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(Photos:
Bonnie Smail) |
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NEW ZEALAND: Pacific
music honoured in night for all
Source:
Pacific Music Awards
Pacific music's biggest night hits the stage on
May 31 at the S3 (proness-cubed) Pacific Music
Awards.
The big night features performances by Nesian
Mystik and a host of local heroes including
finalists Three Houses Down and Cydel who are up
for three awards apiece.
Other performers on the night include Julie
Ta'ale and award finalists, Kas Futialo, Vaniah
Toloa and Lole Usoalii
The S3 Pacific Music Awards 2008 are at the
Telstar Clear Pacific venue in Manukau City on
May 31 and are hosted by MCs Henry Tuipe'a (NiuFM)
and Yolande Ah-Chong (Radio 531pi).
Tickets are on sale now through Ticket Direct
(0800 224 224 or www.ticketdirect.co.nz at a
meagre $20 adults and $15 for students. There's
also a family pass for four at $60. A
booking fee may apply.
A new Manukau City Council People's Choice Award
has been introduced to the line-up for the Best
Pacific Artist. All category finalists are
eligible for this award with members of the
public able to cast their votes by logging onto
www.pacificmusicawards.org.nz. Voting closes
Sunday 25 May.
The 2008 S3 Pacific Music Awards are in their
fourth year and the full list of finalists is:
Counties Manukau District Health Board -
smokefree BEST PACIFIC FEMALE ARTIST
Delani "Butterflies"
Lole 'The Movement'
Zeisha Fremaux 'Secret Game'
NZ MUSIC COMMISSION BEST PACIFIC MALE ARTIST
Scribe 'Rhyme Book'
Kas Futialo 'Lokokasi'
Vaniah Toloa 'E Le Galo Oe'
NIU FM BEST PACIFIC URBAN ARTIST
Cydel 'Soul Finder'
PNC "PN Whoa"
Scribe 'Rhyme Book'
RADIO 531PI BEST PACIFIC GROUP
Three Houses Down 'Dreadtown'
Cydel 'Soul Finder'
Te Vaka 'Olatia'
APRA BEST PACIFIC SONG
Three Houses Down "DandyMan" (Puriri/Pome'e)
Ill Semantics feat Adeaze "Take It Slow" (Arona/Moore/Tupa'i/Tupa'i/N
Holmes)
Scribe "Say It Again" (Luafutu/Hammond/Iusitini/Iusitini/Mushroom
Music
Publishing)
Sł BEST PACIFIC MUSIC ALBUM (Tui Award)
Three Houses Down 'Dreadtown'
Cydel 'Soul Finder'
Te Vaka 'Olatia'
Photo Captions:
Photo 1:
South Auckland's Cydel is
up for three awards; the Niu FM Best Pacific
Urban Artist, the Radio 531pi Best Pacific Group
and the Tui Award for S3 Best Pacific Music
Album.
Photo 2:
Scribe is up for three
awards; NZ Music Commission Best Pacific Male
Artist and Niu FM Best Pacific Urban Artist and
his single 'Say It Again' is up for the APRA
Best Pacific Song Award.
Photo 3:
Ill Semantics is a
finalist in the APRA BEST PACIFIC SONG category
for the single "Take It Slow" (featuring Adeaze).
Photo 4:
Pacific Music Awards 2008
Logo.
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(Photos:
EPC) |
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SAMOA: Improving the
Power Sector of Samoa
Source:
EPC Press Release
Despite being the sole provider of electricity
in Samoa, the Electric Power Corporation aims to
continue improving its services, to provide
reliable and affordable electricity supply to
all homes in Samoa.
Due to increased demand on electricity as well
as increased costs of generation and
distribution, this goal has become less
realistic. However, with assistance through
loans and grants from the donor agencies, Asian
Development Bank (ADB), Japan Bank for
International Cooperation (JBIC) and the
Australian Government (AUSAid), the power sector
in Samoa, will be able to address these issues
by taking on board a Power Sector Expansion
Project (PSEP).
