Pacific fighting the plastic plague
Visit the Plastic Adrift website and you can place a little rubber duck on a spot of your choice and see how plastic pollution spreads. Place your duck just off the east coast of Australia, and the simulation shows
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
Every week Mission Pacific’s bottle buy-back centre in Suva is visited by a wide variety of Fiji residents and businesses with very different motivations for bringing in their PET bottles. Some of them are driven by
Throwing coal on the fire
By New Year’s Day, Australia was on fire. There were more than 200 fires burning across the country, from Western Australia to the east coast states of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Since the start of the
A LEADER FOR THE PACIFIC TO BE PROUD OF
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is Islands Businesses’ 2019 Pacific Person of the Year. Just over two years since she took office, events in New Zealand and in her own personal life have catapulted her on to
Bougainville votes
Do you agree for Bougainville to have: A)Greater autonomy? B)Independence? This is the question Bougainvilleans are answering this month in a long-awaited referendum, 20 years after peace was brokered. The referendum is
Namosi: Resource rich or resource cursed?
Many moons before white man set foot on Viti Levu, the main island in Fiji, the folklore of moliveitala ni vanua had existed. It speaks of the magic in the water in the two main rivers that the trade winds bring in as
Trouble in the family
Climate divides Forum….again JUST before the 50th Pacific Islands Forum, the Wallabies thrashed the All Blacks 47-26 in the first game of the Bledisloe Cup. As a rugby fan, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison
Keeping our seafarers safe
In what has been called a ‘landmark decision’, Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) member states are to include crew employment conditions in minimum requirements for fishing licenses. For many years there has been concern
Not for sale
FIJI’S iconic flower, the Tagimoucia, is not for sale. Fijian authorities have made this statement to Islands Business magazine following reports that a world-leading botanical garden is looking at
Not for sale
FIJI’S iconic flower, the Tagimoucia, is not for sale. Fijian authorities have made this statement to Islands Business magazine following reports that a world-leading botanical garden is looking at
A murky mix of vested interests
AN oil spill in Rennell, Solomon Islands is turning into a disaster of catastrophic proportions, threatening the world’s biggest raised coral atoll and prompting caretaker Prime Minister Rick Hou
Choosing crypto over tax free ‘utopia’
Will the decision by the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI) to become the world’s first country to issue its own blockchain sovereign cryptocurrency (SOV) be a momentous game changer? Or is it just another
Blockchain finds a home in the Pacific
The blockchain conversation has finally touched down in the Pacific. Not only is it a major buzz in tech circles here, Papua New Guinea (PNG) is about to take a technological leap in becoming
Cabling the Pacific
Fast, reliable and affordable Internet has quickly become such an essential part of our lives these days that to imagine a world without broadband Internet connection is almost as unimaginable as
Tuvalu seeks declaration on resource ownership
AS the sun sets over Tuvalu, children shriek in the lagoon of the main atoll – Funafuti. This is the way life has been in the Pacific for as long as people can remember. But sea levels in the lagoon are rising and
The Big Threat
Organised crime creeps into the region A NEW crime wave looms over the region – this time on the back of motorbikes. As Australia and New Zealand crack down on the illicit trading activities of Outlawed Motorcycle
Fiji unions triumph
Court favours airport workers’ plight A bitter row between the management of Fiji’s Air Terminal Services (ATS) and its employees who were locked out of work for 35 days including Christmas and New Year ended last
The Flip Side of RAMSI – Some Observations
My frame of reference for RAMSI always goes back to June 2003 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney, Australia when I listened carefully to Minister Lawrey Chan described how bad things had become in Solomon Islands and
Pacific Entity of the Year
RAMSI is our choice “MY brother wanted to escape down to the river but they chased him down and got him. They partly cut his head and dragged him back to where he was. They took him close to where we were and they cut
Friends no more
Tonga heads to the polls AS a student at the University of the South Pacific, Samuela ‘Akilisi Pohiva decided to put an end to what he saw as the corrupt system of governance in his homeland – Tonga. The monarchy
Fiji rugby feels the heat
Pressure mounts on Fij i Rugby Union to investigate Ben Ryan’s sevens franchise BEN Ryan has been labelled a “master coach”. But he is also the mastermind behind the idea to franchise the Fiji 7s team to
Spotlight on Honiara
Region watches as assistance mission comes to an end AT the end of June, the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands will come to an end. What started off as a military operation to quell violence and return
River poisoning alert
Heavy metals concerns in proposed Sigatoka River mine MINING of the Sigatoka River on the southern coast of Fiji’s main island poses a real risk of severe marine life poisoning with flow-on effects on people who
