Singer-songwriter Tio Massing writes songs from a sprawling banyan tree, and says ‘I have to do something for this earth, and the next generation’
Vanuatu singer-songwriter Tio Bang Massing writes from a place that few still remember.
He tries to live there too, with an almost Buddha-like simplicity, in a makeshift home tucked among the roots of a sprawling banyan tree.
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...More than 12,000 pages of US government documents show military operations contaminating the Pacific with radioactive waste, nerve agents, and chemical weapons like Agent Orange
In 1968, Leroy Foster was a master sergeant in the US Air Force, assigned to the Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, a United States island territory in the Pacific. The day after he arrived on the island, he recalled being ordered to mix “diesel fuel with Agent Orange”, then spraying “it by truck all over the base to kill the jungle overgrowth”.
Soon after, Foster suffered serious skin complaints and eventually fell sick with Parkinson’s and ischemic heart disease. Later, his daughter had cancer as a teenager, and his grandchild was born with 12 fingers, 12 toes, and a heart murmur. Foster died in 2018.
Continue reading...Mark Brown’s multiple ministries prompt opposition to suggest PM lacks confidence in his cabinet
The Cook Islands’ new prime minister has allocated himself 17 portfolios in the country’s government.
Aside from the premiership, Mark Brown is the minister for foreign affairs, immigration, finance, energy and renewables, police, and telecommunications. He is also holds portfolio responsibilities for marine resources, seabed minerals and natural resources, superannuation, and the country’s outer islands. Brown is also the country’s attorney-general.
Continue reading...The Chinese-backed gold, silver and copper mine at Frieda river risks catastrophic environmental destruction, special rapporteurs argue
The plan for the largest mine in Papua New Guinea’s history carries a risk of catastrophic loss of life and environmental destruction and “appears to disregard the human rights of those affected”, according to United Nations officials.
In an extraordinary intervention, 10 UN special rapporteurs have written with “serious concerns” to the governments of Papua New Guinea, Australia, China, and Canada, as well as the Chinese state-owned developers of the gold, copper and silver mine proposed for the remote Frieda river in the country’s north.
Continue reading...The South Pacific nation went to a referendum for the second time in two years on Sunday. The ‘non’ vote prevailed – 53.3% to 46.7%. But an increased ‘oui’ vote in support of independence has laid the foundations for a third referendum in two years’ time
Continue reading...Police fire shots as crowds of demonstrators demand a vote on secession from Indonesia
Unrest has flared in the restive Indonesian region of Papua with police firing shots during a protest by hundreds of university students in the provincial capital, Jayapura.
The group was demonstrating against plans to extend a special autonomy law that protestors say has not done enough to help people in one of the country’s poorest regions.
Continue reading...Manus Island’s Nahau Rooney, at one time the only woman in PNG’s parliament, dedicated her life to advancing women in her country
Hardworking, audacious, occasionally controversial, but always vivacious: one of Papua New Guinea’s political pioneers, Nahau Rooney, has been remembered as a trailblazer for PNG women in power following her death on 15 September, aged 75.
In 1977, Rooney was one of just three women elected to PNG’s first post-independence parliament – out of 109 members – where she served as the regional member for the province of Manus.
Continue reading...Pacific nation has strong links to New Zealand, but languishes a day behind it as a result of the somewhat arbitrary international dateline
Some on Niue want to travel through time.
The lone Pacific island, one of the smallest nations on Earth, is considering jumping west across the international dateline, to come forward in time, almost a full day.
Continue reading...NGO workers mapping second world war bomb sites died when ordnance detonated in their home
An Australian man and his British colleague working to map unexploded bombs across Solomon Islands have been killed in an explosion at their home in the capital Honiara.
Australian Trent Lee and Briton Stephen “Luke” Atkinson died when an unexploded ordnance is believed to have detonated shortly after 7.30pm on Sunday.
Continue reading...Now is a time for courage. It will take sacrifices from everyone for us all to survive, the president of the Marshall Islands writes
My country joined the United Nations nearly 30 years ago, in September 1991. But unless my fellow member states take action, we may also be forced from it: the first country to see our land swept away by climate change.
As the UN general assembly meets in New York, celebrating the 75th anniversary of its formation, we must ask: how many of the 193 nations that it brings together will survive to reach its centenary?
Continue reading...Of island’s nearly 1,900 cases, 70% were diagnosed in August and September, with one in 10 tests positive
A 10-year-old boy has become Covid-19’s latest fatality on Guam, as the island struggles to rein in an outbreak that threatens to overwhelm its public health system.
The boy, who had underlying health conditions, died on Sunday night at the US Naval Hospital, 10 days after contracting the virus. He is the 26th person to die from Covid on Guam.
Continue reading...Port Moresby nature park may not survive the impact of pandemic shutdowns
From the heat and dust of the city’s noisy, crowded streets, the Port Moresby Nature Park is an oasis, for the city’s residents as well as the animals it keeps.
Home to more than 500 creatures and spread over 30 verdant acres, the park has spent years rescuing injured, orphaned or trafficked animals from across the country, and protected and nurtured native species, including the endangered pig-nosed turtle, and the magnificent riflebird.
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...Move follows a visit by US defense secretary Mark Esper, who accused Beijing of ‘malign influence’ across the region
The western Pacific nation of Palau has urged the United States military to build bases on its territory – in the heart of a region where Washington is pushing back against growing Chinese influence.
US defense secretary Mark Esper visited the island nation last week as part of a Pacific tour, accusing Beijing of a “malign influence” and “ongoing destabilising activities” across the region.
Continue reading...Prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele Lupesoliai Malielegaoi has ruled for 22 years, but a former ally leads a new coalition of challengers
The 22-year rule of one of the world’s longest-serving prime ministers, Samoa’s Tuilaepa Sailele Lupesoliai Malielegaoi, faces its most significant challenge, with a new coalition – fronted by a former political ally – threatening his grip on power.
The elder statesman of Pacific politics, Malielegaoi has been prime minister and foreign minister of Samoa since 1998.
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...Rising cases in Papua New Guinea, French Polynesia, and Guam raise fears of uncontrolled coronavirus outbreaks across Pacific
Surging Covid-19 cases in Guam are threatening to overwhelm the island’s healthcare system, while rapidly spreading infections across Papua New Guinea and new clusters in French Polynesia following the resumption of tourism have sparked fears of uncontrolled outbreaks in the Pacific.
The Pacific region is still the least-infected in the world – several countries remain Covid-19 free – but there are troubling surges across countries with fragile health systems ill-equipped for large numbers of infections.
Continue reading...Access to clean, safe drinking water across the Pacific is the lowest of any region in the world, raising fears for the rapid spread of coronavirus
Papua New Guinea’s battle against a climbing rate of Covid-19 infections is being hampered by the most basic of shortages – access to clean water –public health experts have warned.
Case numbers have jumped from just 11 cases two months ago to 424 on Friday, with four deaths. And efforts to contain escalating case numbers throughout the archipelago, and to prevent outbreaks across the Pacific region, are being hamstrung because thousands cannot access clean water for hand-washing and cleaning, the region’s key development agency says.
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