The project is part of the Government power
sector development plan to improve the capacity
of the sector to provide sustainable and
reliable electricity services to all consumers
at affordable prices. Not only that, it will
meet growing demand and reduce EPC (and
ultimately consumers)
exposure to fluctuating international fuel
prices.
On behalf of EPC Board, management and staff, we
would like to express our sincere thanks to the
donors and all of our partners, for their
continuous support. We are confident that this
will assist us in providing better quality and
reliable electricity services to all of Samoa,
said
EPC General Manager, Muaausa Joseph Walter.
As part of the eight-year project (2008-2016),
EPC have established a Project Management Unit (PMU)
to implement the Power Sector Expansion Program.
The Unit consists of 10 staff members, of which
most are local recruit.
EPC therefore welcomes on board Project Manager,
David Jarvie and his staff, who will be
implementing EPC Investment Plan through the
PSEP.
David joined EPC in January 2008 on a 3 year
contract. He worked in New Zealand for
approximately five years as the Stations
Maintenance Manager with Transpower NZ based in
Auckland, prior to accepting the position with
EPC. He spent 17 years working as an electrical
engineer in the area of power system protection
and design.
David and the Team have high hopes for what EPC
Project Management Unit will achieve for both
EPC and the Samoan people as a whole.
EPC wishes David and the Team the best of luck,
with their extensive expansion program and look
forward to the support of the people of Samoa.
For further information about the Power Sector
Expansion Project, please contact Public
Relations Community Specialist Moetuasivi
Seumanutafa-Asi on 65 461 or asim@epc.ws
alternatively contact David on 65 407 or djarvie@epc.ws.
Photo Caption:
(Back L-R) Lafai Johnny
Pereira, Sale Faletolu, Iose Gray, Asi Tuuau,
Faumuina Iese Toimoana. (Front L-R) Leilani
Moeono, Falepo Solofa, Moetuasivi Asi, Fatima
Iona. The PMU team with Project Manager, David
Jarvie.
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AUSTRALIA:
Pacific islands act to save threatened tuna
Source:
Reuters
South Pacific nations have taken steps to shore
up dwindling tuna stocks, banning licensed tuna
vessels from fishing in international waters
between their islands and requiring them to
always carry observers.
The new rules, agreed to at a fisheries meeting
in Palau on Tuesday, will take effect from June
15, 2008.
"This is an historic moment for the Pacific, its
people, marine life and future food security,"
Lagi Toribau, Greenpeace Australia's Pacific
Oceans campaigner said on Wednesday.
Toribau was speaking from the environmental
group's ship Esperanza, which has pestered tuna
vessels in the Pacific in recent weeks as part
of a campaign against overfishing of tuna.
Worldwide stocks of bigeye tuna, a prime source
for Japanese restaurants serving sushi and
sashimi around the world, are on the verge of
collapse from overfishing, say conservationists.
The 4th Forum Fisheries Ministerial Meeting said
in a statement that South Pacific island states
had agreed to take immediate steps to protect
bigeye and yellowfin tuna stocks.
The ministers said "high seas enclaves or donut
holes" between island nations would be declared
off limits to commercial fishing. Japan, Taiwan,
Korea and China are the main foreign tuna
fishing nations operating in the South Pacific.
The ministers also agreed to prohibit the use of
fish aggregating devices (FADs), or ocean buoys
and floats which attract fish, for three months
each year.
Tuna vessels will also have to continuously use
automatic location communicators and vessel
monitoring systems and carry fisheries observers
at all times, the Forum said in a statement.
"Our region will achieve success if our
countries band together to adopt and implement
action plans to fight illegal, unregulated and
unreported fishing, both on national levels and
with respect to fishing on the high seas," Palau
Vice President Elias Chin told the meeting.
But Chin said the island states needed to
"balance the need to preserve the fish stocks
for future generations with the need to develop
our economies and feed our people".
"FISH TOMORROW?"
In February the island nation Kiribati created
the world's largest protected marine reserve, a
California-sized watery wilderness covering
410,500 square km (158,500 square miles), to
preserve tuna spawning grounds and coral reef
biodiversity.
