NEWSPAGE 17 June
2011

(Photo: Angie Enoka)

NEW ZEALAND: Valued elders key to strong Pacific families

SAMOA: Two young Samoans to be part of Youth Peace-building Training Programme
Source: Pacific Nkabom Youth Steering Committee Press Release

Lusia Sului and Fotu Sinapoti from Samoa have been selected as two of the twenty youth delegates for the 2011 Wansolwara Youth Peace-building Training Programme.

Lusia is currently on Scholarship at the University of the South Pacific pursuing an Arts/Laws degree and Fotu works for the Autalavou mo Taeao (AMT) a non-profit organisation helping the youth and other minority groups.

This month from June 20 - 23 twenty young people aged between 18 and 25 from around the Pacific region will gather in Auckland, New Zealand for an interactive four day programme focussing on regional solidarity, peace building and conflict resolution. New Zealand, a foundation member of the Commonwealth of Nations, will be an ideal setting for an initiative that propagates the potential of young people to be agents of peace-builders and developmental change. It ranks at number one on both the Global Transparency Index (perception of corruption), the Global Peace Index and number five on the International Democracy Index (the only Pacific country in the top five).

Lusia Sului said: “As a Samoan participant in the peace-building training, I hope to work together with other Pacific Islanders to help solve the conflicts in our community by knowledge and idea sharing.”

Fotu Sinapoti said: “Young people should be seen as positive agents for peace-building.”

"The standard of applications received this year has been outstanding. The knowledge, experience and perspective that this group of participants bring to the programme will, I am sure, empower young people across the region to promote peace within their own communities,'' said Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) Pacific Centre Programme Manager Mr. Paul Peteru.

This peace-building initiative has been developed by young people who represented the region at the Nkabom Commonwealth Youth Leadership Programme in 2010 in Rwanda, Africa. The Nkabom Commonwealth Youth Leadership Programme is one of the Royal Commonwealth Society’s flagship youth projects. Nkabom (pronounced ink-a-bom) means ‘coming together’ in parts of Ghana, and develops a youth-led network of young leaders who pioneer peace building initiatives in their communities, countries and beyond.

The conference is supported and funded by the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

* Note that ‘Wansolwara’ is a pidgin word meaning ‘one ocean-one people’.
 

(Photo: Colin Murty / The Australian)

AUSTRALIA: Nauru not a solution even if it signs up: Julia Gillard
Source: The Australian

Julia Gillard has welcomed Nauru's intention to sign the UN refugee convention, but the Prime Minister said she would not send asylum-seekers to the Pacific nation because it did not fit into Labor's regional plan to break the people-smuggler business model.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen yesterday attacked Coalition claims that Nauru was a more humane alternative to the government's proposed refugee swap with Malaysia, and disputed suggestions the Howard government's Pacific Solution was endorsed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Ms Gillard said the flaw in the Pacific Solution was that it failed to stop asylum-seekers being resettled in Australia, while her proposal would see them "end up in Malaysia".

Mr Bowen, using a report compiled by former Howard government immigration minister Amanda Vanstone, argued asylum-seekers detained in Nauru suffered severe psychological problems and an increased risk of self-harm.

"They did not break the people-smugglers' business model. They broke the people," he told parliament.

Mr Bowen also quoted the UNHCR on the day the Nauru facility was closed, saying it had distanced itself from the Howard government policy.

In a further blow to the Coalition, Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie said he would not support reopening Nauru, even if its government moved to sign the UN convention on refugees.

Tony Abbott, who completed a 36-hour visit to Nauru with his immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, over the long weekend, said Nauru's signing of the UN convention was "imminent".

But a spokesman for the UNHCR told The Australian it had not been approached by Nauru about its intention to ratify the 1951 convention.

Ms Gillard yesterday welcomed the announcement by Nauru President Marcus Stephen that his country was not prevented from ratifying the UN refugee convention.

"If Nauru does want to get involved with the refugee convention that's a good thing," she told parliament.

"But even if they do take such formal steps, that is not a substitute... for the regional approach we are taking to combating the scourge of people-smuggling."

