CEO Reforms; King of Tonga Bar; Hope canned...


CEOs re-reforms: Word is that the Fiji government is now badly disenchanted with the way reforms that brought about the hiring of CEOs as replacements for the old fashioned permanent secretaries are panning out. Meanwhile, deputy CEOs are moaning that while CEOs collect glory and massive performance bonuses, they do all the work for half the pay.

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Tavita controversy: The appointment by the Samoa PM's office of journalist Terry Tavita, ex-Samoa Observer, as assistant chief executive officer in charge of the government's public relations division is causing a stir in Samoa. After the Samoa Observer published a letter from the PM's CEO to the Public Service Commission (PSC) that ordered the appointment, the PSC wrote back saying that according to the rules, all government jobs had to be advertised. Now the PM's office wants to know how the paper got hold of the letter.

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Kiwi slimy blighters: New Zealand, the land of very patient sheep and some other agriculture, is justifiably nervous about the arrival from Pacific Islands ports of plant and animal diseases. The worry isn't a one way one. In October, seven giant African snails were found aboard an Air New Zealand jet which arrived at Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. Quarantine officials put the slimy blighters in a bin to be sent back to New Zealand. Where did the snails hail from? Possibly Samoa, where the voracious plant eaters made an unwelcome landing many moons ago and where the Kiwi airline's aircraft set down too.

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Airline development: Papua New Guinea's airline industry is about to shrink slightly with the merger of two significant domestic airlines. Which will link with which? John Wild, of Airlines Papua New Guinea, is on record as saying he is interested in a merger.

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More airline news: Travellers of the ilk inclined to visit off-the-track places can again reach Kiritimati Island by air following the cessation of a flight that operated weekly from Honolulu. In September, Air Pacific began a weekly flight leaving Nadi at 11.55pm on Tuesdays to reach Kiritimati about 4.5 hours later. The jet returns via Honolulu, but a Kiritimati/Tarawa flight is being contemplated. The new service is a great relief for the Kiribati government, since working as it does from Tarawa it tends to have problems in communicating with Kiritimati, 3222 kilometres to the east. The flight is a joint venture, which means Kiribati chips in towards the cost. Kiritimati hosts one of the world's greatest seabird colonies and is rated by sports fishermen as the world's best bonefishing ground.

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Future of Air Fiji: Some people are wondering about the future of Air Fiji and Sun Air now that Air Pacific has decided return to Fiji's domestic service scene with, say a couple of 40-70 seater planes. Air Fiji's position is one that arouses qualms in the tummies of small local shareholders. Fifty percent owned by a company half-owned by the Tuvalu Government and half by a Chinese aircraft dealer, plus a few more foreign investors, its only international rights are Fiji/Tuvalu.

It was recently deprived of a Suva/Tonga scheduled service licence when Air Pacific moved back on the route. But it gets by with a charter service to Vava'u. Minor shareholders are wondering why on earth it has decided to obtain two Chinese built 60-seater propjets flying nowhere in the world outside China (although three are going to Zimbabwe) because they don't have airworthiness certificates for any country. Not in Fiji either?

The civil aviation department is digging its heels against the aircraft, but then the government is mightily anxious to please China.

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King of Tonga Bar: Intelligence from Melbourne (that's somewhere in Australia) is that it has acquired the King of Tonga Bar, described in a newspaper review as possibly the smallest bar in Melbourne. It is “squeezed in between the shops on Elwood's Tennyson Street (wherever Elwood is) with a décor that “reflects the bar's title” with Pacific-themed stuff on the walls, along with inexplicably the occasional Asian one (the writer obviously isn't aware of the number of Chinese in Tonga and some other parts of PICdom). The bar has a “distinctly local feel” (whether a Melbourne or Tongan one is not made clear). Only one brand of beer is on tap. But the cocktail list is “extensive and imaginative,” featuring such PIC ingredients as coconut cream (imported from Thailand we bet) and Kahlua (is that really PIC?). Tapas are available (so Tongan!) and a “fine breakfast of scrambled eggs with salmon.” No pig trotters and taro chips? Anyway, good luck to the King of Tonga Bar. Does it have His Majesty's permission to so designate itself?

