Songstress Vanessa Quai handing over cash to Chief Alicta Vuti witnessed by Nigel Quai (far left) and Team and Henry Vira (front right) and MP Aickson Vira (centre) and Chief John Tarilama. By Len Garae
Ambae’s own songstress Vanessa Quai and her Management Team have walked the talk and donated over Vt500,000 raised in the ‘Water for Ambae’ fundraiser at Moorings Hotel, to the Chairman of Ambae Port Vila Council of Chiefs, Chief Alicta Vuti who in turn handed the donation to the Head of Ambae Manaro Disaster Committee, Henry Vira.
While receiving the amount from Vanessa Quai witnessed by her Management Team including her father, Nigel Quai, the Port Vila Ambae Council of Chiefs Chairman thanked Vanessa Quai for the most generous giving to the Ambae Disaster Committee to help with water needs of the volcanic ash fall victims.
‘Music for nation building ‘is the theme that the Vanessa Quai management has embraced in its attempt to help ‘communities in need’ through music.
Member of Parliament for Ambae Constituency Alickson Vira, Deputy Chairman of PVACC Chief John Tarilama, Chief Michael Liu representing the Chiefs’ technical committee and Henry Vira echoed Chief Vuti’s sentiments and congratulated Vanessa Quai and her team for being a forerunner in the music industry for the last 20 years.
The event which was hosted at the Moorings Hotel was attended by over 200 people including MP Ralph Regenvanu, Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade, MP Andrew Napuat, Minister of Internal Affairs, and MP John Sala for Malekula Constituency. Supporting Acts to Vanessa’s ‘New Breedz’ band performance included Stan Antas of Stan & the Earth Force, Violinist Vanessa Organo Saxophonist Darrell Angalobani and Ambae’s own ‘Confliction’ band. Money raised will be used solely to support water access efforts on Ambae.
The event would not have been a success without the assistance of the following: Vanessa Quai Music Association, Life Changers, Moorings Hotel, Azure Natural Water, Tropik Zound, and everyone who assisted in selling tickets for the occasion.
Vanuatu was part of a recent regional conference on managing natural resources such as the ocean in a changing climate. By Anita Roberts
A conference has been held recently for experts in the mineral resource sector from the Pacific region to talk about how to prepare and mitigate the threats of climate change on natural resources.
The Coordinator of Pacific Risk Tools for Resilience (PARTneR) Project under the Ministry of Climate Change, Johnny Tarry Nimau, represented Vanuatu in the 3-day Pacific Islands Science, Technology and Resources Network Conference in Fiji.
Natural resources such as water, land, wind energy and the ocean are essential for humankind. Action is required to reduce the risk poses to these extractive sectors by climate change as a global issue.
Regional geoscientists and experts are working on strategies to mitigate the imminent threats of climate change from the geoscience perspective, PARTneR Coordinator Nimau said after the conference.
“The conference reflects on the linkages between geoscience, the ocean and natural resources,” Nimau conveyed in a statement.
“It provides an avenue for us to discuss sustainable management of our ocean and natural resources. It about how Pacific islands can mitigate for the damage imposed on their oceans and climate change impacts from the geoscience perspective.
“Sessions focussed on key areas such as ocean science, science of natural hazards and risks to Pacific communities including land use, energy and infrastructure development”.
‘Geo-Science Development in the Pacific Islands-Planning for 2030’ was the theme of the conference, which was supported by the Government of Fiji and the Geoscience Division of the Pacific Community (SPC).
PARTneR is managed by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and funded by the government of New Zealand, through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT).
A mother who walked out of a Chinese shop carrying rice, flour and charcoal in plastic bags,
A mother who walked out of a Chinese shop carrying rice, flour and charcoal in plastic bags, has questioned why the Government has banned plastic bags in all shops yet allows the Chinese shops to continue selling rice, flour and charcoal in plastic bags to shoppers.
She said this is unfair because the government has banned plastic bags and told shoppers to use local baskets to carry their shopping home, yet the Chinese shops are still allowed to sell their products in the very same plastic bags.
“It is illogical,” she said. “One one hand, the government bans the use of plastic bags and on the other allows the Chinese shops to continue using plastic bags to sell their products.”
She said if this practice continues, it will never solve the problem of plastic bags.
“The mothers can easily re-use the same plastic bags for rubbish and or even for other purposes that will eventually end up along the road side or along the seashore or just blown around by the wind because they are light,” she said.
