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Tourism threat: Just when long-suffering tourism operators of Western Province, Solomon Islands, thought things were getting better, a new threat has emerged. Not ethnic conflict and riots in distant Honiara. Not problems with domestic flights. But crocodiles. The increasing fatal attacks on locals have reached the Vonavona lagoon, a popular tourism spot. The Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission (RAMSI), the only people allowed to have guns in the Solomons, are now helping kill problem crocs.
Copenhagen blackout: Was there a boycott of certain Copenhagen climate change summit media coverage going on in some Pacific Islands newsrooms? Seems there was much unhappiness over the way certain people were selected for reporting trips organised by two of those alphabet soup regional bodies SPREP and SPC. Plus a lack of transparency in revealing who was going. A backlash resulted in various newsrooms ignoring SPREP/SPC organised coverage and instead using news from elsewhere.
More from Copenhagen: The Cook Islands might be one of the smaller nations in the region (and some don’t even recognise it as an independent country). But never let it be said Cook Islands women aren’t resourceful when it comes to getting places. At least seven were at the global climate summit in Copenhagen. They included three former Cooks journalists now carving out new roles as campaigners and activists: Raro-resident Ulamila Wragg, Samoa-resident Nanette Woonton and New Zealand resident Lisa Lahari-Williams.
Pacific voice, foreign faces: Islands nations of the Pacific put up a strong voice at last month’s failed UN negotiations for a new climate change treaty but what stood out as a sore thumb was the excessive number of non-Pacific faces behind the islands voices. Tuvalu literally forced an adjournment at the emotionally charged negotiations in Copenhagen, but its lead negotiator happens to be an Australian lawyer. Same thing could be said of Papua New Guinea’s chief negotiator, labelled by some as one of the leading “carbon cowboys” of New York. Similar non-Pacific voices could be found in the negotiation teams of Cook Islands, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands and even Fiji! The presence in Copenhagen of an expatriate whose contract in Tarawa had expired just before the December negotiations particularly raised some eyebrows.
Airline blues: Much self praise in Samoa over the continuing success of its joint venture airline with Australia’s Virgin group, Polynesian Blue. Not so much noise about the fact that the Samoans had to turn to Fiji’s Air Pacific to restore their Apia-Honolulu-Apia link. Pacific Blue is apparently only interested in high yield routes. The Australian-controlled airline rejected flights to Honolulu despite the many Samoan connections there.
SPC exec Brussels bound? Could a senior manager at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community be heading for a top job at the headquarters of the ACP in Brussels? The whisper is that the cocktail diplomacy in the seat of the European Union had gone into overdrive in recent weeks in anticipation of a Pacific candidate for the position of deputy SG of the ACP Secretariat. PNG’s former foreign minister Sir John Kaputin is finishing his term this March and an African has been appointed to succeed him, leaving the two offices of deputies vacant for a candidate each from the Caribbean and the Pacific. Initially, Tonga’s top envoy in London was interested in the job, but the whisper is that endorsement was not forthcoming from Nuku’alofa and so Suva has been asked to submit a name.
Marurai moves: It had to happen. The only surprise is that it took so long. That’s the bust up in the Cook Islands Government, with amiable PM Jim Marurai finally sacking autocratic ex-PM Sir Terepai Maoate as Deputy PM. Tensions long simmered just below the surface in this uneasy alliance. Marurai finally moved as embarrassing details of the fuel supply scandal known locally as Toagate emerged. What happens next? In the opportunistic world of Cooks politics anything and anything. Meanwhile, Marurai still calls the shots and remains as relaxed as ever. The former high school principal said he was planning to head home from Rarotonga to Mangaia for a holiday as scheduled.
Where have all the diplomats gone? Government officials in Solomon Islands who attended a recent function were wondering whether they needed an eye check with their eye doctors. One of the dignitaries who spoke at the ADB function was the nation’s minister of Infrastructure Development [Public Works]. The occasion was to mark the signing of a multimillion dollar road project to be administered by the Manila-based lending institution. As is customary, invitations were sent out to resident ambassadors and high commissioners, particularly from donor countries who contributed to the funding. On such an occasion, it is only fitting that the presence of these diplomats are acknowledged. Reading a prepared speech, the minister dutifully acknowledged the presence of each head of mission by name. Nothing wrong, except there were no diplomats in the audience. A ripple of laughter ripped through the crowd, but it did little to stop the minister from completing the rituals. Officials who attended were wondering whether the minister had a pair of eyes that see what an ordinary eye could not.
