Neu: 2002-04-23
Contents of this issue:
1. Pest War
2. Offcourse Boaties Safe
3. Killer Landslip
4. Final Count
5. Investment Boost
6. LA Taro Hungry
7. Love Maths
8. Another Paper Folds
9. Youth Crime Buster
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April 23rd, 2002
1. Pest War:
New Zealand's Minister of Conservation Sandra Lee has launched an
international initiative aimed at helping island nations step up their
war on non-indigenous pests. Ms. Lee told delegates to a major
biodiversity conference in the Netherlands that New Zealand would
support an invasive species specialist group, set up by the World
Conservation Union, and based in Auckland. She said New Zealand is well
qualified for the task as it had faced a vast number of threats to its
biodiversity and had been forced to develop successful strategies to
combat pest species.The conservation minister said the new group would
operate initially as a broker of information -- building up a
comprehensive information base on the biodiversity threats faced by
island nations. (RNZI/ PIR).
2. Offcourse Boaties Safe:
Five Tongans who were drifting in high seas for more than a week arrived
safely at Fulaga in Fiji yesterday morning. A Navy spokesman said the
men had left a village in Tonga for another island when the engine of
the small punt developed problems. They survived on coconuts, which they
had in the boat, until they arrived in Muanacake Village in Fulaga, Lau.
Arrangements were being made to bring the men to Suva on a ship which is
scheduled to leave Suva today for the Lau Group. From Suva, they'll be
flown to Tonga. Police reported the men in good health. - (The Fiji
Times/PINA Nius Online).
3. Killer Landslip:
Six people, five from the same family, have been killed in a landslide
in Fiji. Two other people are critically injured in hospital. The
landslide on Rabi, a small island east of Vanua Levu, followed heavy
rain, and completely covered two houses in the village of Bokonikai. A
3-year-old girl was killed, along with her three brothers aged 6, 8 and
16, and their 42-year-old Auntie. A 60-year-old man also died. The
weather office in Fiji has predicted more rain in the next couple of
days and is warning people living in low-lying areas to expect flooding.
Residents of Rabi are exiles from the isolated island of Banaba, about
2000 kilometres northwest of Fiji, near the equator, which was rendered
uninhabitable by phosphate mining last century. (NZPA).
4. Final Count:
The Electoral Office at Niue has issued the final results for the
general election held Saturday. Toke Talagi tops the poll with 444, Sani
Lakatani 427, Terry Coe 399, Michael Jackson 392, Mrs O'Love Jacobsen
370. The Legislative Assembly meets Wednesday (Niue time) to elect a
premier and Speaker. Nominations for the premier are likely to include
Toke Talagi, Young Vivian and Sani Lakatani, report political
commentators on the island. NiueNews OnLine will bring you a full report
from the Wednesday meeting.
5. Investment Boost:
Setting up a regional stock exchange for the Pacific Islands would
provide companies with access to funds, says Julie Apted, the chief
executive officer of Fiji's Capital Markets Development Authority. Ms.
Apted said from Suva that these funds could be used for expansion or to
provide potential investors with more investing opportunities. The
Capital Markets Development Authority
(CMDA) is the equivalent of Papua New Guinea's Securities Commission. It
is responsible for developing and regulating the capital markets
in Fiji. Ms. Apted said having access to funds and providing
investors with more opportunities for investment are important
for social and economic development in the region.
Papua New Guinea (Port Moresby Stock Exchange) and Fiji (South Pacific
Stock Exchange) are the only countries in the region with stock
exchanges. On Thursday, POMSoX chairman Sir Anthony Siaguru thanked
Asian Development Bank president Tadao Chinoi for the bank's decision to
investigate the possibility of having a Pacific Islands stock exchange.
"The CMDA would definitely support the move to set up a regional stock
exchange," Ms. Apted said. She said the Suva Stock Exchange changed its
name to the South Pacific Stock Exchange, with the intention of becoming
the regional stock exchange for Pacific Island countries. She said that
the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) provided assistance in
1998 and a report was prepared on the initial feasibility of
establishing a regional stock exchange. Ms. Apted said the report could
be used to further examine the matter.(PIR).
