Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape has revealed that about K100,000 (about NZ$46,000) was paid to the kidnappers for the release of the three remaining hostages in the Bosavi mountains in the Southern Highlands province at the weekend.

The three hostages, an Australian-resident New Zealand professor and his two female colleagues, were set free yesterday.

In a news conference today, Prime Minister Marape clarified that the money was given through community leaders for the release of the hostages.

• READ MORE: Nightmare over for final 3 PNG freed hostages – police hunt their captors
• Prime Minister Marape warns police will come down hard on criminals
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”There was no K3.5 million paid [NZ$1.6 million — the original kidnappers’ demand]. The liaison money exchanged was K100,000 paid through the community leaders for a liaison to take place.

“The demand was very high and they maintained it all the way through, but we had to break the ice and ensure the safe return of the captives,” said Marape.

Civil society organisations which make up the National Alliance for Criminal Code Reform have slammed the decision by the Indonesian government and the House of Representatives (DPR) to ratify the Draft Criminal Code (RKUHP) which is seen as still containing a number of controversial articles, reports CNN Indonesia.

Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) chairperson Muhammad Isnur criticised the DPR and the government because the enactment of the law was rushed and did not involve public participation.

According to Isnur, a number of articles in the RKUHP will take Indonesian society into a period of being “colonised” by its own government.

• READ MORE: Protests erupt across Indonesia after House ratifies ‘colonial’ Criminal Code
• Other reports on the Indonesian Criminal Code

“Indeed the latest version of this draft regulation was only published on November 30, 2022, and still contained a series of problematic articles which have been opposed by the public because it will carry Indonesian society into an era of being colonised by its own government,” said Isnur in a statement.

The Civil Coalition, as conveyed by Isnur, has highlighted a number of articles in the RKUHP which are anti-democratic, perpetuate corruption, silence press freedom, obstruct academic freedom and regulate the public’s private lives.

According to Isnur, these articles will only be “sharp below but blunt above”, meaning they will come down hard on the poor but go easy on the rich, and it would make it difficult to prosecute crimes committed by corporations against the people.

“Once again this will be a regulation which is sharp below, blunt above, because it will be difficult to prosecute criminal corporations that violate the rights of communities and workers,” he said.

Criminalised over ideas
The Coalition for example highlighted Article 188 which criminalises anyone who spreads communist, Marxist or Leninist ideas, or other ideas which conflict with the state ideology of Pancasila.

According to Isnur, the article is ambiguous because it does not contain an explanation on who has the authority to determine if an idea conflicts with Pancasila.

According to Isnur, Article 188 has the potential to criminalise anyone, particularly government opponents, because it does not contain an explanation about which ideas conflict with Pancasila.

“This is a rubber [catchall] article and could revive the concept of crimes of subversion as occurred in the New Order era [of former president Suharto],” he said.

Then there are Articles 240 and 241 on insulting the government and state institutions.

He believes that these articles also have the potential to be “rubber” articles because they do not provide a definition of an insult. He is also concerned that the articles will be used to silence criticism against the government or state institutions.

The Coalition believes that there are still at least 14 problematic articles in the RKUHP. Aside from the spreading of communist ideas and insulting state institutions, there are several other articles such as those on morality, cohabitation and criminalising parades and protest actions.

Law ‘confusing’
The DPR earlier passed the RKUHP into law during a plenary meeting. A number of parties believe that the new law is confusing and contains problematic articles. These include the articles on insulting the president, makar (treason, subversion, rebellion), insulting state institutions, adultery and cohabitation and “fake news”.

Justice and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly has invited members of the public to challenge the law in the Constitutional Court if they feel that there are articles that conflict with the constitution.

“So we must go through constitutional mechanisms, right. So we’re more civilised, be better at obeying the constitution, the law. So if it’s ratified into law the most correct mechanism is a judicial review,” said Laoly earlier.

Deputy Justice and Prosperity Minister Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, meanwhile, is asking those who consider the law to be problematic or rushed to come and debate the issue with the ministry.

“You try answering yourself, yeah, is 59 years rushed? If it is said that many oppose it, how many? What is the substance? Come and debate it with us, we’re ready and we are truly convinced that if its tested it will be rejected,” said Hiariej.

Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was YLBHI Kecam Pengesahan RKUHP: Masyarakat Dijajah Pemerintah Sendiri. Republished with permission.

The ruling FijiFirst Party has released its candidate list for the general election on December 14.

With it came some dubious biographies composed by candidates which voters will have to delve into over the coming weeks.

The list gives a basic outline of FijiFirst: 60 percent of its candidates — 31 people — have a university bachelor’s degree.

• READ MORE:  USP forced to cut costs as Fiji still refuses to pay grant for third year
• Other Fiji elections reports

Very few have anything more, and it would be fair to say, FijiFirst is not rich in intellectuals or academics. No prestigious universities for any of them.

What is important is the fact that just over a third of the candidates — 18 people — have degrees from the Suva-based University of the South Pacific.

They owe their careers and jobs to a university that the FijiFirst government is trying to destroy.

Fiji continues to refuse to pay its USP dues of $88 million — and yet its own candidates benefited from the important regional institution.

The 21 FijiFirst candidates with nothing more than a high school education are famously led by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and include his possible successor Inia Seruiratu.

Michael Field is an independent journalist and author and co-editor of The Pacific Newsroom. Republished with permission.

New Zealand Labour MP Louisa Wall has accused China of harvesting organs from political prisoners among the Uyghur and Falun Gong populations.

The MP, who is part of a global network of politicians monitoring the actions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), also says her own government needs to do more to counter what she calls the slave labour trade in China.

“Forced organ harvesting is occurring to service a global market where people are wanting hearts, lungs, eyes, skin,” Wall said.

• READ MORE: The Red Line series
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• Merry Xmas Mr Key – your friend, President Xi

China expert Professor Anne-Marie Brady of the University of Canterbury, describes the New Zealand government’s political strategy on China as something close to a cone of silence.

“Our MPs seem to have a pact that they’re not allowed to say anything at all critical of the CCP and barely mention the word China in any kind of negative terms.”

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta refused to do interviews for the new Red Line podcast, which examines the influence of the CCP in New Zealand.

But Wall has broken ranks.

‘Used as slaves’
“I’m concerned that there appears to be a million Uyghurs being imprisoned in what they call education camps, but essentially, used as slaves to pick cotton.”

Wall, along with National’s Simon O’Connor, is one of two New Zealand MPs in the International Parliamentary Alliance on China, a network of more than 200 politicians from 20 parliaments, set up to monitor the actions of the CCP.

She thinks New Zealand should be doing much more to counter the slave labour trade from Xinjiang, in the north west of China.

“What the UK and Canada have done is they’ve got modern slavery acts and they want to ensure the corporates who are taking those raw materials, actually ensure that the production of those raw materials complies with the modern slavery act. I like that mechanism.”

She says the government also needs to pass new laws to stop New Zealanders getting organ transplants sourced from China or from any country that cannot verify the integrity of its organ donor programme.

China sources some organs from political prisoners, she said.

“The Uyghur population, and also the Falun Gong population, both have been designated as prisoners of conscience,” she said. “We know that they are slaves. We also know that they’re being used to harvest organs.”

Tribunal finding
She bases that on findings from a recent independent tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice, a British QC, who previously worked with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

His 600-page report, called the China Tribunal, says the killing of political prisoners for organ transplants is continuing in China and that many people have died “indescribably hideous deaths” in the process.

“Based on a report from Lord Justice Nice from the UK, we now know that forced organ harvesting is occurring to service a global market where people are wanting hearts, lungs, eyes, skin,” Wall said.

The Chinese embassy in New Zealand ignored requests to talk about this issue.

China announced back in 2014 that it would no longer remove organs from executed prisoners and when the China Tribunal report was released in 2018 the CCP dismissed it as inaccurate and politically motivated.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

• The RNZ Red Line series

Nervous Papatoetoe High School students were lining up today in big numbers to get tested, saying they want to do their bit to stop covid-19 getting into the New Zealand community.

A Year 9 student is among the three cases which have sparked a level 3 lockdown in Auckland, level 2 for the rest of the country.

Hundreds of students and their families were at a pop-up testing centre at the school today.

• READ MORE: Covid-19: Community test results so far encouraging but vigilance urged – Dr Ashley Bloomfield
• Follow RNZ’s live blog for the latest Covid-19 updates
• NZ’s covid-19 community cases

Head girl Rhonda Nguyen said she wanted to set an example for the other students.

“Especially since we found out this morning it’s the UK variant which is much more transmissible so we want to do our bit to keep everybody safe,” she said.

Another student, Armaan, said he had been feeling very anxious since finding out there was a case at the school, particularly because he sometimes studied in the same maths space as the positive student.

“I’d rather stay vigilant and take as many precautions to avoid giving it to my family,” he said.

‘No drama, it’s easy’
“I’ve been through one – no drama, it’s easy. They’re a bit worried that – ow, it’s going to get right in there – but I said ‘nah, you’ve just got to go through the drill’,” he said.

Renay was in line early with his daughter.

“I’m nervous that we’re in this position again – I never thought it would be so close to us but it’s just around and I think we still need to take care and be vigilant,” he said.

Some students had already been through the nearby Ōtara community testing yesterday.

Its operations manager Nonu Tuisamoa said they stayed open til 9.30pm last night, an hour and a half longer than scheduled, to get everyone through.

Today they had double the normal number of staff on, with cars lining up all morning.

“It’s super crazy, super crazy. After yesterday, the public and the community have come up in their droves and it’s strong,” he said.

The Ministry’s of Health’s list of places where the positive cases has visited was helping drive demand, he said.

“There’s a sense of anxiousness and wanting to make sure that everything is safe,” he said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Bougainville is heading to the polls today amid its first case of the covid-19 in the
fourth general election of Papua New Guinea’s autonomous region since 2001.

While this election is critically important in the region’s push for independence from mainland PNG, it comes at a time when there is much distress brought on by the deadly global coronavirus.

Bougainville reported its first covid case from a 22-year old male student who had traveled from Port Moresby on July 29.

READ MORE: Contact tracing begins for first Bougainville covid case

Test results returned last Friday – more than a week later – from swabs taken in Buka found the young man positive, sending health and covid-19 response teams to look for him in Arawa in Central Bougainville to isolate and quarantine him.

Although he has been identified, relatives of the young man had initially resisted health teams making contact with him in Arawa Town.

Bougainville’s Health Secretary Clement Totavun told The Bougainvillean that the issue was resolved on Monday, and the health team was allowed to talk to the patient and collected further swab from him.