“In all fairness, the government should tell the Chinese shop owners to stop using the plastic bags and instead come up with an alternative or maybe tell the women and shoppers to take along containers to fill rice, flour and charcoal. You carry the island basket to the shops to bring home your shopping, only to find that the rice, flour and charcoal are filled in plastic bags which is banned by the government.”
The mother suggests that maybe the government should encourage the Chinese shops owners to reintroduce what she describes as ‘Brown Paper Bags’ that come in large, medium and small sizes which she said were used by the Chinese shop owners and other shops in Port Vila prior to independence in 1980.
“The brown paper bags were very good, as they come in large, medium and small sizes. The shop owners used them to sell rice and sugar and small and larger food and other items. They were very good.”
The Daily Post could not get comments from the relevant Government authorities as it was Sunday.
This image from the EMT report shows words written by Ambaean students on Maewo, describing how they feel.
In a June situation report on conditions in the South Maewo emergency shelters obtained by the Daily Post this week, an emergency medical team urges the early return of children to their home island of Ambae.
Among the report’s recommendations: “Early repatriation in the next two or three weeks is highly advised to minimize mental health illness and enhance their recovery from this traumatic experience.”
The American Psychological Association defines trauma as “an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape or natural disaster. Immediately after the event, shock and denial are typical. Longer term reactions include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea. While these feelings are normal, some people have difficulty moving on with their lives.”
Medical experts suggest that children in particular are suffering as a result of their dislocation from their home island.
Doctor Basil Leodoro, who headed the team, told the Daily Post, “From a mental health point of view, taking into consideration the available psychosocial support, the situation is critical.”
Asked by the assessment team to write about their emotional condition, many children wrote that they were ‘sad’, ‘sorry’, that they experienced ‘worry’, and that they were ‘lonely’ and ‘homesick’. A minority responded positively, using terms like ‘happy’, ‘excited’, and ‘fine’.
Some of these positive responses appear to mask negative feelings though. One paper states that the child feels ‘Happy, fine, sad’.
In their lists of the most positive aspects of the experience, children cited a nearby river, fresh fruit and produce, and the people of Maewo themselves.
The picture that emerges from the report is of an under-resourced and overstretched support network trying, along with the displaced, to make the best of a critical situation. According to sources with knowledge of the situation, travel and transport capacity is unacceptably poor. Food, they say, is being provided by local and paid for out of the local school budget. Sources told the Daily Post that NDMO supplies were non-existent.
Shelter, they added, was poor. Health care was being provided, however, and the local facility reportedly ran at about half its nominal capacity during the month of June.
But the report repeatedly cites ‘urgent’ needs. Among the top priorities are computer equipment for record keeping, a refrigeration unit, and the machinery and the cash necessary to pay for travel in south Maewo.
The team requests a small transport-capable truck, a 7-metre boat and engine, fuel and expenses for individual travel.
The four-person emergency medical team, dubbed Charlie Team 1 in the report, spent several days evaluating the situation about two weeks after the first children arrived in South Maewo. Students and staff together number well over 150.
Photographic evidence in the report suggests that children are sleeping on foam mattresses, either on cement floors or in tents.
Asked for suggestions on how to improve, respondents listed numerous basic necessities, including water, toilets, shelter, classroom space, communications, and commodities such as stationery and toilet paper.
But the report’s recommendations all centre around what has been described by experts as “clear signs of mental health detriment and deterioration from the experience”.
On Tuesday, the Geohazards unit of the Department of Climate Change issued an update on the status of the Ambae volcano. The Daily Post reported that “the volcano remains in a state of ‘major unrest’ (level 2)” and “the volcano is at a somewhat reduced level of activity, but it’s in a dynamic state.”
Fears of direct damage due to eruption have subsided for much of the island, but concerns remain about the effect heavy ash fall might have on local streams and creeks, especially after heavy rain.
APB, the Dutch pension fund for government and education employees, announced it would divest 300,000 euros from the firm owned by one of South Korea’s largest conglomerates over forest destruction for palm oil in Indonesian Papua.
Dutch national pension fund APB is divesting 300,000 euros ($351,000) from Korean firm Posco Daewoo over deforestation in Indonesia’s easternmost Papua province.
The announcement by ABP follows a series of media reports in the Netherlands about forest destruction by PT Bio Inti Agrindo, an oil palm plantation company owned by Posco Daewoo.
In May, consumer television program Kassa—the name means “cash register” in Dutch—aired a 16-minute segment on the pension fund’s investment in Posco Daewoo. That same month, the Dutch website Oneworld.nl published its own exposé of the land clearing in Papua.
