NEWSPAGE 28 August
2009

(Photos: New Zealand AIDS Foundation)

NEW ZEALAND: Pacific sexual minority leader's summit to be held in Auckland

(Photos: Miss Samoa Pageant 2009)

SAMOA: Miss Samoa Pageant 2009 contestants announced
Source: Samoa Tourism Authority Press Release

The Miss Samoa Pageant is an annual event at the national level which is devoted to advancing and supporting opportunities for young Samoan ladies.

The fundamental nature of the Pageant is to recognize the various attributes that define the Samoan lady of today. This is encompassed in the Pageant’s theme for this year, “Humility, Elegance and Purity - Celebrating the Tamaitai Samoa.”

The entrants are expected to emerge as role models for the younger generation; to represent a variety of professions, attitudes, skills and interests and also to be spokeswomen of the Samoan culture. Ultimately, the delegates personify the combination of beauty and intelligence that define the Samoan Lady of the 21st Century.

The Pageant sets out to accomplish this by encouraging, motivating and guiding the delegates in promoting their Samoan beauty, culture, costumes and performing arts.

This is also an integral event for Tourism as it aims to boost the tourism industry, promoting and reflecting the Samoan culture and strengthening friendships with the outside world.

It is a hallmark event. It is not only an appreciation of the beauty and essence of a Samoan woman, but is also a celebration for all that we stand for through the richness of Samoan heritage and culture.

The Miss Samoa Pageant will be held on Friday 04th September 2009 at the EFKS Youth Hall, Sogi.

This year's contestants are:

Miss McDonald's Family Restaurant, Tavalea Nilon
Miss Pacific Express, Rosebud Sengilama Seleue
Miss Malia’s Collection, Temukisa Peseta
Miss Le Spa Lalelei o Samoa, Jacinta Bourne
Miss Siva Afi Designs, Lagitoaolealofa Vaelu
Miss Manoifoa & Salafai Immigration Travel Services, Miriama L. Iakopo Faatafe

Miss Samoa USA, Hope Tusisaleia Pomele
Miss Samoa Australia, Puafuatausaga Samia
Miss Samoa NZ, Christina Tulipe Fa’afili

Photo Captions:

Photo 1 - (L-R) Miss McDonald's Family Restaurant, Tavalea Nilon; Miss Pacific Express, Rosebud Sengilama Seleue; Miss Malia’s Collection, Temukisa Peseta.

Photo 2 - (L-R) Miss Le Spa Lalelei o Samoa, Jacinta Bourne; Miss Siva Afi Designs, Lagitoaolealofa Vaelu; Miss Manoifoa & Salafai Immigration Travel Services, Miriama L. Iakopo Faatafe.

Photo 3 - (L-R) Miss Samoa USA, Hope Tusisaleia Pomele; Miss Samoa Australia, Puafuatausaga Samia; Miss Samoa NZ, Christina Tulipe Fa’afili.
 

AUSTRALIA: Australia's trade goals could sink Pacific Islands
Source: Fiji Sun via Pacific Islands Report

Despite the interest in the lead up to the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders meeting in Cairns, the decision to commence trade negotiations barely made a mention in the news in the wake of the meeting.

As the Leaders’ meeting approached it was looking like a Fiji-shaped spanner was going to derail Australia’s trade ambitions.

Fiji had contested its exclusion from PACER-Plus discussions on legal grounds, a position that was supported by the Solomon Islands, and to a lesser extent, the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

Four days out from the Leaders’ Meeting, Australia’s Trade Minister Simon Crean tried to use a little bit of legal mumbo-jumbo to side-step Fiji’s legal challenge and ensure that the Pacific Leaders would agree to launch trade negotiations.

Addressing a public forum on the Pacific Mr Crean explained that when he talks about PACER-Plus he means a completely new agreement, distinct from PACER.

Despite the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade website directly connecting the two, Mr Crean argued that legal rights for countries under PACER don’t apply under PACER-Plus.

This was a new angle on the problem that was met by looks of disbelief. For all the officials, ministers and leaders in the crowd who had engaged in discussions on PACER-Plus on the basis of commitments under PACER this was somewhat shocking.

Mr. Crean however empathised, "I recognise the similar names - PACER and PACER Plus - has the potential to be confusing".

What was confusing was why Australia had all of a sudden changed its defence for Fiji’s exclusion from being based on a decision by leaders at last years Pacific Islands Forum, to a semantic, legally dubious name game.

With the benefit of Mr Crean’s legal "clarity" the Pacific Islands Leaders (excluding Australia and New Zealand) met to discuss a whole range of issues among themselves prior to the full leaders meeting.

The contrast between what was said when the Pacific Islands Leaders met and what was said after the meeting when Australia and New Zealand were present was stark.

