Hawai’ian academic Dr Emalani Case has condemned the 2024 Rimpac military exercise that began off the coast of Hawai’i today, saying the military personnel from 29 countries taking part are “practising to invade”.

“They call it practising defence but they’re really learning how to defend an empire while putting indigenous people at risk,” she said.

Hawai’i has been heavily impacted on by militarisation.

• READ MORE: Nick Rockel: RIMPAC 2024 training – NZ’s sabre dance with Israel ͏
• Te Aniwaniwa Paterson’s video report
• Other Rimpac exercise reports

Dr Case, a senior lecturer at Auckland University, said her people had had to deal with military harm and damage to their people and environment for more than 100 years.

The kingdom of Hawai’i was invaded by the US in 1893. The monarchy was overthrown, and the islands have stayed under US control since, with several large military bases.

Dr Case said the military made it a hard place to live when the land and people were routinely dismissed and disregarded.

The US Navy had publicly said it was committed to the environment and reducing harm.

Nonetheless, it had had a highly destructive track record when it came to pollution and environmental harm, she said.

For example, SINKEX was an activity during Rimpac where various navies shoot ammunition at decommissioned ships off the coast of Kauai island.

Dr Case told Te Ao Māori News, “The ships just sink and they leave them there. So there are toxins leaking out into our ocean.”

Anti-war groups demand end to war games as Rimpac begins.  Video: Hawai’i News Now

Tourism paradise?
Te Ao Maōri News asked Dr Case why Hawai’i was known as a “paradise” tourist destination but many people did not know about the violent history.

Dr Case referenced the works of the late Dr Teresia Teaiwa, an I-Kiribati and African-American scholar, who had said tourism and military worked together to dispossess and displace Hawai’ians.

“‘Militourism’ is a phenomenon by which a military or paramilitary force ensures the smooth running of a tourist industry, and that same tourist industry masks the military force behind it.”

— Teresia Teaiwa

Tourism masked the military violence by placing a flower over it, or a swinging hula girl, Dr Case said.

“[Hawai’i] is beautiful but the US military is one of the biggest abusers of that beauty.”

The people of Hawai’i were often left behind and focus placed on tourists, yet residents were without enough water or resources to house and care for the people. Dr Case said this explained the “enormous diaspora of Kānaka Maoli” living outside Hawai’i.

“We cannot be thinking about relying on the 25,000 personnel who are going to be coming, bringing their dollars, but also bringing their violence, bringing the increase in sex trafficking, bringing in an increase in violence against women.”

The only year there was not an increase in sex trafficking and violence during Rimpac was in 2020 because of the covid-19 pandemic, which downscaled Rimpac and meant military personnel were not able to go ashore, she said.

“That’s what they’re bringing to our islands.”

Violent attack on akua
Kānaka Maoli say they have a spiritual and genealogical connection to the oceans and lands. This includes Kanaloa and Papahānaumoku, the gods of ocean and earth, which is similar to Tangaroa and Papatūānuku in Aotearoa.

Papahānaumoku is the akua in Hawai’i that births their moku, islands.

“Any assaults against our akua, our gods, is an assault against us, it’s an assault against our whakapapa, it’s an assault against everything that we stand for,” Dr Case said.

Dr Case grew up and her whānau still live in Waimea, 45 minutes from Pōhakuloa, one of the largest military training facilities. She grew up feeling and hearing bombs all the time.

“I grew up hearing and feeling bombs all the time and it’s a kind of pain you don’t ever want to experience because you know what’s happening to Papa, what’s happening to your family. We view land, mountains, rivers, ocean as family.”

— Emalani Case

Rimpac and Palestine, West Papua and Kanaky
Rimpac was an international issue, Dr Case said, and a gateway event.

“We’ve got to think about these colonial nations coming together to train and provide so-called security and safety to the world while really putting all of us at risk, who have never been deemed human enough to be worthy of that same safety and security,” she said.

The nations participating in Rimpac include Israel and Indonesia.

Dr Case said her homeland was being turned into a training ground for “imperial genocidal regimes” which learned, practised and honed their skills to then commit genocide in Palestine and West Papua.

She also cited the participation of France, which had no proximity to the Pacific but had “oppressed Pacific brothers and sisters in the French-occupied Kanaky”.

“Militarism is upheld by and supports settler colonialism. It supports white supremacy.”

Dr Case said calling for an end to Rimpac and demanding that New Zealand withdraw was not just about saving Hawai’i.

