Walk the talk
THIS year Fiji will chair the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change – COP 23 in Bonn, Germany. It is an event which is currently being touted as a major achievement for
2017 January
Whispers
Telecom expansion TAKING over the ocean of the Pacific seems to be the goal of Fiji’s mega telecommunication company with reports that it has got Vanuatu under the radar, after taking over telecom business in
Lamb to the slaughter
FijI TV discards CEO WHEN Fiji Television Limited CEO, Geoffrey Smith, finally steps down this month, he will put to rest one of the media industry’s worst-kept secrets. Appointed to replace Tevita Gonelevu in
The clock ticks
Indonesia fails media test in West Papua JUST five months before Indonesia is set to host UNESCO’s 2017 celebration of World Press Freedom Day, its government still has not met a regional human rights
Skies fill with new birds
Air deals to boost Tonga, Samoa arrivals POLYNESIAN neighbours Tonga and Samoa hope to boost visitor numbers to their islands with increased flights between the destinations this year. Real Tonga has announced planned
Death of a warrior
Pacific loses anti-nuclear advocate FOR decades John Taaroa Nui Doom stood against the French Republic in a defiant bid to end nuclear testing in his home – Maohi. Often a lone voice at regional and international
Fiji deports land reform critic
Land sold for US$10 as retrospective law takes effect OUR ‘Paradise Lost’ story last month about controversial land sale law changes was just hitting the streets in Fiji when news broke of the deportation of
Tuvalu demonstrates against top charge
Former PM seeks re-election PROTESTS in Funafuti, capital of Tuvalu, against Tuvalu’s newly appointed Chief Justice saw the deferment to March of a bi-election in the island’s parliament. Strongly tipped to
Samoan boxer
JOSEPH Parker became the Pacific’s first world boxing champion after beat – ing Mexico’s Andy Ruiz in Auckland, New Zealand for the vacant WBO title. Now honoured as a matai, the New Zealand-born
‘Wild-catch’ tuna tonnage may double
GROWING global market demand for MSC-certified tuna and fishing industry interest is expected to see “wild catch” tuna tonnage double from the waters of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement in 2017. The
ABC ditches short wave radio
Cuts to undermine Australia’s reach IN September 2016, New Caledonia and French Polynesia joined the Pacific Islands Forum, further linking the francophone Pacific territories with their anglophone neighbours. In
From Paris, to Marrakech to the Pacific
WHILE the twenty-second Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP23) may be over, it was straight from one monumental environment event to another with the start of the thirteenth
Saint of Fiji 7s rugby
Ben Ryan, the legacy THE Free Dictionary defines a saint a person of great benevolence and virtue; a founder or patron of a movement. Many people would identify this with Englishman Ben Ryan who moved to Fiji in 2013
More work, fewer workers
Deadline looms for Northern Mariana Islands ONCE the clock turns 12 midnight on December 31, 2019, a cloud of uncertainty would hang in the air in the Northern Mariana Islands. That is the expiration date of the CNMI
Juffa stands his ground
Vocal governor an example to all THE Pacific need more legislators like Gary Juffa, Governor of Oro Province in Northern Papua New Guinea. He is a one-man army fighting to rid his country of the scourge of corruption
No place for ill discipline
Disciplined services must be held to account THE appalling behaviour by members of Papua New Guinea’s security forces this month must be condemned by every member of the community. When soldiers and police
Vanuatu learns from the Italian Alps
I MET a fascinating business woman this week, and she doesn’t much want to be identified, just to let people know of her products. It’s the sort of occupation which has since forever engrossed the natives of