Page 6 - IB FEB 2017

Whispers

Crossed wires region. Faie district.
SO the Solomon Islands appears to be One of three senior women in the top A further 47 live and 55 dried plants
bent on setting up its own company to positions of a regional agency, she was were found after a raid on the farm.
handle cable services. slated to head a central funding facility On the orders of a magistrate the
This after work started on linking the which will oversee distribution of as- plants were incinerated. Safe to say their
country to Fiji and then on to the world. sistance to civil society. dreams have all gone up in smoke.
Apparently regional experts are baffled But after a successful bid by her spon-
by the setting up of a company when sors for the Australian funding facility, t
SolTel – the local telecommunications she pulled out of the race.
firm – already exists and is able to handle And there is word that the Depart-
the requirements of the cable installers. ment of Foreign Affairs and Trade now
News is certain high-ranking politi- wants to decide on each appointment to
cians have seen the opportunity to make the facility.
money off contract negotiations and in From the outside it looks like a case
other weird and wonderful ways. of bureaucratic meddling.
But their insistence on an additional Perhaps it’s not surprising that so
player may do more harm than good many regional government leaders have
to the installation of a link which will resorted to micro-management.
ensure, among other things, the high They’ve obviously learned from their Flood relief
speed internet access islanders have big neighbours. PEOPLE of the Pacific looked on with
been waiting for. awe as French troops rallied to assist
t people affected by the floods in Tahiti
t last month.
In a matter of days relief supplies
were flown to the needy, troops had
cleaned up villages and towns, power
was restored and water supplies were
up and running.
No need for outside assistance – the
French administration had it all covered.
Some observers quipped that there
was much to be said for colonialism if the
Asylum seeker French response was anything to go by.
SHOULD there be any surprise that an
Official residence Iranian asylum seeker was able to secure t
SEEN in Suva – major refurbishment a Papua New Guinea passport in order
to two homes owned by the government. to travel to Fiji? Ghost town
Apparently one home will house the Tonga, Fiji and now PNG have fallen WITH much fanfare some 10 years ago
Prime Minister while his official resi- victim to passport scams and it’s quite a Malaysian company was feted and wel-
dence undergoes major repairs. possible that other nations will fall into comed to build a metropolis near Fiji’s
Huge latticed walls have been erected the same trap. second international airport, Nausori.
between the temporary home and the In the most recent case, Loghman Waila City was one of the first big deals
main thoroughfare. A similar wall has Sawari not only obtained a passport; signed by the interim government.
gone up between the home and the New he was also able to use that document Today the development site is littered
Zealand High Commission residence to pass through border controls of two with rusting earth-moving equipment
adjacent to the site. sovereign states. and there has been no progress on ex-
Never before have walls been put up Only time will tell whether action will cavation or subdivision of lots for the
around the home – even when it was be taken against those responsible. last three years.
occupied by a prime minister and a vice And in the case of PNG, how deep is It’s unclear whether work will eventu-
president. the rot that allowed the passport to be ally resume.
Interestingly the incumbent leader of processed?
the country has resisted moves to use Obviously people were in the know.
the residence until now.
Does his reluctance stem from the fact
that this was the site of his signing an t
accord in 2000 to ensure the end to the
hostage situation in Fiji’s parliament? School drugs
STUDENTS as young as 14 have been
t found in possession of drugs in French
Polynesia.
Regional diplomat A raid by gendarmes on a college at Chinese whisper
A SENIOR female diplomat has report- Faie found a 14-year-old girl with a THE Jehovah’s Witness religious
edly pulled out of a commitment to an bunch of cannabis which she claimed group has seized the opportunity to
Australian-based aid programme in the was from her brother’s plantation in reach out to the region’s fastest growing

6 Islands Business, February 2017