“We’ve also started the process of isolating him at his family home, while we are continuing contact tracing with all the other 54 passengers he had travelled with on the flight into Buka and others he may have come in contact with.”

Port Moresby case
Totavun said the case was a Port Moresby case since the young man was only given a medical clearance certificate to travel and was never tested until he reached Buka.

“We have a Standard Operating Procedure at our airport that any passengers travelling in should be tested and that is where we picked up the case,” he said.

“Our health teams are moving around in Central Bougainville to make contact tracing and collect more samples that will be sent away for testing, either at the Port Moresby or Goroka Institute of Medical Research, or overseas in Singapore or Melbourne in Australia.

“We want to encourage people to come in for testing and we also want to increase our contact tracing and testing to find out if we have a community or local transmission in the region.”

The increased contact tracing and testing will ensure any further victims are attended to early.

Bougainville already has two GeneXpert machines, one in Buka and another in Arawa, that can run tests for the covid-19, but Secretary Totavun said they were waiting for trainers from Port Moresby this week, who would train local health technicians on how to use the machines before they could be deployed in covid-19 testing.

“We want to strengthen the testing operation in Buka first, because that is where we already have an equipped test site or laboratory in place, and there’ll be trained technicians soon after we get help from trainers from Port Moresby, along with cartridges for the GeneXpert machine. After Buka we can then expand the use of the GeneXpert testing across the region.

Face masks encouraged
“We are also encouraging the use of face masks in public crowded places because that is a tool that can protect us against transmission of the covid-19.

“There are not enough supplies of the personal protective equipment (face masks) in Bougainville.

“We were given a small number from the Department of Health in Port Moresby so we’re limiting that to only frontline health and security workers dealing with the covid-19. When we get more supplies we will share it with other key government agencies involved in the covid operation.

“But the public are encouraged to sew their own if they can, or buy from those that can sew and wear them whenever they are out in public crowded places.”

Totavun said people in Bougainville should remain calm because authorities were on top of the situation and were stepping up their efforts in contact tracing and increasing tests to determine the status of the region if there is community transmission.

“There should not be panic. People must remain calm because our first case is asymptomatic, meaning the patient has not shown any signs of the covid-19.

“People should also refrain from spreading rumours and be sceptical because covid-19 is real.

Awareness for people’s hygiene
“Our awareness is and still remains that people must always wash their hands, do not touch their face with their hands, cough into your elbows, keep your distance from others and stay at home if you have nothing to do in public.”

Controller of the Bougainville Covid-19 State of Emergency Francis Tokura, who is also Deputy Commissioner and Chief of the Bougainville Police Service, has issued two separate orders on Monday, in response to the first case of the virus and the election which gets underway today.

Emergency Order #7 relates to Standard Operating Procedures to be employed during polling.

Supplementary Order #10 refers to restrictions on people movement within the region.

Emergency Order #7 includes the following provisions:

• Office of Bougainville Electoral Commission (OBEC) officials, security personnel, candidates and scrutineers to have personal protective equipment (PPEs) like face mask, clinical hand gloves, hand sanitisers and alcohol swipes in all polling locations;
• OBEC officials and security personnel to ensure there is hand washing before entering and leaving polling booths, use of hand sanitisers before entering and leaving polling booths, compulsory wearing of face masks by all polling officials in all polling areas, social distancing of 1.5-2 meters is observed by polling officials, security personnel and everyone taking part in the election, use of alcohol wipes by polling officials and voters in voting compartments;
• Polling to be conducted in locations where there is adequate space to implement social distancing requirements;
• Not more than three voters allowed into the polling booth at any one time;
• Covid-19 awareness posters to be displayed alongside official polling posters at all polling locations;
• If a sick person is reported at a polling location, the Assistant Presiding Officer or a member of the polling security team should notify the respective District Covid-19 Response Teams; and
• Polling to start at 8am and close at 6pm daily from Monday to Friday only.

Bougainville’s extended State of Emergency will lapse on August 14.

Extension sought
The Covid-19 Task Force and Secretariat wants a further extension that will last until the end of elections on September 1.

But that has to go before Parliament for approval.

The House of Representatives at Kubu has risen and the Bougainville Executive Council has been revoked and there’s only a 6-Minister Caretaker Government currently in place until a new government is returned.

Bougainville’s fourth government is expected to be in place on September 15 when the election writs are returned to the Speaker of Parliament.

Meanwhile, if the second extension of the SoE period lapses on August 14, Health Secretary Clement Totavun explained that Bougainville would fall back under the cover of the National Pandemic Act 2020, passed by the PNG National Parliament earlier.

Celebrating 100 years of oil shale mining may represent a proud moment for Estonia, but this doesn’t compare to what the country has lost, many environmentalists say.

The backbone of Estonia’s electricity production may have allowed the Baltic nation to escape from beneath the Soviet yoke and become energy self-sufficient post-independence in 1991, but most observers remember that this has come at a cost: the environment.

“In terms of ecology it’s a total disaster. From the point of view of state economy this is something to be proud of,” says Professor Mait Sepp, research fellow in physical geography at the University of Tartu.

“We have lost our wetlands, we have lost our streams.”

Many of Estonia’s environmental organisations agree, with more than 15 percent (504.6 km²) of the country’s Ida-Virumaa region severely damaged by the oil shale industry.

Mihkel Annus of the Estonian Green Movement says the sector still stamps the largest ecological footprint on the nation, despite European Union (EU) regulations.

’40 years like a volcano’
Perhaps the greatest reminder of this footprint will be the country’s ash mountains, huge piles of solid hazardous waste that mar Estonia’s relatively flat landscape.

“These will probably stay as the remnants of our fossil-fuel dependent past for centuries from now, as well as the land that has been excavated and already been exhausted,” says Annus.

Harmful to the environment due to the poisonous gases and various contaminants they emit into surface and groundwater, these mountains are not only viewed as an ecological disaster.

They have also dealt a blow to the country’s pockets.

It cost the government more than 36 million euros (about NZ$44.4 million) to close the infamous ash mountain in Kohtla-Järve, which stood approximately 170m above sea level before it was closed and made environmentally safe in 2015.

Estonia’s current environmental headache is the Kukruse ash mountain, which one official from the Ida-Viru County government describes as a 40-year-old “volcano”.

Hardi Murula, head of development and planning for the county government, says they have been engaged in ongoing talks for the past three to four years on how best to “neutralise” the mountain, but that no consensus has been reached.

“No one can guarantee during the restoration process that the pollution can be stopped.”

The closure of ash mountains throughout Ida-Virumaa is largely seen as positive despite the challenges, with one of the mountains in the former oil shale town of Kiviõli converted into an adventure centre in a joint industry-government project.

Piret Väinsalu of the Estonian Fund for Nature says the restoration of land is rather impossible, however.

“You can try to restore it into something, but it will always be there as a ‘heritage of oil shale age’.”

Legacy pollution
But government, industry and environmentalists do not see eye-to-eye on the source of this environmental damage.

Minister of Environment Marko Pomerants says much of the environmental impact is related to “legacy pollution” of the Soviet-era.

“Fortunately, most of the major negative effects are a thing of the past and the current oil shale sector has remarkably reduced its harmful practices for the environment.”

He says environmental concerns today largely involve emissions, although these have decreased since 2002.

Timo Tatar, head of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication’s energy department, agrees.

“Talking about environmental damage, one can say, that oil shale environmental impact has significantly decreased due to heavy investments into new combustion technologies as well as emission control.”

Official 2014 data by the European Commission shows Estonia currently stands as the second highest emitter, per capita, of greenhouse gases in Europe, however, and its far from carbon-free history occupies a blight on their climate change record.

Although the EU’s Emissions Trading System allows the country to sell-off its emissions because they are lower than the country’s massive levels at 1990, things are far from rosy, especially in the wake of the 2015 Paris climate change agreement.

In light of this, environmentalists Annus, Väinsalu, and their colleague Aleksei Lotman, a marine conservation expert with the Estonian Fund for Nature, do not share officials’ view.

Although they agree the oil shale industry is “very much less polluting” than it was 30 years ago, they say making oil shale “environmentally friendly” is not enough.

To call current improvements by the oil shale industry so is “over-optimistic to say the least”, Lotman says.

A question of commitment
They are therefore critical of industry and government and feel both have failed to act effectively.

Väinsalu, who serves as the Estonian coordinator for the international non-profit network EKOenergia in her role with the Estonian Fund for Nature, says the government does “just enough” to be on a good list for Estonia’s European partners, while it simultaneously supports oil shale interests by lobbying for greater industry exemptions.

“Instead of understanding the need to find an alternative route and exit the oil shale era our government just supports the industry in every way possible.”

Eesti Energia, Estonia’s state-owned energy enterprise, refutes such claims and says it has taken several steps to reduce the environmental impacts of its operations.

“Today we can produce more energy from oil shale than in the past with less environmental impact,” says Eesti Energia.

Eesti Energia says introductions in new technology have been responsible, although physical changes have also occurred.

Among these was the 2008 closure of the ash field at their Balti power plant near Narva, in Estonia’s east.

The project took three years to complete and resulted in 570ha being made safe for the environment.

In 2013, Eesti Energia’s sister company, Enefit, opened a 17-turbine wind park on the former ash field.

“Our main focus lies in replacing fossil fuels with cleaner fuels,” Eesti Energia says.

The company adds it already does so through its use of water, wind, and biomass.

Annus, however, as a member of one of Estonia’s most influential environmental organisations, feels industry may not have been as cooperative as it makes out.

“Whether they would make their processes more environment-friendly voluntarily, is questionable.”

He says this is because the oil shale industry has been put under increasing pressure by tightening EU regulations.

“They have been forced to take action to meet the set concentration values of emissions, changing the technology of landfilling of solid and hazardous waste, limiting water pollution, and so on.”

Annus adds much of Estonia’s oil shale industry happens behind closed doors, which further calls into question their transparency.

“A lot of the region has also been blocked off from the public eye.”

Kaja Peterson, director of the Stockholm Environment Institute Tallinn Centre’s (SEI Tallinn) climate and energy programme, says Eesti Energia has, in fact, been rather open.

“I think Eesti Energia has been very flexible because they reformed and created a new sister company, Enefit Renewable Energy.”

She points out, however, that Eesti Energia is gradually transitioning to renewables and oil shale, unfortunately, still forms the majority of their operations.

Fossil free future?
This seeming unwillingness on the part of officials to divest from oil shale has led to serious doubts about Estonia’s renewable future.

