NEWSPAGE 05 August
2009

(Photo: Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs)

NEW ZEALAND: Inspirational pioneer a huge loss for Pasifika communities

(Photo: Electric Power Corporation)

SAMOA: Tariff surcharge increases in August
Source: Electric Power Corporation Press Release

The monthly tariff surcharge, applied on the electricity base tariff rate increased as of the 1st of August. This is an increase of 1 sene or from 5.6% to 7.08% of the surcharge.

August’s tariff surcharge is applied to all electricity meters read from the 1st August, and includes consumption in the prior months. The fuel surcharge also applies to all cash power (prepayment) vouchers purchased on this date.

The total cost per unit (sene) is now 68 sene for 1 - 50 units, and 81 sene for 50 and upwards units for domestic and commercial users.
 

Note that this adjustment is based on the fuel price of the previous month (July).
 

(Photos: Riamoana Pasifika)

AUSTRALIA: Legislation hinders overseas donations to Samoa
Source: Riamoana Pasifika Press Release

In society there are many different types of relationships. In a normal business relationship for example there is the expectation that transactions are completed by the exchange of a service or product for a profit. Other relationships include social relationships or networks, family relationships, society and law, the government and the people. In order to benefit from any one of these relationships there must be a genuine exchange of trust between the giver and the receiver.

Once in a while though there comes about a type of relationship that is rare but necessary in any society. The relationship of giving without the expectation of receiving. Riamoana has been blessed for the last two years to witness this type of relationship, most recently yesterday (July 30, 2009) in Logan, South Brisbane when Samoan Businesses in the community put together financial and other types of help to send uniforms and text books to Samoa.

These uniforms and text books were received from St John Paul's College in Logan, Brisbane. As this school is going through a complete change of uniforms and curriculum they donated their old material to Riamoana Pasifika with the request that these items be sent to benefit a community outside of Australia. To date this school has donated thousands of books and school uniforms, swimming suits, school bags still in excellent condition, which were given out in Samoa and to other countries. In January 2009, the organisations that were the recipients of these donations were the Samoa Swimming Federation, Lototaumafai at Moto'otua, Rugby Development squads
and coaches for the Manu Samoa, The Nelson Memorial Library, Mrs Reeds Pre-School, Papauta and two other schools from Upolu and Savaii. Hundreds of these uniforms have also been sent by Riamoana to East Timore and villages in Papua Niu Guinea with the help of St Vincents de Paul's overseas development division, Australia. These donations brought about no direct financial benefits for any of the organisations that received these donations.

The businesses that made yesterday's venture possible were; Fata Peteli and Rosa Masefau of Matauaina Takeaway, Liz and Kitiona Moors of V.I.P Cleaning, Louis and Mavis Urhle of Louis Auto Repairs and Luke Leilua of Strickly the Boys Labour Hire and Construction. Two of our key sponsors were Poulava Sam and Lona Matautia of Uncle Sam's Takeaway and Galumalemana Harry Timotea owner of Enchiro Island Shipping.

Riamoana has been in contact with Oloipola Terrence Betham, President of the Apia Lions Club to accept these gifts on behalf of the schools and organisations who will benefit from this donation. Although Mr Betham together with the Lions club are happy to organise the distribution of these
uniforms and books, he expressed concern about the costs associated with taking these used items out of customs upon arrival into Apia harbour. The irony of the situation is that Samoan people overseas have done their part by collecting these useful items which can only be used for the benefit of Samoa especially educational institutions and the underprivileged but on arrival in Apia the expectation is to pay not a couple of hundred tala but amounts in the thousands of tala. According to the President of the Lions Club, 'The Lions Club had a bad experience recently when a container of school donated equipment recently arrived from Lions in Melbourne and Customs in Samoa charged $6,400 tala VAGST.

This is a bleak situation but thankfully there are still people out there who understand the importance of these relationships like Silafau Paul Meredith, the CEO of the Ministry of Revenue who did all he could to assist the Lions in Apia within the constraints of the law. Mr Meredith's
assistance was very much appreciated by Mr Betham and also Samoan people overseas.

At this time in the world economy people are suffering and relationships are strained in some parts but there are still people who go against the tide and try to make life better. When overseas people donate to communities, it is done because of a feeling of doing something good and giving back to the home country they grew up in and where most of their families still reside.
But upon hearing of the restrictions and costs that governments put on these donations. People are forced to ask these painful questions, "is this relationship worth keeping or should it be severed? Ironically in this situation it seems that people overseas unknowingly just might be adding to the problem by donating.

