NEWSPAGE 10 August
2011

(Photos: Consortium / Chris Cozzone)

(Photo: Savali News)

SAMOA: Manu Samoa appeal raises over $800,000
Source: Savali News

The 12-hour Manu Samoa radio-thon and telethon in both Samoa and American Samoa on Friday raised over WST$800,000.

According to the Samoa Rugby Union, over $700,000 was raised in Samoa while an estimated US$50,000 (WST$110,620) was collected in American Samoa.

“But that is just the first count, we’re still sorting out the pledges,” said SRU media officer Rulla Su’a.

A flurry of corporate lunches and corporate donations prior to the Friday event pulled in around US$1.5 million.

Funding from government, major sponsors and the International Board pulled in around $2 million.

But there is still some way to go to make up the shortfall to the ultimate goal of raising $6.5 million to send a fully prepared teal to New Zealand in four weeks.

The last fundraising event in Samoa, the SRU has revealed, is a corporate dinner scheduled for 27 August at Faleata Gym One. Tables of eight diners are going at $2000.

There is also a series of fundraising events by the Samoan community in New Zealand prior to Manu Samoa’s first-up game with Namibia on 10 September at Rotorua.

“But the committee in New Zealand will be organising those fundraising events,” said Ms Su’a.

A detailed account of how much funds have been collected so far would be realized by the end of the week, said SRU.

(Photos: J. Kneubuhl)

AMERICAN SAMOA: ASCC bids farewell to librarian Dr. Steven Lin
Source: American Samoa Community College Press Release

At a lunchtime ceremony this past Friday, members of the American Samoa Community College (ASCC) administration and staff gathered to bid farewell to Dr. Steven Y. Lin, who for the past 14 years has served as the College’s Head Librarian. Dr. Lin will be heading first to Texas and then to his homeland of Taiwan to assist with the care of his elderly parents. He leaves behind a long record of distinguished service to ASCC, and his stewardship of the College’s Library Services played a crucial role in the institution’s advancements in recent years.

Born in Fuikien in the southeastern province of China, Dr. Lin grew up in central Taiwan. His parents, having read the New Testament of the Christian Bible, gave him the name Steven. His educational background includes a BA in English from the Taiwan National University, an MS in Educational Technology from Texas A&M University, and a MLS and PhD in Library Science from Texas Woman University. He is married to Rachel Chen Lin and they have two grown children now living in Texas.

While living in Texas, Dr. Lin worked as a law librarian at the Dallas County Community College, and then as a children’s librarian, reference librarian, and assistant branch library manager at the Dallas Public Library. In the mid-1990s, he heard of the vacant position of Library Director at ASCC through a notice in the Chronicle of Higher Education. “When I first visited American Samoa to apply for the position, it actually reminded me a lot Taiwan, which also has a tropical climate,” Dr. Lin recalled, “and this was one of the reasons I accepted the job.”

During the years of his management, Dr. Lin saw the ASCC Library make the transformation from the air conditioning-less building now occupied (with air conditioning) by the American Samoa Bachelors in Education Program to the state-of-the-art facility in the front of the campus which opened in 2003. Asked what he considers his most significant accomplishments at ASC, Dr. Lin said he feels proudest of upgrading the Library’s reference materials and setting up the Educational Resources Center to meet the requirements of the four-year teacher education program provisionally approved recently by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Although he had settled comfortably into island life, a change in the circumstances of his parents back in Taiwan prompted Dr. Lin to make his most recent transition which will see him return home. “My parents need looking after,” said Dr. Lin, who is himself 68 years old, “and among my siblings I’m the one in the best position to take semi-retirement and focus on their care.” Between leaving American Samoa and settling in Taiwan, Dr. Lin plans to visit his wife and family in Texas. “I look forward to taking my enjoyment of tennis, which I developed here, with me back to both Texas and Taiwan,” he said.

At his farewell ceremony, Dr. Lin celebrated with members of his library staff and many of his longtime colleagues in the ASCC administration, including ASCC President Dr. Seth Galea’i. “We will always consider you part of the ASCC family,” said Dr. Galea’i in tribute, “and we hope you will come and visit us to see how we continue to grow thanks to many changes you helped us make.” For his part, Dr. Lin said he will look back on his time in American Samoa with great satisfaction. “I am grateful to the College for hiring me,” he reflected, “and the days I spent here will certainly be one of my best memories for the rest of my life.”

Photo Captions:

Photo 1 - At a luncheon to celebrate his 14 years of outstanding service to ASCC, Dr. Steven Lin receives a plaque from Dean of Academic Affairs Dr. Irene Helsham. Dr. Steven Lin, formerly the Head Librarian at the College, will depart American Samoa this week to return first to his family in Texas, and then to his homeland of Taiwan to assist in the care of his elderly parents.

Photo 2 - Dr. Steven Lin (front, center) receives a fond farewell from members of the ASCC administration and his former library staff.

(Photo: University of the South Pacific)

FIJI: Chemical Society promotes chemistry
Source: University of the South Pacific
 

The Chemical Society of the South Pacific (CSSP) is celebrating the International Year of Chemistry by organising several activities for secondary schools around Fiji.

