them - while they were still very raw, fresh. Before they were purposely forgotten as people tried to move on, to rebuild their lives. Joe had a vision of a book, that would speak with the voices of those who had lived through the 2009 Pacific Tsunami and tell of those who had died, those who had worked to rescue, heal and rebuild. I was asked to take that vision and give it substance. And so it was decided. The book would be a narrative story weaving together many different people’s experiences. It would include survivor stories from American Samoa and Tonga. It would be a non-profit project - Joe would personally fund the research/writing costs and all proceeds from the books sale would be put into a tsunami aid fund. We set a date for the release of the book - one year after the tsunami. (and then i started freaking out...because I'd never actually written a book before AND because that didn't really give me very much time to get it done!)

In October 2009, I started gathering people’s stories. Lying in hospitals, camped in tents, gathered in rough shelters in the mountain bush or sitting beside the new graves of their loved ones - survivors everywhere paused in their recovery and rebuilding to share their stories. I travelled to American Samoa several times to interview survivors there as well. All the interviews were audio recorded and then transcribed and translated to English. Initially, I had worried how people would react when asked to share their stories. In particular, those who had lost loved ones and homes. What if they got angry at my visit? What if they found my questions offensive and intrusive? What if they didn’t want to talk about the tsunami because it was too painful? Yet, time and again, I found that people were more than willing to talk. Many were grateful for the opportunity to share their experiences. For some, the interviews were therapeutic. People would talk for an hour or more. I was humbled by the reception I received. Everywhere, survivors welcomed us into their homes and shelters with gracious hospitality and offered us the finest of whatever they had. (I have had biscuits in saleaumua, niu in satitoa, hot baked umu kalo in lalomanu, pineapple in saleapaga, pisupo in vaovai, tuna and rice in poutasi - to name a few) People relived the nightmares of that day in September with strength and courage and in this book, they have entrusted us with their sorrows.

There were many visitors and tourists from overseas that had been caught in the tsunami. It was a challenge to track them down but I was able to do so with the assistance of the Aust and NZ High Commission offices here. A common theme in their stories was gratitude for the way Samoans had taken care of them after the tsunami, when many were left with nothing, not even the clothes on their backs. Its impossible to listen to their accounts and NOT be impressed by the many examples of caring and compassion shown during that difficult time. Nynette Sasse of the Samoa Hotel Association went out to the disaster zone right after the tsunami. She saw tourists wearing colourful mu’umu’us and Sunday best puletasi and Shirts. “These people had climbed up out of the tsunami completely naked. As soon as the villagers saw them, they ran up with their best clothes to dress them. I was so humbled to see how our people took care of the visitors. I was so proud at that moment to be a Samoan!” I know how Nynette feels. As I have listened to the survivor stories of our friends from overseas - I have gained a greater appreciation for the generosity and hospitality of our culture. I was surprised to find that most visitors who lived through 29/09 - actually wanted to return to Samoa. I thought they would have been put off forever. In the words of a 12 yr old boy from Auckland, NZ, Max Wilson -
“Samoans were the kindest people I have ever met. On that day they looked after us before they looked after their own families. They lost everything and most had lost family and friends. We are collecting money to help them rebuild their lives. We are returning back to Litia Sini once it’s rebuilt. We want to go back for opening night.”

There were so many people who dedicated incredible amounts of time and effort to see Samoa through this disaster - both local and those from other nations - and some of their stories are also included in the book. I am in awe of those who worked under very difficult conditions putting their own lives at risk, to help others. The FESA worker, part of the first team out to Aleipata, who worked through debris and muddy water to search for the living and the dead - all the while not knowing if her own six children on the island of Manono were alive or dead. The DMO and Disaster Response people who headed down the hill and towards the sea while most of us were evacuating, running away from the ocean. The book pays tribute to them all. One survivor wrote - “We want to say how fantastic the Samoan fire service was, and the medical teams. They were there so quickly. Anyone who ever says that there was not enough fast action after the tsunami - they’re wrong. It was unbelievably good, especially for a country like Samoa where you wouldn’t think they would be that well organized. If we had that sort of reaction time in New Zealand, you’d be thrilled. It was sensational. I take my hat off to whoever helps organize Civil Defence in Samoa. ”Graham Ansell, New Zealand. The book also tells of the amazing relief work carried out by many nations and international organizations.