Media watch: Australian news media were quick to highlight all the drama of the Australian Federal Police child sex claims against Julian Moti and the pursuit of him. But now a judge has thrown out the charges, they have been slower to investigate allegations of efforts to frame the constitutional and international law expert. Why all the fuss over this Fiji-born Australian citizen? Moti’s expertise apparently threatened to raise questions about the legal status of the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI). His appointment as attorney-general by RAMSI critic and then Solomons PM Manasseh Sogavare so worried Australia’s high commissioner, he requested the Aussie federal police investigation. The question now might be when is someone going to investigate the Australian Federal Police given numerous recent questions about their conduct?
Nadi training: V Australia’s new flights to Fiji may not be only for all the usual reasons, like carrying passengers and freight and making money. The airline is using its brand-new Boeing 777-300ERs on the Sydney-Nadi-Sydney service daily. According to talk in the aviation world, the flights also help get V Australia’s own pilots quickly certified for command. It can then phase out expensive temporary captains it has to hire till then. The short-haul daily daytime service to Fiji and back provides the required number of takeoffs and landings much quicker than the overnight long-haul flights from Australia to the USA and back.
No, not Apia: The Samoans would love to replace Fiji as the home of regional organisations. They make no secret of that. But many of the international and regional people now working in the said Suva-based organisations also privately make no secret of the fact they prefer Suva over Apia. Suva offers much more than Apia. That WHISPERS hears is one of the reasons efforts to move some SOPAC—Secretariat for the Pacific Islands Applied Science Commission—work from Suva to Samoa have proved so difficult.
More on regional organisations...WHISPERS’ agents heard of the possibility of relocating some Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat staff who have been denied visas by the Fiji government, which hosts the secretariat, to operate from the Apia-based Secretariat of the Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). And the SPREP top brass will be in Suva sometime this month to discuss this.
Fly the Falcon: With the PNG economy going for another strong growth this year, its leaders are certainly showing it in the style they now travel. The Somare Government has just taken delivery of its new Falcon 900 EX and whispers from Jackson’s International Airport reveal the executive aircraft is being put to “good” use. So much so that the country’s top man now prefer to fly Falcon from Singapore to Port Moresby, instead of the normal commercial flights of its national carrier. The new aircraft is said to have cost the PNG taxpayers a cool US$40 million. Pictures of new jet could be seen here: http://malumnalu.blogspot.com/2009/11/first-pictures-of-controversial-falcon.html
Crash revelations: Recent disclosures from the report on an Air Vanuatu Britten Norman Islander crash make interesting reading for those who fly on small planes in mountainous islands. It indicates the lone pilot detoured to pick up stranded passengers and their luggage at a remote airstrip on Santo. He then took off overweight. Result: the plane was unable to clear a ridge enroute and crashed, killing the pilot and one of his nine passengers. The report also indicates the pilot quickly shut down power when he realised he could not escape a crash. This lessened the impact into bush and trees and probably saved lives. The New Zealand investigators raised a series of operational questions for Air Vanuatu to look at.
Change of tune: Current chair of the Pacific Islands Forum must be seething with rage at the performance of some of his islands colleagues at the recent international negotiations on carbon emission in Copenhagen. Although Kevin Rudd got all 14 Forum leaders to agree to his government’s position at capping global temperature at 2 degrees Celcius, most islands leaders disassociated themselves from the Forum position at the UN negotiations last month.
A senior Kiribati negotiator even accused Australia and New Zealand of not doing enough in climate change adaptation projects in the islands, although she sang Canberra and Wellington’s praises at the Cairns Forum last August.
A leader from neighbouring Tuvalu also changed tune in Europe last month saying its Forum position last August was merely taken for the sake of reaching a “consensus”.
PINA’s expulsion mood: So with the top body of the islands’ media grouping PINA concluding its first board meeting, what could be reported? Well, it has been whispered that top on the agenda was making good on a resolution taken at last July’s PINA summit in Vanuatu for the expulsion of Fiji’s Ministry of Information as a PINA member. For its role in enforcing strict censorship in all of the country’s media organisations, most of whom are also PINA members. The resolution calls for suspension of the ministry from PINA membership. While there was support for the strong action, board members were however urged to seek legal advice on whether such move was provided for under the body’s constitution.
Opportunity cost: An investor is looking at the possibility of investing in money things after investing in sun, sea and sand activities. He has a group of partners who wish to create a niche for identifying market demands then training or preparing people to take on the challenges. He is also aware of problems at the local universities with regards to ability to pay highly qualified lecturers for the positions at our economics schools. One school of economics is understood to be recruiting recently graduated economists to teach our economic hopefuls. In economics, they call that opportunity cost—musicians recall the lyrics of that song—When one door is closed, the other is open.
Telecom wars: bemobile’s success winning the second mobile phone licence in Solomon Islands must have caused it added satisfaction. It beat favourites Digicel, with whom it is having a fierce war in neighbouring Papua New Guinea. bemobile recently gave Port Moresby news media photos of burnt remains of its handsets. Digicel allegedly obtained these handsets from customers through a swap scheme and then burnt them.
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