She said boycotting Rimpac was about peace, demilitarisation, decolonisation and climate justice.

“The US military is one of the largest contributors of pollutants into the environment.”

Rimpac and FestPAC
Dr Case was in Hawai’i for Protecting Oceania, part of FestPAC — the festival of Pacific arts and culture hosted by Hawai’i this year.

She said there was a lot of discussion about Rimpac during Protecting Oceania.

“Rimpac and FestPAC didn’t happen at the exact same time but it’s interesting to think about the convergence of these cultural celebrations and violent military detonations around the same time, in the same waters, and on the same land.”

She was pleased to see people holding banners saying “STOP RIMPAC” in the closing ceremony at FestPAC. She said culture and politics went hand in hand.

Te Aniwaniwa Paterson is a digital producer for Te Ao Māori News. This article is republished with permission.

A NZ Defence Force plane carrying 50 New Zealanders evacuated from New Caledonia landed at Auckland International Airport last night.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it would be working with France and Australia to ensure the safe departure of several evacuation flights amid civil unrest in the island state.

The efforts came as RNZ Pacific’s French Pacific correspondent Patrick Decloitre reported that President Emmanuel Macron would be flying to New Caledonia within hours to install a “dialogue mission” in the French Pacific dependency in the wake of violent riots for the past eight days.

• READ MORE: President Emmanuel Macron to fly to New Caledonia within hours
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia independence unrest reports

The first flight took off from the capital of Nouméa after a short turnaround at Magenta local airport at 7pm, and landed in Auckland at about 10pm.

Those arriving to Auckland Airport on the NZ Defence Force plane said they were relieved to be back.

Many reunited with loved ones, while others were sent onto hospital for urgent medical treatment.

Chris and Mike Riley were arriving back from New Caledonia from what was meant to be a week-long trip.

‘Fireworks and gunfire’
Chris Riley said they heard lots of explosions, fireworks and gunfire from where they were.

“We were in a lovely place actually, it was quite peaceful, but we were trapped because we couldn’t get through because of all the troubles that were there,” she said.

Mike Riley said they were both relieved to be home.

“We’re not in a hurry to go anywhere apart from Kerikeri,” he said.

Carl, who did not provide a last name, was in a tourist area of New Caledonia for the past two weeks, which he said was sheltered from the riots.

He said it felt great to get on the Defence Force flight.

“It was a bit of a different type of trip back to New Zealand, but it was fun.”

La Tontouta still closed
Noumea’s La Tontouta International Airport remains closed.

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said the New Zealanders on the flight would have had a security escort to the airport.

Pacific Island nations were among those which had sought New Zealand’s help to evacuate citizens, he said.

Peters said there would be more flights over the next few days to get all 250 New Zealanders out of the French Pacific territory, which has been in the grip of riots and political unrest between anti- and pro-independence groups.

He hoped another flight would leave for New Caledonia this morning.

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

Locals are asking tourists to return to Maui after asking for space in the initial aftermath of the deadly fire that swept through the town of Lāhainā about a fortnight ago.

Many people on the island were upset at the sight of tourists snorkelling as bodies were being recovered in waters close by.

The Hawai’i Tourism Authority asked visitors to go to other islands and Honolulu-born actor Jason Momoa took to Instagram on August 11 to say: “Maui is not the place to have your vacation right now”.

• LISTEN TO RNZ PACIFIC WAVES: Maui locals want tourists back
• Other Maui wildfire reports

The tourism industry generates about 80 percent of Maui’s wealth bringing in about US$5.7 billion each year, and attitudes towards visitors returning are changing.

Speaking “to the world”, Hawai’i Governor Josh Green made it clear tourists were welcome to visit Maui, excluding the west side.

“All the other areas of Maui, and the rest of Hawai’i, they’re safe, they’re open and they’re available,” Green said on Monday during a visit from US President Joe Biden.

“The mystique and love here, the aloha, is here for you, and the reason I say that is because when you come you will support our local economy and help speed the recovery of the people that are suffering right now.”

115 dead, 1000 missing
At least 115 people have died and around 1000 people are still missing, with search efforts continuing. Officials are urging family members with relatives unaccounted for to offer DNA samples to help identify the victims.

Griff Dempsey, owner of Aloha Kayaks Maui, said visitors returning to the island was “a touchy subject”.

“Keep in mind people lost everything so the sentiment of having visitors come on the island when our community has not had a time to grieve, I think [giving space] is a viable request by the community,” Dempsey said.

