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(Photos:
University of Auckland / New Zealand Childcare Association) |
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NEW ZEALAND: Donated supplies reach devastated
village of Lalomanu
Source:
University of Auckland
press release via Media People NZ
Lalomanu village in Samoa, which was devastated
by the September tsunami, has received two
container loads of donated supplies from staff
and students of The University of Auckland.
Building supplies, food, kitchen utensils,
bedding, medicine and toiletries were collected
in a shipping container at the Faculty of
Education in Epsom, with donations also sent
from the University's city campus and some
schools.
Dean of the Faculty of Education, Associate
Professor Graeme Aitken, was moved to assist
Lalomanu after speaking to Ben Taufua shortly
after the tragedy. Ben, from Lalomanu, is a
member of the Pasifika Education Advisory Group,
which advises the Faculty on Pacific matters. He
lost thirteen members of his family to the
tsunami.
"It was a very humbling experience to talk to
someone who has lost so much," Dr Aitken says.
The Faculty of Education's Associate Dean
Pasifika, Dr Meaola Amituanai-Toloa, says while
the goods will assist with basic needs such as
food, shelter and clothing, there is still much
to be done before the village can fully recover.
"It will make a difference in the meantime but
we need to keep an open mind that there is still
work to be done on sustaining life for the long
term," Dr Amituanai-Toloa says. She and Dr
Aitken led a group from the Faculty of Education
to visit the village in November to see the
devastation and offer support to villagers.
"Normally there would be lots of people around
but the beach was barren and deserted with
everything stripped. Down on the beach we saw
just one survivor with his head bandaged, and we
saw very few children. The fact we couldn't
locate many people to talk to just shows how bad
it is."
With the village virtually destroyed, staff and
students were asked to donate practical goods to
help Lalomanu rebuild. Many included a personal
note and extras like children's toys, crayons
and colouring books. An empty shipping container
placed on the front lawn of the Faculty's Epsom
Campus was quickly filled, and a second was made
available to take extra goods.
Dr Amituanai-Toloa expressed her thanks on
behalf of the staff and students in the Faculty
who have lost close family members. The Faculty
has also made allowances for its large numbers
of Samoan students, some of whom interrupted
their studies to return to Samoa to support
their families.
Photo Caption: University of Auckland
Faculty of Education's Associate Dean Pasifika,
Dr Meaola Amituanai-Toloa.
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(Photo:
John McDermott) |
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SAMOA: Performances bring smiles among tsunami
devastation
Source:
Creative New Zealand
On 30 September a magnitude 8.3 earthquake and
four waves hit Samoa. At Creative New Zealand’s
Wellington office, Programme Adviser Felicity
Birch and other staff anxiously awaited news of
actor Fiona Collins, the recipient of the 2009
Creative New Zealand Pacific Arts Committee and
the National University of Samoa
artist-in-residence.
Fiona had taken up the residency only a couple
of weeks before. She was based in the relatively
undamaged area of Apia but, like the rest of the
country, was having difficulties communicating
home.
Felicity finally received word that Fiona was
fine, but it was not quite the start the actor
had expected to her three-month residency. Fiona
has been inspired to help where she could so has
made use of her residency to organise troupes of
students to perform in tsunami-affected areas.
“It's absolutely amazing being in Samoa and I
wouldn't change this time for the world...I
also, tsunami or no tsunami, will not come home
before I have to. There is so much talent here!”
Fiona has been to Lalomanu, Satitoa and Ulutogia
performing to primary schools and doing basic
drama games. These visits, she says, are easily
some of the most humbling and satisfying
performances of her career. “The kids are all
still so traumatised, so a bit of time out with
me being a clown and the students all doing
their bit to distract and entertain seemed to go
down well. It was so nice to hear them laugh and
wonderful to see their participation in the
games we played. ”
This is the third year the artists-in-residence
programme has been run in partnership with the
University of Samoa (NUS). It was set up to
provide a unique opportunity for an established
New Zealand-based Pacific artist to interact and
share his/her skills with the Samoan arts
community. Fiona’s work there includes mentoring
and providing performance workshops, as well as
researching and writing a new work.
