(Photos: Oceania Football Confederation)

NEW ZEALAND: NZ go to the top of the group in OFC U-20 Championship in Tahiti
Source: Oceania Football Confederation Press Release

New Zealand have shot to the top of the group at the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) U-20 Championship in Tahiti today (December 13, 2008) after defeating Fiji 3-0 in sweltering hot conditions at Stade Paea.

New Zealand lead the four-team tournament – which decides Oceania’s representative at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt next year – ahead of New Caledonia and Tahiti who played out a 0-0 draw in a late kick-off.

Temperatures soared to 37 degrees before the 4pm kick-off but the New Zealanders remained cool to dispatch Fiji with second half goals to Costa Barbarouses, Adam McGeorge and Greg Draper.

Despite a goal-less first half, head coach Stu Jacobs said he was always confident the breakthrough would come.

“The signs were always there in the first half with Barbarouses hitting the post and Draper going one-on-one with the keeper, so there was always a good chance we could open them up in after halftime,” Jacobs said.

The breakthrough came in the 58th minute when Wellington Phoenix striker Costa Barbarouses latched on to a ball played over the defence and neatly lobbed the advancing keeper from 20 yards.

Adam McGeorge extended the lead six minutes later when he met Greg Draper’s cross with a classy first time volley, before Draper grabbed one himself three minutes from fulltime with a neat turn inside the penalty area and a top-corner finish.

Jacobs lauded an overall team performance made more pleasing given the limited build-up and extreme conditions.

“Our defensive display was outstanding. Our back four were solid and the defensive work of midfield pair Michael Eager and Adam McGeorge – with all the second phase possession they won for us – was immense considering that on Thursday we didn’t know what system we would be playing.

“All three goal scorers deserved their reward. Costa looked like the Costa of old, Draper always looked likely and Adam McGeorge – along with Tim Myers – was probably the player of the day.”

The second match of the afternoon told the story of two strong defences as Tahiti and New Caledonia both battled hard but were unable to unlock the respective backlines.

Tahitian goalkeepers Teheipuarii Hauata and New Caledonian stopper Nicolas Iwa both made a string of fine saves to keep their sides in the match and keep their championship hopes alive.

Jacobs see’s New Zealand’s next match against Tahiti on Monday (local time) as make or break.

“We saw Tahiti as the main threat going into this tournament,” Jacobs said.

“They’ve been together a long time as a group and have been playing in their national league this season. They’ll be very good technically and have the crowd on their side, but if we can step up again we have the quality to see off their challenge.”

OFC U-20 Championship Tahiti 2008 – Match One
Saturday 14 December 2008
Stade Paea, Papeete
Tahiti

New Zealand (0) 3 (7. Costa BARBAROUSES 58'; 8. Adam MCGEORGE 64'; 9. Greg DRAPER 87';)
Fiji (0) 0

FIJ: 1. Wasim ALI; 2.Peniame DROVA;3.Amani MAKOE;4.Josefata NEIBULI (15. Jese ILIMOTAMA 56’); 5. ROMUERO; 6. Esava NAQELECA; 11. Monit CHAND; 12. Archie WATKINS (18. Joseva BASUDRA 69’); 16. Ranjesh PRASAD; 17. Samuela DRUDRU (10. Nasoni MEREKE 77’) ; 19. Maciu TUILAU;

Substitues not used: 7. Sumeet KRISHAN; 8. Ratu Vula BONAVEIDOGO; 9. Taione KEREVANUA; 13. James MCKAY14. Velagio DRAUNIMASI; 20. Filimone BOLETAWA;

Coach: Carlos BUZZETTI (FIJ)

Yellow Cards: 6. Esava NAQELECA 66'

Red Cards: None

NZL: 1.Rhyss KEANE; 2. Tim MYERS; 3. Ian HOGG (C); 5. Sam CAMPBELL; 6. Michael EAGER; 7. Costa BARBAROUSES; 8. Adam MCGEORGE (15. Michael PICKERING 83’); 9. Greg DRAPER; 12. Cory CHETTLEBURGH (18. Sam BLACKBURN 25’) ; 14. Jonathan RAJ; 17. Jake MATHEWS (10. Milos NIKOLIC 86’);

Substitutes not used: 4. Fin MILNE; 11. John NIYONSABA; 13. Ash SOLLY; 16. Alex BARLOW;19. Nick KEOWN-ROBSON; 20. Jake GLEESON;

