Islands

From the

Press

From the Fiji Times: The commandant of the Police Training College at Nasova, Superintendent Ambika Prasad, has been transferred and replaced by Superintendent Ambika Prasad. The ex commandant has taken over the post formerly held by Superintendent Ambika Prasad. And if that sounds a bit confusing it is. The Royal Fiji Police are blessed with two officers named Ambika Prasad both of the rank of superintendent. In a recent reshuffle they ended up exchanging jobs. The other one was formerly the Force Prosecutions Officer. If it has caused some confusion the reshuffle at least has saved the expense of new name plates for their office doors.

American Samoa 20 years ago as described by Speaker of the Legislature, Tuana’itau F. Tuia, at the opening of the Third Regular Session reported in the American Samoa News Bulletin: We at the Fqno were so powerless during those days. We saw that only privileged individuals and special interest groups were in control of the economy at that time, but there was nothing we could have done about it. We had no power or authority to correct such injustices. The rich just went on getting richer, while the poor got poorer. We suffered the indignities, not only of low wages and unemployment, but virtually no future in the economic sense.

From the Lae Nius: Gibson Wapogi, aged 58, married with two children and from Wamira in the Agamora area of the Milne Bay Province, is treated with high honour by the Tolais as a skilful witchdoctor.

Mr Wapogi, while based in Rabaul as the captain of the ship Kali-li in the late 19605, was kidnapped by a Tolai sorceress who made him leave his job and his family. He was taken to a mountain near Rabaul called Mt Kombiu, which is believed to be the homeland of devil spirits, for 14 months during which time he was taught all the skills of a witch-doctor ... In the last two years he has treated and cured more than a hundred sick people . . .

Dr Havea, Principal of the Pacific Theological College in Suva, asked “Is there a Pacific Christ?” when he spoke at a church meeting at Papauta, reported in the Samoa Times: • Christ should not be understood in a regional sense, he said.

Rather Christ should be seen as “one who laughs and weeps with us”. He implied that Christ was neither Melanesian, Polynesian or Micronesian, nor a person “with fuzzy-wuzzy hair, thick lips, flat nose, clad in tapa clothes, sitting in an outrigger canoe with opened arms widely stretched as he addresses a multi-racial audience, perhaps in pidgin, with a Suva or Port Moresby landscape in the background”.

Life on Ebeye on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshalls as seen by the Micronesian Independent: The bars open at one and I’ve seen guys go in and get so smashed they’re lying on the floor by two ... Another oddity are the Ebeye taxis, about 30 small Japanese-made cars that constantly circulate the island, picking up and dropping off passengers. It’s 20 cents a ride and everyone rides the taxi just to have something to do ...

From the Cook Islands News: “Our faith has paid off,” the Premier, Hon Sir Albert Henry, said this morning at the opening of the Takuvaine Water Gallery. “We have got water from the rocks.” Sir Albert based his address on the Scripture verses 7 and 8 in Psalm 114 “Tremble O earth at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water. Sir Albert said “.. . the Chief Engineer, Dr Waterhouse of the New Zealand Aid Scheme, had said in his report that no water would be obtained from Dr George Chan’s proposed plan because that plan took the gallery into rock area ...” “But I had faith”, said the Premier, “and that has paid off. We have searched into the rocks for water.”

From a letter by H. L. Ainuu on students’ behaviour in the Samoa Times: .. Any alert citizen, who is more concerned about a much better harvest of today’s young buds, should never be indifferent to such morally-corrupt acts but take it unlightly as an awesome challenge for our own decade and should by all means be categorised with any other social defects confronting our present society ... As one college principal has mentioned, most of the parents have suspended the usage of the rod, which is quite true. Most of them have become emotionally weak in the sense that they have praised too much the academic improvements of their children, making them blind to the unwelcome behaviours these children have manifested From the New Hebrides News: Biscuits made locally from manioc, kumala and taro flour are on sale in Tanna. Villagers around Lenakel were surprised to see the first products made by a missionary’s wife. Mrs Mike Heath says that to make flour from these vegetables you need to peel and slice them and dry them in the sun for about three days. They they are ready to be ground into flour. Biscuit tasters said that kumala is best.

From the Tonga Chronicle: . . . Two cases of shoplifting were heard in Nukualofa Magistrates Court involving items taken from the Burns Philp store. In the first case, Sifa Laloni, 21, from Taanea, Vavau, currently living at Liahona, was found builty of stealing a 94cent package of cheese, and was sentenced to three months imprisonment ... In the second shoplifting case, a 13-year-old boy was awarded 12 strokes of the cane.

From a Fiji Times editorial on a proposal to control soft drink prices in Fiji: . Nutritionists say that people waste money on soft drinks because they are lacking in real food values. Except for a dash of sugar, a pinch of flavour, there is nothing much else besides carbonated water in them. Milk is cheaper and far more nutritive, but the market for soda pop is far bigger than for milk. A survey for the Consumer Council of Fiji has shown that some people are making profits ranging from 44 per cent to 125 per cent . ..

From the American Samoa News Bulletin: Governor Peter Tali Coleman has called for a revival of what was once known as “Fa’a Samoa Day” the Friday of each week when all employees of the Government of American Samoa wore Samoan dress to add a little colour to our territory However, the Office of Samoan Information emphasises that “Fa’a Samoa Day” for GAS employees does NOT mean that each Friday we will start work according to “Samoa time”.

The work hours are the same.

From Savali, Apia, Western Samoa: Samoa is wrongly placed on the map of the world! The French research ship Coriolis recently carried out some work for the government and its crew has discovered that Samoa is three quarters of a mile out of place . . . The ship’s position was fixed by two means, firstly by a satellite navigation system and secondly by radar.