Business is business but when it comes to matters of the heart and people are giving without the expectation of profit, then perhaps it is time for governments to revisit and revise policies and laws pertaining to this special category.

Photo Captions:

Photo 1 - Dave, Galumalemana Harry Timoteo, Tracy Nelson and Poulava Sam Matau'tia.

Photo 2 - Galumalemana Harry Timoteo and Poulava Sam Matautia.

(Photos: U.S. Navy / Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources)

HAWAII: Fines for those who damage Hawaii's fragile and important coral

Source: Honolulu Star Bulletin

Wrecking coral will cost you in Hawaii.

A Maui tour company is paying the state nearly $400,000 for damaging more than 1,200 coral colonies when one of its boats sank at Molokini, a pristine reef and popular diving spot. Another tour operator faces penalties for wrecking coral when it illegally dropped an anchor on a Maui reef.

The state plans to sue the U.S. Navy to seek compensation for coral ruined when a guided-missile cruiser the length of two football fields ran aground near Pearl Harbour in February.

The state began issuing fines two years ago as part of its efforts to punish those who damage a resource critical to Hawaii's fragile environment and tourism, the state's No. 1 industry.

"People are going to have to be more careful out here because it if keeps getting damaged, we're going to lose it," said Laura Thielen, chairwoman of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, which decides how much to fine. "We have to take some very strong action, or else it's going to be too late."

Hawaii is home to 84 percent of all coral under U.S. jurisdiction. About 15 percent of U.S. coral is in state waters surrounding the main Hawaiian Islands from Niihau to the Big Island. Another 69 percent is in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a stretch of mostly uninhabited atolls President George W. Bush made a national marine monument in 2006.

Coral reefs provide vital habitats for fish, help protect shoreline areas during storms and support a thriving snorkelling and scuba diving industry.

Experts say coral reefs in the marine monument are in good shape. But those near Hawaii's main population centres are under pressure from sediment found in runoff, overfishing and invasive algae.

Careless ocean users, who can kill a 500-year-old coral in five minutes, are another danger.

"Each one may be considered fairly small. But when you add them together, then the impact gets to be even greater," said University of Hawaii coral reef expert Richard Richmond.

Kuulei Rodgers, a Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology assistant researcher, said injured corals will have a harder time recovering from global warming and rising levels of carbon dioxide the oceans are absorbing amid growing greenhouse gas emissions.

"It's the same as if when a disease hits people, it's the weaker ones that will normally be the ones that suffer the high mortality," Rodgers said.

The state imposed its first-ever fine for breaking coral in June 2007, when it ordered Lahaina-based tour operator Crystal Seahorse to pay $7,300 for illegally entering a natural area reserve and breaking 11 coral specimens there.

Hawaii had the legal authority to impose such fines before but instead preferred to simply educate offenders about reefs and have them assist with the cost of restoration. It shifted course after realizing this was not prompting people to take necessary precautions around coral.

Maui Snorkel Charters, which runs tours under the name Maui Dive Shop, is paying the largest fine assessed so far.

In 2006 its Kai Anela tour boat headed to Molokini with 15 snorkellers and a captain armed with just three days of training. No tourists were hurt when the ship sank after developing mechanical problems, but the company tripled the original coral damage area by bungling salvage attempts.

The state's staff biologist estimates the area will take 80 years to recover.

Maui Snorkel Charters is paying $396,000 in a settlement, with part of the money upfront and the rest in instalments through 2011. The company apologized, and the Kai Anela is back in service.

The Navy is another target, for coral wrecked over a 6- to 10-acre area when the USS Port Royal ran aground. The Navy has already spent nearly $40 million on ship repairs and some $7 million restoring the reef, including dispatching scuba divers to help reattach more than 5,000 broken coral colonies.

Florida, which has 2 percent of U.S. coral -- the most of any state after Hawaii -- is also moving to shield the resource.

Under the newly passed Coral Reef Protection Act, approved by the Legislature this year, Florida may fine culprits up to $250,000 and sue offenders for unlimited compensatory damages. Until the law, which took effect July 1, Florida had to seek compensation through the courts.

The federal government has in the past fined offenders millions of dollars for coral wrecked in marine sanctuaries.

Tori Cullins, co-owner of Wild Side Specialty Tours in Waianae, supports fines.

"Unless you hit people in the pocketbook, I don't think it's going to matter much," said Cullins, who operates marine mammal viewing tours.

Photo Captions:

Photo 1 - The state has taken strong action against those who damage coral reefs with fines and now intends to sue the U.S. Navy to seek compensation for coral ruined when the USS Port Royal ran aground in February near Pearl Harbour. Here a diver reattaches a coral colony on the sea bottom at the site of the grounding.

