PNG, But For How Long? With the provinces of East New Britain, New Ireland and Enga having been given autonomy, and with the Bougainville referendum on Independence next year, this Lowy Institute article asks about the future of the country's provinces.
■ Also from the Lowy Institute, different perspectives on Pacific regional security. Extract: "It is also clear that Pacific island countries do not necessarily share the same concerns as Canberra, Wellington, and Washington. Large-scale Chinese investment has provided much needed opportunities, particularly in infrastructure development."
COOK ISLANDS.
■ Nurses suspended after running a very successful regional forum. Decorum?
FIJI and BANABANS.
■ NZ will contribute 13 observers to the Multinational Observer Group which will report on the Fiji General Election.
■ Amnesty International calls for investigation into death
of football player held in police custody. It wants the result to be made public.
■ BANABANS ON RABI Island, FIJI. A 4-minute video on phosphate extraction and deception by the UK, Australia and NZ on Banaba, now part of Kiribati; Banaban relocation to Rabi Island off Vanua Levu, Fiji, and how they are now exporting Banaban virgin coconut oil, as a means of improving living standards.
KIRIBATI.
■ Coconuts, breadfruit, pandanus now hard to find.
NEW CALEDONIA.
■ Referendum on independence
■ NIUE CELEBARATES IN ITS OWN WAY
■ PACER PLUS. Warning about Pacer Plus Trade deal. We stand to lose millions. See also. NZ signs first.
■ Should Government Ministers run private businesses while in office?
■ Samoa exports bananas to NZ, the first time in 50 years.
■ Over 2,000 Samoans are now working in NZ under three work permit employment initiatives: (1) the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme is by far the largest with 1,800 Samoans working in horticulture and viticulture, (2) Special work visa arrangements. Our largest meat processing company Silver Fern Farms has been taking Samoan workers since 2007 and currently employs about 200. And finally (3) the Pacific Partnership Programme rolled out earlier this year allows employers to recruit Samoan carpenters.
SOLOMON ISLANDS.
■ Much faster internet next year.
■ Fish piracy a growing problem.
■ Conflict resolution and domestic violence in remote areas where 80% of the people live.
■ Reflections by a VSA volunteer in the Solomons
■ TOKELAU. Reviving the language.
TONGA.
■ Valuable mats (fala fihu) stolen from home.
■ Rare Video of a royal funeral. Perhaps store for later viewing.
■ PM and six ministers dodge impeachment.
■ Monday 5 Nov. Constitution Day. Tonga will celebrate its 145th anniversary.
TUVALU. Families now limited to two buckets of water a day. Text and video.
VANUATU.
■ Government services to decentralise to the six provinces.
NZ Aid. Cameron Slater (right-wing Whaleoil blogger) thinks Government's Pacific aid programme needed to change
Pacific economies away from 1970s Muldoonist style excise and duty driven economies and modernising economic thinking. Funding for regional development projects, like we do in New Zealand, should also be used for the Pacific. Aid just creates bureaucracy, but funding investment in businesses coupled with freeing up moribund economies would provide a far better result.
Aid is condescending and robs people of dignity. Building capacity and developing business is the best way to help.
Sounds good. Half truths. But no knowledge of the diversity of Pacific economies and business, and apparently little knowledge of how our aid is presently spent, and what Winston Peters intends.
--ACW
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