While the government and oil shale industry remain positive, environmentalists and researchers are sceptical.

They claim there is no direct investment or clear political will in renewables by the government, only some will to diversify.

“There have been measures to promote sustainable energy, but the indirect subsidies for fossil fuels have still been greater,” Annus emphasises.

Annus feels Estonia is lagging behind a large portion of their EU counterparts and trendsetters, while Tatar and Pomerants celebrate Estonia reaching its Renewable Energy Directive target – 25 percent of renewables in final energy consumption – well before the 2020 deadline.

“Since the political target has been achieved there is no political motivation to increase that,” Peterson says.

Peterson’s colleague, Lauri Tammiste, SEI Tallinn’s director, says the shift to a low-carbon economy remains on the official agenda.

He highlights plans by the government to reach 50 percent of renewables and lower CO₂ emissions by 2030, although there will be a challenge.

“The main issue is, how to actually deliver these goals and ensure successful transformation with biggest possible environmental, economic and social benefits.”

When asked whether Estonia would have a fossil free future, Sepp was adamant he would not see change in his lifetime.

“No. Not in the near future.

It’s very convenient to use this old system. You have one system which works and to build a new one …. takes a lot of money and a lot of effort. Some very critical changes must happen to change this system.”

It seems clear, for the time being at least, that Estonia’s energy future remains far more carbon intensive than environmentalists would like.

Feature article by Kendall Hutt; photos by Essi Lehto and Lukas Rusk. The assignment was part of the Inclusive Journalism Project collaboration between journalism schools in New Zealand and Scandinavia.

By Gayathry Venkiteswaran

Journalists have been killed in terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan in separate incidents that took place in January 2016, heightening concerns over the continued targeting of media personnel.

On January 20, seven staff members of the Afghan Tolo TV were killed following a Taliban suicide attack in Kabul on a minibus that was transporting the station’s journalists. Thirty others were also injured in the attack.

International organisations issued a message of solidarity with the Afghan media. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) tweeted this:

#Afghanistan: IFJ condemns killing of seven #media workers in suicide bombing https://t.co/fPsezkYFxE @abellanger49 pic.twitter.com/IZxOxjYDBP

— IFJ (@IFJGlobal) January 20, 2016

IFEX members including the Afghanistan Journalists Center, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Press Institute (IPI) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which ranked Afghanistan 122 out of 180 in their 2015 press freedom index, also reported on the attacks.

Earlier, two journalists were killed in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, a spot where militants have a stronghold. According to the IFJ, journalist Mehboob Shah Afridi of Aaj TV was killed in a suicide bomb attack on the outskirts of Peshawar on 19 January, while on 16 January, unidentified gunmen shot dead journalist Muhammad Umar, who was a correspondent with a local newspaper.

These incidents were not isolated, as journalists have been targeted across the country; a week before the office of the ARY News was attacked by unidentified attackers who hurled a hand grenade at the Islamabad office and a similar attack took place in November 2015 at the Faisalbad office of Dunya News TV.

It was noted with irony that Pakistan authorities had on 13 January searched the home of New York Times reporter Salman Mahmood, reportedly for terrorists. Media freedom activist Asad Baig tweeted:

Another television media outlet attacked. Meanwhile rangers look for terrorists in the houses of journalists .. @salmanmasood #JournoSafe

— asad beyg (@asadbeyg) January 13, 2016

Dawn, one of Pakistan’s national newspapers, commented that little action has been taken by the state and media houses to protect journalists, leading to the routine killings.

Missing booksellers
Continuing in the spotlight in January was the disappearance of five people associated with a publishing company in Hong Kong, believed to be held in China. The first to go missing, in Thailand, was Gui Minhai, a writer and co-owner of publishing house Mighty Current, which runs the Causeway Bay Bookshop and produces books said to be critical of the Chinese Communist Party, on 17 October 2015.

Three others – Lui Bo, Cheung Ji-ping and Lam Wing-kei – went missing in Shenzhen, China, between 20 and 26 October. Then, in December, a major stockholder in the company, Lee Bo, was reported missing by his wife.

Reports say Lee Bo has since met with his wife, secretly, and Chinese authorities have, after more than two weeks, confirmed that they have detained Lee in mainland China.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association had earlier written seeking clarification on their whereabouts, and the International Publishers Association issued a statement to express their concern that the Chinese government was attempting to quash free speech in the former British colony.

A leaked letter identified 14 publishing houses and 21 publications in Hong Kong as targets to be ‘exterminated’:

UK report: Leaked Chinese Communist Party doco reveals Hong Kong plan to ‘exterminate’ banned books https://t.co/0wC6gCHhDW via @SCMP_News

— Niall Fraser (@MeOldChina64) January 25, 2016

The South China Morning Post is monitoring the issue and has created a special page to compile updates and maintain a timeline of the incidents.

Digital rights
Several individuals were convicted for online expression, specifically for postings on the social networking platform, Facebook, that were deemed in breach of national security or defamatory by the respective governments and courts.

In Thailand, a 46-year old ex-stockbroker was sentenced to six years in jail for two Facebook posts about the king that were cited as having breached the country’s controversial lèse majesté law, according to the Bangkok Post.

As of December 2015, prosecutions under the insult law topped 60 since a coup was launched in mid-2014, and the military regime has attempted to get the compliance of online companies Facebook and Youtube to ban any content said to be defamatory to the monarchy.

In Burma, activist Patrick Khum Jaa Lee was sentenced to six months in prison for posting on his Facebook page comments about the country’s army chief. Critics and his family say there is no digital evidence to prove the crime, and that the charge under the Telecommunications Law threatens freedom of expression.

On a more positive note for digital rights, Bytes for All in Pakistan has created a series of cartoons on the importance of encryption to protect one’s privacy online as well as to ensure individuals are able to express themselves freely. As they say, “We believe the best way to respond to the attempts to put curbs on encryption is for everyone to learn about it and actively use it.”

Members calling for action
The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance has come together with the Community and Public Sector Union to launch a campaign to restore adequate funds for Australia‘s national broadcaster – the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) – and to end government interference in the station’s editorial and programming. More details on the Hands Off Our ABC campaign are on MEAA’s website.

Key Regional Reports
Several groups painted a bleak picture for 2015 in terms of impunity in Asia, reflected in reports by the Pakistan Press Foundation and the Freedom Forum in Nepal. Other forms of attack against the media in Indonesia were recorded by Aliansi Jurnalis Independen, while the Thai Journalists Association reported that, in 2015, the atmosphere in Thailand was one of paranoia, and marked by control by the military regime. Amendments to the constitution in progress have worried activists and critics of the regime. Journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk, who was detained twice by the junta, tweeted on the targeting of students who challenge the regime.

South Pacific
In the South Pacific, Pacific Media Watch reports the IFJ released its report Strengthening Media in the Pacific – an insight into the media landscape and working conditions for media workers in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

The report was a culmination of research and media consultation in the Pacific’s media in 2014 and 2015 and highlights the challenges and success stories from the region as the media continued to rapidly develop and grow.

Gayathry Venkiteswaran based this compilation on IFEX member reports from Afghanistan Journalists Center , Aliansi Jurnalis Independen/Alliance of Independent Journalists , Bytes for All , Committee to Protect Journalists , Freedom Forum , Hong Kong Journalists Association , Human Rights Watch , International Federation of Journalists , International Press Institute , International Publishers Association , Pakistan Press Foundation , Reporters Without Borders , Southeast Asian Press Alliance , Thai Journalists Association 

By Shailendra Singh in Suva

Discussions about the concept of “Global Citizenship” are gaining momentum in various international forums, but remain largely unexplored in the Pacific Islands.

According to Ron Israel, co-founder of The Global Citizens’ Initiative, Global Citizens think beyond communities based on shared group identities. They see themselves as part of a larger, emerging world community.

In the Pacific, the late Tongan academic and philosopher, Professor Epeli Hau’ofa, had gone as far as proposing a common regional identify he called the “new Oceania”, comprising of people with a common Pacific heritage and commitment, rather than as members of diverse nationalities and races.

In Hau’ofa’s conceptualisation, an Oceanian was anyone who lived in the Pacific, and was committed to the region, regardless of ethnicity or religion. His framework also accounted for the “astounding mobility” of Pacific Islanders over the last half-century or more.

This expanded version of Oceania covered larger areas than was “possible under the term Pacific Islands region”, forming a “world of social networks that crisscross the ocean, all the way from Australia and New Zealand in the southwest, to the United States and Canada in the northeast”.

Hau’ofa felt that a common, enlarged Pacific identity was crucial for the advancement of collective regional interests, including the protection of the vital Pacific Ocean.

Connecting and mobilising people to agitate for common interests is the thread that binds the Oceanian and the Global Citizen concepts.

Global Citizen
Global Citizen is just more expansive. Its proponents link it to the universal values of justice, democratic participation, diversity, and global solidarity as the building blocks for peaceful, tolerant, inclusive and sustainable societies.

Pacific Island commentators laud the concept, but feel that certain cultural, economic, geographical and historical obstacles could stand in the way of its implementation.

Former University of the South Pacific academic in literature, Dr Som Prakash, feels that some Global Citizen values are incompatible with the cultural beliefs, philosophies and life-styles of Pacific Island societies.

For instance, egalitarianism is seen as inimical to the hierarchical nature of some Pacific societies, such as chiefly power in Fiji, the aristocracy in Tonga, and matai (chiefly) system in Samoa.

“Democracy, for example, is not always welcomed by traditional chiefs who are given much more power and authority than the ordinary folks,” says Prakash.

“It takes a while for the ordinary Pacific cultures to get accustomed to the questioning of elders and chiefs. Often peace (one of the pillars of Global Citizenship) is argued to be better attained under a benevolent dictator.”

There are some other apparent contradictions. As pointed out by Fiji’s former vice-president, Ratu Jone Madriwiwi, in collective Pacific societies like Fiji, group interests supersede individual interests.

Agents of change
Global citizenry, on the other hand, centers on individuals as the agents of change through instilling in them “awareness of the interconnected nature of the world and the need for a global focus for development”.

However, the likes of Fiji-based university student, Duane Mar, do not see the above paradoxes as obstacles. Mar points out that the Pacific is equally affected, if not more, by some common world problems, which transcend geographical cultural, and philosophical differences.

“Global citizen is a person whose ideals and thought processes are based around those of the general global issues, such as poverty, climate change and human rights,” says Mar.

