NEWSPAGE 12 August
2009

(Photos: Leadership Development Centre / Ministry of Social Development)

NEW ZEALAND: Support available for Pacific people who lose jobs

(Photos: New Zealand Defence Force)

SAMOA: Air Force Iroquois drops trophy into Apia park
Source: New Zealand Defence Force Press Release

An Iroquois helicopter from No 3 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) touched down at Apia Park, Friday 7 August 2009 (local) to deliver the game trophy for the IRB International Rugby test match between the Manu Sina Samoa Women's Rugby team and the Australian Wallaroos rugby team. The trophy was carried by Tulipe Lapalapa Tafili and Lemana Semeatu who were excited to be flying with the Air Force and looking forward to the world cup qualifier match.

The Manu Sina Samoa Women’s Rugby Team has been in camp for the last two weeks preparing for their world cup qualification match against the Australian Wallaroos. The team has been selected from a mix of Island based players and New Zealand and Australian based Samoans. The team has been based at the Samoan Rugby Union High Performance Unit in Alufoa, where they have been living together and undertaking a rigorous schedule of strength and fitness conditioning to prepare for the international test.

The Iroquois helicopters are taking part in Exercise TROPIC ASTRA 09. It is being conducted from 29 July to 1 September 2009 and is an annual RNZAF exercise designed to provide readiness training in tropical flying operations, including civil tasking and aircrew survival training for selected aircrew personnel.

In addition, the RNZAF will be conducting flying tasks in support of the Samoan Government as directed through the NZ High Commission. All of the activities being conducted will simulate what will happen in real time on air operations whether it is disaster relief, humanitarian aid or search and rescue and aid to local Governments.

Photo Captions:

Photo 1 - Lemana Semeatu (left) and Tulipe Lapalapa Tafili delivering the trophy at Apia Park.

Photo 2 - Flying Officer Sam Estall, Corporal Mike Crisford, Lemana Semeatu, Tulipe Lapalapa Tafili and Flight Lieutenant Austin Smith at Faleata Fire Station prior to the delivery of the trophy.
 

(Photo: U.S. Government)

AMERICAN SAMOA: Eni extends condolences on passing of High Chief & Senator Liufau
Source: Office of Congressman Faleomavaega Press Release

Congressman Faleomavaega has expressed his deepest sympathies on the passing of his relative, Senator Liufau Tanielu Sonoma Unutoa, of Aua, and extended his most heartfelt condolences to his lovely wife, Mrs. Sive Mata’utia Liufau and their children on this sad occasion.

“High Chief and Senator Liufau was a great man who committed his life to serving his community and family. His whole life has been dedicated to public service - as Senator for Maoputasi county and chairman of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, as chairman of the Development Bank of American Samoa, as meteorologist at NOAA weather office in American Samoa, and as senior matai of his family and village of Aua as well as county of Maoputasi,” Faleomavaega said.

“Perhaps it is Liufau’s work at Tafuna weather station for over 30 years which he is most known by people in American Samoa. I recall years ago, when meteorologists Liufau and Mase Akapo Akapo urged me to get federal assistance to improve the services of our local weather station. With their assistance and by working together with the National Weather Service offices in Hawaii and Washington, DC and my colleagues in Congress, I was able to secure close to a million dollars in special funds over several years to upgrade the weather sensing equipments, increase the number of staff, and including a new building, hence tremendously improving the services of our weather office in American Samoa.”

“Without doubt, it was by the strong leadership and expertise of meteorologists Liufau and Mase that really prepared our people and might have helped save many lives in American Samoa and around the Pacific area during some of the most devastating hurricanes we have experienced in past 20 years. Their exemplary performance was eventually recognized by NOAA during its largest awards ceremony ever in May, 2007 in Washington, DC where the American Samoa weather office was praised and awarded for its excellent service to the Territory.”

“With the passing of High Chief Liufau, the people of American Samoa have suffered an enormous loss. He was a very humble and kind-hearted leader. He is admired for his many accomplishments and praised for his contributions to our Territory. He will be sorely missed by all that knew him.”