Greenpeace said decades of over-exploitation has
reduced some of tuna stocks in the Pacific to
just 15 percent of what they once were and that
European fishing firms are now chasing tuna in
the Pacific after tuna stocks fell in the
Atlantic.
"It is time for fishing nations to realize that
if they want fish tomorrow, we need marine
reserves today," said Sari Tolvanen of
Greenpeace International.
Scientists warn THAT stocks of the Atlantic
bluefin tuna are dangerously close to collapse
after a decade of overfishing, which has been
driven by growing Asian demand for sushi.
A decline in bluefin stocks has increased demand
for the bigeye tuna, which is fished in the
Indian and Atlantic oceans and the Western and
Central Pacific.
Indian Ocean tuna fishermen landed their
smallest catch for 11 years in 2007, citing
overfishing and warmer sea surface temperatures
sending tuna into deeper ocean.
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AROUND THE WORLD:
Pacific Centre Organises Sub Regional Workshop
for Polynesia
Source:
UNDP Press Release
The Prime Minister of Cook Islands, Hon. Jim
Marurai will officially open a sub regional
workshop on Millennium Development Goal (MDG)
based planning, costing and budgeting for five
Polynesian Countries on May 26.
The workshop, to be held at the Edgewater Resort
in Rarotonga, and organized by the United
Nations Development Programme Pacific Centre (UNDP
PC) targets policy makers and civil society
organization members from the Cook Islands,
Niue, Samoa, Tokelau and Tonga.
This workshop is the third of a series which
started last year; the first targeting countries
in the North Pacific and held in June in Pohnpei
and the second targeting countries in the
Western Pacific and held in Honiara in November.
The sub regional workshops are built upon a
foundation established during a regional MDG-based
workshop organized in October 2006 for the 15
Pacific countries covered by the three UNDP
Country Offices and the UNDP Pacific Centre.
Ms. Naheed Haque, UN Resident Coordinator and
UNDP Resident Representative for Samoa, Cook
Islands, Tokelau and Niue will deliver the key
note address at the workshop.
The four-day workshop will cover a range of
issues aimed at strengthening the capacities of
countries to more efficiently integrate their
planning and budgeting for the achievement of
the MDGs. More specifically, it will discuss:
* The policy interventions required to support
the achievement of national development
priorities and the MDGs and to help in reducing
poverty;
* Improvements to the institutional mechanisms
for planning and budgeting to achieve national
priorities and the MDGs, including the use of
MDG needs assessment and costing tools to
support policy formulation at sector and
national level;
* Strengthening the linkages between policy,
sector and/or national planning and budgeting
and sharing country experiences and good
practices; and
* The importance of mainstreaming a gender
perspective in development interventions.
The eight MDGs - which range from halving
extreme poverty to halting the spread of
HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary
education, all by the target date of 2015 - form
a blueprint agreed to by all the world's
countries and the world's leading development
institutions. The MDG
Framework was revised in September 2007 to
include four additional targets which reflect
the agenda of productive employment and decent
work for all, universal access to reproductive
health, universal access to treatment for
HIV/AIDS for all those who need it, and
achieving a significant reduction in the rate of
biodiversity loss.
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(Photos: MAJ
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USA:
SFC Taisi R. Steffany-Aalosu’esu’emanogi retires
Source:
MAJ Tauapai Laupola
The 24th of April 2008 marked the end of SFC
Taisi R. Steffany-Alosu’esu’emanogi’s 20 years
of military service. SFC
Steffany-Alosuesuemanogi was amongst 28 soldiers
that were honored during a retirement ceremony
hosted by the 264th Combat Sustainment Support
Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division.
SFC Steffany-Alosu’esu’emanogi was born on 3 JAN
1970 in the village of Fagasa, AS to Rudy
Utagamamao Steffany of Fagasa and Mrs Patosina
Tuitau of Fagatogo. He is married to Mrs Dayna
Steffany, and they have 2 children, BJ Borders
and Haliikai. He was raised in Fagasa, Fagatogo
and Leone respectively. He is a product of Leone
Midkiff and Leone High School until his senior
year when he moved to California and graduated
from Carson High School in 1988.
