Optimism abounds as leaders from Fiji to Papua New Guinea welcome the new US president-elect
Joe Biden’s presidential ascension had not even been settled when Fiji’s forthright prime minister was already urging greater US action on climate change from the incoming American leader.
“Congratulations Joe Biden,” Frank Bainimarama tweeted on Saturday afternoon. “Together, we have a planet to save from a climate emergency and a global economy to build back better from Covid-19.”
Continue reading...With a 50th nation ratifying it, the treaty outlawing nuclear weapons for all countries will come into force in 90 days
Nuclear weapons will soon be illegal. Just over 75 years since their devastation was first unleashed on the world, the global community has rallied to bring into force a ban through the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Late on Saturday night in New York, the 50th country – the central American nation of Honduras – ratified the treaty.
Continue reading...With little of the homemade Pacific brew available in Australia, prices have skyrocketed, and there’s been a spike in seizures at the border
The questions are asked quietly, but urgently: “Kava, do you have any? Do you know where to get any? Have you heard what they are paying for it in Sydney?”
When Pasifika meet in Australia, it is often kava that dominates: now, it is the absence of it.
Continue reading...Alleged incident, which comes amid soaring tensions between Beijing and Taipei occurred at a reception in Suva to mark Taiwan’s national day
A fight between Chinese diplomats and a Taiwanese delegate in Fiji left the Taiwanese official in hospital with a head injury, and has again highlighted tensions between Beijing and Taipei in their struggle for influence across the Pacific.
The incident took place at a Taipei Trade Office reception at Suva’s Grand Pacific Hotel on 8 October, to mark Taiwan’s national day. Two officials from the Chinese embassy in Suva allegedly arrived uninvited and tried to photograph and film those in attendance, including at least two ministers from Fiji’s government, diplomats from other countries, international and local NGOs, and members of Fiji’s ethnic Chinese community, sources at the event told the Guardian.
Continue reading...Papua New Guinean student Lesley Wengembo has painted campus assistant Mal Nagobi for Australia’s famous Archibald prize
Alongside Malachi Nagobi, progress across the august grounds of the National Art School in Sydney is constantly – happily – impeded.
“Mal!” comes a voice, “hello Mal,” another. Every handful of steps, another person wants to stop to chat.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Allegations of brutality in Fiji’s prisons have been effectively ignored by the government’s human rights commission, insiders claim
Complaints against police and prison officers – including of a violent assault against a young inmate – have been blocked from being investigated by authorities, whistleblowers inside Fiji’s human rights watchdog have claimed, expressing concern the body is not independent of government influence.
Current and former employees of the Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission have alleged investigators are regularly refused access to victims of alleged assaults by Fijian authorities, and that some rights violations by police or corrections officers are disregarded or not investigated properly.
Continue reading...As researchers, we have been shocked to find the most remote depths of the Pacific Ocean polluted by our plastic. And it will outlive us all.
Another bottle. Yet another one. We are 200km from land, in the middle of the South Pacific, and this is the third bottle we’ve found already this morning.
Everywhere is plastic.
Continue reading...While the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic has so far spared the Pacific, its economies are in free-fall, the region’s chief diplomat warns
Beyond the health and economic crises of Covid-19, the global pandemic has the potential to cause political instability and undermine state security across the Pacific, the region’s chief diplomat has warned.
Dame Meg Taylor, secretary general of the Pacific Islands Forum, said the region’s economies were struggling with the virus-induced shocks, and a prolonged crisis could worsen existing problems of hunger, poor healthcare, and state fragility.
Continue reading...The region is largely coronavirus-free, but pandemic shutdowns and loss of tourism dollars are devastating its economies
The Covid-19 pandemic is the “job-killer of the century”, Fiji’s prime minister has said, as economies across the Pacific face collapse from economic and travel shutdowns, exacerbating existing illnesses, and potentially driving people into hunger.
While the number of cases across the Pacific remains low – several countries across the Pacific remain Covid-free and continue to enforce strict border closures – the economic impacts have devastated tourism- and import-dependent economies.
Continue reading...Prime minister looks to attract ‘VIPs’ to help restore country’s battered economy which is heavily dependent on tourism
After months of strict Covid-19 lockdowns and resolutely closed borders, Fiji is open – for billionaires.
The prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, has announced the country is looking to attract “VIPs” to help restore Fiji’s paralysed tourism-dependent economy.
Continue reading...Covid-19-related developments throughout the Pacific Islands
The total number of Covid-19 cases across the Pacific stands at 314, with new cases reported this week in New Caledonia, Northern Mariana Islands and Guam.