However, he said tourism was the business model for the state.

“I think there’s such a thing as conscious tourism where people visit here but maybe give part of their time while they’re here volunteering.

“I would also encourage people that are booking trips to Maui to really seek out locally owned and operated businesses.”

Marcus Perry who owns Hoaloha Jeep Adventures, said immediately after the disaster it did not seem right for people to come to the island and have fun but he said people were now “pleading for them to come back”.

‘Still in shock’
“We are all still going through the shock and grieving process, but it does help to have people come to bring in the dollars so that we can all still to pay to feed our families and to make a living,” Perry said.

Perry said he was re-negotiating bills because of the lack of customers.

“We’ve had dozens of cancellations totalling about $100,000, we have very few new bookings, and it’s a struggle right now to stay afloat.”

Perry said as time has gone on, concern has extended to those suffering from the residual impacts of the fire, as well as the immediate victims.

Hawai’ian Native Kanani Higbee said hours are being cut, to the extent some full-time workers are down to one day a week.

“A lot of people tell me how much they’re hurting,” Higbee said.

“I can see it in the stores too because one of my jobs is I’m the grocery store cashier, I can tell that there’s hardly any customers and it’s because they don’t have the money to buy food because their hours are being cut at work.

“The community showed a lot of support for Lāhainā by volunteering instead of working… now they really need to go to work because they need to pay their rent, they need to make sure their business doesn’t go bankrupt.”

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

Although Fiji was unaffected by the first wave of covid-19, its tourism sector — the lifeblood of the economy — has been devastated by border closure across the world due to the pandemic in the past two years.

Thus, when the Fijian Tourism Expo (FTE) returned after a break of two years, Fiji Tourism’s CEO Brent Hill was in an upbeat mood, especially because they have been able to attract more than 500 participants to the Expo in these competitive times for the travel industry.

But, having experienced the vulnerabilities, sustainability was very much in focus during presentations at the event here.

• READ MORE: Other Fiji tourism reports

In 2022, Tourism Fiji comes with a vision to “inspire the world to come and experience Fiji — where happiness finds you” and our purpose is to “ensure that Fiji is promoted and marketed as a tourist destination for the purpose of maximising sustainable and long terms benefits to Fiji”, said Hill, in presenting a brief overview of their past achievements and their two-year strategic plan to the FTE.

The 8th FTE was held on May 11-13 at the luxury Sheraton Beach Golf and Spa Resort near Nadi, the gateway to Fiji where its international airport and many tourist resort islands are located.

The three-day event attracted more than 88 exhibiting companies, 90 buyers and 10 media delegates eager to learn the strategic plan Tourism Fiji has set for the small island nation.

The semi-government agency was supported by Fiji’s Ministry of Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport and was declared opened by Minister Faiyaz Koya, who highlighted the negative impact of covid on the tourism industry.

‘Guided by robust policies’
“During this time, we were guided by robust policies that led to our border re-opening,” he said in his opening address.

“Our out-of-work tourism workers were among those supported by half a billion dollars (US$230 million) in direct and indirect assistance paid by the Fijian government. We took the last two years as an opportunity to re-invest.

“From upgrading our tourism facilities and renowned hospitality, to piloting new products.”

Hill’s presentation at the FTE highlighted that during the pre-pandemic period, the tourism sector represented 38 percent of the Fijian economy bringing in 36.5 percent employment making up over 118,000 jobs in a population of just over 896,000.

In 2019, the overseas visitor economy in Fiji was worth F$3 billion (US$1.37 billion) and had attracted 960,000 international arrivals, mainly from Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the United States.

Fast forward two years later into the post-pandemic period, the plan of tourism Fiji is to increase the visitor economy to F$3.37 billion.

Also, a high end goal of attracting 1 million international visitors by 2024 has been set. Hill highlighted that the two year strategic plan, 2022 to 2024, was strategised after consultations were done by meeting with tourism industry and also seeking people’s feedback on what Tourism Fiji’s priorities should be.

Six key priorities
From these consultations, they have pulled out six key priorities for the two year plan.

Sustainability is a key ingredient of the plan that includes shaping perceptions of Fiji, promoting the value of tourism to Fiji and enabling an efficient, high performing and innovative team to take the industry forward.

“For Tourism Fiji, it is very important as an organisation that we set our values. As a team, we really wanted to identify the core of who we are as a true Fijian and I’m very proud of the values that we actually came up with as a team and we want to make a difference,” said Hill.