Fiona, a senior Pacific actor, is also a
playwright, dancer and singer with experience in
leading workshops and teaching. Fiona was an
original cast member of Vula and contributed
significantly to the work’s creation.
Previous recipients of the residency are
Nathaniel Lees (2006 - Contemporary Performing
Arts) and Jim Vivieaere (2008 - contemporary
visual arts).
Photo Caption: Fiona Collins in Vula,
directed by Nina Nawalowalo.
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(Photos:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) |
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HAWAII: Freeing whale of rope took fortune and
grit
Source:
Honolulu Star Bulletin
Luck and persistence helped federal and state
officials free a young humpback whale entangled
in hundreds of feet of plastic rope.
The delicate operation was detailed yesterday by
representatives of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, Coast Guard and
state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Of concern were the stricken youngster's docile
but massive mother swimming nearby — along with
her male companion, who at one point appeared
aggravated, rapidly circling the rescue boat and
spouting.
"We had to watch that escort very carefully,"
said Ed Lyman, marine mammal response manager
with NOAA's Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale
National Marine Sanctuary, who coordinated the
rescue effort.
The operation Sunday at Penguin Bank, a
submerged shelf extending from western Molokai,
required slowing down the 25-foot whale so he
could be safely approached by boat.
At first, the officials recalled, they tried
attaching floating buoys, a modified technique
similar to barrels used on the great white shark
in the movie "Jaws."
But the yearling took three buoys down into the
ocean as it dived, they said.
Then they tried a sea anchor, typically used to
keep the bow of a boat pointed into oncoming
seas in a storm. That slowed the whale down from
roughly 5 mph to 2 mph — enough to try to remove
the rope.
A large flying cutter was attached to the end of
a sailboat mast to cut the tangled rope. At that
time the yearling's mother was idle, but her
escort appeared aggravated, rapidly circling the
lifeboat and doing trumpet blows, the officials
said.
Aboard the lifeboat were Lyman, along with David
Schofield, marine mammal stranding response
coordinator of the National Marine Fisheries
Service Pacific Islands Regional Office, and
David Nichols, acting sanctuary co-manager. All
had to make sure the yearling's tail would not
brush the bow of the boat as they disentangled
the rope from the mammal.
About 350 feet of rope was removed, seven feet
of which was wrapped between and around the
whale's mouth.
The agencies had been tracking the whale's
movement since last Tuesday after it was spotted
by a sunrise whale tour off of Maui. Rough sea
conditions prevented team members from
responding sooner.
The yearling was tagged with a telemetry buoy
that had a GPS and satellite transmitter
attached, helping officials track its movement.
Sunday's sea conditions were ideal for crew
members to rescue the yearling humpback whale
after it was spotted from a Coast Guard HH-65
Dolphin helicopter.
Twelve humpback whales have been rescued since
2003. Officials said whale rescues are not
always successful.
"This was a huge cooperative effort," said
Schofield. "We were lucky."
Photo Captions:
Photo 1 - A crewman from a Coast Guard
patrol boat peers into the water to look at an
entangled humpback whale in waters west of
Molokai.
Photo 2 - Federal and state workers freed
the entangled yearling humpback whale on Sunday.
About 350 feet of rope was removed, seven feet
of which was wrapped between and around the
whale's mouth.
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NAURU: Nauru MPs commit to ratifying CEDAW
Source:
Secretariat of
the Pacific Community Press Release
‘CEDAW enables the full and complete development
of a country through maximum participation of
women on equal terms with men in all fields,’
said the President of Nauru, the Hon. Marcus
Stephen, at the opening of a two-day information
and dialogue session for Nauru parliamentarians
on CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women). Nauru is
one of only three Pacific Island countries that
have not ratified CEDAW, but by the end of the
dialogue the MPs had re-affirmed the
government’s commitment to ratifying the
convention within a set timeframe.