Photo 2 - A healthy area of reef off of Pearl Harbour adjacent to the damage caused in February by the grounding of the USS Port Royal.
 

(Photo: Reuters)

TONGA: Tonga makes beeline for democracy
Source: Australian Associated Press via TVNZ

His penchant for riding around his Pacific island nation in a London taxi earned Tonga's new king the nickname of Oddball.

His posh British accent and love of remote-controlled boats, toy soldiers and elaborate military garb only cemented his position as the Pacific's eccentric, lone monarch.

But King George Tupou V, in Tonga's top job for a year in August, has been charged with a task far bigger than his eccentricities - the job of pulling his deeply conservative and religious country into the 21st century.

Tonga made headlines across Australia and the world in November 2006 when, following the death of George's 88-year-old father, King Tupou IV, pro-democracy demonstrators took to the streets.

The riots - the most violent civil protests ever seen in the Pacific - left eight people dead and 75% of businesses in the capital Nuku'alofa looted and burned to the ground.

Fuelling their anger was the feeling that the country's move away from the monarchy and towards a more democratic political system was taking too long.

Under Tonga's 134-year-old constitution, the monarchy commands considerable status and power, presiding over parliament and hand-picking all but nine of the 32 members who sit in it.
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The old king, whose enormous bulk once qualified him as the world's heaviest monarch, ruled over his people for 41 years, upholding the traditions of feudal rule.

But not so his son, who is Oxford-educated, business-orientated and the most westernised in the unbroken chain of monarchs.

King George indicated early in his ascendancy that he was pro-change and ready to relinquish some powers and hand them to government to get his country back on track.

A look at the statistics shows this is sorely needed.

Tonga's GDP has stagnated around one per cent a year, just a third of the growth rate seen in neighbouring Samoa and Cook Islands.

Much of the country's wealth is retained by the royal family, which owns three-quarters of the land and runs strategic monopolies, crowding out the private sector.

A 2006 report by Australia's Centre for Independent Studies revealed that King George himself controls Tonga's electricity generation, its beer company, half its unexplored oil supply, one of its mobile phone companies, a cable TV company, and the rights to Tonga's internet domain name, "earning a multi-million dollar income annually".

Average Tongans, however, own little, earn little and are suffering under declining living standards easily visible in the tatty streets of the capital and poverty-stricken villages.

The economy is almost entirely propped up by remittances sent by Tongans living in Australia and New Zealand, but as the global economic crisis kicks in purse strings have tightened, leaving Tonga more reliant on aid money than ever.

Prime Minister Fred Sevele remains upbeat, saying the situation could be far worse.

"We are affected rather badly but we're fortunate here in that there's no homelessness, there's no starvation, so to that extent we are protected from the harsh realities of the current situation," Sevele says.

But Tongans on the street said that times were tough.

Tourism is down, export orders for the country's dominant product, squash, have fallen, the trade deficit continues to grow and the currency, the Pa'anga, is in steady depreciation.

The fishing sector is also in strife, with annual catches dwindling.

This has triggered a very different problem, increasing ill-health as more Tongans turn from subsistence foods to fatty imports like coconut cream, corned beef and mutton flaps.

According to Nuku'alofa hospital staff, the effect on waistlines has been "devastating". More than 90% of adults are obese, with spin-off effects on diabetes, heart disease and caesarean rates as bodies struggle to cope with the extra weight.

Given all this, it is probably unsurprising there is a massive push towards modernising the state.

Tongan's love their new king for his part in encouraging it, erecting massive billboards across Nuku'alofa that celebrate him as a "global icon to the world".

The hard work of turning his vision into reality has fallen on the government, which has reformed the constitution ahead of the country's first democratic election to be held in November 2010.

Sevele says everything is "on track for change", and pro-democracy fighters like Tonga Human Rights and Democracy Movement director Pooi Pohiva anticipate big improvements to follow.

"Tongans will have full rights to choose their government and the government they choose will be forced to effect change," Pohiva says.

"They will have no choice to implement new health policies, improve tourism, make business easier, or they will lose our vote.

"That might not sound like much to Australians or New Zealanders but for us it is huge."

His optimism is not shared by all, however.

Pesi Fonua, editor of the country's biggest newspaper, Matangi Tonga, says there is still much confusion over what democratic changes will take place.

"It's all very well to talk about democracy and change but the details of how parliament will actually be elected, and what these changes actually mean on the ground are still not known," Fonua says.

He believes the national feeling that democracy "will improve everything" is misguided and could "create a whole lot of mess".

