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Oh dear....

Tuesday, July 22, 2008
While I will not always agree with every judicial decision, I think it is fair to aver that our Lords and Dames of the higher judiciary have pretty sharp minds. This might not be the case in the South Pacific, judging from this photograph hosted at the Commonwealth Secretariat in its report on 'the annual meeting of the heads of the South Pacific Council of Youth and Children’s Courts'.

Firstly they have allowed themselves to be bamboozled into wearing fancy dress, but much, much better still they have been photographed under a fascia board that says 'Barlow's Rehab Centre - Moemoe Fou'.


(Snigger).

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"It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Papua New Guinea?

Wednesday, May 07, 2008
With apologies to Robert Bolt. The quote is not entirely appropriate, but indulge me, please:

Taiwan, rather sadly, has to buy its friends, given the clout the 'People's Republic' of China has. More's the pity - Taiwan is a liberal democracy, the PRC anything but. Anyway, Taipei decided that a friend in the South Pacific would be nice, and duly set about wooing Papua New Guinea, not with flowers, not with chocolates or even tickets to the opera, but rather with a huge bribe, cough, a substantial sum of 'aid'. How big? $29.8 million. Just under five bucks per head, but given that PNG's GDP per capita is $2,418, still a worthwhile sum.

Faintly embarrassing having to rent one's date, but that is not what has led to ministerial resignations. Some people resign when they foul up - inhabitants of Downing Street, kindly take note - the foul up being that Taiwan having concluded that rolling up to Port Moresby and pleading through the letter box for a chance was not worth the candle, one of the, ahem, go betweens ran off with the money. How very caddish. More here.

Experience should have told Taiwan that PNG is not that sort of girl - previously it has threatened Oz that it would accept less aid if a spat over a former AG of the Solomon Islands was not resolved.

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How the EU is robbing us of choice while impoverishing the western Pacific

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
By refusing to allow nangai nuts into the EU. These are a delicacy that grow wild in Vanuatu in particular, but also in PNG and the Solomons.

A Vanuatuan spice exporter has a run down: "Indeed, the businessman believes the nuts, otherwise known as canarium indicum, is the most lucrative crop in Vanuatu...Spending over a quarter of his life on studying the nuts, figures fall off Wah's mouth easily. Fully exploited, the man believes the nuts can employ up to 100,000 people, that's just about half of Vanuatu's population!...prices hovering at around A$5000 a tonne".

Vanuatu is not a rich country - "The main problem we've got at the moment is with the price of around A$5000 a tonne, the farmers harvest, they crack the nuts, they load them in the plane, and when they get the money, they don't want to work again because it's one of the highest incomes they ever had. It's very difficult.”

The EU's reasons for blocking the export of nanagai nuts are not brilliantly clear:

"An additional assessment was carried out in accordance with Article 7 of the Regulation. The Scientific Committee for Food adopted an opinion on 8 March 2000, which stated that data necessary for the assessment of the safety of the product are lacking. Therefore the product should not be authorised".

Our own dear MAFF (as was) decided to copy the French: "The Committee considered the summary application and assessment report from the French Competent Authority. The Committee considered that the information available was insufficient in a number of areas to recommend approval. In particular more toxicological data was required along with data, on the potential allergenicity, given that other members of this nut family can give rise to contact dermatitis and allergic reactions".

Never mind that research has shown that "those with nut allergies can enjoy nangai" , or that the USA, Australia and Japan - inter alia - with their shockingly poor standards of food approval and the like allow the sale of these nuts.

Anyway, here is the Nangai nut in its natural habitat:



I am, of course, itching to try a nangai nut or two, and thus I damn the EU's Novel food regulations for preventing me from doing so, but more importantly for limiting the ability of Pacific islanders to make a half-way decent living.

Meanwhile, the Food Commissars have approved the following, "‘maize-germ oil high in unsaponifiable matter’, 'foods and food ingredients derived from genetically modified maize line MON 863', 'yellow fat spreads, milk based fruit drinks, yoghurt type products and cheese type products with added phytosterols/phytostanols' etc etc.

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A new frontier for state interference - finger wagging on holiday destinations

Monday, June 18, 2007
Imagine you live in the Antipodes and fancy a jaunt to Fiji. Understandable, I would think.

However, Helen Clark, the NZ PM 'urged Kiwis not to be lured by discount holiday offers."The question is whether people want to take that bargain or look at some of the wider factors"'. Source.

The root of this is a long running diplomatic spat between Wellington and Suva, which has just seen the High Commissioner expelled. Meanwhile, the Fijian head of state is Commodore Frank Bainimarama, his title being owed to the awesome might of the Fijian navy - nine patrol boats.

Still, if the good people of New Zealand decide to do Ms Clark's bidding, it will doubtless be another dagger in the heart of the Fijian economy. They lost the right to hold the 2007 World Netball championship as a result of the December coup. Guess which Pacific island nation with a large number of sheep will be hosting it instead?

Previously Fiji has had it out with Oz, and I'm waiting to see if it will go the whole hog with the Anzac duo and take the Papua New Guinean 'nuclear' option of refusing aid.

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Clash of the Titans: Fiji vs Australia

Friday, January 19, 2007
And New Zealand too...

The Sydney Morning Herald notes that there is quite the spat going on in the South Pacific, and "Fiji's interim prime minister and military coup leader Frank Bainimarama has threatened to retaliate against Australia and New Zealand for imposing sanctions against his regime. He said he would consider "retaliatory measures" if the two nations continued to "ignore and frustrate" Fiji".

Time for some research. Fiji has a GNP per head of $5880, Australia $34889. Australia gave Fiji A$33.8m in development aid last year. Perhaps Fiji plans to follow PNG and hit Oz where it really hurts by refusing aid....

What is certain is that whatever Bainimarama schemes up, he will hurt Fiji an awful lot more than he hurts Australia & New Zealand.

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