It is now a year later. It has been a long, challenging journey - but thanks to the help and support of many - the project is now complete. The printing of the book was made possible by the generous support of the Australian government AID Program who have paid for the first print run of 5000 books. The book will be launched here on the 27th of Sept. Further launches will take place in AmSamoa, NZ, Australia and the US. I want to emphasize that this book is NOT a comprehensive, all-knowing account of the tsunami as the stories are only a fragment of people’s experiences. There is so much we can learn from this disaster and I call on families and communities here, and in AmSamoa and Tonga to continue to seek out the stories of the tsunami.
The stories in the ‘Galu Afi’ book are heavy with loss, sadness and suffering. But they are also stories filled with courage, hope, compassion and strength. It was a privilege to record them, to write them, and to share them in the upcoming book. I hope others will find them as inspiring and uplifting as I have.

Photo Captions:

Photo 1 - Children at Saleapaga with donated Christmas toys.

Photo 2 - Children at Lalomanu with their water purifier bottles.

(Photo: American Samoa Department of Agriculture)

AMERICAN SAMOA: Department of Agriculture and Land Grant complete pest survey
Source: American Samoa Community College Press Release

The American Samoa Department of Agriculture and the ASCC Land Grant Program completed a six-month survey to learn if we have a serious plant pest called the light brown apple moth. Fortunately none of these moths were found.

The light brown apple moth, or LBAM, is native to Australia. It has spread to many parts of the world, including New Zealand, Hawaii, New Caledonia, and Europe. In 2007 it invaded California, threatening that state’s multi-million dollar fruit and vegetable production. After its appearance there, the United States Department of Agriculture, state and territorial departments of agriculture and Land Grant colleges launched a nationwide survey to determine where else the moth might be found in the U.S. and its territories. The survey was conducted as part of the USDA-funded Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey program.

The LBAM is not easy to find, because it is small, well-camouflaged, and looks like a lot of other moths. Its immature stage, a caterpillar, looks a lot like many other species of small green caterpillars. In order to better detect LBAMs, the survey team used special traps baited with a sex pheromone. The sex pheromone is an odor made by the female LBAM. It attracts only male LBAM. Male moths can detect the odor in the air and follow it to the female from long distances. Male moths attracted to the pheromone placed in the trap end up getting stuck to glue in the trap.

The Department of Agriculture - Land Grant team placed traps at 30 locations throughout Tutuila Island and checked them weekly for six months. They caught a few moths in the traps, but none were LBAMs. This was good, but American Samoa is still at risk from invasions of this and other exotic agricultural pests. These pests can enter American Samoa as accidental hitchhikers on plant materials and fruits and vegetables imported into the territory or carried by travelers. If these invaders are detected soon enough, it might be possible to eradicate them before they spread and become established.

The Director of Agriculture, Lefiti Atiulagi Falelauli’i Pese, and the Director of ASCC Land Grant, Tapa’au Dr. Daniel Mageo Aga, expressed their gratitude to all the families and businesses who assisted in the survey by allowing the traps to be placed on their lands. Both directors also ask the public to help keep an eye out for any possibly new exotic pests of trees and crops. Anyone with questions about pest surveys or who would like to report any unusual pest occurrences may call the Department of Agriculture at 699-1327 or ASCC Land Grant at 699-1575.

Photo Caption: Department of Agriculture Quarantine Officer Talavou Ale checking a light brown
apple moth pheromone trap at Tula. The traps were placed at 30 locations on Tutuila as part of a joint ASDoA-Land Grant-USDA project to check for the presence of this serious agricultural pest in the territory. Fortunately no light brown apple moths were found.
 