“Again, I extend my deepest condolences to High Chief Liufau’s wife - Sive and their children on their loss. I know that mere words cannot suffice to ease the pain that is yours but I hope that you find comfort knowing that the burden of your loss is shared by many throughout Samoa.”

“And to my Liufau-Unutoa family in Aua, my thoughts and prayers are with you during this most difficult time as we mourn together the passing of a great man and a caring leader of our family - Afioga i le Matua, Liufau Tanielu Sonoma Unutoa,” Faleomavaega concluded.

Photo Caption: During a visit to Washington, DC by HC and Mrs. Liufau, Faleomavaega gave them a personal tour of the U.S. Capitol. Here, they posed for a photo in front of the George Washington and Thomas Jefferson statues inside the Capitol Rotunda.

FIJI: Dialysis centre draws patients
Source: Fiji Times

Fiji's dialysis centre for kidney patients is attracting a lot of former Fiji residents and tourists with kidney problems because it is cheaper.

It has been revealed that former Fiji residents living in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, England and parts of Europe were seeking treatment at the centre.

"These are former Fiji residents who could not return to Fiji because there was no dialysis centre here but now they can come back because there is a centre here," Mr Maharaj said.

"And of course there are tourists who found out about the centre through the media and other means so they come to the centre to be dialysed while on holiday here," he said.

Opportunities are also open to neighbouring Pacific Island countries.

Kidney Foundation of Fiji president Dewan Maharaj said local and overseas demand for treatment continued to increase because of reasonable costs and the service provided.

There is a difference of about $500 in the cost of the same treatment abroad.

With two Canadian patients when it started in March last year, the centre todate has 21 patients.

"Last month, we had two from the States and one from Adelaide (among other patients) who were dialysed at the centre because they found it reasonable compared to what they pay back home."

Yesterday, the centre diagnosed 12 Fiji residents, and six Tuvaluans who are former Auckland citizens.

However, Mr Maharaj said the only problem was fulltime nephrologists.

"We are talking to the Ministry of Health about it. As it is, we have only Dr Jo Malani who comes and diagnose patients when he is available."
 

(Photos: French Research Development Institute)

TAHITI: French scientists to study Tahiti marine life
Source: Tahitipresse via Pacific Islands Report

The French Research Development Institute (IRD) will conduct an extensive three-month oceanographic study that it claims might help "to discover new species and provide basic molecules of interest" in the French Polynesia seabed.

IRD scientists will conduct the study from Thursday to October 29 aboard the oceanographic research ship Alis. The research will involve two separate studies. The first will focus on the ocean from its surface to a depth of 60 meters (197 feet).

The second study will deal with research in an area 200-800 meters (656-2,624 feet) deep. This is part of what is known as the bathyal zone, a marine ecologic area extending down from the edge of the continental shelf to a depth where the water is 39°F (4° C), an area generally described as lying between 200 and 2,000 m (660-6,600 feet) below the surface, according to the Enclyclopedia Britannica online.

Scientists with various specialties aboard the Alis will first collect samples of benthos, the aquatic organisms that live on, in or near the seabed among the high islands of French Polynesia. They will have the double objective of completing existing knowledge of the area’s underwater natural heritage and the geographic distribution of these organisms in the Pacific, according to the IRD.

The study of these organisms’ biological properties will then be dealt with in various areas, such as human health and aquaculture, or for their possible environmental applications, the IRD said.

An important part of the analytical work will be conducted in French Polynesia at the recently created Polynesian Center for Island Biodiversity Research (CPRBI), the IRD noted.

The second part of the scientists’ work, entitled "Tarasoc," will involve an exploration of the benthic fauna, or tiny creatures found on and within the seabed, of two parallel mountain ranges. This project has three objectives. The first is to describe the fauna and discover probable new species. The second is to seek correlations between the islands’ age and isolation as well as study the composition of the benthic fauna and the means that the species have been dispersed.

The third objective is to learn more about certain species through more targeted studies of population genetics, the IRD said. 