The United Nations declared 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry with the theme ‘Chemistry - Our Life, Our Future’. This is done to commemorate the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to humankind.

On 25 June 2011, activities such as titration, chem-battle and poster designing competitions were organised throughout Fiji at four different centres; the USP chemistry labs at the Laucala Campus, Nadi Muslim College, Xavier College and Labasa College. A total of 71 schools and close to 500 students participated in the event.

These activities allowed chemistry students to apply their knowledge to solve chemistry related problems or to explain the importance of chemistry through posters.

According to Dr David Rohindra, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at USP, the number of students participating in these activities has increased over the years.

“Through these events, CSSP is able to promote chemistry among the general public and attract young people into this field as well as highlight the importance of chemistry in solving global and regional problems,” he added.

The titration competition also attracted lot of interest among students who had the opportunity to use latest equipments and glassware for their experiments, which is not widely available in many schools.

The National Coordinator for the competition, Ms Riteshma Devi, said that, “CSSP through these activities is able to bring the knowledge and use of modern equipment and glassware in chemistry to the doorsteps of the students for learning. This, she said, generates interest among students about the importance of chemistry in everyday life.

The competition was divided into two categories; senior (Form 6) and advanced (Form 7).

In the senior category, students were to determine the amount of acetyl salicylic acid in the pharmaceutical tablet, Asprin. While, in the advanced category students had to determine how much iron was present in steel-wool.

The Coordinator of the chem-battle and poster designing competitions, Ms Roselyn Lata highlighted that the competitions were a success.

“Students who were good academically showed their talents in answering questions while those who were good in art, used it to explain the importance of chemistry by designing excellent posters,” she said.

Top scorers from the preliminary rounds in all the activities will compete in the grand final on 15 October, 2011 at the USP Laucala Campus.

Meanwhile, the importance of studying chemistry as a career was further boosted when two teams from the University of the South Pacific visited 40 schools around Viti-Levu from 4th - 7th July. During the visit, the different programmes offered at USP in science were explained to the students and what combination of subjects could give them better opportunity for employability.

They also gave out experimental kits to work on a global water experiment where students determined the quality of drinking water. The results will be uploaded to the IUPAC website where the quality of drinking water from other countries can also be compared.

Photo Caption: Ms Siera Pasuna, a high school student competes in the advanced division of the Titration Competition.
 

NAURU: After its famous onshore mining history, Nauru now poised to go offshore
Source: Pacific Islands Trade & Invest
 

Tiny Nauru is on the verge of becoming a global leader in deep sea mineral exploration and development. The International Seabed Authority has awarded a contract to state sponsored company Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI) to explore for minerals outside of exclusive economic zones.

The exploration will take place explore in the Clarion Clipperton Zone, in the north-east Pacific. If significant quantities of mineral deposits are detected, Nauru’s Minister of Commerce Dominic Tabuna says, the next step would be to apply to the International Seabed Authority for an exploitation licence.

He says one of the advantages of being involved in the study phase is that Nauru will be in a key position to understand what environmental effects mining has on the seabed.

But if indeed deposits are found, it will be up to Nauru to raise funds from international investors, which the minister said it would be possible for the country to do so. NORI itself might also raising funds separately. There is plenty of time to get their act together, as the prospecting activity will be spread over five years.
 

(Photo: Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme)

WORLDWIDE: Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change review meeting underway
Source: Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme Press Release

A week long review meeting for the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC) is officially underway at the Le Lagon Conference Room in Port Vila, Vanuatu.

PACC is a 13 million dollar project that supports adaptation to climate change projects in three main areas - food security and production, coastal management and water resources management. The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) is an implementing partner with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

The second Multipartite Review Meeting brought in over 50 participants that include regional partners, stakeholders and the 13 member countries in the Pacific to review the PACC progress, discuss policy, technical and operational issues and recommendations for the decision of the MPR participants.

In his opening address, the Acting Director of SPREP, Mr. Kosi Latu, briefly highlighted the efforts of the PACC project at national and regional level since its inception in 2009.

“A number of lessons were learned during the year in particular the “one-to-one” mentoring approach of working with countries has enabled the PACC team at SPREP to take the national coordinators and their core teams through the “how to” develop their work plans,” said Mr Latu.

“The PACC unit at SPREP has also had the opportunity to better understand the difficulties that coordinators have in particular with financial processes at the national level and to find ways with the coordinators to address these issues.”

The UNDP Resident Representative Samoa, Ms Nileema Noble said, “This meeting is happening at a very important juncture and considerable investment has been made in the PACC Project.”

“The PACC Project is to now go beyond and catalyse changes in the lives in the Pacific, we’d like to see member countries reflect in their reports how PACC is actually building resilience in the region, and capturing the impact it is having on the Pacific people.”

Speaking on behalf of the host country, the Vanuatu Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Utilities, Director General Mr Morris Kaloran said the PACC is a massive initiative that comes with a diversity of administrative challenges, both at the regional and national levels.

“The PACC project provides us with such an opportunity with its two pronged approach that entails interventions on the ground and at the policy level to build solid resilience across the Pacific.”

Countries that are part of the PACC include Nauru, Niue, Marshall Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu who are focusing on addressing water resources management; Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands have national projects to help increase food security and food production with; Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia addressing coastal erosion management.