Meeting in Nauru on November 30 and December 1,
the parliamentarians, assisted by staff from the
Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team of the
Secretariat of the Pacific Community (RRRT),
assessed the advantages and challenges for Nauru
of ratifying CEDAW. The government has already
identified ratification as an element of the
Women and Development priority area in the
National Strategic Development Plan. During the
dialogue, MPs considered in detail how the CEDAW
process could assist in indentifying and
addressing current gaps in national laws and
policy relating to violence against women,
women’s reproductive health rights and political
participation by women.
They also recognised that ratifying CEDAW will
pose some challenges for the small island
nation, particularly given the lack of resources
and technical capacity to meet the associated
implementation and reporting requirements. For
example, the Minister for Justice, Health and
Sports, Hon. Mathew Batsiua MP, said the cost of
sending a delegation to Geneva to report on
Nauru’s progress in implementing CEDAW would be
as much as the cost of running Nauru’s
Able-Disable Centre. He recommended that a
special sitting of the CEDAW committee be held
in the Pacific to enable most Pacific Islands to
report in a timely manner.
MPs acknowledged RRRT’s technical support and
looked forward to continuous partnership with
key regional organisations and donor agencies in
advancing gender equality through ratification
of CEDAW in Nauru.
For more information, please contact Lionel
Aingemea (email: [email protected]) or Sandra
Bernklau, RRRT/SPC Programme Manager (Tel. +679
3305582 or email: [email protected]).
Background
The Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT), which
is a programme of the Secretariat of the Pacific
Community, works with partners in eight focus
countries (Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa,
Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu) to
offer training and expert advice on the
development of human rights advocacy, lobbying,
mobilisation strategies and the drafting of
national human rights legislation. The team
provides human rights training, technical
support, and policy and advocacy services
tailored specifically for the Pacific region.
Its mission is ‘to seek a Pacific region that is
respected for the quality of its governance, the
sustainable management of its resources, the
full observance of democratic values and for its
defence and promotion of human rights’.
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(Photo:
Reuters) |
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TONGA: Tonga still without full ferry service
Source:
TVNZ
As the Tongan Royal Commission resumes its
inquiry into the sinking of the ferry Princess
Ashika four months ago, locals are no closer to
having a full replacement inter-island service.
The Princess Ashika suddenly sank while on a
regular run between Nuku`alofa and the northern
island of Ha'apai on August 5, with the loss of
74 lives.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry has taken a
two-week break after hearing damning evidence
from witnesses, many of them surviving
passengers, about the unsafe state of the
vessel.
Some reported seeing water pouring on to the
cargo deck through holes, and others told of a
complete lack of safety or evacuation
instructions.
The ferry's captain told the inquiry he was
asleep for much of the fatal sailing and was
awoken only five minutes before the ferry
overturned and sank.
John Jonesse, the New Zealander who was managing
director of Shipping Corporation of Polynesia,
bought the 37-year-old ferry on behalf of the
Tongan government, but said he never looked into
the state of the vessel's hull.
The Princess Ashika was only ever intended to be
a stop-gap measure while the Tongan government
waited for a new ferry to be built in Japan.
Local newspaper Matangi Tonga reported that the
new ferry would not be ready for at least
another year.
This leaves a limited inter-island service in
the hands of private operator Uata Shipping.
The areas hardest hit are the remote Niuafo'ou
and Niuatoputapu islands in the north of Tonga.
Niuatoputapu was still recovering from the
devastating tsunami which hit the region at the
end of September, claiming nine lives and
destroying homes.
Reconstruction had been made more difficult
because there was no reliable ferry service, the
newspaper said.
