Page 8 - IB AUG 2018

Whispers

Chief of ‘hem all derway on how security was apparently
A clash between cultural and western breached at the company’s container
laws or a simple case of contempt of yard in Fiji, where the seal was broken
court is the question that confronted then resealed to hide the contra brand.
authorities in Samoa when a claimant The man behind the shipment whose
to a paramount chiefly title was in- facebook account says works for the
stalled into the much coveted position water company is now waiting for the
early in the month. Press reports say NSW courts to decide his fate.
the ministry of justice has sent a letter
to Samoa Police to probe the chiefly t
installation. Apparently the courts had
slapped an interim injunction against
the ceremony and high chief Papali’I
Stranded wantoks
With the lure of better jobs elsewhere, Fa’amausili Moli Malietoa and other
some islanders are falling prey to un- chiefs in Malie Village defied the court
scrupulous dealers who promised the orders in proceeding with the installa-
world but disappeared when the time tion ceremony. Samoa’s neighbour to the
west, Fiji, went through a similar case
came for them to deliver. A politician
in PNG got the surprise of his life when recently when armed soldiers stormed
visiting the Philippians recently only to a high chief’s house early one morning
be confronted by two of his own who last June to arrest him and thus thwarted
were reportedly offered lucrative work plans for his installation. Nauru’s legal tussel
overseas but have been stranded at
Manila Airport for two days. Needless t Tiny island republic of Nauru, host of
to say, the politician wasted no time in this year’s annual hob nob of leaders of
coming to the rescue of the young man Bridge no more the Pacific who are members of the Pa-
cific Islands Forum, has seen a legal tug
The length and breathe of how donors
and woman, and paid for their air tickets fund and construct their projects in the of war of sorts’ with the government’s
back to Papua New Guinea.
islands can, well, takes one’s breath refusal to pay AUD$224,000 to a group
away. Like this new bridge constructed of Australian lawyers as per the orders
t
in Solomon Islands under foreign donor of the island’s high court. “It is trite law
money, built in no time and commis- that only parties to proceedings can be
Sibling trouble sioned with much fanfare with the donor subjected to orders emanating out of
In Fiji, meanwhile, enticing people
with false hopes of lucrative work flying in their top man to be hosted by those proceedings” is how the rulers
abroad has landed two sisters in trouble. the island prime minister. Ribbons cut, of the country has explained away its
Both women have been charged with a walk through the fresh concrete, lots refusal to part with the cash. High Court
Judge is from Australia and he is ex-
obtaining property by deception and of smiling locals and all boxes ticked. pected to be handing down his ruling on
All’s well and good until the next rain
money laundering stemming reportedly
from their false promises of work in storm strikes and the newly commis- the matter in the not too distant future.
New Zealand for eleven Fijians in 2014. sioned bridge was washed away in no
Police are accusing the two sisters of time! Nothing has been heard since of t
exploiting the eleven through slavery the bridge that was there once. Orwell’s Animal Farm
and human trafficking, and while one
of the women has been charged and ap- t Was it a case of Orwell’s some people
peared in a Suva court, her other sister are more equal than others, and that
has been charged in absentia as she it was never about what’s good for
the goose is good for the gander are
currently lives in Australia.
the questions doing the rounds in the
cocktail circuit in Fiji with the refusal
t
by local authorities to deport a group
of Koreans wanted in their country in
Fireworks in paper relation to investigations on a religious
A top level Tongan civil servant has
left under a cloud forced to quit under group accused by many as a cult. A
pressure from His Majesty’s cabinet. As judge in Fiji had to order the release of
an insurance policy, the civil servant had six Koreans after it was advised that
kept papers implicating a very senior Bottle bust Fijian police no longer have the six un-
der detention. Far cry from this time last
minister in abuse of office and possible It is back to the drawing board for year when Chinese police arrived in Fiji
fraudulent activity. Those papers have exporter of a world renowned bottled
found their way to an Auckland based water when Australian customs busted on a chartered Boeing 747 to physically
journalist. So prepare for fireworks. a consignment of cocaine hidden in- escorted home some 77 women, most of
side a sealed carton of the bottle water them believed to be in their teens who
were widely believed to be sex workers.
t in Sydney recently. Bust is said to be
valued at AUD$11.45m. Probe is un-
t

8 Islands Business, August 2018