“In many rural Pacific communities, the people are very much aware of issues like climate change, and the need to combat poverty. These issues are discussed at the community level and from there, villages often work with NGO groups to address them.”

Moreover, collectivism, based on group solidarity, has some clear parallels with the Global Citizen concept of “interdependency”, even though the Global Citizen model encompasses an “interdependent world” rather than just the village, or clan.

Global Citizen, as espoused by UNESCO and other institutions, promotes the idea that people’s “individual and collective actions have a global impact – and it is their responsibility to engage in positive actions for their communities and the planet”.

The idea of collective responsibility to address global problems is likely to resonate with Pacific peoples, especially in relation to global warming and sea-level rise, seen as a severe threat to the region.

Global warming
For years, one Pacific leader after another has stood up at various international forums to urge the industrialised nations to take responsibility for global warming and implement meaningful policies to reduce carbon emissions.

As Kiribati President Anote Tong has often pointed out, the Pacific region contributes the least, just three percent, to global warming, but many islands are on the “frontline” of sea level rise.”

Speaking at a recent meeting of Pacific Island leaders, Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama blamed the industrialised nations for “our slide into disaster”. He added that, “the industrialised world needs to reorganise its economies and its priorities to stop pumping excessive carbon emissions that are warming the planet. To let us sink beneath the waves is totally immoral. The world must not betray us.”

Another recent Pacific leaders’ meeting in the Papua New Guinean capital, Port Moresby, ended in a stalemate after Australia and New Zealand blocked a bid from low-lying island nations for a tougher global target.

This stance has led to increased polarisation, with one commentator stating that the “lacklustre response by Australia and New Zealand to the plight of Pacific nations has finally reached boiling point”.

‘Tragedy of the commons’
Mar describes the Pacific’s global warming predicament as the “tragedy of the commons”, which in this case refers to the actions of some nations having an adverse impact on those nations that did not contribute to the situation.

On his part, USP academic Dr Prakash sees Australia and New Zealand’s intransigency over global warming as perhaps the most recent example of the many ways in which the greater powers have treated the Pacific with “carelessness, if not contempt”.

Prakash feels that such treatment lead to scepticism in the region about what inevitably comes to be seen as “fancy notions of globalisation, often emanating from well-to-do nations”.

He adds that “the most visible and tangible effects of globalisation is the crass TV, mobile phones and social media that inundate our Pacific societies”.

However, as Mar points out, the Pacific has partially benefited from globalisation.

Furthermore, globalisation and Global Citizenry are two distinct ideas. In fact, Global Citizen principles aim to address situations such as “tragedy of the commons”, a by-product of globalisation, although it is easy to see how the two terms could be confused.

The reality is that despite their smallness and isolation, the Pacific region’s destiny is tied with the rest of the world, something which Hau’ofa was keenly aware of.

Surely Hau’ofa was thinking along Global Citizen lines when he wrote that “we cannot confront the issues of the Pacific Century as individual, tiny countries created by colonial powers and acting alone. We could indeed ‘fall off the map’ or disappear into the black hole of a gigantic Pan-Pacific doughnut”.

This article was first published by Indepth News and has been updated by the author for Asia Pacific Report.

By Catherine Putz of The Diplomat

Of Vanuatu’s 270,000 people, an estimated 200,000 turned up to vote in last Friday’s snap parliamentary elections.

The Pacific island nation, which is still recovering from the devastation wrought by a direct hit from category 5 cyclone Pam in March 2015, has been reeling from a massive corruption scandal that led to the dissolution of Parliament in late 2015.

In early October, President Baldwin Lonsdale was visiting Samoa when 14 MPs were convicted of corruption. The 14 represented over a quarter of Vanuatu’s unicameral parliament, which seats 52.

The corruption case was a scandal of the kind that would bring down a government the world over. Deputy Prime Minister Moana Carcasses was discovered to have paid nearly $452,000 to other MPs when he was in opposition in 2014.

The judge determined that the payments were corrupt and intended to influence the MPs. Among those convicted was the then Speaker of Parliament, Marcellino Pipite.

According to Vanuatu’s constitution, when the president is abroad the speaker of Parliament assumes presidential powers and duties. The logic seemed simple enough to Pipite, who pardoned himself and the other 13 MPs while Lonsdale was away.

Needless to say, when the president returned he reversed the decision.

‘Clean the dirt’
“I will clean the dirt from my backyard,” President Lonsdale said. “We as a nation have to stop these crooked ways… The power of mercy is vested in the president and not the acting president,” he said.

The reversal was upheld by the country’s Supreme Court. Failing their appeals, the 14 MPs were all sentenced to at least three years in jail.

As a result, the composition of Parliament shifted. Gridlock ensued. Ultimately, the President dissolved Parliament and called for snap elections.

The snap elections had plenty of hurdles. There was confusion and a delay in publishing of candidate lists. At least 10 jailed MPs tried to register and had to be weeded out of the more than 250 candidates vying for 52 seats.

Then, as the election approached, the electoral office sent more than 20,000 replacement voter cards to the island of Tanna because residents said they’d lost them during the cyclone.

In addition, the electoral commission chairman, John Killion Taleo, said that recently eligible voters (those who turned 18 since June) could not be added to the rolls, as there just wasn’t enough time. Similarly, there was not time to remove the names of those who died turning the cyclone from the lists — and some of the more distant islands don’t keep official death records, anyway.

The irregularities, however, were the results of circumstance rather than fraud that would benefit one party or another.

Election praised
Hubert Ingraham, the former prime minister of the Bahamas and chairman of the Commonwealth Observer Group that monitored the polls, praised the election. According to an ABC report, he said: “It is wonderful that a small country like Vanuatu is able to prosecute persons such as the former MPs and for them to be convicted and imprisoned.”

He went on to say, “It gives the population a level of confidence that the rule of law is prevalent and that no one is above the law.”

As results began to trickle in over the days following the election, it became clear that some wanted a change in power.

Radio New Zealand called the early results “surprising.” Among those who lost seats were Philip Boedoro, a former speaker of parliament, and Robert Bohn, the former justice minister who had been acquitted in the corruption trial.

Prime Minister Sato Kilman, who continued as the acting prime minister even though half his ruling coalition had been convicted of bribery, looks likely to keep his seat, though perhaps not his government.

Another former prime minister, Joe Natuman, is likely to keep his seat as well. Vanuatu has a dozen political parties, which critics say are more defined by personalities rather than politics.

If anything, Vanuatu has demonstrated that the rule of law indeed applies to all. Hopefully, the lesson sticks and its politicians can get to business rebuilding trust in government and perhaps pass a budget (which they didn’t actually do in 2015).

Profile by Ivamere Nataro in Suva

If you’re a person who loves history and values culture then you would certainly want to meet Fiji’s Professor Alan Quanchi.

Dr Quanchi, commonly known to his peers and students as Max, is an academic by profession and is leaving the University of the South Pacific.

He specialises in the teaching of Pacific history and has been doing so for 43 years.

Growing up in rural farming areas of Victoria, Australia, Max was determined to attain his dream career. His humble beginnings and his perseverance made him the first member of his family to complete high school and matriculate.

Max, who was born in 1945, is the youngest of three brothers. According to him, he was too young to enter university so he spent two years training to be a primary schoolteacher. And if you know Max as well as I do, believe me when I say, his students love to attend his classes.

However, the saying “destiny works in mysterious ways” was exactly how life turned out to be for Max as history became a focal point of his journey when he managed to achieve a BA Honours degree and MA thesis on Fiji’s history in 1973 which, according to him was a breakthrough.

Max says his research and findings on Fiji’s attempts to cede itself to Great Britain drove him towards the study of Pacific history.

‘Hooked over Fiji’
“I was hooked after discovering about Fiji’s history,” he said.

And for the next 30 years he visited Fiji and most Pacific countries on a regular basis with a quest to quench his thirst for Pacific history and culture.

Now who would ever dream someone who played basketball, was an Australian Football League player and surfed was on his way to becoming an academic? This was possible when he received his doctorate from Monash University in Australia.

Max stated his journey could not have been possible if it were not for mentors such as Professor John Legge and Dr Jack Lacey who pushed him to become what he is today.

“They were responsible for heading me towards an academic career. They made me aware of the importance I can play, in turn, as a mentor to young Islanders.”

His passion for history was evident in how he presented himself to history critics, as he recalled in the 1990s when he responded to a speaker who argued the Pacific was a basket case and needed to learn more from the rest of the world.

“I pointed out that this thinking needed to be reversed, and that it was indeed the Pacific that had a lot to teach the world. The world needs to pay attention to the success in terms of harmony, conflict resolution, cultural maintenance and survival.”

And not only is he stern in his opinion of Pacific history, he also shares characteristics that lightsup a person’s world on a gloomy day. His humorous personality made him one of the friendliest lecturers on campus.

Sense of humour
Friends Felicia Leitupo and Wendy-Jane Powell in their description of Max stated they had only known him for a year and it seemed like a lifelong friendship.

“Max has a great sense of humour and is a very sociable person,” Leitupo says.

The jolly 70-year-old historian, according to Powell, has also adopted the rich cultural background and friendliness of Fijians. And this is true for a man who rarely loses the bula smile when extending his arms welcoming students and friends to his abode.

As a person who can create friendship with strangers, Max is also a widely respected person when it comes to the learning sphere.

Within the four walls of the classroom, he presents himself as a person with high calibre in the mastering of Pacific history.

His years of teaching in USP allowed him to not only better understand Fijian history and culture, but also engage in the publication of textbooks such as that for Year 9, Fiji in the Pacific and co-author and editor of five recently introduced history textbooks for Year 11, 12 and 13 students.

His book Postcards from Oceania, reviewed last month in The Fiji Times by Vinesh Maharaj, was launched by USP Press late last year and he said his favourite postcard was the one that reversed the gaze by having Fijian subject clothed, and the photographer naked.

Fiji archive of the past
“The postcard has disappeared now but a hundred years ago, photographers trekked inland to places like Namosi to take snaps, later converted into postcards. They are an important archive of Fiji’s past.”

He is an award-winning researcher of USP for the past two years, as well as with other small universities across the region on online course development.

Max is the author of more than 100 books, articles and reports.

A popular speaker, he has spoken on Fiji TV and over the air, at numerous schools, Rucksack Club and recently at the WWI commemoration conference at USP.

Mikaele Vakasilimiratu, formerly with the social science team at the Ministry of Education’s curriculum development unit, recalled that Max had run professional development for history teachers back in the 1990s.

