Oxfam launched its GROW campaign for the Pacific in Auckland. Featured in the street theatre are "trader" Tim McPoland and "farmer" Maria Vai. Photo: Glenn Welch

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Yvonne Brill

The Pacific region is at risk of falling victim to a “broken food system” with supplies being hit by environmental crises such as climate change, says Oxfam in a new global campaign.

Barry Coates, executive director of Oxfam New Zealand, said there was a growing global crisis in the world’s food system.

This view was supported by evidence from a new report released yesterday in conjunction with the launch of Oxfam’s GROW campaign. Read more »

French Polynesia's Oscar Temaru: Back as territorial President for the fifth time. Photo: Tahiti-Presse

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Patrick Antoine Decloitre

Pro-independence French Polynesian leader Oscar Temaru has returned to the helm of the French Pacific territory after a Legislative Assembly motion was passed at the weekend, ousting conservative Gaston Tong Sang.

A dramatic change has also happed in New Caledonia with the Congress electing veteran pro-independence politician Roch Wamytan as its new President.

Chosen by 32 of the 35 members present -boycotted by two parties – Wamytan is the first pro-independence member to make it to the territorial legislature’s top office in 34 years. Read more »

Japan Ground Self-Defence Force soldiers gear up to wash away radioactive material emitted from Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant. Photo: AP

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Patrick Antoine Decloitre

The French government is sending a stock of iodine tablets to its overseas territories of the Pacific – as a “preventive measure” in response to the Japanese nuclear power plant crisis.

In a statement, the French Ministry for Overseas said the decision was made to send a consignment of iodine tablets to New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia, mainly because of the shipping delays associated with the remoteness of these French islands and because no suck quantities of iodine tablets are permanently stocked there.

The tablets, once delivered, would be stocked, but the need for a distribution to the population has so far been ruled out. Read more »

Cars swept away in dramatic tsunami scenes in Sendai, north-eastern Japan. Photo: RT

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Pacific Media Watch

Many South Pacific countries and territories have lifted tsunami warnings after Japan’s catastrophic 8.9 magnitude earthquake, but Tahiti is still ordering many residents to stay ashore.

The death toll from Friday’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake reached 202 on Saturday in nine prefectures, including Tokyo, with the toll likely to rise to well over 1000 as some areas suffered devastating damage, according to the National Police Agency.

Emergencies were declared at two nuclear power plants crippled by the quake. Read more »

OUT: France's High Commissioner in Polynesia Adolphe Colrat (above) has now been replaced. Photo: Tahiti Presse

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Patrick Decloitre

IN: New French High Commissioner in Polynesia Richard Didier. Photo: French Government

France’s new envoy in French Polynesia, High Commissioner Richard Didier, has vowed to  tackle the French Pacific territory’s ongoing economic and political crises.

Didier took up his position in French Polynesia last week.

He was appointed in December 2010 to replace outgoing Adolphe Colrat who had held the position since mid-2008 and who has now been appointed Prefect to the Meurthe-et-Moselle region (northeastern France).

Didier, who was until recently Prefect for France’s Haute-Loire (Upper Loire) region, has also held several positions in related to the Pacific region. Read more »

Dual flags: The French Tricolore and the Kanak independence flag.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Patrick Decloitre in Suva

French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office has announced a Presidential visit to New Caledonia late July 2011 for the official opening of the South Pacific Games, this year being hosted in the French Pacific territory.

The visit would be the first to the Pacific for the French head of state, whose office had earlier announced similar trips that did not eventuate.

The 2011 Pacific Games will be officially opened in New Caledonia in late August. Read more »

NZ live oysters - still banned in French Polynesia. Photo: PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Oceania Flash in Pape’ete

French Polynesia’s government has since last month maintained a ban of the import of live oysters from New Zealand, where a disease described as a
form of incurable herpes has caused huge damage to the multi-million  dollar industry there.

Early estimates from stakeholders have already indicated that due to the huge increase in juvenile oyster deaths in the upper North Island  of New Zealand, about half its crops had died over November and  December 2010.

The financial loss caused by what the NZ Ministry of  Agriculture identifies as Ostreid herpesvirus-1 (OsHV-1) has so far been estimated at some NZ$ 30 million. Read more »

Resort in Bora Bora, French Polynesia.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Virginie Ribadeau Dumas, in Wellington.

Real estate: The auction for the Rockland’s Hostel and Lodge the week before ended up being a waste of time. The bids rose up to NZ$4.225 million, far from the expected NZ$5.1 million expected by French Polynesia’s Vice-president Edouard Fritch. As a consequence, the Hostel, controversially acquired by the French Polynesian government in 2006 will not be sold. “This is a financial catastrophy”, declared Fritch in an interviewed to La Dépèche. The Vice-president said he asked for three weeks to think about it. He will raise the issue at the next Cabinet meeting. Read more »

Gaston Tong Sang, President of French Polynesia, in Papeete. (Photo courtesy of Wikicommons.)

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Virginie Ribadeau Dumas, in Wellington.

Politics: Follow up from the political soap opera. Interviewed about various current affairs by the daily La Dépêche, French Polynesia’s president Gaston Tong Sang expressed his concerns about the political instability currently reigning in the territory. “I maintain my call for early elections”, he told the journalists, “without a clear majority at the assembly one cannot rule a country.” He insisted on the need to reform the electoral law next year. This reform will be one of the major issues discussed next September with French Overseas Minister Marie-Luce Penchard.

France / French Polynesia: the pro-independence coalition UPLD held a press conference on Monday to explain why its representative will not attend the meeting hosted next September by French Overseas Minister Marie-Luce Penchard to discuss the polling reform aimed at solving the parliamentary instability in Papeete. Read more »

Aisake Casimira, programmes coordinator for the Pacific Conference of Churches: “This is a social problem.” Photo: Joe Yaya/PCC

Church leaders at this month’s Pacific Conference of Churches meeting were called on to help deal with the issue of HIV and AIDS in the Pacific, with a focus on family and discouraging “outdated” cultural norms.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Alex Perrottet

Church leaders must face the facts about HIV/AIDS in the Pacific and drop long-held prejudices about those living with the virus, says a regional advocate.

Steven Vete of UNAIDS said prejudice and discrimination prevent access to treatment for those most in need. Read more »