(Photo: Fiji Times)

FIJI: Melanesian fete
Source: Fiji Times

Artists and craftsmen from Fiji will tour municipalities in New Caledonia as part of the 4th Melanesian Arts Festival.

More than 800 artists and craftsmen from Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Solomon and Papua New Guinea are at the festival which started on September 12 and will end on September 24.

The festival promotes the Melanesian culture and identity. The theme announced by the Government of New Caledonia is 'Our identity lies ahead of us'.

The festival-goers will propose both traditional and contemporary creations, in varied domains such as dance, music, sculpture, painting, crafts and theatre, among other things.

A large performance combining music and dance marked the launch of the festivities at the KonÚ Cultural Centre yesterday.

Between September 16-23, the artists will cross New Caledonia aboard four canoes.

They will stopover at nine municipalities situated in the North Province, the South Province and the Island Province of New Caledonia.

On each site, shows will be continuously performed during the day, to coincide with exhibitions, demonstrations of traditional know-how and numerous commercial stands where the public can take a snatch and buy souvenirs.

All the artists will meet finally in Noumea for the closing of the Festival on September 24.

The morning program will match the celebrations of the Day of the Citizenship in the town centre.

The evening will be dedicated to a big free concert of Melanesian music at the cultural centre Tjibaou, featuring Black Rose, Sharzy, Naio, Dick and Hnatr.

Photo Caption: A cultural dance group puts on a performance during the launching of festivities at the 14th Melanesian Arts Festival that is being held in New Caledonia.
 

(Photo: Lawrence Jackson)

KIRIBATI: As Kiribati makes a big sacrifice, will the rest of the world follow suit?
Source: Mongabay

Kiribati, a small nation consisting of 33 Pacific island atolls, is forecast to be among the first countries swamped by rising sea levels. Nevertheless, the country recently made an astounding commitment: it closed over 150,000 square miles of its territory to fishing, an activity that accounts for nearly half the government's tax revenue. What moved the tiny country to take this monumental action? President Anote Tong, says Kiribati ("Kir-ee-bas") is sending a message to the world: "We need to make sacrifices to provide a future for our children and grandchildren."

President Tong isn't mincing his words. Kiribati looks to make the ultimate sacrifice by mid-century, when much of the country is projected to be largely uninhabitable. Rising seas will contaminate freshwater supplies, ruin agriculture lands, and erode beaches and villages, forcing its people to flee. Kiribati has done nothing to earn this fate—its greenhouse gas emissions are negligible and its population barely tops 100,000. Yet it is already looking at buying land in other countries for eventual resettlement of a substantial proportion of its population.

Kiribati is among the world's poorest countries. It has few natural resources other than fish and copra, the dried meat of coconut. It does however have of some of the world's most pristine coral reefs and healthiest fish stocks, which have now become the basis of its contribution to the well-being of the planet: the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), which at 408,250 square kilometres is the largest marine World Heritage site.

PIPA is part of President Tong's bigger, more ambitious initiative, the Pacific Oceanscape—38.5 million square kilometres (24 million square miles) of ocean, an area larger than the land territories of the United States, Canada and Mexico combined. Over the past two years, President Tong has brought together 16 Pacific Ocean nations to develop the initiative, which seeks to maintain ocean health by improving management of fisheries, protecting and conserving biodiversity, furthering scientific understanding of the marine ecosystem, and reducing the negative impacts of human activities.

President Tong's efforts in the face of incredible adversity has earned him considerable respect in the conservation world. Dr. Greg Stone, Chief Ocean Scientist and Senior Vice President for Marine Conservation at Conservation International, likens him to the "Teddy Roosevelt of Oceans," in that President Tong is doing for oceans what the 26th president did for land conservation in the United States around the turn of the 20th century.

"What we are seeing here is the dawning of a new era for marine management," he said.

President Tong brought his message to San Francisco last week for the California and the World Ocean 2010 conference. Presenting along side U.S. Representative Sam Farr (D - CA), NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, philanthropist David Rockefeller Jr., oceanographer Sylvia Earle, and hundreds of marine scientists and conservationists, President Tong urged the world to take action to protect oceans and avoid climate change.