1. LA Taro Hungry:
Samoa's state-owned Agriculture Store is organizing trial shipments of
taro to the United States. "The shipments are the result of personal
inquiries by Samoan importers in Hawai'i and Los Angeles," Agriculture
Store general manager Toomata Tuipe'a said. Samoa's taro industry is on
the comeback trail after taro leaf blight destroyed it in 1993. However,
finding freight space on commercial airlines has proven a difficult
obstacle in exporting to the U.S. And export by sea means transporting
the taro from Apia to the U.S. mainland and being able to service
Hawai'i only on the return trip, which adds cost. Vendors are looking
for a more efficient system of exporting to Hawai'i, Toomata said. The
Agriculture Store last month exported the blight-resistant "polovoli"
variety to New Zealand, and a follow up shipment of 300 sacks is on its
way.(Samoa Observer).
2. Love Maths:
Tests of a new approach to primary school maths have proven so
successful that reciting times-tables and rote learning may be a thing
of the past by 2005, reports Dita De Boni in the NZ Herald newspaper.
Schools throughout New Zealand, including more than 70 in Auckland, are
said to be "knocking down the door" to sign up to the programme. The
Early Numeracy Project is one of the Ministry of Education's
best-financed teacher development initiatives. About $20 million is
allocated to continuing it in the next three years. The "hands-on"
project, involving 40,000 5-to-8-year-old students in 450 schools,
focused on basic numeracy with a less academic approach. The result was
more enthusiasm for maths from teachers and students regardless of
decile, sex, region or race. The project, conducted over six months last
year, focused on teaching children to count numbers backwards and
forwards, to correctly identify numbers and to identify where numbers
come in relation to each other before anything more complex is
introduced. Maths teaching has tended to introduce young children to
studying numerals alongside more complex procedures such as grouping and
manipulating numbers or algebra. But, internationally, there has been a
shift away from mixing a variety of concepts in the early stages,
instead separating the process into the study of counting, grouping and
knowledge of numbers, to be followed by more complex strategies such as
two-digit addition. Participants in last year's project, which
concentrated on the first group of skills, absorbed the basics much more
quickly, with the weakest gaining most. Education Minister Trevor
Mallard yesterday hailed the project as succeeding "beyond expectation."
(NZ Herald).
3. Another Paper Folds:
Wallis and Futuna's only newspaper, the weekly Te Fenua Fo'ou, has
announced it is closing down after being subjected to numerous threats
and raids from local traditional authorities. Te Fenua Fo'ou publisher
Michel Bodineau, said he has dismissed his staff and his company will be
wound up.A ban was placed on the paper after it published an article
questioning an MP's right to seek re-election after she had been
convicted of misuse of funds. Last month the newspaper's offices were
ransacked and some office equipment confiscated by the "custom
(traditional) police". The paper later managed to defy the ban in
getting printed and distributed from New Caledonia. In that issue, dated
March 27, a strongly-worded editorial was wondering whether Wallis and
Futuna was not becoming a "banana republic". Bodineau had filed a
complaint with the local judiciary for "theft, obstruction to freedom of
the press and freedom to work". Police have since launched an enquiry
into the attacks.(Oceania Flash).
4. Youth Crime Buster:
The Christchurch Youth Drug Court in New Zealand is the first initiative
arising out of the Government's Task Force on Youth Crime aimed at
reducing youth offending, Justice Minister Phil Goff said today. Up to
80 percent of young offenders are estimated to have a drug or alcohol
abuse problem. They either offend to obtain drugs and alcohol or offend
under the influence of those substances. "Preventing further offending
requires that we tackle and deal with that problem" said Mr Goff. "The
Youth Drug Court uses the judicial process to refer young offenders with
identified serious drug and alcohol problems to a treatment plan under
judicial supervision," he added. The successful completion of the
treatment plan will then be taken into account in the final sentencing
of the young offender. The Judge will be assisted by a Youth Drug Court
team, made up of representatives from the Police, Child Youth and
Family, a Ministry of Health Youth Specialty Services clinician, the
Ministry of Education Specialist Education Service, and a Youth
Advocate. Up to 50 offenders aged 14-17 years will participate in the
first pilot which will be evaluated over a 12 month period.
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