Labor had dismissed Nauru in part because the tiny island nation was outside the convention. But it has pursued a Malaysian deal even though it is not a signatory.

There will be unprecedented security today for the court appearances of 18 detainees charged over riots at the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre in March.

Officials fear resistance from the largest group of detainees to face the island's tiny courthouse.

Other detainees due to appear in the local court this morning include two men charged with escaping during the riots and three men charged with the sexual assault of a fellow male detainee.

Members of Serco's special response team, Melbourne-based guards trained in how to move reluctant detainees, flew to Christmas Island yesterday to escort the men to court this morning.

On the other side of the island, children slated for deportation have been moved out of a high-security compound previously reserved for single men and into a family camp.

Yesterday, teenagers were taken by guards for a swim inside the Christmas Island Recreation Centre. They splashed around with inflatable tubes and one boy left the pool with a frangipani tucked behind his ear.

Photo Caption: Teenage asylum-seekers are escorted by guards back to their camp after a swim at the Christmas Island Recreation Centre yesterday.
 

KIRIBATI: Talagi backs PNG for a better treaty
Source: Islands Business

Niue is backing Papua New Guinea in ending a 25-year relations with the United States, after it abrogated the South Pacific Tuna Treaty, signed in 1987.

Making the statement a day after being re-elected Niue’s Premier, Toke Talagi said his country was on the same wavelength as PNG, which announced it did not want to continue under the present circumstances.

The treaty allows US fishing boats limitless access to the Pacific’s tuna stocks.

“We formally give notice to withdraw from the multilateral treaty on fisheries with the U.S.,” acting PNG Prime Minister Sam Abal was quoted as saying in April in the local daily newspaper Post Courier under a banner headline screaming “USA Ejected.”

The decision effectively ended two years of fruitless negotiations to renew the treaty. “We’ve been begging them for years to update it, but they haven’t been listening at all,” said Sylvester Pokajam, a senior fisheries official in PNG, who is also the chairman of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA), an association of eight Pacific islands nations in whose waters most of the region’s tuna is caught. “Now the treaty is dead in the water,” he said.

The treaty had been in its third set of renegotiations since it was first signed and was due to expire in mid-2013 if no agreement could be reached between the United States and the other countries. Under its provisions, it ceases to exist a year after any one of four key members (U.S., PNG, FSM or Kiribati) withdraws.

The other treaty members are the Cook Islands, the FSM, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Samoa. New Zealand and Australia are also members but do not receive development aid.

The U.S. treaty is unique in the region in that it directly links development aid to access to fishing grounds, though such arrangements are common between European and African states.

The aid totals US$18 million a year and is shared by 13 countries. For some, which receive little money from fishing licences because their waters attract few tuna, the aid is significant; for others, like PNG or Kiribati or FSM, much less.

In addition, the treaty provides for the U.S. taxpayer to subsidise, to the tune of $6 million a year, most of the vessels’ licence fees, while the vessels contribute about US$5 million.

It caps the number of U.S. vessels at 40, but does not limit how many days each vessel can fish. It also provides a framework for such cooperative ventures as overflights by U.S. Coast Guard planes searching for poachers and other law-enforcement activities.

Talagi said the Pacific would need to ensure that whatever replacement they find should be better than what they are presently getting.

“This will be a key factor to see what our abilities are at leveraging this massive resource and earn more from it.

“The sea is our fish farm and so far, our returns from it has not been as good as they can be.
“I hope both New Zealand and Australia will support this and help us to better manage our returns from it.”

Talagi said the Pacific was getting closer to a solution to this than they had in the past and that all members of the Forum Fisheries Agency were of the same mind.

“We just need to agree on how to coordinate our efforts so we can all benefit from a new approach better than our current returns,” he said.

“We should be developing partnerships in all stages in the process of catching, processing and selling.”

Talagi managed to gather enough support during the elections this year to retain his seat in parliament.

Talagi was delighted with the outcome of the elections as well as the premiership.

“It is heartening to know that people have shown their support for the policies my government has been advocating and promoting over the past three years,” he said.

“My re-election means that I can continue with our stated policies of continuing to manage our finances and maintaining financial stability, promoting economic growth with tourism as the main driver and encouraging private sector investment. This will assist us generate more revenues through NCT which will give us more resources to help people and the community.”