Press

At the press conference following the meeting of Pacific Islands Leaders (and before the full meeting), when pressed on the topic of trade negotiations the Premier of Niue Toke Talagi responded:

"We have decided that we will continue with the pace that we want to develop this partnership" and that "we needed time to consider the implications as well as the consultations with our countries before we proceed to final negotiations".

The Solomon Islands Prime Minister added that the Pacific Islands Leaders still felt that negotiations should not start until 2013, the original timeline proposed by the Island Countries.

Two days later at the conclusion of the full leaders meeting Prime Minister Rudd, when asked about PACER-Plus, said that negotiations would start "a very robust soon". The Leaders, in spite of their earlier misgivings, agreed to support the recommendations from their trade ministers to launch negotiations immediately as well as resolve the issues on timelines, consultations and capacity building.

What changed the minds of the Pacific Leaders remains unknown. With Australia and New Zealand being the biggest aid donors in the region one can see the political implications of biting the hand that feeds. Did I mention the A$26 million Australia pledged in sporting facilities for the region?

With consultations and negotiations now about to be put on a timeline, the real impacts of PACER-Plus will start to come into play.

One study has already forecast the loss of thousands of Pacific manufacturing jobs, three quarters of the entire employment in the sector.

Another study has raised the loss of government revenue that Pacific countries are set to experience from the lowering of their import taxes.

The other issue that is raising some concern in the Pacific is the loss of government policy space to regulate that would come with a free trade agreement.

The recent report released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on Least Developed Countries (LDCs) has outlined the dangers that free trade poses for such countries, five of which are in the Pacific.

The report highlights the need for LDC’s to refrain from further trade liberalisation in order to preserve their financial bases, to support the expansion of domestic industries and ensure that policy space is retained to follow a development model that meets the unique needs of each country.

What’s currently being talked about for PACER-Plus does nothing to support the recommendations from the UNCTAD report, in fact it works against them.

The lowering of tariffs on Australian and New Zealand imports will see them flood into the Pacific, becoming the lion’s share of forecast increases in trade under PACER-Plus. A Pacific free trade agreement will also bind and inhibit the level of regulatory space that governments have to nurture and develop their infant industries, ensuring that the one-size-fits-all free market model that gave us a financial crisis continues.

The Australian push for negotiations is actively undermining the ability of Pacific Islands to have the critical discussions that they need to have about how they want to economically engage with Australia.

Traditional

Ni-Vanuatu Member of Parliament Ralph Reganvanu has highlighted the importance of the traditional economy in not only providing food and shelter for Pacific peoples but also for insulating from the impacts of the global economic crisis.

The unique role of the traditional economy needs to be considered in relation to PACER-Plus not only for the impact that PACER-Plus will have on it but also for the alternative that it promotes.

With a meeting of trade ministers coming up in November to decide upon the timetables for PACER-Plus it’s unclear whether or not there will time for these discussions.

With neo-liberal, free market theory hitting its high tide mark and now receding, it’s time for the Pacific to explore the sea of new options.
 

(Photos: Sina Tilo)

USA: Pastor To'alepai retires from Samoan DC church
Source: Sina Tilo

They are very simple people, perhaps, the longest serving and best known Samoans in the Washington DC area for nearly four decades. An unassuming man of Savaii and Upolu roots whose wife is a licensed practical nurse with professional Polynesian dancing ability, a German American from Baltimore, Maryland who met in the early sixties; the two have come to be well respected in the community simply because of their love of the Samoan people and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Faifeau Sui Meki and his wife JoAnn Kovacs-To’alepai, said farewell to their Samoan DC Church on August 16th as senior pastor and have decided to make way for someone new, hopefully younger, to carry on the Ministry while they travel to the native homeland and “…enlarge their territory…” according to the prayer of Jabez, and seek a new mission field to serve the Lord.

In the Eklalesia’s fa’amavaega (congregation’s farewell,) to the To’alepais on Saturday, 15th, Church Board of Directors Vice President Solomona Vaioletama Aoelua, reminisced, “Meki has served the Samoan people since the time of the late Paramount Chief Fuimaono Asuemu Ulufale in the early ‘70s, when Samoans gathered to worship in their native tongue at the home of American Samoa’s first delegate to the U.S. Congress. For the past ten years, he and JoAnn have been faifeaus of the Samoan church which began worship services at the Army’s Old Post Chapel in Fort Meyer, Virginia during the time of Delegate Fofo Sunia in the early ‘80s.”

Present at the fa’amavaega was one of To’alepai’s long-time fellow Polynesian entertainer friends, Gordon Velasco and his wife Debbi originally of Honolulu, Hawaii, who paid tribute to the Samoan pastor saying, “Meki was like a big-brother who taught me to maintain our cultural values while living in the nation’s capital, to care for one another in our small little ohana community and to pass on to our children the legacy of Pacific hospitality, kindness and love of country.”

