The Pacific nation of Vanuatu is one of the few places that is coronavirus-free, but efforts to stop its arrival have been hampered by a category five cyclone
On Sunday morning, 62 guests prepared to check out of an idyllic resort, surrounded by palm trees and overlooking a lagoon, in Vanuatu’s capital of Port Vila.
But instead of taxis waiting to take them to the airport, familiar faces were anxiously waiting to take their loved ones back home.
Continue reading...Pacific nation lashed by heavy rain, flash flooding and ‘phenomenal seas’
A category five cyclone has made landfall on the Pacific nation of Vanuatu, causing damage across large parts of the country, as it tries to prepare for the coronavirus outbreak.
Cyclone Harold made landfall on the north and west of the country on Monday, after spending Sunday sitting off the country’s west coast, gathering strength.
Continue reading...It is Australia’s duty – and in our national interest – to respond to the health and economic challenges caused by coronavirus in the Pacific
The Covid-19 crisis has caused Australians to examine our hospital system with one question in mind: can it handle the coronavirus surge? There has been fierce debate about whether doubling our ventilators from 2,200 to over 4,000 is sufficient.
Australia currently has one ventilator and one Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed per 11,000 people. We have one doctor for every 285 Australians and one nurse for every 78.
Continue reading...As borders close and social distancing increases, what are our responsibilities to the people who keep working?
Amid coronavirus-induced stockpiling and empty supermarket shelves, politicians have been quick to assure us of the reliability of Australia’s food supply systems.
Writing for the Guardian last week, agriculture minister David Littleproud slammed “ridiculous” panic-buying, saying: “It is important to understand that Australian farmers produce enough food for 75 million people: three times what we need”. Farmers, he continued, are “calmly going about the business of food production”, “preparing to sow and pick their crops and making sure their produce makes it to market”.
Continue reading...A country with fractured and shifting political alliances, Vanuatu heads to the polls at a crucial moment in its history
In the coffee shops and kava bars of Vanuatu’s capital of Port Vila, there are two subjects that dominate conversation: Covid-19 and this week’s general elections, which will be held on Thursday.
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...In Vanuatu, where cyclones regularly interrupt trade, we are watching the west’s collective panic with bemusement
I’ve lived in the south Pacific island nation of Vanuatu for 16 years. Tropical weather regularly interrupts trade. Even when they’re hundreds of kilometres away, cyclones wreak havoc on shipping. Isolation and deprivation define our lives. We know better than most how to cope.
So imagine our bemusement when we see ranks of empty shelves in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA, denuded by people who pretty clearly have never dealt with a shortage before.
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.
Continue reading...Video of the alleged assault caused a national uproar and points to deeper problem with violence in Pacific nation, say experts
A horrific video of high school students beating a classmate that went viral in Fiji last week has prompted calls for a national inquiry into what is being dubbed a “crisis” of bullying in schools in the Pacific nation.
Opposition MPs, civil society organisations and experts are calling for an inquiry into what they claim is a “phenomenal” level of violence in schools, which some claim reflects a broader problem of violence in the country including high rates of domestic violence, police abuse and a “coup culture” in politics.
Continue reading...Lydia O’Sullivan has been missing on the island of Fiji after travelling there from New Zealand
A British woman has gone missing on the south Pacific island nation of Fiji. Lydia O’Sullivan, 23, has not been seen or heard from, for the past eight days.
Fiji police have set up a task force and released the following statement: “We have managed to confirm her last sighting in a hotel in the Western Division and that she already checked out, and as of today no missing person’s report has been lodged at any police station around Fiji.”
Continue reading...Pacific nation’s protected zone has led to commercial tuna fishing vessels leaving the country
Palau’s much-touted marine sanctuary has backfired, with the fishing ban leading to an increased consumption of the reef fish in the western Pacific country – such as grouper, snapper and parrotfish – that the marine sanctuary promised to protect.
