Copy of Elusive Olympic gold within reach

THERE’s an air of excitement and anticipation as Brazil gets set to host the 31st Olympic Games from 5-21 August. Never before has an Olympic gold medal been so close a reality for the tiny island nations of the

Read More

PNG bishops stop the rot

People focus of new laws LAST year the Roman Catholic Church in Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Kiribati moved swiftly to put in place guidelines to stop sexual abuse by priests and teachers on orders from Pope Francis. Deeply

Read More

The dark side of the trade deal

Pacific nations can open up markets without help of our big brothers THE Pacific Network on Globalisation has been vocal on its opposition to the PACER-Plus trade agreement. It has been at the forefront of civil

Read More

Elusive Olympic gold within reach

THERE’s an air of excitement and anticipation as Brazil gets set to host the 31st Olympic Games from 5-21 August. Never before has an Olympic gold medal been so close a reality for the tiny island nations of the

Read More

Whispers

GRAFT probe … There must be some uneasy politicians and former politicians in the island republic of Kiribati now that the new government has initiated steps to establish an anti-corruption commission. Despite

Read More

Copy of CHASING THE BIG DREAM

PACIFIC ISLAND PLAYERS underpaid and overworked PHYSICALLY powerful young men have become Polynesia’s highest profile export. In a bittersweet trade, youngsters who dreamed of playing professional American

Read More

Islands reach out to visitors

WITH a 12 per cent growth in its tourism industry in 2015, Samoa will use its recent Tourism Expo and a national initiative to drive arrivals higher this year. Fresh from the Samoa Tourism Expo, a high-level delegation

Read More

CHASING THE BIG DREAM

PACIFIC ISLAND PLAYERS underpaid and overworked PHYSICALLY powerful young men have become Polynesia’s highest profile export. In a bittersweet trade, youngsters who dreamed of playing professional American

Read More

Whispers

MIRACLE or mirage It’s making big news in Samoa with media reports about a young woman with stigmata, which in Christian tradition claims body marks on her body correspond to those left on Christ’s body when

Read More

Another term for Tuilaepa?

HOW can one predict the result for next month’s general elections in Samoa, now? Smartphones, that’s how. Similar to other island states, Samoa has embraced mobile phones with almost alarming ease. Blank

Read More

Small kingdom, BIG risk

WITH an extremely thin export base, Tonga’s economy is heavily reliant on agriculture and fisheries. Expect little change to the economy in 2016 as Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva struggles to maintain power

Read More

Focus on tourist arrivals

WITH visitor arrivals up 6.1 per cent in the first three quarters of 2015, Samoa will increase momentum in the tourism industry this year. A series of roadshows in the middle of 2015 to Australia and New Zealand were

Read More