(o) Pacific Merry-Go-Round* and Snippets

UPDATE. See previous post. Bainimarama Wins Over M elanesian Countries.

While Qarase and Chaudhry were making hay while the sun shines (see previous post)
Bainimarama had "gone west" to meet with Melanesian Spearhead Group Prime and Foreign Ministers in Pt Vila, Vanuatu, to reassure them of the Fiji situation and hopefully gain their support against exclusion from PACER and PI Forum meetings.

With the next Forum due to meet in Cairns in early August -- and PACER high on the agenda -- Australia and New Zealand are also engaged in a little discreet lobbying. Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific, Duncan Kerr, has just finished a whistle-stop tour of Micronesian Forum member countries, Palau, Marshall Islands, Fed. States of Micronesia, where he "discussed the Forum agenda," and is on his way south to Nauru, Kiribati and Tuvalu for similar discussions.

Not to be outdone, NZ PM John Key took on Polynesia with a visit to Tonga, Samoa and Niue (where the Premier and Forum Chairperson Toke Talagi, asked for more open aid for tourism). To complete the merry-go-round, NZ Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully has just left to cover Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati and Tuvalu in almost as many days.

In this electronic age, you'd think there were cheaper ways to discuss an agenda, though the "personal touch" may help to win over wavering supporters, and Messrs Kerr, Key and McCully may learn a little more about the Pacific. There does seem to be a lot of expensive scurrying around in advance of the Forum meeting. Perhaps Pacific Island votes to keep Fiji out are not as assured as we have been told.

* Photo credit www.nca-usa.org. A merry-go-round is a fairground amusement contraption consisting of a rotating platform with seats on "horses" for passengers who merrily ride round and round. See earlier posts on PACER by typing PACER in "Search this Blog;" do the same for PI Forum, or go to Labels/Index for earlier related posts.


PERS Extended
The Public Emergency Regulations have been extended from today until August 8. I would expect PERS to be renewed again, but perhaps with a slight "softening", until the end of the year.

Fiji Holdings Ltd
FHL report they are still waiting information from continental Indian financiers on their application for a $19 million loan to purchase BP (SouthWest Pacific). They seem more confident of the loan than some people are about the wisdom of the purchase at this price, on these terms, at this time.

Police claim ...
... crime is down 50% as a result of New Methodist evangelising. This item is not worth reporting, except to say it's not worth reporting.