SYDNEY,24 DECEMBER 2019 — Australia’s deepest, oldest instinct in the South Pacific is strategic denial, striving to exclude other major powers from the region. As Australia can never achieve complete dominance in the South Pacific, the instinct is beset by a faint, constant ache. Throughout the 20th century, that ache was directed variously at France, […]
Category: Opinion
Posted inOpinion
The lesson from my trip to China? Solomon Islands is not ready to deal with this giant
BEIJING,23 DECEMBER 2019 -The invitation from the prime minister’s office came in mid-November, almost exactly two months after the event referred to as “the switch” – the day the government of Solomon Islands, after more than 30 years of diplomatic allegiance to Taiwan, unceremoniously switched recognition to China. “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] want […]
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‘Why My Baby?’: How Measles Robbed Samoa of Its Young
UPOLU,20 DECEMBER 2019 (NEW YORK TIMES) — From the beginning, Nuu Lameko’s baby daughter radiated happiness. She clapped and danced to the songs of praise at church. Often, Lameko would roll a coconut across the floor of their home to hear her giggle. “Whenever I’m having a bad day, she would have that smile to […]
Posted inOpinion
UN health agency signals tobacco might be reaching burn-out among men
GENEVA,20 DECEMBER 2019 — Two decades of increasing tobacco use around the world are set to go into reverse, UN health experts have predicted, after revealing data indicating that fewer men and boys are smoking than before. “For the first time the number of tobacco users is declining worldwide”, Dr Ruediger Krech, Director of the […]
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The game of Beijing versus Taipei
BANGKOK, 3 DECEMBER 2019 – One of the lesser unsolved mysteries of our time is why countries whose names end in ‘u’ prefer the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the People’s Republic of China (Beijing). Of the 15 countries that still recognize Taiwan as the real and legitimate China, three have ‘u’ at the end […]
Posted inOpinion
Are people born in American Samoa U.S. citizens? A federal judge says yes
SALT LAKE CITY, 13 DECEMBER 2019 – People born in American Samoa are U.S. citizens, a federal judge in Utah ruled Thursday. U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups’ declaration came in a 69-page decision in a lawsuit filed last year on behalf of three American Samoans in Utah. John Fitisemanu, Pale Tuli and Rosavita Tuli sued […]