“He was then co-ordinating the regional Teaching the Pacific Forum (TTPF) project funded by Japan and when he came to Fiji and joined USP he carried on in his own time with this guidance to our teachers,” he said.

Max has also taught in schools such as the University of Papua New Guinea, Queensland University of Technology and Monash University in Melbourne.

Tantalising local food
Having developed a taste for tantalising local food, Max said his favourite was “grilled fish from the market”.

But for a drink he certainly is not a fan of yaqona, although he said there were certain occasions where he had to give in to Fiji’s traditional drink.

Now that he will soon say adios to USP, he says Fiji is a “fantastic and exciting” place to live in and has a lot of potential as a Pacific country to develop.

He said he planned to continue teaching in the University of Goroka in Papua New Guinea or the University of Queensland in Brisbane and for a person such as Max who knows no barrier, sky was the limit even if the tides swept against him.

When asked about what job he would take if life did not throw him into the profession he is in, Max jokingly said he would gladly be a rock star or be part of the Miss Hibiscus pageant.

His words of advice, knowledge and friendliness will surely be missed by all who consider him a friend and if only the hands of time could turn back to the exciting interview which shows his friendly personality, I would gladly allow history to repeat itself.

Opinion by Professor Wadan Narsey in Suva

There should have been institutional protests a few weeks ago when the Bainimarama government announced that it had awarded the sole government (and public enterprise) advertising rights to the Fiji Sun.

The protests should have been even louder given that the government had called for expressions of interest according to an extensive list of criteria, which if followed, ought to have resulted in a decision in favour of The Fiji Times.

While I declare my interest as a regular columnist for this newspaper, I explain below that it would not be in the public interest to award sole advertising rights to The Fiji Times either and that the Fiji Sun should also be included.

Given the clear evidence (total dollar values of commercial advertising) that the private sector advertisers, on the basis of reach and cost effectiveness alone, favour The Fiji Times, then the Bainimarama government decision to select the Fiji Sun as sole print advertiser, amounts to gross misuse of taxpayers’ advertising money, which is not in the public interest.

The first protests at the government decision should therefore have come from the institutions which have been set up under the Fiji Constitution precisely to prevent the misuse of taxpayers’ money, ie the Office of the Auditor-General and the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.

At the next level of constitutional responsibility, there should have been protests from institutions like the Commerce Commission, the Media Industry Development Authority, and the Consumer Council of Fiji.

Sadly, there has been total silence from all these institutions.

Dismaying silence
This silence utterly dismaying for good governance, given that the Bainimarama government decision is striking at the heart of a “level playing field” and fair competition for media organisations, and the constitutional basic human right of citizens of Fiji to have free access to all public interest information that a government disseminates using taxpayer funds.

It is totally abhorrent that there are a large number of public enterprises whose advertising decisions ought to be totally independent of the government of the day and based purely on commercial grounds alone, are also following the Government, indicating the utter spinelessness of their boards.

Advertised criteria

The Bainimarama government claimed it would be assessing tenders on the basis of stated criteria which included the following:

* evidence of circulation;

* evidence of national reach;

* commitment to educate and inform all Fijians with respect to development and government issues in an unbiased and responsible manner; and

* ability to accept urgent and last minute requests.

These four criteria would seem reasonable and commercially oriented.

But the advertisement also asked for evidence of commitment to:

* quality;

* national unity, national identity development and nation building;

* the development of the Fiji economy; and

* the welfare of all Fijians.

By no stretch of the imagination can criteria 5 to 8 be important considerations for any government to get its messages out to the people on matters that concern them, given that the actual vehicle for the advertisement is surely irrelevant.

Any media which had a solid commercial track record of reaching the largest set of citizens in Fiji, ought to have been selected as an avenue for government advertising, purely from the point of view of outreach of advertisements.

Common sense
While a good high school mathematics student could show the following arguments with a “Venn diagram”, common sense indicates the same.

* Only a small number of readers read both the Fiji Sun and The Fiji Times.

* The largest number read only The Fiji Times or only the Fiji Sun.

* Hence to reach the maximum number, government ought to advertise in both newspapers.

* As the largest customer, government could even demand the lowest fees compatible with reasonable profits for the newspapers.

Note that even if it is implied by the government’s call for tenders, The Fiji Times should also not be given sole rights to advertise, as there are many members of the public who, for whatever reason, read only the Fiji Sun, and they also should not be deprived of easy access to government advertisements.

But of course, the arguments could be couched in more technical language relevant to the formal responsibilities of the institutions.

Institutional duties
The Auditor-General (backed by the Public Accounts Committee) is duty bound to examine whether the Bainimarama gbovernment’s decision is on commercial grounds and, if not, whether it amounts to a gross misuse of taxpayer’s money. They are entitled to demand an immediate explanation from the Minister of Finance.

A principled Consumer Council of Fiji, whose executive is never reticent about appearing in the media on behalf of small groups of consumers, could have passionately informed the media that by giving ads only to one newspaper, government was depriving readers of the other more popular newspaper legitimate access to public information, as a basic human right as citizens and consumers of government services.

A principled MIDA chairman could have proactively pronounced (and he has done quite frequently on other matters of less national importance) that government was undermining fair competition in the media, which was against the public interest.

A principled Commerce Commission, which has often acted against private sector companies who are perceived to have exercised monopoly power, ought to have proactively explained to the Bainimarama government that it was against the public interest, to bestow by contract, monopoly power on the Fiji Sun as the “sole retailer” of government advertisements.

A principled Commerce Commission ought to also point out that the Fiji Sun was thereby also unfairly obtaining newspaper sales revenues because members of the public interested in government advertisements were being forced to buy the Fiji Sun, and thereby also giving Fiji Sun unfair advertising revenue from commercial advertisers attracted by the artificially added circulation.

A principled CEO of Transparency International could have reminded the Bainimarama government that it was not good governance to be unfairly granting subsidies to a media owner whose newspaper was not a good watchdog on Government.

But unfortunately, when it comes to contentious Bainimarama government policies or misdemeanours by companies close to them (such as a mobile company), it seems that these organisations have become institutional lambs, afraid to do their duty, for fear of slaughter.

Solution is easy
The Commerce Commission has been ever ready to set controlled prices for thousands of products and services in the Fiji economy, ranging from drugs, hardware items and even the rents charged for accommodation, wherever there is a hint of lack of competition.

The current government decision to award sole advertising rights to the Fiji Sun is a blatant example of creation of monopoly which is against the public interest, and which the Commerce Commission is duty bound to combat.

The Commerce Commission could quite legitimately and easily, with the support of the Consumer Council and MIDA, following the proper investigation, establish a regime of advertising charges system for government advertisements, fair to both taxpayers and the media companies, with both companies being asked to run all important advertisements.

What is so difficult about this solution?

The people of this country are ever ready to write Letters to the Editor (the people’s parliament) on rugby sevens, same sex marriages, Bollywood and Hollywood, the bad state of the roads, or the blunders in the education system.

I call on the “people’s parliament” to express their opinions on the Bainimarama government’s decision to advertise solely in the Fiji Sun.

Dr Wadan Narsey is a an independent economist and writer and also a former professor of economics at the University of the South Pacific.

By Michael Neilson in Jakarta

Activists are suing the Indonesian government in a bid to stop development they say will devastate the last remaining area on earth where Sumatran tigers, rhinoceroses, orangutans and elephants live together in the wild.

The world-renowned Leuser Ecosystem in the heart of the Sumatran jungle in Aceh is at risk of being destroyed by a government plan to allow roads in the area and by potential concessions for mining and plantations, campaigners say.

In the latest stage of a nearly two-year bid to have the plan retracted, nine representatives of the group Gerakan Rakyat Aceh Menggugat launched a civil lawsuit at the Central Jakarta District Court.

“[The plan] effectively dissolves protection of much of Aceh’s remaining tropical rainforests, whitewashing crimes of the past, and paving the way for a new wave of catastrophic ecological destruction,” GeRAM representative Farwiza Farhan​ said.

The short-term profits from the developments would not benefit the people of Aceh, she said.

“They are after quick immediate short-term gains, but the consequences will be borne by the rest of the community.

Crucial for survival
The Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme says the Leuser Ecosystem is crucial for the survival of the Sumatran tigers, rhinoceroses, elephants and orangutans.

“If you lose Leuser you lose all four of those species guaranteed,” Sumatran Orangutan Programme conservation manager Ian Singleton said.

“The … plan basically ignores the existence of the Leuser Ecosystem. It opens up massive areas of lowland forests to potential new concessions for plantations, mining, timber even, and it also legalises many roads that have been cut through the forest … and roads alone are enough to send these species to extinction.”

The lawsuit is against both the Aceh government, which activists claim is acting unlawfully by not including the protected ecosystem in the plan, and the Ministry of Home Affairs, which they claim has failed to protect the Leuser Ecosystem.

The group claims the Ministry of Home Affairs indicated the plan would need to include protection of the ecosystem but has failed to take necessary action.

They are hoping to have the Aceh government redraw the plan and provide protection for the Leuser Ecosystem and proper environmental analysis.

The Leuser Ecosystem covers more than 2.6 million hectares across the provinces of Aceh and Northern Sumatra and is regarded by conservationists as one of the richest areas of tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia. Within the ecosystem is Gunung Leuser National Park, which is listed as a World Heritage Site.

Jewel in crown
“The Leuser Ecosystem is a jewel in the crown of the world’s rainforests – and it’s unbelievable that the Aceh government isn’t taking stronger steps to help protect it,” Professor Bill Laurance, of James Cook University, says.

“In a world in which invaluable ecosystems are vanishing almost daily, the Leuser is becoming one of the most alarming environmental tragedies unfolding anywhere.”

The geographically diverse area consists of lowland rainforest, peatlands, mountain ranges, lakes and nine substantial rivers. In addition to providing a habitat to a number of endangered wildlife species it is also a life system for the more than 4 million people, and helps protect the area from natural disasters such as flooding and landslides.

Professor Laurance has been campaigning to have the Leuser Ecosystem listed as a World Heritage Site.

“Virtually anywhere else on the planet, the Leuser would be protected as a World Heritage Site – a crucial element of our global heritage. I think the best hope is that the Indonesian federal government might be persuaded to intervene in Aceh, just as we saw happen in Australia with the establishment of World Heritage sites in Tasmania and the Queensland Wet Tropics. I haven’t seen much evidence that the Aceh government on its own is going to the swayed to protect Leuser.”

The court will order a mediation between the two parties before the litigation proceeds.

