Islands

From the

Press

A letter signed Embarrassed Cop, published in the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Port Moresby I wish to air my views on the police commissioner’s order for policemen to shave off their moustaches. Mr Commissioner, this order will not help to detect crime. We policemen feel frustrated to lose our moustaches. Some of us have had them for a long time. Moustaches make us tough, and people feel frightened of us but shaving them off makes us just like young boys.

From the Flotsam and Jetsam column in The Fiji Times, Suva, reporting an exchange between witness and counsel at the Royal Commission into last year’s election Sir Vijay Singh, the National Front lawyer, asked Mr Surendra Prasad if he were not “running with the hounds and hunting with the hares.” Mr Prasad replied: “There are no hounds only hares, and they are being split.”

From The Observer, Western Samoa Although the government’s goal admittedly of solving the country’s economic problems is good, it has sadly withheld most of its policies from the public. The first the Samoan public has heard of the government’s major decisions over the past few months has been from overseas reports.

From the Marshall islands Journal, Majuro The President’s face will be back in print shortly, as the Marshalls will be issuing their own stamps. It is rumored that the currency of the Republic will feature all the members of the Cabinet on different denominations henceforth to be known as funny money.

Extracts from an article in the Cook Island News, Rarotonga, claiming a lack of application among small exporters of fresh fruit to New Zealand In New Zealand if you don’t earn enough money you don’t eat, and you’re likely to be cold at night. Here, if we don’t earn money, we still eat. There are fish in the lagoon, there are coconuts, mangoes and other fruits and vegetables. And the nights are warm . . . Some of the growers tend to regard their business simply as a way to obtain immediate requirements, a new motor scooter or maybe a car, for instance, then they tend to let matters slide a little.

Part of a letter signed by Paul Cox, of Boroko, published in the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Port

Moresby

When I first came to this country a large number of years ago, I was told that Papua New Guineans were among the worst drivers in this world. This is a filthy lie, properly spread by the white colonialists to confuse their enemies. It would be obvious even to a blind man on a galloping horse at midnight that Papua New Guineans are THE worst in the world.

From the Samoa Times, Apia, reporting Prime Minister Tofilau Eti who said that too many Samoans lacked willpower, yearned for the easy life, and confused their values Many Samoans, he added, wanted to adopt overseas lifestyles and this desire in turn was encouraged by frequent movie-going.

They did not realise that what they saw in the movies was

artificial and totally out of place with the reality of the traditional Samoan way of living. “It is not easy to go to the movies and then afterwards go to the plantation to grow taro,’’ he said.

From the Pitcairn Miscellany, Pitcairn Island, describing a rare sight there an aeroplane in flight.

The first plane to be seen in Pitcairn skies since 1978 swooped low over the island at 8 am. It had been chartered by National Geographic photographers David Hisler and Melinda Berge.

Almost all the population had gathered on Ships Landing Point Ridge, and the plane flew over the ridge very low, as everyone waved and cheered. If only we had a landing strip . . .

From an editorial in The Observer, Western Samoa, on the shortage of cigarettes We have heard habitual smokers express their craving for cigarettes more intense than their hunger for food. That might have sounded silly during the times when there were plenty of cigarettes available. But with the continuous short supply over the last few months, the obvious desire of smokers for cigarettes has been glaringly shown. On the street, smokers seeing someone puffing his cigarette would unabashedly draw up begging for a drag.

From a report in the Marshall Islands Journal, Majuro, on the U.S. Senate debate on future constitutional links between Micronesia and U.S.A.

Vice-president Bush rose to the podium to point out that “the Committee of Free Association has nothing whatsoever to do with Japan.” “Ah’m surprised at the stupidity of my fellow senators, don’t ya’ll know that this deals with the Micro-nesians, or them that’s livin’ in the north Pacific,” the Down South senator said. He concluded with “I believe that we should free those slaves of the U.S.”

From the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Port Moresby Only Papua New Guineans should be allowed to judge the Miss Papua New Guinea contest, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr Paulias Matane, believes. “The way we look at people and their beauty is different from other people,” Mr Matane said ... In Japan a girl with tiny feet was thought to be beautiful. In some African countries a woman with “a big backside” was considered very pretty, he said.

- Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, Port Moresby