Citing data from the global benchmarking agency Smith Travel Research (STR), Hill said that in 30 of Fiji’s key hotels that accounts for about 8500 rooms, the occupancy was running at 20 percent levels.

“That is a stunning rebound recovery and not to be sneezed at,” he points out, adding, “I know that there is dozens of tourism organisations around the world that would be begging to have their occupancy at those kinds of levels.”

Many of the exhibition booths at the FTE represented luxury boutique type resorts in small “paradise” islands that surround Fiji’s main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.

Many of these islands are so small that it may include just the resort which is usually privately owned (leased from traditional land owners).

Resort occupies whole island
One such resort is Beachcomber Island, just 17 km and 40 minutes by fast ferry from Port Denarau, the site of the Expo.

The resort occupies the whole of the privately owned 8 ha island, where staff works on a 21 day shift followed by 7 days leave to go back to “civilisation”. The resort which is very popular with foreign tourists was closed from 20 March 2020 until April 1 this year.

The resort manager, Nemia Merani, that she had to keep a skeleton staff of 5 during this time to help maintain its facilities, even though they had no income coming.

Pre-pandemic they used to employ 50-60 staff but now they only have 15-20 staff on the island.

“People from overseas are still hesitant to come,” she said. “Things that help us are day visitors not only weekends but weekdays too.

“We are selling to locals everyday. During the weekend we have a surge in numbers and after this we go right down again.”

Ironically, this resort was too expensive for local tourists pre-pandemic but the prices have been reduced for locals now.

‘Overseas visitors slowly picking up’
“Overseas visitors — especially from Australia — are slowly picking up and if that continues we will survive,” Merani said optimistically.

From presentations made at the Expo, the pandemic has also raised awareness among tourism operators here about the sustainability of the industry and the need to tap into local resources much more.

Even the five-star Sheraton hotel where the Expo was held made a special presentation on how they are developing a supply chain of local farmers feeding into their menus.

Since the borders were opened on December 1 last year, according to government figures, 119,000 tourists have arrived in Fiji, with 46,000 coming in April alone.

“I believe that we can work together collectively for providing the value of tourism to Fiji,” argues Hill pointing out the networking that took place here.

“Part of that is that we need to continue to tell the story of tourism and tell the story of what it is that we’re all about.”

Sheryl Lal and Akansha Narayan are final year journalism students at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji. This story ror In-Depth News was initially published in USP’s student journalism newspaper Wansolwara. Both IDN and Wansolwara collaborate with Asia Pacific Report.

Epidemiologist Sir David Skegg, who along with his team has been providing advice to the New Zealand government on the covid-19 response, says more border restrictions may ease soon, as the opposition National Party calls for all visitors to be allowed into the country.

Yesterday, the government announced that from 11.59pm on Wednesday, vaccinated New Zealanders returning to the country and who test negative on pre-departure will no longer have to self-isolate on arrival.

The move brings forward step two of the phased reopening of the border, but the National Party says that does not go far enough and is calling for the border to be open to all visitors, to jump-start the tourism industry.

• LISTEN TO RNZ MORNING REPORT: ‘The next few weeks are going to be very challenging’ – Sir David Skegg

The government relied on urgent advice from the Strategic Covid-19 Public Health Advisory Group — chaired by Sir David — before making the changes.

Sir David told Morning Report the next few weeks were expected to be very challenging on the health system as the peak of the omicron outbreak evolves, so it was best to wait until then before making decisions about opening to tourists.

“We still don’t know where it’s going to end. The number of people going into hospital every day is increasing, so I’m not surprised that they’re [the government] just going to take a bit of time to decide about that, but I expect that tourists will be welcome to New Zealand earlier than we expected,” he said.

“And it’s funny everyone calls for certainty, but actually this is a case where the uncertainty has been beneficial to those interests because the dates are coming forward.”

Tourism industry planning
However, National Party Covid-19 response spokesperson Chris Bishop told Morning Report that the tourism industry needed that certainty from now to plan ahead.

“If you talk to people involved in the tourism industry, they are literally borrowing money on their credit cards, mortgaging their houses to try and get through. And so what we can do for them is reconnect New Zealand to the world, open those borders, and allow tourists to come here,” he said.

“You’re probably not going to see a massive influx of tourists straight away in the next two to three, four weeks, you know, airlines have got to put flights on.