Also in attendance at the celebratory occasion was Pentecostal Pastor Faitele Faitele and his wife Naia, who took the ten-hour drive from their home in Indianapolis, Indiana to be with his Christian counterpart. Faitele, a retired Samoan veteran said of To’alepai, “I learned from Meki the value of being Humble. I’m a very hard person with a military training that everyone knows remains with you for life, Meki To’alepai taught me to deal kindly with people, especially in Church, to be compassionate and forgiving so that they may know the true meaning of being Christ-like.” Faitele and To’alepai along with Pastor Semi Mauga of Norfolk, Virginia make up the East Coast Faletolu of Samoan churches that fellowship yearly to maintain cultural aspects of Samoan heritage for the sake of children born and raised in America to live with Christian principles.

Absent from the gathering on official travel was one of the prominent members of the Samoan church and one who has known the To’alepais since Delegate Fuimaono’s time, Congressman Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin. His office staff presented Pastor To’alepai and faletua JoAnn with a symbolic gesture of Congressional prestige, an American flag that was flown on the nation’s Capitol dome in their honor. Presenting the citation from American Samoa’s Representative and an appreciation of Pastor To’alepai’s service to his people, Church President Dr. Fatilua Fatilua, Jr. read a moving letter from the Faipule reminiscent of their long-time friendship and concerted efforts to serve their people, one in government, the other in a spiritual capacity.

When Pastor To’alepai reflected of his service in the past nearly forty years, he said, “The old man Fuimaono desired to make sure the Samoan folks were able to worship in their native language, sing their Samoan hymns, read their Bible in Samoan and teach their children the language and the culture. At that time it was a few Samoan families in the Viriginia, Maryland, DC area who made it all possible. They were Fai’aipa’u Aso Aumoeualogo and his wife Peka; Salofi and Iseula Lutu-Sotoa and their children and a few of us. On the professional staff were Eni, and the Samoan attorneys Roy Hall and Mike Kruse,” of the latter three To’alepai chuckled and said, “Those guys were always known to be Fui and Fele’s kids, fanau a Fui ma Fele.” (Presently, the Congressman, the private well-known local attorney and the territory’s Chief Justice.)

In his parting message to his beloved Samoan church, To’alepai encouraged them in 1 Peter 5, verses 6-7, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”O le mea lea ia fa'amaulalo ai outou i lalo o le aao malosi ole Atua, ina ia fa'amaualugaina outou e Ia i ona po e tatau ai. Tu'uina atu ia te Ia mea uma tou te popole ai, aua o lo'o manatu mai Ia ia te outou."

Photo Captions:

Photo 1 - Samoan DC Church Board of Directors, (L-R) Vice President Solomona Aoelua; President Dr. Fatilua Fatilua Jr., Rev. Meki & First Lady JoAnn To'alepai; Executive Secretary Elisapeta Toilolo-Pruett and Chief Financial Officer Isapela Enesi-Coggins.

Photo 2 - Sunday worship service, Pentecostal Pastor Faitele & First Lady Naia Faitele of Indianapolis, Indiana pictured with To'alepais and Church Treasurer Pela Enesi-Coggins and Secretary Lisa Toilolo-Pruett.

Photo 3 - Eldest son of Faifeau, Meki John and his wife Kim, and their children Meki Jr., Meridian Ann and Macy Lynn with Pastor & Faletua.

Photo 4 - Solomona Aoelua with the church boys singing, "For He's a Jolly Good fellow" to Pastor To’alepai.
 

(Photos: Pacific Islands Trade & Investment Commission NZ / Andrew Lucas)

VANUATU: Vanuatu organic beef tops Island Influences culinary contest
Source: Pacific Islands Trade & Investment Commission NZ Press Release

NZ Army Staff Sergeant Andrew Lucas won the Island Influences culinary contest yesterday (August 25, 2009) without a fancy curly carrot peel or food stack in sight.

The no-nonsense cooking style was a direct hit with the judges who awarded Staff Sergeant Lucas, the top prize and a Silver Award in the Island Influences category of the Culinary Fare cooking competition held at the ASB Showgrounds on Monday night, with the winner being announced last night at the Auckland Ellerslie Convention Centre.

As the names were read out his heart began racing said Sergeant Lucas.
“You’re always hoping and sometimes you don’t hear your name because you haven’t won anything” but after winning he said he felt like “a stunned mullet.”

The winning dish was Seared Vanuatu Organic Beef in Kava, Horopito and Manuka salt rub.

The Island Influences category of the Culinary Fare is organised by the Pacific Islands Trade & Investment Commission NZ to promote Pacific Island ingredients to New Zealand chefs as part of the annual Hospitality Show. This year’s ingredients featured Vanuatu organic beef and nangai nuts, cassava and kava.