Photo Caption: French Research Development Institute (IRD) oceanographic research ship Alis.
 

TUVALU: Islanders live in ‘daily fear’ of weather
Source: The National

Fearing the destruction of their land and culture, small island nations in the South Pacific have pleaded with developed countries to slash their carbon emissions to stave off the worst effects of climate change.

At a regional summit in the Queensland city of Cairns, delegates have called on Australia and New Zealand to almost halve the amount of greenhouse gases they emit by 2020.

Tuvalu, a tiny island north of Fiji with a population of just 12,000, has found itself on the front line of potentially catastrophic environmental upheaval that residents firmly believe is the result of man-made pollution.

“We are witnessing the gradual death of our identity as a people,” said Tafue Lusama, the chairman of the Tuvalu Climate Action Network. “Tuvalu will be the first country to face the impacts of climate change and my concerns are that we have been ignored for far too long by the industrialised countries and the international community,” he said during a visit to Cairns.

Tuvaluans are at the mercy of an ecological cocktail of rising sea levels, warmer temperatures and increasingly unpredictable weather events.

“It is very frightening. We literally see the impacts daily. We are living in it and every day we see the islands being eroded by the sea during high tide. We are losing our lands. We’ve already lost our underground water supply because it has been contaminated by salt water,” Mr Lusama said.

“Every time I look at my children and imagine any time anything can happen; a storm surge will just come in suddenly and I won’t be able to protect my family.”

Islanders worry about the fragile health of the coral reefs that protect their homes from large ocean waves and as the earth warms there are growing concerns that the delicate ecosystems will be destroyed, leaving low-lying areas open to inundation.

“If the temperature of the sea increases our coral bleaches and dies. These corals are the houses for the fish. So, our fish stocks either move well into the ocean or they just simply die,” Mr Lusama said.

Although climate change is widely blamed for such disruption, experts have stressed that other factors could also be at work, including El Nino weather patterns and seismic activity as well as deforestation and the removal of sand for building work.

A sense of panic has spread across the vast South Pacific Ocean. In the Federated States of Micronesia, which sits between Hawaii and the Philippines, the effects of a shifting climate have been blamed for forcing islanders from their homes.

“The people who live on those low-lying atolls have experienced extreme weather events such as storm surges, king tides and typhoons in the last five or six years,” said Marstella Jack, a lawyer and former attorney general of the Federated States of Micronesia.

“The water washes over the land, seeps into our soil, intrudes into our vegetation and also our fresh water supplies. It fundamentally affects our daily life. King tides are destroying the outer islands. The next 10 to 20 years are critical for the survival of those very small atolls. People are already starting to leave.”

Increasingly the displaced are compelled to move to other overcrowded parts of the archipelago or take the monumental step of seeking a fresh start in the United States.

“I see the injustice in all of this. We’re victimised by factors beyond our control. I think that governments need to start looking at options that are available to do something about this,” said Mrs Jack, who also took a swipe at Canberra’s response to the climate emergency. “Australia is taking a very weak attitude towards carbon reduction.”

Officials meeting in Cairns at the Pacific Islands Forum, the region’s pre-eminent political body, have urged Australia and New Zealand to take a bolder approach to greenhouse gas pollution and also help vulnerable communities adapt to environmental turmoil.

Scientists have predicted that the sea that surrounds the Pacific islands will rise by about half a metre by the end of the century. Given that half of the islands’ population lives within 1.5km of the coast, such gloomy calculations could affect the lives of millions of people.

Edward Natapei, the prime minister of Vanuatu, said his corner of the South Pacific was already under siege. “Vanuatu is located on what they call the ring of fire, where we have cyclones, earthquakes, volcanic eruption and tsunamis. About two years ago we had to relocate an entire village in the northern part of the country further inland because the original site went underwater,” he said.

While the Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has promised “maximum action” to address these ecological challenges, islanders believe that their culture and identity are at serious risk of extinction.

“I would invite climate change deniers to come to live in Tuvalu and experience the reality of what is happening and see if they feel the fear we face every day,” Mr Lusama said.