Report from The Conversation

By Liam Burke

Quentin Tarantino has secured his place in popular culture by reaching into neglected corners of cinema for genres that are ready for reinvention and rediscovery.

This approach saw the motormouth filmmaker bring postmodern panache to the gangster film with Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994), mythologise martial arts movies in Kill Bill (2003), and imagine a Hollywood ending for World War II in Inglourious Basterds (2009).

This fruitful trail now brings us to the remote mountainside lodge of Minnie’s Haberdashery – the setting for Tarantino’s eighth film, appropriately titled The Hateful Eight (2015). Across his films Tarantino has built up a loyal company of actors willing to brave these uncertain cinematic detours.

With The Hateful Eight bustling into theatres, I sat down with two of Tarantino’s favourite stars, Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell, to discuss the filmmaker, the movie’s political parallels, and why the Western may never again be a Hollywood mainstay.

A high-octane cast comes together
In post-Civil War Wyoming, an unlikely group of bounty hunters, bandits, and lawmen take shelter from a merciless blizzard in the isolated stagecoach lodge of Minnie’s Haberdashery. The strangers each harbour dark secrets and deadly intentions.

Among the lodge’s reluctant occupants is Samuel L. Jackson’s Union soldier-turned-bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren.

Jackson said the Tarantino set was unusually close and collaborative:

I think it’s unique to this particular film, mainly because we rehearsed it for so long and we spent so much time together… Once we got to [primary location] Telluride [Colorado], Quentin still found unique ways of bringing us all together, cast and crew […] you form a bond that’s very unique and different on his sets.

Kurt Russell plays John “The Hangman” Ruth, a bounty hunter determined to bring prisoner Daisy Domergue to the town of Red Rock. Impenetrable snow forces them to stay at the lodge, with Ruth increasingly suspicious of the other travellers already there.

Russell, a Hollywood veteran who previously worked with Tarantino on Death Proof (2007), said of the on-set atmosphere,

There was a real high level of appreciation of each other’s talent on this, so it was fun to be there and watch somebody else do what they were doing […] the crew and cast were very close.

Jackson, who has contributed to six of Tarantino’s films, describes the filmmaker as a “masterful storyteller [who] creates characters that are complete and honest and entertaining, and memorable”.

The film’s eponymous gunslingers are impeccably cast, with Jackson relishing a further opportunity to spit out Tarantino’s dialogue and Russell bringing old school bluster to the bear-like John Ruth.

Kurt Russell and Jennifer Jason Leigh are spectacular as John “The Hangman” Ruth and gunslinger Daisy Domergue. RoadshowRussell spends much of the film tethered to his bounty, viper-like Daisy Domergue, played by a revelatory Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Rounding out the octet are Demián Bichir’s unlikely lodge proprietor Bob The Mexican, Reservoir Dogs alumni Tim Roth and Michael Madsen, while Bruce Dern and Walton Goggins play Confederate lost causers.

Like the writer/director’s 2012 movie Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight is a Western, a genre which has enjoyed only limited success since its heyday in the 1950s.

Russell, whose first starring role came at the age of 12 in the 1963 Western TV series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, attributes this decline to genre fatigue:

There was a lot of Westerns on TV [in the 1960s]. In those days you did 26 shows as a series. So you had 26 new shows being written for nine different Westerns. At some point you’ve worn out your welcome.

Jackson disagreed with this take, countering, “I don’t think that about courtroom shows or hospital shows. There’s a whole bunch of PC crap going on too”. Jackson suggests that even if contemporary social attitudes do not allow for the black and white morality of classical Westerns,

They do it in another way now, it’s cop shows and all the other stuff – the alphabet soup of spy shows. People are still shooting themselves all over TV.

Placing The Hateful Eight in the director’s larger filmography, Jackson believes the new film, “fits right in there like the rest of them” with the only difference being that Tarantino “tells bigger stories now, and the scope of them seems to be larger”.

While the film’s first act does feature some impressive snowbound vistas, The Hateful Eight is mainly set in a single location. It invites inevitable comparisons with Tarantino’s first film, the warehouse-set crime drama Reservoir Dogs.

The Hateful Eight engages in some of the same non-linear storytelling synonymous with Tarantino’s catalogue, but it is also one of his most measured film since his breakout success. Commenting on Tarantino’s command of the form, Russell reflects,

He was in his prime here; that is one of the things that I take away from this experience and that I feel very fortunate about. Sometimes you get to work with great directors but unfortunately they weren’t in their prime [Jackson lets out a knowing chuckle].

We can honestly say that it was one thing to work with them perhaps before or after, but when you get to work with Orson Welles absolutely in his prime or you get to work with Quentin Tarantino absolutely in his prime, that’s one to hold on to.

Going old-school: camera, sound and action
Evoking Reservoir Dogs is not the director’s only nostalgic impulse. The notoriously digital-shy filmmaker has avoided industry standard techniques to shoot and process the Western on actual 70mm film.

It’s also the first film since 1966’s Khartoum to be shot in Ultra Panavision 70, which gives The Hateful Eight an impossibly wide aspect ratio.

To showcase this old school format the film is being distributed in a 1950s-style roadshow release with a longer cut (complete with an intermission and musical overture) shown in select theatres first, before the “shorter” 167-minute version is exhibited widely.

In doing so, Tarantino is hoping to combat the loss of cinema audiences to television and streaming services by “eventising” the release. This strategy may work for cinephiles but it’s unlikely to tempt home viewers increasingly accustomed to binge watching Netflix in their pyjamas.

Another incentive for film buffs is The Hateful Eight’s score. Tarantino’s soundtracks are almost as popular as the films they serve. In his first seven releases, the director eschewed a traditional score in favour of cherry-picking obscure film music and retro pop rock.

Here the director breaks with this practice by enlisting Ennio Morricone, whose iconic music gave Sergio Leone’s Westerns their operatic grandeur, to provide the film’s score. While the haunting themes cannot match Morricone’s work on classics like Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) they maintain and reinforce the film’s sense of ever-present danger.

Morricone’s score is essential to bring texture to a film that runs the risk of becoming wearisome across its three-hour running time. Tarantino “the writer” has given Tarantino “the director” an incredibly difficult task by setting the lion’s share of The Hateful Eight in a single location.

Rather than resist the theatricality of this set up, Tarantino has wisely leaned into it. Snowflakes drop from spotlight-like shafts of light that peak through the lodge’s rafters and the 70mm aspect ratio provides a wider stage for the actors to perform, while the director himself reads off-camera stage directions at a crucial juncture. This is assured filmmaking from a director with the conviction to allow the camera to rest on a blood-stained tableaux.

Jackson said that this larger canvas did not affect his performance, but notes that for the audience the characters have,

lives outside of the main focus of what was going on… if you watch the movie a second or third time and follow somebody other than the person who was the major focus of the shot you’ll see all kinds of stuff happening in it.

The lens of the past examines the future
After Tarantino’s more detached earlier work the director’s confidence is also evident by the film’s greater political engagement. Before the release of The Hateful Eight, Tarantino made a number of comments about the divisiveness that pervades modern America.

The film includes many moments that evoke contemporary discussion around US liberal media bias, the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina capitol, and more recently the Oregon militia’s occupation of a wildlife refuge.

Russell believes that as it is an election year, the film’s post-Civil War setting might find particular relevance:

That’s when [divisiveness] is talked about most… And they are not afraid to say something about it… Because maybe there’s a group out there that they want to appeal to, or a group out there that wants someone to appeal to them. And then it dies down for a while – you vote and that’s it.

These days, few Westerns can be found roaming the multiplexes. Russell summarises the genre’s decline by observing,

I think the Western will be something that you get in piecemeal now. You get it in little fits and spurts, but I don’t think it’ll ever be a mainstay again. It’s really hard to come up with a new take.

While The Hateful Eight may not offer a wholly new spin on the Western genre, Tarantino is successful at creating a slow burn chamber piece that ratchets up the tension with the introduction of each gun-toting character.

By providing eight protagonists with uncertain pasts and nebulous morality, Tarantino also affords the spectator a measure of autonomy absent in many modern films. This effect is reinforced by the carefully staged and layered 70mm tableaux that allow the viewer to decide where to look, and ultimately where to rest their allegiance once the bullets start flying and the film races towards a blood-soaked third act.

The Hateful Eight premiered in New Zealand on January 20.

Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, James Parks, Dana Gourrier, Zoe Bell, Lee Horsley, Gene Jones, Keith Jefferson, Craig Stark, Belinda Owino, Channing Tatum

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Running time: 170 mins

Rating: R18 (graphic violence, sexual violence, offensive language)

 Liam Burke is senior media studies lecturer, Swinburne University of Technology. This review is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence.

By Janice Cantieri in Tarawa

“If, one day, the waves take away these sacred places and they’re gone, we will keep on telling the stories. But I can’t stop that—I don’t hold the answer of the waves.”

Takirua Tiare, a traditional storyteller on Kiribati’s Marakei Island, tells it how it is.

As a taani karaki, as the storytellers are known, Tiare, 68, is in charge of looking after Marakei’s four shrines and passing along their oral histories—stories of the island’s connection to spirits, gods and goddesses, and ancient battles—to the next generation.

These sacred places have been on the island for centuries. But in recent years, the rising seas that surround Marakei and the other Kiribati islands are creeping closer and closer to the shrines, particularly the one known as Nei Rotebenua.

“Before, the sea was far away from [Nei Rotebenua]. That place was more inland. Now it’s just over the beach, but it didn’t used to be,” Tiare explains.

But it’s not just the sea that has the island’s elders worried. Some feel that the younger generations are taking less interest in the community’s storytelling traditions. These two simultaneous threats, the elders say,  endanger Marakei’s heritage: The sea is growing closer to the physical shrines just as interest in the history they represent wanes.

Te Katabanin: A Marakei Tradition
As I sat with Tiare in his thatched home, he explained the importance of paying respect to the shrines, which represent the island’s four goddesses. Upon arrival, newcomers to Marakei travel counterclockwise around the ring-shaped island in a practice called te katabanin. Visitors must leave offerings of tobacco or money at each shrine.

If they don’t, Tiare says, there is a good chance they will be cursed.

“When you are a visitor or guest, you must do te katabanin before anything else,” he says.

According to the legend,when King Kirata arrived here hundreds of years ago he sent half of his crew clockwise to explore the island, while the other half went counterclockwise.

“The ones that went clockwise died on the spot when they met again,” Tiare says.

“You will be all right if you do te katabanin counterclockwise, but not the other way.”