"I think a lot of people expect we will magically change into a progressive, successful, healthy nation overnight, but it won't be like that.

"In fact, I would say many of the problems we have are not down to an un-democratic system at all, but other ingrained issues we have."

Like many, Fonua says what their king has done in stepping back is honourable, but in his efforts to shift power to the people, King George has left the country without a leader.

"There is no vision, no one leading it, so God knows how we're going to pull it off," the journalist says.

While Sevele insists that this is not the case, Fonua is less certain, even predicting the worst.

"If we're not careful we could end up where we were three years ago when angry people were burning the place down," he says.

"I sincerely hope that's not the case because it's the last thing Tonga needs right now."

Photo Caption: Coronation of the new king of Tonga.
 

(Photo: U.S. Government)

WORLDWIDE: Faleomavaega, PI Ambassadors discuss improving US-Pacific relations
Source: Office of Congressman Faleomavaega Press Release

The Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment, Rep. Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, met with a delegation of Pacific Island representatives to discuss U.S.-Pacific relations, climate change and steps the United States should take to assist the societies most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming.

The delegation consisted of the Chair of the Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS), Ambassador Marlene Moses of Nauru; Ambassador Yosiwo George of the Federated States of Micronesia; Ambassador Winston Thompson of Fiji; Ambassador Hersey Kyota of Palau; Ambassador Evan Paki of Papua New Guinea; Ambassador Colin Beck of the Solomon Islands; Chargé d’Affaires Charles Paul of the Marshall Islands and Chargé d’Affaires Viliami Malolo of the Kingdom of Tonga.

“Our meeting provided an excellent chance to discuss the key issues affecting U.S. relations with the Pacific Islands and the matters before the U.S. Congress having the greatest impact on the Pacific. In consultations the group held with Democratic Majority Leader, Rep. Steny Hoyer, as well as with Rep. Sablan of the Northern Mariana Islands, Rep. Berkley of Nevada, Rep. Engel of New York, Rep. Flake of Arizona and Rep. Watson of California, they had a chance to address these issues and stress the importance of refining and upgrading provisions of the Waxman Markey bill (the climate change legislation currently before Congress) designed to assist Pacific Islands and other vulnerable societies deal with the impacts of global warming,” said Faleomavaega.

“My Subcommittee also held a hearing on Wednesday, ‘Ushering in Change: A New Era for U.S Regional Policy in the Pacific,’ in which Ambassador Moses briefed the Subcommittee on behalf of all members of PSIDS on the current state of U.S.-Pacific relations and how to make improvements,” added Faleomavaega.

“Ambassador Moses and other Ambassadors from the region participating in the hearing did an outstanding job, and I recommend that interested observers view it directly by going to http://www.hcfa.house.gov/hearing_notice.asp?id=1105. I am particularly grateful that Ambassador Moses spent so much time with us since she serves concurrently as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative of Nauru to the United Nations as well as Non-resident Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States of America, the Republic of Cuba, and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

“I was also pleased to report to the group that my Subcommittee continues to take the lead in Congress in dealing with the impact of climate change on the most vulnerable societies, including the Pacific Islands. Last week, for example, the Subcommittee held its second hearing on this critical issue,” said Faleomavaega.

“At the hearing, we leading experts on climate change discuss the Waxman Markey bill and its provisions regarding assistance to those most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming. In particular, the Subcommittee reviewed Title IV of the legislation, which directs the State Department, in consultation with USAID, the Treasury Department and the EPA, to establish an international adaptation program, and creates a fund to carry out the program. For each year from 2012-2021, the bill designates 1% of revenues generated by emissions auctions under cap-and-trade programs for international adaptation. For 2022-2026, that amount would increase to 2% per year and then to 4% in 2027 and beyond. Unfortunately, it remains unclear precisely how much money these percentages will translate to, but most credible estimates place the amount far short of the $7 billion envisioned by advocates and requested by developing countries.”

“In the coming weeks and months leading up to the critical December Copenhagen conference on climate change, I will continue to work with my friends from the Pacific, my colleagues on the Subcommittee and with other key Members of Congress on improving the legislation in this area. And I will use all the powers of my Subcommittee to hold the United States, the United Nations and other key international bodies accountable as those most vulnerable suffer the consequences of climate change,” Faleomavaega concluded.

Photo Caption: Chairman Faleomavaega with Amb. Beck, Amb. Kyota, Amb. Moses, Amb. George, Majority Leader Hoyer, Amb. Paki, Amb. Thompson and Richard Schifter, former Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the UN Security Council.