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Donor power: It is amazing to see it at work: the power of donors. Take the PIPSO (Pacific Islands Private Sector Organisation) meeting, to be held in Samoa, this month. Sources close to the organisers of the two-day meet, say not only is it funded by the European Union, the Europeans also wanted to dictate the agenda of the meeting. “If we did not put our foot down, they would have just done that. Not only that, the co-ordinator of the workshop is based in South Africa, so things have to go to Europe, then to Africa for vetting and approval. It is time consuming and importantly they don’t know the Pacific well enough to be making decisions. They don’t even know that getting someone from Niue to Samoa, could take several days to get to Apia because of our airline schedules,” one source told WHISPERS. “They also think we’re a bunch of idiots. Imagine, they have to get someone from Sweden just to do the photocopying for that meeting. That money used to get him from Sweden to Samoa, could be used to get more Pacific Islanders to the meeting.”
Nabbed in the USA: Will Hans Joachim Keil still proudly wear his American military medals at the next ANZAC Day parade in Apia? The respected Samoan politician, businessman and former pilot was jailed during a recent visit to the USA and accused of not really being an American citizen. He carried both American and Samoan passports. Mr Keil spent four years serving in the US Air Force in the Vietnam War and apparently first applied for American citizenship way then. Has the great American Homeland Security machine blundered again?
Pitt media moves: Yes, that is George Pitt, the most successful Cook Islands media operator, popping up in Samoa and Tonga. The Pitt Media Group he founded runs Cook Islands Television, Radio Cook Islands stations, and a couple of newspapers from a two-storey building Pitt built in Rarotonga. These are run these days by his wife, the broadcasting and management specialist Jeane Matenga. Meanwhile, Pitt is believed to have invested in broadcasting in Samoa and to be looking at Pitt Media possibilities in Tonga. He’s also having the last laugh over a few people who said this churchman-businessman could not succeed in the media.
Nickel wars? With world prices high, nickel deposits in Isabel province in the Solomon Islands have become valuable. Companies scrambling for the mining rights are battling in the courts and to woo landowners. Now things are also getting physical. Former Solomons Mines Minister Basil Manelegua, a consultant for mining interests, was in August badly bashed in Honiara. Now with Manelegua out of hospital, details about the incident are being revealed. The Solomon Star quoted informed sources as saying Manelegua was bashed by two expats linked to a mining company. The man himself was staying quiet, saying police told him not to talk to the media.
Cookie views: They’re a weird mob in the Cooks, it sometimes seems. Happy to whiz off to New Zealand and Aussie by the thousands and enjoy the life there. But different story when people come to the Cooks. PM Jim Marurai’s daughter-in-law Elma is the latest to run into local attitudes. She was charged NZ$1000 for giving birth to a daughter at Rarotonga Hospital. Local bureaucrats insisted she had to pay because she was a “visitor”. This despite being married to a local, living in Raro for six years—and paying her taxes all that time.
Porno show shock: Imagine waiting earnestly for a slide presentation and when it begins, all you see are nude pictures. Well, that’s what happened at the premiers’ summit in the Solomons. Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Province Government, Fred Ganate, had to apologise to premiers after pornographic pictures came on in a slide presentation he was showing them. A government source attending the conference said Mr Ganate apologised to the premiers but denied being in possession of pornographic materials. “The pictures were actually stored in a flash drive and police have already confiscated it,” the source said. Mr Ganate, who was chairman of the conference, was stood down as a result of the incident, which sparked anger at the conference. The source said the premiers accepted Mr Ganate’s apology, but Prime Minister Dr Derek Sikua, who was there to open the conference, reportedly suspended him.
Maiava’s UNESCAP job: It appears that a former deputy secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat loves Fiji so much that he doesn’t want to return to his homeland—Samoa. Iosefo Maiava, who is currently Nauru’s government secretary, is expected to be back in Fiji sometime later this year as the new UNESCAP boss. He is completing his two-year term in Nauru at the end of the year. He went to Nauru from the Forum Secretariat.
Voting pays: There could be more than the usual benefits to voting in the Solomon Islands. Why else would so many workers in Honiara happily take days off work without pay to go home to vote in a by-election on the island of Malaita? Tales of candidates chartering boats to ship “their” voters home are not uncommon.
Dutt’s right: The Commonwealth Journalists Association, which claims to promote media freedom and protect the rights of journalists, has a rather strange Pacific Islands representative on its executive board. Their rep, one Reggie Dutt, actually works for the Fiji Human Rights Commission. That’s right, the same body happily backing Fiji’s military-installed regime in its attacks on Fiji media freedom and journalists.
Double standards: New Zealand claims to be one of the least corrupt countries in the world, and frequently talks about problems of “governance” in other Pacific countries. But with findings of deceit against the country’s foreign minister, and fraud, police and parliamentary investigations into political parties (as well as the immigration department), leading Pacific diplomats in Wellington are asking when they’ll see greater humility from Kiwis who criticise the region’s governments. One diplomat told WHISPERS of his doubts. The Labour-led government, he points out, passed “retrospective validating legislation” to protect their illegal over-spending of taxpayers money in the 2005 election campaign. Various ministers have been sacked for lying, improperly claiming allowances, and breaking other laws. He says government’s criticism of the Pacific won’t change. He also says Kiwis have better excuses.
Talk about interference: A local PNG newspaper reported that the European Union had officially complained to the PNG Government about PNG Telikom’s monopoly in blocking Irish company Digicel from having its own international gateway in PNG. European Union Commissioner for Trade Peter Mandelson, based in Brussels, apparently wrote a letter of complaint to the PNG Government through Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Abal on the issue. Mr Mandelson said the entrenchment of Telikom’s monopoly over the international gateway for telecommunications to and from PNG, was a breach of PNG’s commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). His complaints have arisen because Digicel is a company ultimately owned by interests in Ireland, a member country of the European Union.
Who’s next? First, the foreign minister has been moved to another ministry. Then, the foreign secretary. He’s been side-transferred or demoted to become the roving ambassador. Is this head rolling exercise anything to do with the advice given to Fiji’s strongman, Frank Bainimarama, in relation to the Niue Pacific Islands Leaders Forum meeting?
MSG update: What’s happening at the MSG Secretariat? Five months after the MSG Secretariat opened its doors in Port Vila, it’s still a one-man show. Director-General Rima Ravusiro does not even have a personal assistant employed. He is trying to recruit more staff. The secretariat was to have recruited a legal and trade officer, but it’s understood these appointments have not been formalised.
Kevin 747: Australian PM Kevin Rudd, has a new name. He is being renamed by an Australian newspaper as Kevin 747 because of the amount of travels he has done since he assumed power. And in New Zealand, will we see Iron Lady Helen Clark back in power? NZ goes to the polls on November 8 and with one month to go before the elections, Ms Clark is hoping the Nationals won’t get in.
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