New Zealand is under increasing pressure, both internally and from across the region, to consider Pacific countries as part of its proposed travel ‘bubble’, alongside, or even in place of, Australia. The foreign minister, Winston Peters, initially rejected including Pacific island nations, but later backtracked.
Continue reading...Commissioner of corrections should be held accountable if reports of inhumane treatment prove correct, say rights advocates
International human rights groups have called on Fiji to launch an independent investigation into the commissioner of corrections, Francis Kean, after allegations from former officers that he routinely ordered the beating and mistreatment of prisoners.
The reports, published in the Guardian on Saturday, are based on detailed accounts from four former officers who have since come to Australia and claimed asylum.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Four former prison officers seeking asylum in Australia claim Francis Kean, brother-in-law of Fiji’s PM, ran a brutal campaign of intimidation
Four former prison officers from Fiji are seeking asylum in Australia claiming the prime minister’s brother-in-law, who is the commissioner of the corrections service, routinely ordered the beating and mistreatment of prisoners and at one point ordered them to assault a fellow staff member.
Detailed accounts given to the Guardian by the four officers claim Francis Kean, a powerful figure inside Fiji, waged a brutal campaign of intimidation, coercion, bullying and violence on both prisoners and staff – which human rights campaigners say may amount to torture – with impunity.
Continue reading...Resurgence of bartering across the Pacific with similar Facebook pages in Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu, as people lose jobs
Two piglets for a pre-loved kayak, a taxi fare in exchange for fresh produce, hot cross buns for online tutoring, an old carpet for a professional photography session, vegetable seedlings for homemade pies, and offers to have backyards cleaned for prayers.
These are just a few examples of the hundreds of barter trades that are taking place across Fiji since a Facebook page “Barter for Better Fiji” was created a few weeks ago in response to sharp falls in employment due to coronavirus. The page now has more than 100,000 members, in a country of just under 900,000 people.
Continue reading...Tourism employs about 150,000 people in the Pacific nation, but travel restrictions mean the work and the money are drying up
On a typical evening Suva’s Holiday Inn is packed with guests from all over the world. But tonight, the dining room of the hotel, one of the most popular in Fiji’s capital, which normally buzzes with the dinner rush, stands empty,
Looking lost amid the empty tables is waiter Samuela Yavala.
Continue reading...In a small Pacific country, with close-knit communities and conservative attitudes, victims of this crime are punished
Crystal* remembers the day her life came crashing down.
Crystal, 23, a former student at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, had allowed her partner to take intimate pictures of her in 2014. It was a decision she would come to regret. Two years later, those pictures were published online in a public Dropbox folder, appearing alongside roughly 900 other images of young Fijian women.
Continue reading...Tropical Cyclone Harold lashed the South Pacific island of Vanuatu , ripping off roofs and downing telecommunications, before moving towards Fiji and Tonga. The powerful cyclone made landfall on Monday in Sana province, an island north of Vanuatu's capital Port Vila, with winds as high as 235 kilometres an hour. Aerial videos showed buildings with missing roofs, with some flattened to the ground from the impact of the cyclone. The weather system weaken slightly as it moved towards Fiji but still brought high winds and flooding before moving towards Tonga
The tropical cyclone killed 27 people in Solomon Islands last week and has caused unknown destruction in Vanuatu
Cyclone Harold has levelled buildings and caused dangerous flooding across Fiji’s largest island of Viti Levu, after pummelling Vanuatu as a category-five storm on Monday.
The tropical cyclone was downgraded to category four before reaching Fijian waters. Fijian authorities ordered people to stay indoors and closed all roads on the island of Viti Levu, which is home to the country’s capital of Suva and the bulk of the Pacific nation’s population.
Continue reading...Thousands in limbo around the world as vessels seek a port at which to dock
As countries scramble to close their borders in response to the global Covid-19 pandemic, thousands of cruise ship passengers are stranded on the high seas while their vessels seek a port at which to dock.
The Norwegian Jewel, sailing under the flag of the Bahamas, has been refused permission to dock in French Polynesia, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia, and is piloting to American Samoa to refuel.
Continue reading...Ilaitia Cokanasiga, who was prevented from watching his son Joe play in the World Cup last year, says he feels betrayed
A former British army sergeant whose two sons are English rugby internationals is stuck in Fiji, prevented by immigration rules from returning to the UK to rejoin his wife as she undergoes cancer treatment.
Ilaitia Cokanasiga, who over almost 14 years in the armed forces served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, told the Guardian that his immigration difficulties had stopped him from travelling to see his 22-year-old son, Joe Cokanasiga, play for England in the World Cup in Japan last year. He is devastated at being stranded 10,000 miles away from his family, unable to support his wife as she waits for an operation on a brain tumour.
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