Tenders have been called internationally for a
replacement service but the Nuku'alofa office of
New Zealand aid agency NZAID said nothing had
been confirmed and negotiation was continuing.
Meanwhile, the Shipping Corporation of Polynesia
(SCP) said an interim ferry service was now
badly needed for the northernmost islands as
school holidays and Christmas approached.
"This is a busy time of the year for
inter-island travellers who may want to return
home for Christmas or visit families, but we
have no ferry," said acting CEO Tali'ofa
Kolopeaua.
In a letter to the editor, one reader said that
in light of the Princess Ashika tragedy, the
Tongan government had issued such restrictive
requirements for a replacement that it would be
unappealing to those considering tendering for
the service, particularly on a temporary basis.
"The SCP may have done well to learn some very
tough lessons lately, but it shouldn't
completely lose its head in the process," he
said.
Photo Caption: Princess Ashika, the ferry
that sank 86 km northeast of the Tongan capital
Nuku'alofa.
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(Photo:
2009 Pacific Conference on the Human Face of the Global Economic Crisis) |
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WORLDWIDE: Enhancing knowledge sharing on the
impact of the crisis in the Pacific
Source:
United Nations Development Programme Press Release
How does a woman in Kiribati cope with the
impact of the current global economic crisis?
What can governments do to protect their
education and health systems in times of
financial decline? What is green growth and what
role does it have in the Pacific? These
questions and many others will be answered at
the Pacific Conference on the Human face of the
Global Economic Crisis.
Discussions amongst key stakeholders including
Pacific governments, development partners, CROP
agencies and the media around these issues have
been ongoing since 2008, when the world
witnessed one of the most severe economic crises
since the Great Depression. Today, a new website
to enhance knowledge sharing on these issues in
the lead-up to the Pacific Conference was
launched in Suva.
The conference, which is organised by the
Government of Vanuatu and the United Nations,
with support from regional partner agencies,
will take place in Port Vila from February
10-12, 2010.
In launching the website,
http://vanuatu2010.un.org.fj/, Dr Will Parks, UN
Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Pacific’s Chief of
Policy, Advocacy, Planning and Evaluation (PAPE),
said that behind every official statistic on the
impact of the crisis in the Pacific is a family
facing hardship. “This website is about putting
a human face to the challenges faced by the
Pacific and sharing the latest knowledge about
how best societies and governments can cope now
and prepare for the future,” said Dr Parks.
“It is still uncertain how Pacific Island
economies will fair in 2010. It may well be that
the full brunt of the global economic crisis has
yet to be felt here. With the conference as one
event among many initiatives, Pacific Island
governments, the United Nations and development
partners are working together to exploit this
small window of opportunity to put together more
thoughtful and effective policies that not only
buffer the effects of the current crisis but
also build resilience for future crises,” Dr
Parks added.
The conference will focus on three broad themes.
The first is to address the hardships faced by
women, children, and other vulnerable groups.
The second is to find ways to enable Pacific
governments to respond in creative and
sustainable ways to the crisis. This includes
promoting green growth and social safety nets.
The final theme is to build the region’s
resilience in addressing future crises.
The website http://vanuatu2010.un.org.fj/, is a
resource for the Pacific governments,
development partners, the media, civil society
organizations as well as other stakeholders. It
provides the conference agenda and documents and
resources for the media and a link to The Human
Face page on Facebook, created to better engage
the youth in the discussion around the global
economic crisis in the Pacific.
Background Information
The Pacific conference on “The Human Face of the
Global Economic Crisis” will be held in Port
Vila, Vanuatu from February 10-12, 2010. More
than 200 people including government ministers,
parliamentarians, development partners, UN
agencies, youth and women’s groups and civil
society organizations are expected to attend.
The conference is organized by the Government of
Vanuatu with support from the United Nations,
Asian Development Bank, Pacific Islands Forum
Secretariat, Secretariat of the Pacific
Community and the University of the South
Pacific.
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