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USPSA playing favourites? The present USPSA (University of the South Pacific Students Association) president, Ponifasio Vasa, is refuting allegations of favouritism against him from the USP Muslim Students Association. He was accused of allowing Samoan students to use a playing field and tent pre-booked by the Muslims, and of declaring that Muslim students did not exist. Vasa explained that actually he didn't mean that Muslims actually didn't exist, just that they were part of the Indian Students Association. Now the Muslims are moaning that they feel like “outcasts.” Vasa says USP hosts 16 recognised student cultural groups and that these have first priority. That sounds as if the Muslims rank 17th, or somewhere else down the line but aren't recognised as such.

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Still on USP: A shocking revelation at the University of the South Pacific Students Association. Auditors can't account for about F$90,000 of the association's spending in the year to April 2005. They fear possible “potential fictitious expenditures, some of which (shock) may never be recovered. Expenditures included $26,695 in grants to the USP's Indian Students Association. The USPSA's former president and treasurer were tossed out from office because of unhappiness with the performance of their duties. A complaint has gone to the police.

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Guam, here we come: Japan and the United States are reported to have agreed on the transfer of 5000 American troops from Okinawa, which doesn't like being a United States base, to Guam, which without the increase presence of American nuclear submarines, bombers and hopefully an aircraft carrier would be in a very parlous state, a state that presently grips it anyway.

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Fiji loathed: Talking about his experiences recently, one of Fiji's most experienced diplomats, Berenado Vunibobo, confirmed something we've often whispered. Fiji's Pacific bros hate it for “hogging” all the regional outfits it hosts. That's the way of it, the Pacific Way, that is. The latest arrival is an international conservation outfit.

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The American connection: Yes! The Polynesians did make it to South America and back, according to a newly published sweet potato research. This shows, that sweet potato spuds, now a daily dietary core in a lot of Pacific places and originating in Peru, also the home of the common or garden spud, appeared in Polynesia about a thousand years ago, way before it popped up in New Guinea to begin hopping through Melanesia to land in Vanuatu and Fiji about 200 years ago.

It was introduced to New Guinea probably by Portuguese sailors some time in the 1600s, having been brought from the Americas across the Atlantic and into South East Asia. That means that Polynesian sailors must have hit South America to take it to eastern Polynesia. But on the other hand, could it be that a few Peruvian first made it to French Polynesia, Kontiki-style?

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Mr Right Guy: This is a serious matter, but Mr Right Guy, a CD-Rom produced by the Pacific Community and Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, could become a huge popular hit. Starring Vanuatu's Wan Smolbag folk, it is intended as “a starting point for discussing issues, finding facts, breaking down myths and making posters. It “navigates” users through such heart-breakers as “sexual harassment, safe sex, condom use, HIV/AIDS and STIs, relationships, parents, children and prostitution; alcohol and risks; and consequences.” Here's hoping that Pacific TV stations that burden their audiences with such nightmares as Shortland Street will switch to Mr Right Guy as a more socially significant and beneficial substitute. And perhaps by now, Wan Smolbag has been signed up by such future hits as Mr Wrong Guy, Miss Right Girl, Miss Wrong Girl, Gay Times-Bad Times, and “Oh what a Fright; I didn't do it Right.”

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Yazaki puts money into hotel: After helping beef up Samoa's economy by employing a couple of thousand people employed in its factory for assembling electrical bits for motor cars, the Japanese company Yazaki is believed to be preparing to move into another sector of the economy. The whisper is tourism, that's to say putting money into a hotel. This intelligence appears to have been borne out when Yazaki VIPs accompanied by tourism minister Hans Joachim Keil last month appeared at the PM's office for a meeting with him.

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Unknown war hero: Is this a positive or negative event? The unknown American soldier buried as an unknown soldier in a place of special honour under the United States war memorial in Honiara is no longer unknown. Subject to DNA tests, he was Sergeant John Harold Branic, killed in action on August 19, 1942. Items, including a ring, found by a Solomon Islander at the spot where Sergeant Branic was reportedly first buried, have led to the identification of the remains under the memorial. His home town of Madera, Pennsylvania, will welcome him home.