Environmental groups have campaigned against the deforestation in Papua by Posco Daewoo, and by other companies, for years. The palm oil industry is rapidly expanding there.
If ABP wants to be seen as a responsible trustee of Dutch resources, they have to stop financing rogue actors like Posco.
Rolf Schipper, forest campaigner, Milieudefensie
In 2015, Norway’s pension fund divested from Posco Daewoo—then named Daewoo International—and from Posco, the parent company.
APB still has a 157 million euro ($183 million) investment in Posco.
“Norway got it right—Posco’s massive deforestation and land grabbing isn’t something to play games with,” Rolf Schipper, forest campaigner at Milieudefensie, a Dutch group, said in a statement. “If ABP wants to be seen as a responsible trustee of Dutch resources, they have to stop financing rogue actors like Posco, period.”
The land PT Bio Inti Agrindo has been licensed to develop by the Indonesian government overlaps with a WWF Global Ecoregion home to 344 registered bird and 69 mammal species, some of which are endangered and endemic to the area.
PT Bio Inti Agrindo has cleared more than 200 square kilometers (77 square miles) of forest in Papua since 2013, according to a report released by think tank the World Resources Institute in March.
This story was published with permission from Mongabay.com
Krienna Reni with a cup of clean drinking water with children of Lanvitvit village. Photo:VRCS Fern Napwatt
Krieanna Reni, is a mother who has walked some distances to fetch water in the village of Lanvitvit, Aulua area South east of Malekula.
Ms Reni is a class 6 leaver and has children who she claimed were her great help in the daily chores she carried out as a mother.
“For a very long time now, we used to walk for less than half an hour to the big river to catch water in our containers and walk back to the village,” she said.
“It takes almost 2 to 3 times a day to go to the river for water to use in the activities we carry out at home.”
Reni reiterated that it was mostly mothers and children involved in the daily activity of fetching water from the big river.
“The water we use for cooking and swimming and we used to do our laundry at the river, dry them out in the sun and then carry back them when they are dried,” she said.
“Every day you see mothers and children with jerry cans and containers transporting water to the houses, it is seldom you see fathers helping out.”
With the new water system built by the French Red Cross and Vanuatu Red Cross Society, funded by USAID, Reni and her children are now smiling as they will access water from their doorstep.
“I am so happy because my children and i will not be walking a long distance for water anymore but turning on the tap from home whenever we want to,” she said.
“Now our children will kept clean, they will not thirst anymore and water is readily available for us as mothers to prepare our meals, wash our clothes and keep our children clean and healthy.
“We also want to thank God for providing our need through the donors who have collaborated in this project.”
Ms Reni and other mothers of Lanvitvit village can now access water at walking distance from their homes.
NZ High Commissioner supports ‘no plastic bags’ effort
New Zealand High Commissioner, Jonathan Schwass pledged to support Vanuatu’s efforts to beat plastic pollution at the ‘No Plastik Bag, Pls’ exhibition at Alliance Française Monday night.
He pledged that:
· We ( NZHC) pledge to implement a no single-use plastic policy in our High Commission office
· We ( NZHC) pledge that whenever our High Commission has meetings or conferences or functions, we will ask the venue/contractor for a plastic-free event.
· We ( NZHC) pledge that our High Commission will assign a person to be our environment representative, who will look at ways our office can reduce our plastic footprint
Chief Isaac Worwor officiating at the 2018 Chief Day on March 5. By Jonas Cullwick
The caretaker President of the Port Vila Town Council of Chiefs and member of the caretaker Malvatumauri council of chiefs has raised concerns about what he said was a new method being introduced for election of Malvatumauri, island councils of chiefs and the two urban councils of chiefs due next month.
All the councils of chiefs including Malvatumauri were dissolved last month and all of them are now serving in caretaker roles.
“The new method for elections will be a surprise to everyone because even the national council of chiefs, Malvatumauri, was not aware of it because it was not put through to the council to know how the new election procedure would be undertaken,” Chief Worwor, who is a member of Malvatumauri said.
‘The new election system will result in a lot of confusions in the nakamals,” he added.
Since the Malvatumauri was established in 1981, this is the first time a new voting system will be implemented, but Chief Worwor said he was not against new election systems, except that it should be put to the Malvatumauri for consultation before it was approved for use.
He said since Malvatumauri was dissolved last month, members have not yet been paid their gratuity payments.
He said the office of the Customary Land Management Office (CLMO) and those in the office of Malvatumauri are currently visit the islands of the country speaking with Area Council Secretary to inform them of the new election process, which he said should first be done with Malvatumauri.
