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...Category Archives: Pacific islands
Protests flare in Papua as students demand independence referendum
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...‘She set the benchmark’: trailblazing PNG politician Nahau Rooney dies, aged 75
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...Island of Niue considers travelling forward in time to catch up with New Zealand
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...Australian and British bomb disposal workers killed by blast in Solomon Islands
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...My country may be swept away by the climate crisis if the rest of the world fails to uphold its promises | President David Kabua
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...Guam boy, 10, dies as Covid outbreak threatens country’s health system
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...Coronavirus closures threaten future of Papua New Guinea’s only animal rescue centre
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...Portrait of a mentor: ‘granddaddy’ of National Art School campus finds himself the subject
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...Pacific nation of Palau invites US to build a military base to counter China
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...Samoa’s ruling party faces new threat – after nearly 40 years in power
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...Investigations into police and prison violence blocked by Fiji authorities, whistleblowers say
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...‘We are in dire straits’: Pacific stands on Covid brink amid surging infections
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...Pacific’s fight against Covid-19 hamstrung by lack of clean water
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.
Continue reading...‘Cultural rights are human rights too’: Kiribati gesture of welcome must be understood from the island’s perspective | Katerina Teaiwa and Marita Davies
i-Kiribati writers say the media frenzy over the image of Tang Songgen walking on men’s backs diminishes local customs and culture
The image flew around the world, far ahead of any understanding of what it represented.
In the grainy picture, the Chinese ambassador to Kiribati was being welcomed onto the atoll island of Marakei. A row of young men lay face-down on the ground, their backs forming a path for the ambassador and his colleagues to walk across as they disembarked from a plane.
Continue reading...Papua New Guinea bans Chinese mine staff ‘given experimental Covid-19 vaccine’
Flight carrying workers from Chinese state-owned Ramu nickel mine cancelled by pandemic controller over concerns about vaccine trial
A planeload of Chinese mine workers have been barred from entering Papua New Guinea, over concerns they had been subjected to an unapproved Covid-19 vaccination trial before they left.
A flight from China carrying workers for the Chinese state-owned Ramu Nickel mine in Madang province was cancelled by PNG’s police commissioner and pandemic controller, David Manning, over concerns about the trial.
Continue reading...Surge in passport sales delivers Vanuatu a record budget surplus
Economy devastated by Covid shutdowns and a destructive cyclone, but citizenships-for-sale are keeping the country afloat
Surging demand for Vanuatu passports has driven an unexpected record surplus, funding Covid-19 bailout packages and cyclone recovery.
With nearly every other sector of its fragile economy reeling from the twin crises of pandemic lockdowns and April’s category five Cyclone Harold, Vanuatu nonetheless managed to turn a 3.8bn Vanuatu Vatu (US$33.3m) surplus in the first half of 2020.
Its controversial citizenship-for-sale programmes account for nearly all of that.
Continue reading...‘Devastating impact’: south Auckland’s Pasifika bear brunt of new Covid-19 outbreak
Pacific communities have been hit by New Zealand’s coronavirus resurgence – and the stigma of being at its centre
Most weekdays south Auckland’s Ōtara shopping centre is alive with the blur of brightly coloured lavalava and the cacophony of clashing music thumping out from car loudspeakers.
But this week, in the midst of New Zealand’s second lockdown, the atmosphere is subdued and strained.
Continue reading...Photo of Chinese ambassador to Kiribati walking across backs of locals ‘misinterpreted’
Image criticised as emblematic of China’s rising influence in Pacific, but i-Kiribati say practice is part of traditional welcoming ceremony
A photo reportedly showing the Chinese ambassador to Kiribati walking on peoples’ backs as part of an island welcoming ceremony has ignited debate about outsider interpretation of local custom, as well as geopolitical argument about China’s rising influence across the Pacific.
The Chinese ambassador Tang Songgen visited the island of Marakei earlier this month.
Continue reading...The plastic we use unthinkingly every day is killing our planet – and slowly but surely killing us | Andrew Paris
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.
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