When I arrived on Marakei, I was immediately taken around the island on te katabanin with Rotite Mangaa, my neighbor in Rawannawi Village. When she first saw me, she excitedly jumped up and found a motorcycle to borrow for our journey.

To get to the first shrine, Nei Reei, we had to push the motorcycle through sandy patches on the island road. The February king tide was extremely destructive for Marakei, destroying large sections of the single road connecting the island’s villages.

Mangaa spoke quickly in the Kiribati language, blessing my stay on Marakei and asking the island goddess for protection. As soon as I placed my offering of tobacco on the shrine, children hovering nearby snatched it up to deliver to the village unimane (elder) who guards Nei Reei.

The second shrine, Nei Rotebenua, was right on the beach. After I made my offering, Mangaa covered our cheeks with sand from the beach, then gave me a hug.

“You now belong to Marakei,” she said.

When we returned to Rawannawi Village after visiting the last two shrines, Mangaa shouted to the villagers that the two of us were now “Marakei sisters.”

Moving a shrine: a sacred knowledge
Three of the island’s four shrines are far enough inland to avoid the high tides, but Nei Rotebenua is especially vulnerable and may eventually have to be moved further inland. It wouldn’t be the first time; Tennang Tokanako, an elder who lives nearby, explained that Nei Rotebenua was moved once before, about 15 years ago, when the tide washed away the old site.

There is a special way to move a shrine in his culture, Tokanako said, but many of the elders with that knowledge have already passed away—which could leave Nei Rotebenua in jeopardy.

“Nowadays there aren’t many people who know the process. These places are taboo and sacred, so I’m not sure if we’ll be able to move it or not.”

Like many of the elders on Marakei, Tokanako, 70, is worried that younger islanders have lost interest in preserving the island’s shrines and stories. If the shrines are lost, he’s concerned that the stories will be lost, too, unless the community makes an effort to preserve them.

“Now, I observe the next generation, and they all don’t care about the shrines,” he says. “They care about making money, development, and wanting to go to Tarawa, and they laugh at the shrines. It’s sad for me because very soon these things will be disappearing, but we can’t do anything about it.”

Toakin Wakarati, 48, another storyteller from Rawannawi Village, explained that the existence of the physical shrines is essential to preserving their stories.

“The stories are useless without the shrine there,” he says. “Te katabanin is still practiced and is one of the things that keeps the stories alive. Now, it’s been ages, and the reason the stories are alive is because those shrines are still there and everyone goes around to them.”

But other storytellers, like Takirua Tiare, say that even if these sites disappear, the storytelling will continue.

“If it’s meant to be gone, it’ll be gone. But us, we’ll keep on telling stories. If I keep telling the stories, maybe one of my children will be interested and keep the story alive.”

Janice Cantieri is a journalist and researcher from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who is on a Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship to document the stories of displacement and adaptation between the Pacific Island nations of Kiribati and Fiji. This article is republished with the permission of the author.

By Derek Brien in Port Vila

2015 will go down as a tumultuous year for the people of the Pacific.

The massive destruction caused by Cyclone Pam in March left the nation of Vanuatu traumatised. Nine months later, the physical and emotional scars remain visible, and the recovery effort crippled by a lack of funds (only ten per cent of what was required to rebuild was pledged by donors and international NGOs) and compounded by persistent El Nino weather conditions.

Evaluation after evaluation of previous disasters point to all the same issues experienced during the Pam response. The need for better coordination. The need to tailor international response plans to the local context (especially relevant for logistical exercises in a country spread over so many islands). The need to act quickly to provide water, shelter and food (especially where the needs are readily identifiable even in the absence of hard data). The need to empower (and not undermine) national systems and national actors. It seems the lessons are logged, but not learned. As we head towards the first ever World Humanitarian Summit in May 2016, we in the Pacific need to engage and help reshape the global agenda to make humanitarian action fit for future crises in our region.

Vanuatu was also the scene of the region’s most enthralling political upheaval to date. In a series of landmark court cases, 14 MPs were jailed for corruption and subsequently barred from holding public office for ten years. Parliament was dissolved, and the country heads to a general election on 22 January, 2016. The bribery case showcased the independence of the judicial sector and, in a country that is fabled for big-man, patronage politics, that no one is above the law. It also underscored the deficiencies of the prevailing parliamentary electoral system. While many commented on the minority government left after the 14 were jailed, the bigger issue is the fact that the electoral system gives rise to a minority parliament. This will likely not change without substantial reforms that focus on representation, and not just legislating for stability. As the national conversation evolves around the bribery case and the need for reform, PiPP will seek to continue its non-partisan support to strengthening the social contract between political actors and their constituents through the much acclaimed MP Face to Face programme and other citizen engagement initiatives.

Vanuatu is not alone among Pacific countries plagued by corruption. Renowned anti-corruption advocate Sam Koim has led a charge for this to be elevated as a matter of utmost importance for regional leaders, given the ‘prevalence of corruption is the direct cause of pervasive poverty in our region’. In Koim’s home country, Papua New Guinea, the human toll of corruption is evident with 2.8 million people living in poverty, thousands of avoidable deaths, and poor service delivery. All of this is despite (or because of?) vast mineral wealth and extraordinary government spending, which is masking a looming financial crash.

Rule of law, justice, the need for strong institutions and peaceful settlements featured prominently in the new Sustainable Development Goals that were agreed by world leaders in September. The Pacific bloc was instrumental in ensuring the new goals covered issues pertinent to our region, especially climate change and oceans management. The Pacific also supported Timor-Leste as the leading proponent for a goal promoting peaceful societies and capable institutions. For the first time the global agenda recognises the indivisible interlinkages between peace and development, and the need to focus on building state capacity to deliver essential services and manage resources. (Note to donors: this is not a green light to continue failed ‘capacity building’ efforts that simply parachute in ‘technical assistants’ through revolving door aid programmes).

As the world continues to reel under the weight of extremism, we need to ensure that the goal on peace is not re-cast solely as a tool in the never-ending ‘war on terror’ or as a means to legitimise the illegitimate beliefs of some that migration is a negative force, and that peace is an issue pertaining exclusively to developing countries. Let us not forget the universal pledge that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to apply universally.

The Pacific bloc once again punched above its collective weight in international negotiations with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change reflecting the long held small-island position to keep global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius instead of two – a half degree that has split negotiations over the past 20 years. However not everyone was gushing with praise for the Paris outcome, with concerns that the deal does not go far enough to hold countries to account or to deliver the international financing required.

While our UN diplomats and negotiators should rightly celebrate their remarkable achievements of this year, we need to remember that the new global goals and the climate agreement are meaningless without effective implementation. For the SDGs we need to remain active in the discussions that will finalise the indicators for the 17 goals and the first meeting of the High level Political Forum in July 2016, which will determine the global implementation and reporting mechanisms. While we are at it, we should step up our participation in the painfully slow moving efforts to reform the archaic institutional infrastructure of the United Nations. Regionally, we need to ensure our national development priorities are aligned but not subordinate to the global goals. In short, we need to take the reigns and not let others determine our development path. Domestic and regional institutional reform will be at the heart of that as well.

Small island states also held sway when it came to appointing the new Commonwealth Secretary General. Common sense prevailed as delegates came together at the last minute to unanimously back Dominica’s candidate, Baroness Scotland, thwarting the bid to give the position to Australia’s Alexander Downer as a ‘compromise candidate’. There is every hope Baroness Scotland, the first woman to hold the post, will revitalise the floundering intergovernmental organisation. Closer to home, the first woman appointed to lead the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Dame Meg Taylor, has made a solid start reviving the once premier regional  body.

Mirroring some of the key international discussions on poverty, peacekeeping and climate change, this year’s Melanesian School Debate showcased the depth of talent we have among our young people; our future leaders. Plans are unfolding to expand this highly successful initiative in future years, with the hope of including teams from the Melanesian territories of New Caledonia and West Papua. Sub-regional competitions for Polynesia and Micronesia are also being considered, with the view to holding an annual Pacific tournament.

PiPP too has had a tumultuous year. Our work programme was torn apart first by funding cuts, and then Cyclone Pam as staff scrambled to support various government, NGO and media relief efforts. As business returned to a semblance of normality, we proudly assisted the government of Timor-Leste (and indirectly supported the Pacific) in the international negotiations on the new sustainable development agenda.

Hosting this year’s Melanesian School Debate was a highlight for all involved, and our associates around the region continue to file insightful blogs on the issues that matter. All of this has been achieved with limited resources, which has resulted in us sadly farewelling a number of valued staff and scaling back activities. Whatever the outlook for us as an organisation, the explosion of critical thinking, innovation and passion, especially among the emerging generation of young Pacific leaders, suggests that the future for the region is bright. And that is what keeps us coming to work every day.

But not for a few weeks. We are taking a short break to recover from the trials and tribulations of this year, and to get ready to tackle the challenges that 2016 throws up.

Derek Brien is co-founder and executive director of PiPP. He served as an adviser to the Permanent Mission of Timor-Leste to the United Nations and supported Pacific missions and the g7+ in the intergovernmental negotiations that gave rise to the new Global Goals for sustainable development. Born in Ireland, he grew up in Australia and has called Vanuatu home for the best part of the last decade.

“I came here in 1989 with $8000 and one of those small early Macintosh computers and the first Apple laser printer.”

Out of that Mac came an institution that has effectively defined Vanuatu’s region-leading reputation for media freedom.

Since he arrived in Vanuatu from Papua New Guinea 26 years ago, Marc’s swashbuckling approach to life and his fearless dedication for the truth—to say nothing of his apparently immortal mullet—have created a legend almost bigger than a man can be. We celebrate his life and his achievements today.

The Vanuatu Daily Post … online today: “First with the news.”

If you run a Google search for “Marc Neil-Jones”, the very first image to appear is of a rather punch-drunk man with a bloody nose and a split lip. Marc has gone—literally and metaphorically—toe-to-toe with countless powerful figures in his time. And although his health has suffered of late, he has emerged the victor in every confrontation.He has been deported, imprisoned, beaten… and threatened with lawsuits so often that he reacts to each new lawyer’s letter with nothing more than a quiet smile, like someone hearing news of an old friend.

Some claim that he’s drunk kava with more prime ministers than any other man. In his time away from the office his raillery and joie-de-vivre left many young women breathless and, often enough, scandalised.

But he brought that same passion and intensity to his work. Without his unique mix of affability and panache, it’s doubtful that the media in Vanuatu would have evolved as it has.

