Category Archives: Tonga

Tonga’s drug crisis: Why a tiny Pacific island is struggling with a meth epidemic

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Spike in drug use has caused problems across Tongan society, with arrests doubling in two years and children severely affected

After more than four decades spent living in New Zealand, Ned Cook knew it was time to return to his home country of Tonga.

His country was in the grip of a methamphetamine epidemic that was ripping families apart and overrunning the country’s hospitals and jails. Cook, a trained drug and alcohol abuse counsellor, with a history of drug abuse himself, had been preparing for years to return to Tonga to combat it.

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‘We’re seen as dogs’: death of Tongan LGBTQ+ activist sparks calls for reform

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After the alleged murder of Polikalepo Kefu, Pacific LGBTQI groups are calling for change, including revoking sodomy laws

The large hall of the basilica in the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa, hasn’t seen many crowds since Covid restrictions were introduced a year ago.

But on Thursday night, people from across all parts of society packed every inch of available space in the venue, clad mostly in black and the traditional woven ta’ovala dress.

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Outpouring of grief after alleged murder of leading Tongan LGBTQI activist

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Police have charged a man for the killing of Polikalepo Kefu, a lifelong advocate for the queer community across the Pacific

Police in Tonga are investigating the death of one of the country’s leading LGBTQI+ activists after his body was found on a beach near his home in Tongatapu, Tonga’s main island.

A 27-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Polikalepo Kefu, 41. Kefu, who was affectionately known as “Poli”, was the president of Tonga Leitis Association, an organisation dedicated to the country’s LGBTQ+ communities, providing support services, advocacy, and education on HIV-Aids.

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Zoomed to fail? Cracks appear in Pacific Islands Forum as Covid pulls nations apart

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Pacific diplomacy hinges on in-person discussion but web-only meetings have fed a growing dispute over the forum’s leadership and purpose

In the Pacific, it is all about the talanoa: the conversation and the consensus.

For the 50 years of the Pacific Islands Forum (beginning life as the South Pacific Forum), meetings have always happened in person, and it is the power of the leaders being together that has given the forum its rare ability to find common ground.

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Life without Covid: the nations that have sidestepped the pandemic so far

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A handful of countries – most of them islands, most of them remote – remain coronavirus-free, but life has not remained wholly unchanged

For all of its virulence, for all the breathtaking speed with which it spread seemingly everywhere around the globe, there are places still where Covid-19 has not reached, and might never.

Places without face masks or elbow-bumps, without QR codes or capacity limits, without lockdowns or social distancing. There are a handful of countries across the globe – many of them islands, most of them remote – that have managed to escape the pandemic. But while the virus hasn’t hit, the global shockwaves it has sent rippling around the world certainly have.

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Pacific states face instability, hunger and slow road to Covid recovery: Dame Meg Taylor

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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.

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Coronavirus in the Pacific: weekly briefing

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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.

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Chris Lilley’s Jonah is not from Tonga, I am. It’s time to dismantle racist brownface stereotypes | Seini F Taumoepeau

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Netflix was right to pull Lilley’s shows. We have no need for him to whitesplain Tongan people for entertainment

When I first watched Summer Heights High, seeing the character of Jonah – a lazy, dumb, breakdancing, Tongan teenager – I was mortified and struck dumb by the fact that in 2007 brownface was allowed on Australian TV.

This week it was revealed that Netflix had quietly pulled four of Chris Lilley’s television shows, specifically those that featured Lilley in black- or brownface portraying Tongan schoolboy Jonah Takalua and African American rapper S.mouse.

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Cyclone Harold: Aerial footage shows destruction across Vanuatu – video

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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


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Cyclone Sarai: one dead, thousands evacuated in Fiji

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Storm and flood warnings issued as category two cyclone moves east towards Tonga

One person was killed in Fiji and one was missing as tropical cyclone Sarai battered the country with strong wind and heavy rain, authorities said.

The Fiji National Disaster Management Office said one person was in intensive care and more than 2,500 people had been moved to 70 evacuation centres.

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Volcanic eruption creates new island in Tongan archipelago

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Underwater volcano sees old island disappear below the waves, replaced by a bigger one nearby

An undersea volcanic eruption in the Tongan archipelago has sunk one island and created another one that is three times larger, according to a report by geologists released on Thursday.

Taaniela Kula, of the Tonga Geological Service, said the new island is estimated to be about 100 metres wide and 400 metres long, and is situated about 120 metres west of its now-submerged predecessor, Lateiki island.

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Revealed: ‘fierce’ Pacific forum meeting almost collapsed over climate crisis

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Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison came under fire from Tuvalu’s leader Enele Sopoaga

Critical talks at the Pacific Islands Forum almost collapsed twice amid “fierce” clashes between the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, and Tuvalu’s prime minister, Enele Sopoaga, over Australia’s “red lines” on climate change.

Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s foreign minister, who was part of the drafting committee of the forum communique and observed the leaders’ retreat, said there was heated discussion over the Australian delegation’s insistence on the removal of references to coal, setting a target of limiting global warming to below 1.5C and announcing a strategy for zero emissions by 2050.

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Mystery mud on new volcanic island baffles Nasa scientists

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Island sprang up near Tonga three years ago, giving researchers a glimpse of how flora and fauna colonise it

Nasa scientists have landed for the first time on one of the world’s newest islands, and discovered the three-year-old land mass is now covered in a sticky, mysterious mud, as well as vegetation and bird life.

The volcanic island sprang up in the ocean surrounding Tonga three years ago, one of only three new islands to emerge in the last 150 years that have survived more than a few months.

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Tonga begins cleanup while Fiji prepares for Cyclone Gita Source: AP

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Tonga began cleaning up Tuesday after a cyclone hit overnight, while some people in the nearby Pacific nation of Fiji began preparing for the storm to hit them. Cyclone Gita destroyed homes and churches in Tonga and caused widespread power outages after it tore through the island nation just south of the capital, Nuku'alofa.

Cyclone destroys Parliament House, homes on Tonga, Fiji next

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The Pacific nation of Tonga began cleaning up damage Tuesday from a cyclone that destroyed its Parliament House, as well as homes and churches, and was intensifying as it headed toward nearby Fiji. Cyclone Gita caused power outages after tearing through the island nation just south of the capital, Nuku'alofa, with winds exceeding 200 kilometers per hour at landfall.