Coach: Stu JACOBS (NZL)

Yellow Cards: None

Red Cards: None

OFC U-20 Championship Tahiti 2008 – Match Two
Saturday 14 December 2008
Stade Paea, Papeete
Tahiti

Tahiti (0) 0
New Caledonia (0) 0

TAH: 2. Tauirai TEIVA (9. Hiva KAMOISE 27'); 3. Stephane FAATIARAU; 4. Teheivarii LUDIVION; 5. Ariihau TERIITAU; 6. Heimano BOUREBARE; 7. Garry ROCHETTE; 11. Stanley ATANY (15. Rainui TZE YU 90'); 19. Marama AMAU (8. Heiarii TAVANAE 69'); 20. Lorenzo TEHAU; 21. Alvin TEHAU; 22. Teheipuarii HAUATA (GK);

Substitutes not used: 23. Ralph HEITAA; 12. Rangitea BENETT; 17. Nahui TEIEFITU; 18. Tehau BENETT; 23. Jason Mathieu;

Injured; 13. Steeve CHONG HUE

Coach: Lionel CHARBONNIER (FRA)

Yellow Cards: 7. Garry ROCHETTE 44';

Red Cards: None

NCL: 2. Joris GORENDIAWE; 3. Edmond IPUNESSO; 4. Jonathan KAKOU; 5. Jean Claude JEWINE; 6. Cesar LOLOHEA (14. Jean Philippe SAIKO 60'); 7. Maxime CHEVRY; 8. Jean WAHNYAMALLA (18. Jean TYEA 89'); 9. Roy KAYARA; 10. Rony ATTI (19. Yoann BAKO 73'); 12. Alan HNAUTRA; 20. Nicolas IWA (GK);

Substitutes not used: 1. Jean Daniel CAEE (RGK); 11. Warren NAXUE; 13. Vincent VAKIE; 15. Jihovany LOLOHEA; 16. Theodore HNANGANYAN; 17. Yoahn AUSU;

Coach: Didier CHAMBARON (FRA)

Yellow Cards: 12. Alan HNAUTRA 42'; 3. Edmond IPUNESSO 82';

Red Cards: None
 

Photo Captions:

Photo 1 - New Zealand U-20 squad.

Photo 2 - Fiji U-20 squad.

Photo 3 - Fiji preparing for their opening match with New Zealand.

Photo 4 - New Zealand in action against Fiji.
 

(Photo: Samoa Tourism Authority)

SAMOA: Renowned journalist "evangelical about promoting Samoa"
Source: Samoa Tourism Authority Press Release

Through a Samoa Tourism Authority initiative, Tracey Spicer, a well known Australian media personality and Editor of the Out & About with Kids Family Holiday Magazine and online portal, lapped up the sun in Samoa with her family for a whole week, from 21-27th Nov 08 to gain an experience of holiday making in Samoa with one’s family.

Upon returning to Australia from her ‘Samoa experience’, Ms. Spicer has enthusiastically stated that she’s “become evangelical about promoting the place (Samoa). We fell in love with the scenery, the lifestyle and, most importantly, the beautiful people.”

With this positive knowledge of what our country has to offer, Ms. Spicer will influence her colleagues in the industry, friends and families to consider Samoa as their next holiday destination.

Ms. Spicer will be writing on her own as well as her family’s (husband Jason and children Taj and Grace) experience in Samoa, for the Out & About with Kids multimedia publishing platform, providing other possibly interested families with a complete holiday information solution to visiting Samoa. The magazine has a total circulation of 30,000 copies and a readership of 2000,000. Ms. Spicer has scheduled the inclusion of her articles on their Samoa trip in the Out & About with Kids' upcoming Autumn and Winter issues.

As a renowned journalist, Ms. Spicer does hundreds of interviews every school holidays for various newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, and she has emphasised how keen she is to talk about Samoa at every opportunity.

She will also provide her publications of Samoa as a tourist destination to other magazines of which she is also a regular contributor, such as Woman’s Day, Out There Magazine, En Route Magazine, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Weight Watchers Magazine and Toyota's In-House Drive Magazine to name a few. Ms. Spicer will also utilise her position as a popular TV Personality to promote Samoa through various televised interviews she has lined up.

Samoa Tourism Authority contributed to Tracey Spencer’s family travel experience through the provision of the itinerary, logistics, transport and a guide, with first-rate assistance from Polynesian Blue, Funway Rentals, Manumea Hotel, Le Lagoto Beach Resort and Aggie Grey’s Lagoon Beach Resort & Spa.