While he admitted he was not confident in retaining the premiership, he said politics was a funny beast, ‘but my own campaigning showed that people understood what I was trying to do and supported that”.

On major economic policies, he said his government had been working with New Zealand to start a major tourism development, particularly more accommodation, securing airline services, more targeted promotions and marketing, and more resources to help business grow more, and more services and tours.

“We will also sharpen budget costs and expenditures and seek to reduce costs and wastage and increase revenues from government trading operations such as the bond store, and so on,” he said.

His rival Coe said the outcome of the election and the premier’s position could have been better had their leader campaigned to gather more members from the other side.

He said this would be his final term and he wanted to be remembered as an honest and vocal member of the assembly, working for transparency and good governance.
 

(Photo: National Pacific Islander Educator Network)

USA: CAMS Graduates of 2011
Source: National Pacific Islander Educator Network Programme Press Release

Elizabeth To'omalatai and Andrew Thompson graduated from the California Academy of Math and Science (CAMS) On June 10, 2011.

CAMS is located on the California State University, Dominguez Hills campus in Carson, CA, and affords students the opportunity to take college classes, along with a rigorous math and science curriculum.

Elizabeth and Andrew were the two graduates of Pacific Islander ancestry of over 140 total graduates. The Class of 2011 earned over 12 million dollars in scholarships, and 100% will be attending a college or university, including some of the most prestigious universities in the country.

CAMS has consistently been ranked as one of the top 20 high schools in America, and was featured this year on CBS News. Congratulations to all of the graduates, Dr. Janice Filer, principal, and the faculty and staff.

Photo Caption: (L-R) CAMS graduates Andrew Thompson and Elizabeth To'omalatai.

(Photo: Vanuatu Daily Post)

VANUATU: Women’s basketball squad names released for PG2011
Source: Vanuatu Daily Post

Basketball is one of the main sport disciplines to be representing Vanuatu in the coming Pacific Games (PG2011).

Mildred Izono is the National Basketball Coach and Betty Bonglan is Team Manager. Coach Mildred gave Daily Sports the final list of squad names.

While a captain and vice-captain are yet to be announced, it is now serious concentration on training for the girls before departure date.

Names released were: 1. Susie Waroka, 2. Rutha Louis, 3. Nancy Patterson, 4.Kelsie Java, 5. Miriam Simbolo, 6.Mary Aaron, 7.Vanessa Willie, 8.Roslyn Willie, 9. Lola Izono, 10.Florida Lango, 11.May Lango, 12.Chinchoo Tamata. Non-travelling reserves of the squad are Irene William, Alice Aisav and Betsy Willie who will travel to the Games in the event that there has been serious injury, or illness, to a team member.

Said Vanuatu’s trainer, “As coach I see them as a developing squad. I have confidence in them … confidence they will gain further experience, especially for the younger girls, in the Pacific Games. It would be the right event since the girls can participate, and are not frightened to show off their wide range of strengths and skills when they are playing against participating countries. They are high potential girls who can represent the country also for other grand tournaments. It will be a great challenge as well for them towards the forthcoming Australian Youth Basketball competition, scheduled for Canberra in 2012.

“In the meantime, already confirmed are four candidates for next year’s event - Lola Izono, Florida Lango, May Lango and Roslyn Willie, while others are yet to be selected”.

Mildred told Daily Sports that strong guards in the team are Lola Izono, Vanessa Willie and Kelsie Java. The teams’ 3 point shooters are Lola and Vanessa.

Squad training days are Monday and Thursdays at the Stade courts, with Wednesdays at the Ex-FOL indoor gym from 5.30pm to 7.00pm.

It is understood that Men’s Basketball team will no longer participate in the PG2011. Due to funding difficulties VASANOC have duly taken the decision that only one, either male or female of gender sports who are qualified, to partake in the Games. Respectively, Vanuatu Basketball Federation have officially responded to VASANOC that the women’s national squad represent the discipline in the PG2011.

Photo Caption: Vanuatu’s National Basketball Coach, Mildred Izono.