The Daily Post hoped to get clarification from the government in the coming days as everyone in CLMO and Malvatumauri administrations are all out in the field.
Melanesia is a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean and forms, together with Micronesia and Polynesia, one of the three cultural areas of Oceania. Melanesia includes New Guinea, the Torres Strait Islands of northern Australia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and the Fiji Islands. The name Melanesia derives from Greek words meaning black islands and refers to the dark complexions of the indigenous inhabitants.
Human beings have inhabited Melanesia for at least 40,000 years, and Melanesians were among the first peoples to develop agriculture, about 10,000 years ago. Scattered islands and rugged terrain led to the formation of small cultural groups, often isolated from each other, and over 1,000 indigenous languages are spoken in the region. Traditional Melanesian society was not based on a system of hereditary chiefs; instead, individuals became politically powerful through their own actions.
Although the coast of New Guinea was reached by the Portuguese possibly as early as 1512, most historians consider the Spanish expedition of Alvaro de Mendaiia (1541-1595) as the first European contact. Mendana reached what he called the Solomon Islands in 1568. Despite naming the islands after a legendary king of great wealth, the Spanish found no gold and consequently the islands held little interest for them. The Dutch arrived later and landed in Fiji and New Guinea in 1643. English explorers, including Captain James Cook (1728-1779), visited the New Guinea area in the 1770s at about the same time the French visited Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.
Western colonization did not really begin until the nineteenth century, and even then was limited by the presence of tropical diseases and the resistance of the indigenous population. Missionaries started arriving around 1839, and by the 1850s the Dutch, British, French, and Germans began claiming parts of Melanesia. The Dutch claimed the western half of New Guinea, whereas the eastern half was divided between Germany and Britain. These countries also split the Solomon Islands, with the British taking Fiji as well. France claimed New Caledonia, Vanuatu, then the New Hebrides, which was jointly ruled by Britain and France. Britain later transferred its holdings in New Guinea to Australia, and after Germany’s defeat in World War I (1914-1918), Australia acquired German New Guinea.
European colonialism united disparate ethnic groups under one administration, and imposed European languages, religion, economy, and political systems on top of the indigenous ones. Europeans introduced agricultural plantations using indigenous labor, and some Melanesians were brought to Australia in a form of slavery known as blackbirding. The British also brought laborers from India to Fiji.
Independence came late to Melanesia. Fiji became independent in 1974. The Australian territories in New Guinea became independent as Papua New Guinea in 1975, followed by the independence of the Solomon Islands in 1978 and Vanuatu in 1980. New Caledonia remains a French colony, and the western part of New Guinea is part of independent Indonesia, despite independence movements among the indigenous population. Postcolonial Melanesia has been troubled by ethnic conflicts, such as the recent coups in Fiji and secessionist movements in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands.
FIJI is looking to propose a new agreement between African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP Group) that will focus on sustainable and resilient development.
While opening the third Fiji-EU Enhanced Political Dialogue in Suva yesterday, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said this new agreement will likely be proposed at the 107th session of the ACP Council of Ministers and 43rd session of the ACP-EU Joint Council in Togo later this month.
“This year’s political dialogue is particularly important, as it will lay the groundwork for our Ministerial meeting in Togo later this month,” Mr Bainimarama said.
“In the upcoming negotiations, Fiji will be pushing for an even greater focus on sustainable, resilient development, and space for accommodating developing and climate-vulnerable small island states, increasing regional trade and integration and making development financing more accessible.”
Fiji has a number of existing cooperative agreements in place with the European Union, along with other bilateral arrangements with its member states.
“Taken together, those arrangements impact nearly every aspect of our national development,” Mr Bainimarama said.
“We in Fiji are proud of every relationship we share with the member countries of the European Union; relationships that have transformed the lives of Fijians and Europeans alike.
“And we recognise this event as a powerful tool in strengthening those relationships, and in finding new ways we can make life better for people here in Fiji, in the EU, and everywhere around the world.”
Fiji initiated the enhanced high level political dialogue with the European Union in 2015 since Fiji’s return to parliamentary democracy and ending of the measures under Article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement.
During this dialogue, the two parties exchange views on recent political and economic developments in Fiji and the EU before reviewing bilateral political relations and strategic priorities.
Discussions will also cover topics of mutual interest for both sides such as the 2018 general elections, fight against climate change, Economic partnership Agreement (EPA), human rights and development cooperation.
The dialogue is a continuation of the High Level Political Dialogue held in Brussels, Belgium in 2016.