"There is obviously a need to consolidate all of the efforts in ocean governance in the Pacific and indeed in the world if we are to successfully manage and conserve these resources for present and future generations," he said.

Photo Caption: President Anote Tong; "We need to make sacrifices to provide a future for our children and grandchildren."
 

(Photos: Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme)

WORLDWIDE: 21st PREP meeting: high level segment news
Source: Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme Press Release

News Brief: Environment Ministers meeting in Madang, Papua New Guinea

The 21st Annual Meeting (21SM) of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme convened in Madang, Papua New Guinea, 6-10 September, has concluded with the adoption of a new 5-year Strategic Plan for environment and conservation in the Pacific islands region and renewed commitment by country delegations to conservation of biodiversity.

The 21SM was held in two parts, with a 3-day officials meeting followed by a high-level segment. The high-level segment was attended by Ministers from Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, and Vanuatu; and Heads of Delegation from American Samoa, Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, France, French Polynesia, New Zealand, Niue, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and the United States of America.


Pacific Biodiversity: An important topic for Environment Ministers

Ministers and Heads of Delegation attending the 21SM renewed their commitment to biodiversity conservation and affirmed that biological diversity is the foundation of the well-being of our communities and cultures.

The Meeting expressed concern over the increasing challenge of reducing biodiversity loss and declared the need for all to work together to use biodiversity wisely and maintain the health of natural ecosystems.

The link between climate change and biodiversity was also raised at this meeting. Delegates noted that the loss of biodiversity is compounded by the overwhelming threat of climate change and affirmed that responses to climate change must be linked to efforts to conserve and manage the region’s species and ecosystems. Maintaining a strong and healthy environment will ensure better resilience of the region to the impacts of climate change.

Efforts of SPREP Member countries and territories to strengthen and conserve important biodiversity sites were highly praised, in particular those that were successful with inscribing World Natural Heritage Sites.

Of particular mention were the world’s largest marine protected area, Kiribati’s Phoenix Islands Protected Area; New Caledonia’s lagoons and coral reefs; and the USA’s Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaii, all of which have been inscribed as World Natural Heritage Sites in the past two years.

This meeting of Pacific environment leaders encouraged all Pacific island countries and territories to take similar action as those with World Heritage Sites, to conserve and manage important terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

The Meeting also welcomed the collaborative effort of the Micronesia Challenge which brings together the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Marshall Islands, Northern Mariana Islands and Palau in a combined effort to conserve 30% of their nearshore marine resources and 20% of their terrestrial resources by 2020.

The next important step for the Pacific region is attendance at the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP10) in Nagoya, Japan. The meeting of Ministers and heads of delegation noted the importance of a ‘One Pacific Voice’ at this international meeting, to ensure that decisions made will take into account the needs of the Small Islands Developing States.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme will be providing support and assistance to member countries at the CBD COP10.


Five year road map for SPREP endorsed by Pacific Environment Ministers

“The Pacific environment, sustaining our livelihood and natural heritage in harmony with our cultures” is the vision for the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) under its new 2011 - 2015 Strategic plan, which was endorsed at the 21SM.

Environment Ministers and Heads of delegations of the SPREP Member countries met over a two day period to secure the future path of the region’s intergovernmental environment organisation.

The 2011 - 2015 Strategic Plan came about after extensive surveys and consultation with SPREP member countries and staff. The draft strategy formed from the consultation was further made available for public input which has culminated in the adopted strategic plan.

The guiding document will help SPREP address regional environmental priorities which have been identified as climate change, biodiversity and ecosystem management, waste management and pollution prevention and environmental monitoring and governance.


To read the full “Communiqué of the High Level Segment of the 21st SPREP Meeting” please visit: http://www.sprep.org/article/news_detail.asp?id=822
 

Photo Captions:

Photo 1 - Minister of Environment for Papua New Guinea, Hon. Benny Allen.

Photo 2 - Opening ceremony at the High Level Ministerial Meeting.