One of the four judges was guest judge Mark Seagar representing the Vanuatu Chefs Association (VCA) said what he was looking for was ‘real food’ and how well contestants incorporated the Pacific ingredients with local New Zealand food.

Mr Seagar is a Culinary Arts Instructor for the Austalian Pacific Technical College (APTC) tutoring in Vanuatu for the past two years. Mr Seagar is an experienced judge having been involved in judging various public and private sector culinary competitions.

The Island Influences competition winner Staff Sergeant Lucas of Hamilton is an instructor based in Palmerston North at the Joint Services Catering School. As an experienced army chef he has served 1000 troops in East Timor, 200 in Afghanistan and come November will be soldiering in Sinai.

He entered the competition to challenge himself against other competitors and to win the prize of a free trip to Vanuatu. With four other NZ Army young chefs also entered in the contest there was some friendly rivalry with students relishing the chance to beat their instructor. Sergeant Lucas said he was very happy with the student’s performance - “they did very well and they all gave 100%” he said.

The ingredients were also challenging such as the unfamiliar kava powder and Vanuatu organic beef which was extremely soft to work with compared with beef cuts he was used to. However, the delicious dilemma was solved after a few practices, kava powder used as a rub for the winning dish of Seared Vanuatu Organic Beef in a Kava, Horpito and Manuka salt rub, accompanied by taro puree, mint, watercress and nangai pesto with crisp taro chips brushed with miso and a sugar snap salsa and beef jus.

In November Sergeant Lucas leaves for 6 months stationed in Sinai, and he plans to use the prize next month with his wife Kaye and 6 year old son Ben.
The family have also already booked a P&O Cruise for his return from Sinai which also includes......Vanuatu.

The winners of the Island Influences are listed in order below:
Staff Sergeant Andrew Lucas, NZ Defence Force - Silver Medal WINNER

* Matt Fahie, Pacific International Hotel Management School - Bronze Medal
* Shirley Hines, Pandoro Wellington - Bronze Medal
* Julian Acraman, Waiora Lakeside Spa & Resort - Bronze Medal
* Krystal McMillan, NZ Defence Force - Merit Award

Photo Captions:

Photo 1 - Sergeant Andrew Lucas plating his entry during the contest.

Photo 2 - The winning dish; "Seared Vanuatu Organic Beef in a Kava, Horopito and Manuka Salt rub".
 

WORLDWIDE: Deforestation, forest degradation highlights of Fiji scoping workshop
Source: Secretariat of the Pacific Community Press Release

Deforestation and forest degradation are identified as the primary source of carbon emissions in developing countries. According to the communiqué of the August 2009 Forum Leader’s meeting in Cairns: ‘Just as deforestation is part of the problem, so reducing deforestation and providing incentives to preserve forests should be part of the solution. To defeat deforestation and forest degradation, we acknowledge that finance, technology and capacity development are necessary to underpin a step-wise process necessary to increase emissions reductions and carbon sequestration. Global carbon markets will play an important role, requiring robust methodological standards for measurable, reportable and verifiable actions.’

The reduction of carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and related technologies and financing instruments, will be the focus of discussions in a scoping workshop that will feature forest resource owners, the private sector, and various agencies from the forestry, agriculture and environment sectors. The Fiji REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) policy and scoping workshop sets out to develop national strategic directions for REDD.

The workshop is being held in Suva, Fiji Islands, from Thursday 27 August to 1 September 2009. It is supported and organised by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and GTZ (German Technical Cooperation), in close collaboration with Fiji’s Forestry Department and Department of Environment.

One of the key strategic dimensions of the REDD policy and scoping workshop will be to identify priorities for forest sector synergies combining climate change adaptation and mitigation. This is in recognition of the important role forests play in adaptation, functioning to strengthen the resilience of local communities and ecosystems against impacts of climate change.

Another goal of the workshop is to identify resources and capacities needed in order to participate in international forest carbon trade. An appropriate national forest carbon inventory system for the measurement and monitoring of forest carbon stocks and rates of deforestation and forest degradation will be identified to enable comparable analysis and consistent measurement. Such systems or methodologies will be developed in compliance with the emerging United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) criteria for REDD and project scale inventory requirements.

Current international negotiations indicate that forest conservation, sustainable forest management (SFM) and forest enhancement are likely to be included in the REDD agreement, to be finalised at the climate summit in Copenhagen in December 2009. The draft text on methodology for REDD produced in Bonn in June 2009 makes particular reference to the need to involve local communities in measuring and monitoring carbon stocks. These statements are firmly supported by Fiji Islands and will be central considerations in the national policy framework on REDD.