“But it is really important that we send signal to the airlines and to the airport that tourists are going to come and they’re going to come soon because airlines are making those bookings for the next few months and the next year right now so they do need some certainty, they do need that time frame.”

Bishop said while there would be some risk in such a decision, it was about considering the “relative risk”.

“The relative risk of allowing people who are vaccinated, who have passed the pre-departure test, to arrive into New Zealand, going into a country with one of the highest reproduction rates in the world right now and with 15,000 covid cases per day, the relative risk is much lower.

“But you’ve also got to weigh that up against the incredibly tough circumstances that our tourist parts of the economy have been in over the last two years.”

‘Minimal effect’ on NZ
On the other hand, Bishop said yesterday’s announcement was undoubtedly good news for the grounded New Zealanders who would be excited to once again be able to see their friends and whānau here.

Sir David said the changes announced yesterday would only have a “minimal effect” on New Zealand’s situation.

“The impact of this on the progress of our epidemic in New Zealand will be very small, really quite slight. The fact is that we’ve got thousands of new cases occurring every day … the number of people turning up at the airport who are infected at the moment it’s an average of about 10 a day.

“That number will go up, of course, with more people coming into New Zealand, but it will have a minimal effect on our epidemic.”

The government has asked the advisory group to now review the role of vaccine passes and mandates for the future.

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

The tourism and hospitality sectors are disappointed but understanding of the New Zealand decision to suspend the travel bubble.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the decision yesterday afternoon, and said the suspension in quarantine-free travel would go on for at least eight weeks.

It comes at a particularly bad time for the ski sector, which was looking forward to welcoming Australians over the next couple of weeks.

• READ MORE: NZ government suspends quarantine-free travel with Australia for at least eight weeks

Ski-based accommodation provider, Ski Time, at the foot of Mount Hutt ski field, is expecting to lose more than half of its bookings over the next two months due to the travel bubble suspension.

The manager, Pete Wood, said as a result, they may have to make some redundancies.

“It is going to be tough, we’ll probably have to make some tough decisions over the next couple of weeks depending on how business travels along.

“We certainly don’t want to lose any staff – we’ve got a great team here at the moment and they’ve all pitched in to survive the last 18 months together, and it would be a shame to lose a few of them.”

60 percent Australian
He said 60 percent of all the business’s August bookings were by Australians and they would now all be cancelled.

He hoped New Zealanders would be heading to the South Island for a ski holiday this August, to make up for the lack of Australians.

“We had a pretty chocka-block August coming up, but of course with these cancellations, there’s going to be quite a few gaps here, which makes way for Kiwis to start travelling again, because they can’t go to Australia.”

Ski Time is not the only business to be losing out: one Queenstown operator said cancellations have been coming in thick and fast since the suspension of the trans-Tasman travel bubble.

Mark Quickfall owns Totally Tourism, and like many operators in the south, he said they were gearing up for a big winter season with visitors from Australia.

He said many businesses and employees will be feeling anxious after yesterday’s announcement, especially if more staff have been brought in in anticipation of higher visitor numbers.

“We’re only one leak from an outbreak. If you have a choice of opening up and ending up with a lockdown, or staying protected, I think we know what the answer is there.

“But it doesn’t make it any easier.”

Support ruled out
The government has ruled out any specific support for tourism businesses hit by the suspension.

A financial cost to operators is coming though.

“There’s been a huge number of cancellations just rushing in,” Quickfall said. “Like everyone down here, we had strong bookings out of Australia, for our heli-ski businesses, helicopter operations, down at Milford.

“That’s all just disappeared overnight.”

The tourism industry body said it hopes the suspension of the trans-Tasman bubble will not go on any longer than eight weeks.

Industry pins hopes on September holidays
Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts said while it is disappointing, it is the right decision to make.

He said operators would be looking forward to the next Australian school holidays, which begin in mid-September. If the bubble is up and running then, Roberts expects large numbers of visitors will be booking trips again.

“If the bubble’s up and running again by September, then we can expect good numbers of Australian visitors coming over here for those school holidays in September.

“That’s something we can look forward to in the end of what is hopefully only an eight-week suspension.”

Roberts hopes domestic tourists will fill some of the gap in the meantime, and that the financial hit will not be too bad.

“There are relatively few Australian visitors currently in New Zealand.

“Those Australians who were planning to come to New Zealand in the next eight weeks which would have included some skiing holidays will now have to cancel those plans and that’s reasonably unfortunate.