Immediately after graduation; he joined the US
Army and was stationed at Ft Carson, CO with
Delta Company 112th Infantry from 1988-1991, Ft
Bragg, NC with the 1st Special Warfare Training
Group 1991-1993, Ft Myers, VA with 3rd Infantry
or better known as the Old Guard 1993-1997, Ft
Benning, home of the infantry as a Drill
Sergeant 1997-2000, Ft Shafter, US Army
Pacific 2000-2003. In 2003-2006 he returned to
Ft Bragg, NC and from 2006-2007 he deployed to
Iraq as the NCOIC for the 129th AS (Postal).
SFC Alo’s awards and badges includes the
Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation
Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct
Medal, National Defense medal, Global War on
Terrorism Service medal, Military Outstanding
Volunteer Service medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal,
NCO Professional development Ribbon, Army
Service ribbon, Parachutist Badge, Expert
Infantry Badge, Drill Sergeant Badge, and
Superior Unit Award.
SFC Steffany-Alosuesuemanogi has been a strong
supporter of Samoans at Ft Bragg since his
arrival in 2003. He helped establish a
successful Samoan association before he deployed
to Iraq. He will be remembered for his efforts
to bring together Samoan service members at Ft
Bragg to promote the Samoan language and
culture. He is also the Assistant Pastor for the
Samoan Christian Congregation.
When asked about his thoughts about retirement,
SFC Steffany-Alosu’esu’emanogi thanked his
families, friends and relatives for their
unwavering support throughout the last 20 years.
He proceeded in teary eyes and paid a special
tribute to his parents, the late Utagamamao Rudy
Steffany and Patosina T. Steffany, his sisters
and his brother Rudy. “I hope that I lived up to
your expectations and have carried our family
name with pride. I am returning home to serve
our families and the people of American Samoa.
Photo Captions:
Photo 1:
SFC
Steffany-Alosu'esu'emanogi Mrs Dayna
Steffany-Alosu'esu'emanog after the retirement
ceremony Ft Bragg NC.
Photo 2:
SFC Taisi
Steffany-Alosu'esu'emanogi with wife Dayna and
sons Hali'ikai and BJ after his retirement
ceremony Ft Bragg NC.
Photo 3:
(Standing) CSM Nua, SSG
Taumua, MAJ Laupola, CW1 Tupua, SFC
Steffany-Alosu'esu'emanogi wife Dayna, CW5
Yandall (Kneeling) SPC Vaioletama SPC Leota Ft
Bragg NC.
Photo 4:
Samoan Soldiers at SFC
Steffany-Alosu'esu'emanogi's retirement ceremony
(L-R) SPC Fanuaea, CW1 Tupua, CPO Saelua, SFC
Steffany-Alosu'esu'emanogi, SPC Leota Ft Bragg
NC.
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VANUATU: Digicel Sponsors Vanuatu National
Cricket Team
Source:
Pacific Magazine
Digicel announced sponsorship today of the
Vanuatu’s national cricket team, and a three
year partnership with the Vanuatu Cricket
Association (VCA). The Vanuatu national men’s
cricket team will now be called the "Digicel
Vanuatu Cricket Team."
Digicel will become the official sponsor of the
Vanuatu Cricket Team and the official mobile and
communications provider for the team and the VCA.
Digicel is a rapidly expanding
telecommunications company in the region, with
services now in Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Papua New
Guinea and Vanuatu. Digicel founder and group
chairman Denis O' Brien was named number two in
Pacific Magazine’s “Power 10,” an annual review
of the most significant players in the region
issued each May.
“Our partnership with the Vanuatu Cricket
Association is an exciting new development in
the growth of Digicel in the Pacific regionm”
said Digicel Vanuatu General Manager John
Delves.
The Digicel Vanuatu Cricket Team left today to
compete in the World Cricket League in Jersey,
which is near England and France. The team will
be competing against countries such as the USA,
Germany, Japan, Afghanistan, the Bahamas and
Singapore.
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