Page 8 - IB JAN 2019

Whispers

airport corporation announced that it person for the village said some elders had
was closing down the main airport on the wanted the fines to be raised to $10,000
island. NAC cited the breakdown in law per family as well as banishment.
and order for the decision. Continued cases
of vandalism, theft of airport equipment t
and incursions onto the runway at Buka
Airport had not ceased, despite repeated
attempts to curb them. Officials of the au-
tonomous government in Bougainville say
Explaining nepotism the airport closure will starve the northern
IT is not a case of nepotism if the appoint- region of essential cargo. The airport clo-
ment was made because no one else ap- sure comes as the entire region prepares
plied for the job is how the revered leader for the referendum that will determine the
of Samoa explained away the appoint- future of the island.
ment of his son as CEO of the Ministry
of Finance. As far as he was concerned,
the new CEO will be treated as any other t Chinese vessel aground
civil servant, and “should he fail to deliver THAT fishing vessels respect no national
or under any circumstance violate his borders was ably demonstrated with the
contractual obligations to government, I running aground in the Marshall Islands
will be the first to let him go,” promised of a Chinese flagged boat. Crew of the
Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi. Ou Ya Leng No 6 were rescued by the
country’s patrol boat when it hit a reef
t near an uninhabited island at Taka Atoll
early January. Down south in the capital
of Fiji, no less than four wrecks of what
used to be Chinese longliners now litter
the barrier reef on Suva harbour. News of
the grounding of the Ou Ya Leng comes
‘On Level 9’
‘CURRENTLY Level 9ing’ is the new catch- as Solomon Island owners of the container
phrase in Fiji after the unprecedented and ship that capsized near Suva’s main wharf
never before heard marathon seminar two years ago began the painstaking and
members of the FijiFirst government held expensive salvage work.
at the chambers of the Attorney General
late December, so happened to be on level t
nine of a high rise in the capital. Led by
More TV junk acting PM and AG, the seminar continued
YOU all have heard of Robin Hood’s unending for 48-hours, with sleeping mat-
mantra of robbing Peter to pay Paul, but tresses and meals provided for party MPs
Australia pop a new one recently. It gut- by their minders. It just so happened that
tered the public owned ABC in order to let members of the opposition needed to serve
the commercial profit hungry commercial all of them with a copy of their electoral
operators to swamp the airwaves of the petition, after being given only 24 hours
Pacific with their American and Aussie to do so by the court. But the AG assured
programme junk. The basis for such a the nation that they were not in hiding but
policy is hard to comprehend given the simply busy having a strategic workshop Low blow to games
immense contribution ABC radio and TV on nation building. A fresh low blow to sports in Solomon
had invested into the islands, promoting Islands came this month when the an-
the interchange of news and information, t nual Solomon Games was postponed in-
with lots of local content Only the gullible definitely. The Polynesian island of Rennel
will fall for such false rhetoric. Facebook fine was supposed to be the host of the games
A village in Samoa has discovered a novel but in an announcement in late December,
way of earning income, slap monetary organisers said the games could not go
t
fines on members of the village that ahead due to lack of money. They blamed
abused rules of common decency in so- the national government for the debacle
cial media. Newspaper reports say Fauli’i saying the government of caretaker Prime
village collected a total of WST25,000 Minister Hou had promised to fund the
(USD9.53k) when it slapped fines of games which bring together athletes from
$5000 each on the families. Their crime all the provinces of Solomon islands. Or-
was the posting of expletives and abusive ganisers say that despite assurances that
language aimed at a matai, or chief of the funds would be made available, nothing
Buka airport closure village. Never mind if the postings were was made available right until the dis-
A setback for PNG’s autonomous region made by members of the family who do solution of parliament before Christmas
of Bougainville was when the country’s not live in Samoa but overseas. A spokes- last year.

8 Islands Business, January 2019