New Zealanders may holiday at home
“But at the same time, New Zealanders won’t be heading off to Australia, and some of those New Zealanders might choose to holiday at home instead.”

Meanwhile, the hospitality industry said the government needed to rethink its decision not to offer support to businesses hit by the suspension of the trans-Tasman bubble.

Hospitality New Zealand chief executive Julie White said while it was the right decision, businesses would suffer.

She said the hospitality and tourism sectors have borne the brunt of the economic impact of the lockdowns and border restrictions.

“Hospitality and tourism are the lost leaders when it comes to the cost of balancing the health risk. I think this is the time – we really need to have that robust conversation with the government.”

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

Experts have challenged the value of immediate implementation of tourism or travel “bubbles”, saying that it is too early to open the borders as the risk of covid-19 remains high.

In a recent meeting with journalists, chief executive officer of the South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO), Chris Cocker, said the risk of covid-19 was still high in the Pacific with the level of health preparedness below what was needed.

“For example, the lack of ventilators in our countries and the testing capabilities in our islands,” he said.

READ MORE: Al Jazeera coronavirus live updates – Hong Kong braces for toughest ever covid curbs

“We have seen that the health and safety concerns in the Pacific nations outweigh the economic recovery concerns because realistically, the majority of our Pacific Island countries are just not ready and capable to address covid-19 if the borders are reopened in this case.”

The Association of South Pacific Airlines CEO, George Faktaufon, adds that at this stage, it is too early to reopen borders.

“We just don’t have the facilities to control such a pandemic in our islands,” he said.

Tourism and aviation are among the industries hardest hit by covid-19, with thousands of jobs lost and business revenue in freefall.

Urgent talks wanted
Faktaufon wants to see urgent talks between governments and airlines to make sure airlines survive the crisis.

While both executives are cautious about the dangers of moving too quickly to open borders, they say planning for a return to tourism must start now.

“For us, the planning is important because we just can’t pick up the aeroplanes and start flying when the borders open and we find this to be the most difficult part,” Faktaufon said.

Lack of regional co-ordination on some of the issues such as security requirements and quarantine requirement are aviation’s great concern, according to Faktaufon.

“How do we handle visitors as they come to the airport? In terms of security requirements, quarantine requirements in the absence of these important procedures,” he said.

Private sector leaders, such as the chairman of the Pacific Islands Private Sector Organisation (PIPSO), Stephen Lyon, are more optimistic that there are ways to open borders soon and keep people safe.

He and other private sector leaders warn the economic impact of covid-19 is already severe and will get much worse if countries do not act soon.

And he notes the damage from the lack of passenger flights is hurting well beyond the tourist industry as exporters see freight charges for the few remaining flights rise substantially.

Health impact threat
While Lyon recognises the threat of the health impacts of covid-19 are real, he warns the economic impacts are less visible and could last much longer.

Around the world commentators are predicting it could take a decade or even a generation to recover from the history-making economic damage being wrought by covid-related dislocation.

“We are a very remote part of the world and it will take us longer to recover economically than other places simply because of our limited market access and our remoteness,” he said.

Lyon sees the way forward in getting low-risk activities happening immediately – activities such as trade in goods (with proper safeguards), trade and movement of people in a Pacific bubble, including countries that have no covid-19 cases and even tourism with countries such as New Zealand or Australia (again with proper quarantine and safeguards)

“We have got to look at this idea of open borders and when we can get open borders for trade and get the movement of people and goods occurring again,” Lyon said.

“I see no reason why processes cannot be put in place relatively quickly and by that I mean a matter of weeks and months. (If there is) no community transmission open up for the movement of people and trade between covid-19 free states of the Pacific,” he said.

Important option
The president of the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation (FCEF), Sandeep Chauhan shared a similar sentiment saying that reopening the border is an important option for leaders to decide.

He said the economic impact of covid-19 had been unforgiving and that respective states in the Pacific needed to get down to business with private sectors to keep the economy functioning.

Chauhan said there was a need for close collaboration between the private sector and respective governments to establish program and activities that would maintain the economy through small to medium business activities and initiatives.

Ben Bilua (Solomon Islands) is a final-year journalism student at University of the South Pacific’s Laucala campus. He is also the online student editor for Wansolwara, USP Journalism’s student training newspaper and online publications. The Pacific Media Centre has a partnership with Wansolwara.

• Quarantine-free NZ, Cook Islands bubble expected within week