Many exploits
His friends and colleagues may choose to remember Marc’s many exploits, or his spontaneous, finger-waving harangues on the topic of the moment. But his legacy runs deeper than many people appreciate.

Back in 1993, Marc Neil-Jones persuaded then-Prime Minister Maxime Carlot Korman to allow him to open a proper newspaper, the first of its kind in Vanuatu.

Until then, only a government rag existed, and its coverage of politics and current events was… staid, to say the least. It was Marc’s taste for scandal and imbroglio that led him into the newspaper business, but it was his deeply-held sense of decency and desire for fairness that created the newspaper you’re reading today.

Marc’s unselfishness is often overlooked. Despite a notable affection for his own voice, he is a careful listener, and is never too proud to pass up a good idea. It’s no accident that his newsroom is packed with talent.

With well over 100 years collective professional experience dating back to before Independence, each and every one of the cast of characters that feed this newspaper every day have learned a thing or two about objectivity, fairness and devotion to the truth from this remarkable man.

Alone, Marc may not be possessed of unerring business acumen, but in 22 years of partnership with local businessman Gene Wong—the two are friends from back in Papua New Guinea—their enterprise has moved from strength to strength. Even in the wake of cyclone Pam’s devastation and the subsequent economic downturn, the Daily Post and Buzz FM remain profitable.

It is impossible to measure the social wealth that this man has helped create. Without a newspaper of record, one could argue that Vanuatu’s path over the years would have been a different one.

Bribery trials
At the height of tension during the recent criminal bribery trials, a Solomon Islands policeman turned to a Ni Vanuatu colleague and said, ‘Mate, if this were Honiara, half the town would be on fire by now.’

But this is Port Vila, not Honiara; and not to put too fine a point on it, if people here have learned to love ethics, fairness and the rule of law, they learned most of it in the pages of the Daily Post.

Marc Neil-Jones has faced increasing health challenges in recent years, and on Thursday, he formally announced his retirement. He is a pioneer, a champion of media freedom and a member of a truly elite—and far too small—club of fearless defenders of the truth in the Pacific islands.

The only thing that keeps this column from ending on a sad note is the knowledge that we who remain at work here will still benefit from this man’s wit and wisdom. We’re glad we’ve got you, Marc.

We owe you everything.

Suicide is increasing at a rate that most Pacific Islanders can no longer chose to ignore.

Atypically the act of intentionally taking one’s own life is brought about as a result of  depression usually accompanied with mental disorders, alcohol, financial and interrelationship problems.

Although an alarm will surface in news headlines – an alarm that is only raised at the expense of someone’s life – this is just like all the other news – there one day, gone the next .

Without being melodramatic, it leaves me frustrated when issues like suicide aren’t follow up on beyond occasional headlines. I mean, what’s happening between times, or more specifically “what has been done since the last incident?”

Behind the scenes how much of a struggle is it for the organisations and government ministries in charge of this issue to push for a reduction in the suicide statistics?        

As a person who has lost both a friend and relative to suicide, I would say my own labelling of suicide victims was naive and ignorant. Seldom would I have ever thought of suicide as the only way to end a victim’s suffering.

WHO estimated that over 800 000 people die due to suicide every year.

Fiji recorded 89 suicides from January to September this year, with 10 involving children under the age of 16 and a total of 30 people below the age of 25 taking their lives during the past eight months.

Last month, on Friday 18 September, classes for Secondary, Primary and pre-schools in Fiji were put on hold for a day as it was declared  “Suicide Prevention Day” soon after the death of three primary school students who were said to have taken their lives due to academic reasons by drinking a formula used for killing weeds.

For that week,  the spotlight was on the:

• Schools…for putting too much pressure on school students
• Ministry of Education…for not making it clear to students that regardless of academic performance they would still be promoted to the next level
• Students…for not discussing issues they faced
• Parents…for not speaking to their children
• And businesses…for selling hazardous products that could be easily purchased by anyone.

Any likelihood that such an incident might be repeated made every parent, school and Government ministry worry. Everyone was talking about “Suicide” whether to a relative or friend; or even posting on social media sites. No matter what medium was being used, “Suicide Awareness” (a topic usually considered as taboo) was finally out there in the open.

Right up till the Rugby World Cup 2015 hit… and just like that… suicide was a topic tucked away only to be brought up as statistics for the next kava session.

Who is at risk?

While the link between suicide and mental disorders – in particular, depression and alcohol use disorders – is well established in high-income countries, many suicides happen impulsively in moments of crisis with a breakdown in the ability to deal with life stresses, such as financial problems, relationship break-up or chronic pain and illness.

In addition, experiencing conflict, disaster, violence, abuse, or loss and a sense of isolation are strongly associated with suicidal behaviour. Suicide rates are also high amongst vulnerable groups who experience discrimination, such as refugees and migrants; indigenous peoples; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex (LGBTI) persons; and prisoners. By far the strongest risk factor for suicide is a previous suicide attempt.

Methods of suicide

It is estimated that around 30% of global suicides are due to pesticide self-poisoning, most of which occur in rural agricultural areas in low- and middle-income countries. Other common methods of suicide are hanging and firearms.

Knowledge of the most commonly used suicide methods is important to devise prevention strategies which have shown to be effective, such as restriction of access to means of suicide.

Prevention and control

Suicides are preventable. There are a number of measures that can be taken at population, sub-population and individual levels to prevent suicide and suicide attempts. These include:

• reducing access to the means of suicide (e.g. pesticides, firearms, certain medications);
• reporting by media in a responsible way;
• introducing alcohol policies to reduce the harmful use of alcohol;
• early identification, treatment and care of people with mental and substance use disorders, chronic pain and acute emotional distress;
• training of non-specialized health workers in the assessment and management of suicidal behaviour;
• follow-up care for people who attempted suicide and provision of community support.

Suicide is a complex issue and therefore suicide prevention efforts require coordination and collaboration among multiple sectors of society, including the health sector and other sectors such as education, labour, agriculture, business, justice, law, defense, politics, and the media.

These efforts must be comprehensive and integrated as no single approach alone can make an impact on an issue as complex as suicide.

Links:

1. http://www.who.int/gho/mental_health/suicide_rates/en/
2. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs398/en/
3. http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/131056/1/9789241564779_eng.pdf?u
4. http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=320881
5. http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=321289
6. http://www.consumersfiji.org/media-center/press-releases/trader-responsibility-is-vital
7. http://www.fiji.gov.fj/Media-Center/Press-Releases/FIJIANS-ENCOURAGED-TO-PARTICIPATE-AT-SUICIDE-PREVE.aspx?feed=news

Labour abuse, terrible bullying, slavery and human trafficking are exposing serious problems in global fisheries. Similar stories — too many to ignore — are starting to emerge from the tuna fleet, writes Kumi Naidoo.

COMMENT: Out in the Pacific Ocean thousands of fishing vessels are working around the clock to pull tuna out of the sea as fast as they can.

It’s a global business, and it’s big business, turning over billions of dollars a year, with millions of people employed in catching the tuna that millions of others rely on for sustenance and survival.

Unfortunately, the way these businesses operate is putting the whole system at risk. They are out of control. Pillaging the Pacific Ocean, they are taking too many fish, breaking laws and international agreements, and raiding the waters of small coastal nations.

Recent stories of labor abuse, terrible bullying, slavery and human trafficking are exposing serious problems in global fisheries. Similar stories — too many to ignore — are starting to emerge from the tuna fleet.

Longliners catching albacore for the canned tuna markets of the West can be like floating sweatshops, taking young men desperate for work away from their families, locking them into contracts that can last for years, and saddling them with debt if they try to break those contracts early.

Out on the high seas, with no means of escape, it must seem to some of these young fishermen as if they are serving a prison sentence.

And with less than 1 percent percent of fishing activity by longline fleets witnessed by on board independent observers in the Western Central Pacific, there is no one to turn to and nowhere to go. It is the perfect environment for exploitation — a captive workforce.

Last week, Greenpeace released a series of videos linking bullying and labour abuse to Pacific tuna boats. The stories of violence and exploitation we have heard from tuna fishermen are heartbreaking.

Bleak picture
Adding to this bleak picture, many longliners transship their catches while still at sea to refrigerated cargo ships, which means the fishing boats can stay at sea for years.

High-seas transshipping is an enabler of both human rights and environmental abuses. It’s the fisheries equivalent of money laundering, where illegal or “dirty” fish can enter the supply chain and become impossible to differentiate from the “clean”.

It also means that Pacific nations miss out on the revenue and jobs that would come with processing and packing those fish ashore. Pacific purse seine fleets are banned from transshipping catches at sea. The practice should now be made illegal for tuna longlining ships as well.

While the costs of human rights abuse and environmental crime cannot be compared, they are both driven by the greed of an industry that is out of control. If we fix one, we fix the other.

Like too many other industries, tuna is dominated by big business working in the interests of the few, using cheap or free labor, and catching fish in the high seas commons that should belong to all of us. If we fail to act now, fishermen will continue to be exploited by an industry that is degrading tuna stocks and harming our oceans.

For tuna, at least, there is an easy remedy. While stocks of bluefin and bigeye tuna are in serious trouble, albacore and skipjack are at the point where, if changes are made to fishing practices today, we can ensure there are enough fish for tomorrow. Fished sustainably, tuna can continue to feed and employ people across the globe, and protect the coastal communities who rely on them for survival.

It’s not an impossible vision. The last thing tuna-eaters want is the bitter taste of worker abuse or environmental devastation in their tuna salads or sashimi. We know that because Greenpeace’s tuna guides are among our most popular information resources. People often find it shocking when they learn of the ocean and human destruction that goes into a can of tuna.

Overcoming resistance
As consumers, we can give the big corporations a push in the right direction and overcome their resistance to change. By choosing to buy sustainable tuna we can tell the industry that we are not prepared to support the destruction of our oceans or the exploitation of workers.

As a form of protest it’s as easy as it gets. Every time a shopper reaches for a can of sustainably sourced tuna on a supermarket shelf it sends a message to the fishing industry that it’s time to change.

Tuna fisheries are global fisheries. If we can get them right we can create a model for the oceans; to feed and employ people and protect the health of our planet.

Right now the Rainbow Warrior is sailing the Pacific Ocean and its crew is focused on putting the tuna industry in the spotlight. But back on land we can all play an important role in helping to create change at sea.

Next time you visit a supermarket or a sushi bar, consider using the power of your wallet to tell the tuna industry that there is no place for ocean devastation and human rights abuse on our plates or in our lunchboxes.

Kumi Naidoo is the executive director of Greenpeace International.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.

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