Photo Caption: Tracey Spicer with her family (L-R), son Taj, husband Jason and daughter Grace at Faleolo Airport on their way back to Australia, refreshed & relaxed after their visit to Samoa.
 

AUSTRALIA: Australian farmers waiting for Island workers ‘with open arms’
Source: Sydney Morning Herald via Pacific Magazine

Australian farmers are waiting for Pacific Island labourers “with open arms,” reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

The first of an expected 2,500 islanders, under an Australian regional labour scheme, are expected on Australian farms before Christmas. They will work on farms to pick fruit, which might otherwise rot because there aren’t enough Australians who want to work in agriculture.

"Australian farmers are ready to welcome them with open arms," he said. "They are loath to see another season of fruit rotting on trees,” said David Crombie, president of the National Farmers’ Federation.

The Pacific Islanders from Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu will be paid prevailing Australian farm wages, beginning at A$14.30 an hour for full-time workers. Farmers will pay half the cost of air fares to bring Pacific workers to Australia under the trial scheme.

There are an estimated 22,000 Australian farm jobs that need to be filled.
 

(Photo: Scoop Independent News)

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: REDD is not a way out for developed countries, says PNG
Source: Pacific Magazine

Support for carbon trading through the new reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) initiative will not “exonerate Annex I countries from meeting their agreed carbon dioxide emission reduction,” says Papua New Guinea’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Robert Aisi.

His call comes amidst claims that REDD was being used by Annex 1, or industrialised countries, to avoid action to reduce their carbon emissions.

“Contributions in mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change by developing countries do not and should not exonerate nor diminish the responsibility of Annex 1 countries from meeting their agreed emission reduction targets.”

Papua New Guinea supports calls for deeper cuts in emission targets in the range of 40 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050 under a post-Kyoto deal. Ambassador Aisi was addressing the High-Level Segment session at COP14 in Poznan, Poland.

PNG, the largest island developing state in the Pacific region with a population of 6 million people, has charted a bold plan to reduce emissions by 50 percent before 2025 and become carbon-neutral by 2050.

“REDD is one which my Prime Minister has championed internationally and is part of the proposed carbon neutral economy matrix.” Aisi said his country, one of the proponents of REDD was “pleased” with its achievement at COP14.

The Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advance (SBSTA), one of the scientific bodies created within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has adopted a draft resolution on REDD, which now means that a negotiating text will be ready for the next Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen next year.

“While this situation is most welcome, soon rather than later, more will need to be done to assist and facilitate landowner aspirations on the ground.”

Ambassador Aisi brushed aside claims that landowners had been marginalization in the REDD process.

“Mechanisms are being developed to ensure that the landowners and people of Papua New Guinea are properly protected by appropriate rules, regulations and laws, once a global framework for REDD is finalised.”

“Our experiences in the past have shown that landowners have suffered through so-called environment projects and suffered gravely at the hands of some unscrupulous NGO’s and private operators. The need to protect landowners and their resources remains a national government policy,” Aisi said.

Photo Caption: Papua New Guinea’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Robert Aisi says support for carbon trading through the new reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) initiative will not exonerate Annex I countries from meeting their agreed carbon dioxide emission reduction.
 

SOLOMON ISLANDS: New classrooms for remote school
Source: Solomon Star

After eight months of hard work and sheer commitment, the people in ward two of Ulawa Island have all the reasons to celebrate on the rocky island.

That’s after they witnessed the opening of their new additional primary classroom block and two staff houses at Rarahoi village on Saturday (December 13, 2008).

A two-way HF radio communication system was also part of the gift.

European Union Micro Project Phase 11 funded the project, providing $409,578 covering costs for materials, transportation and freight.

The community contributed $161,524 in kind covering labour, meals, accommodation and local materials (sand, gravel and timber).

The people in the community have come a long way to attaining the permanent classroom building and staff houses for their school.

Headmaster Rugard Charles Ngalimwane said these new classrooms will help boost the education for their children.

He said newly graduates will also have the opportunity to come back to teach in the island.

“My people feel really happy to put up the buildings because it will benefit our children in future,” Mr Ngalimwane said.

“Their cooperation and understanding made this project come true,” Mr Ngalimwane added.

Minister of Planning and Aid Coordination, Steve Abana congratulated the community for a job well done.