Palau introduced a new 500,000 sq km (193,000 sq mile) marine sanctuary on 1 January to much fanfare.
Continue reading...Channon Lumpoo, 27, was shot as he conducted exploration activities for a new gold mine in the region
A Thai geologist working at a new gold mine in Bougainville has been shot dead in the second killing at a mining project in the autonomous region of Papua New Guinea in recent months.
Channon Lumpoo, 27, was shot by a high-powered weapon on Monday in the Kokoda constituency of south Bougainville.
Continue reading...Treatment of refugees and asylum seekers ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading’, but does not warrant prosecution, ICC office says
Australia’s offshore detention regime is a “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” and unlawful under international law, the international criminal court’s prosecutor has said.
But the office of the prosecutor has stopped short of deciding to prosecute the Australian government, saying that while the imprisonment of refugees and asylum seekers formed the basis of a crime against humanity, the violations did not rise to the level to warrant further investigation.
Continue reading...Group left Papua New Guinea in canoe before Christmas and survivors were rescued almost 2,000km away a month later
Four people have been rescued after spending 32 days adrift in the South Pacific, after a tragic voyage that resulted in the deaths of eight of their fellow travellers, including a baby.
The group left Bougainville island, east of the mainland of Papua New Guinea, on 22 December to travel the Carteret Islands 100km away for Christmas celebrations.
Continue reading...Pacific Islanders have been experiencing climate-induced disasters for years, now they have reached Australia
Living in Australia as a Pacific Islander means every weekend there’s a social gathering to attend, whether it’s a birthday, wedding, fundraiser for someone’s medical treatment or a traditional rite of passage.
More recently, however, the community get-togethers to mobilise our people have been to push for stronger climate action and have a more sombre undertone.
Continue reading...From trendy bars in New York, to anti-anxiety pills sold in Australia and New Zealand, the powdered root is taking off
On a Friday night in Suva, the capital of Fiji, the Kava Bure is filling up. Groups of people have started arriving to meet friends for a post-work basin or three of kava, a drink made from the root of the piper methysticum tree.
The bar, which is out in the open air with wooden tables surrounded by bamboo fencing, sells $5 or $10 bags of powdered kava. These are mixed in a plastic basin by an elderly Fijian man, who asks patrons if they would like the mix “sosoko” – strong – or “just right”, before giving them the basin and coconut shell bowls for drinking.
Continue reading...Pacific nations, still reeling from a devastating measles outbreak, have watched news out of Wuhan in panic
As Pacific Islanders watched updates about the coronavirus outbreak over the past few weeks, unease soon gave way to panic.
Still reeling in shock from a measles outbreak in Samoa, Pacific Islanders’ fears were stoked as it became apparent that even large, well-developed countries were struggling to contain the outbreak. Low-resourced settings always suffer the greatest losses in global medical crises and people living in these island nations are not blind to that detail.
Continue reading...Cyclone Tino bore down on Fiji’s second-largest island on Friday, causing warnings of flooding and heavy rain
The Fijian government has called for strong action on the climate crisis as the country is hit by its second cyclone in three weeks.
Fiji opened evacuation centres, closed schools and urged businesses to close early as cyclone Tino barrelled towards Fiji’s second-largest island, Vanua Levu, on Friday.
Continue reading...The summer has seen another cyclone in Fiji and terrible fires in Australia. We don’t need to be scientists to know that something is very wrong here
As the world rang in a new year, for Oceania, the images that marked the beginning of the decade weren’t ones of champagne and fireworks. Instead we were left with photos and headlines that merit not celebration, but mourning.
The skies of Sydney were stained an eerie blood-red by apocalyptic bushfires, as desperate Australians gathered by the ocean, waiting to be rescued by boat – conditions that threaten to worsen still. Glaciers in New Zealand were covered by a brown dusting of ash that had travelled thousands of kilometres across the Pacific. And in Fiji, we were left reeling by rushing floodwaters and howling, gale-force winds.
Continue reading...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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