“I hope this will not end after the celebrations, but, the beginning of a new and long term vision for education for your children and future leaders.

“For the school committee and the community at large, this could be a great sigh of relief from the hard work in the past eight months and the pressures to complete the project on deadline at the cost of your time and other community and family programmes.

“For the school children and school teachers, you will now look forward to learning in new classrooms next year.

“For the national government which I represent, this occasion reflects a great achievement in government policies to improve education for all children, and in this case, the children in the surrounding communities and villages,” Mr Abana said.

He said this also showed the genuineness of our donor friends like European Union, to support development in this important sector of education.

“These achievements would not have been possible without the collaborated efforts of every stakeholder and those involved in the implementation of this project.

“In other words, good partnership is very critical for successful and positive development and I think you have witnessed that throughout the implementation of this project,” the minister said.
Rarohoi Primary School was established in the 1970s.

It provides basic education that is, from preparatory classes to standard six.

Its catchments areas are the six major villages in the South of Ulawa, namely Lenga, Mwaradja, Ahia, Oú, Taheramo and Arona.

The current enrolment of the school is 150 plus.

The demand for enrolment continues to increase with the high population growth and the school’s long term plans to extend up to Form three level.
 

(Photos: Shigeyuki Kihara / Sean Coyle)

WORLDWIDE: Living Photographs exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Source: Shigeyuki Kihara Press Release

Shigeyuki Kihara is a multimedia and performance artist who uses photography to explore themes of Pacific culture, identity, indigenous spirituality, colonialism, stereotypes, gender roles, and consumerism. Kihara was born in Samoa and is of Japanese and Samoan descent. She lives in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Inspiration for Kihara’s work comes from a variety of sources, including nineteenth- and early twentieth-century colonial photographs made by non-indigenous artists who contributed to perceptions—many of them erroneous—about Pacific Islanders and their culture.

In the Black Sunday series, Kihara chooses to rework historical photographs and postcards into collages that are rephotographed. In Gossip Sessions and Show No Evil, Kihara clothes young women who were typically pictured naked. In Distressed Maiden she transforms the stereotypical theme of the "dusky maiden," the subject of a multitude of colonial images. The woman seen in Tasi ae afe: One but a Million wears the headdress of a taupou—a daughter of a Samoan high chief and a ceremonial maiden who represents her community and extended family. Her portrait is slashed to allude to a series of iron bars, immobilizing the taupou in the picture and through the gaze of the photographer. Afa tasi: Half of One also comments on the collectivity of the community represented by an individual.

In the series Fa’a fafine: In a Manner of a Woman, Kihara makes powerful statements about the depiction of Samoan people, shared memory, societal roles, and sexuality. The Samoan word fa’a fafine is best described in Western terms as a third gender. The artist, herself a fa’a fafine, re-creates studio tableaux similar to the scenes staged by nineteenth-century non-Samoan photographers such as Thomas Andrew and Alfred John Tattersall, where women and men were posed alone and as couples partially clothed and often with tropical foliage. In the triptych Kihara is seen on a couch in a provocative, reclining pose that evokes numerous historical photographs of lounging seductive women, often captioned as Samoan “belles.” The series is a powerful commentary directed at Western perceptions of Pacific Islanders and the sexual stereotypes that were generated by early images. Presented as male and female, Kihara confronts and challenges assumptions about gender identity.

The series Faleaitu: House of Spirits celebrates aspects of the coconut tree through a humanized manifestation. The coconut tree is an essential plant in Samoa and integral to a variety of functional and ceremonial art forms.

In Vavau: Tales from Ancient Samoa, Kihara presents herself as characters in Samoan creation stories and folklore. With the artist seen as a man and a woman in Maui ti’eti’etalaga and Tonumaipe’a, she again explores life roles while embracing and visualizing traditional cultural beliefs.

This exhibition is made possible by the Friends of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

Photo Captions:

Photo 1 - Shigeyuki Kihara's 'Gossip Sessions', 2002, Black Sunday series.

Photo 2 - Shigeyuki Kihara's 'Tasi ae afe: One but a Million', 2002, Black Sunday series.

Photo 3 - Shigeyuki Kihara's 'Afa tasi: Half of One', 2002, Black Sunday series.

Photo 4 - Shigeyuki Kihara's 'Sina ma tuna: Sina and Her Eel', 2003, Faleaitu: House of Spirits series.