War heroes and heroines are East Timor's leaders. .. the former head of the armed struggle for independence, Xanana Gusmao, is prime minister. Photo: PMC archive

Pacific Scoop:
Analysis – By Agus Wandi in Dili

While talking to fishermen on Areia Branca Beach, hanging out with taxi drivers, getting lost cycling in Dili with its new street names, catching up with friends working for the United Nations there, having dinner with a Nobel laureate and coffee with a presidential candidate, it was clear that there is one common feeling among East Timorese – despite the misery of the past, despite the persistent problems of unemployment and poverty, the country is looking forward to a better future.

The country, which will elect a new president next month, however, is struggling to attract investment. It is also working hard to make the most of its oil revenues, foreign aid and other revenue sources to rebuild the nation.

Chinese investment is noteworthy — the most visible contributions being the Presidential Palace, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and some other key buildings in the capital. But future investment needs to deal with human development and social capital, especially for East Timor’s youth. Read more »

Children lining up for rations at an internal refugee camp in Timor-Leste. Photo: ABC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By a special correspondent in Dili

Julieta Soares, 26, a Timorese mother of six, says her family eat what they can grow or afford in the fishing village of Tibar, 5km outside the Timor-Leste capital of Dili.

“We never think about our food each day,” she says. “The important thing for us is to find something that can fill our stomachs, whether it is rice, cassava, corn, or bananas.”

Her family’s diet rarely contains meat, eggs or dairy products, because of the cost, but her priority is to avoid hunger: “Just as long as we do not starve.” Read more »

Pro-independence Papuan protester daubed with the banned Morning Star flag colours. Photo: Cuny.edu

Pacific Scoop:
Analysis – By Catherine Wilson

The Indonesian government’s offer of development for West Papua, following the crackdown by security forces on a pro-independence meeting in Jayapura in October, is unlikely to succeed in the absence of political dialogue and calls for self-determination are expected to continue.

For half a century, the indigenous population of the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua in western New Guinea, who are ethnically and culturally related to Melanesians of the neighbouring Pacific Islands, have campaigned for the self-government first initiated as Dutch colonial rule ended in the early 1960s.

The First Papuan People’s Congress in 1961 was part of decolonisation but thwarted by incorporation of the territory into Indonesia after the United Nations-supervised “Act of Free Choice” on the political future of West Papua in 1969 was apparently manipulated to guarantee a majority vote for integration. Read more »

Fretilin leader Mari Alkatiri ... tackling the "enemy" in Timor-Leste - illiteracy, poverty. Photo: PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By a special correspondent in Dili

The secretary-general of the Revolutionary Front of Independent Timor-Leste (FRETILIN), Mari Alkatiri,has upheld the need for human and community development as essential to combat poverty in the country.

“There is a currently great asymmetry. Dili has become an island itself within an island, because this is the consequence when we inject so much money into the economy. It results in growth in the cities and a contraction in the rural areas and less productivity, as well as also generating poverty,” Alkatiri said.

The secretary-general commented on statements made by the UN Rapporteur for Human Rights and Extreme Poverty during a visit to Dili, which considered that the development in Timor-Leste has not translated into improved living standards, livelihoods and job creation. Read more »

A plea for teachers in East Timor. Image: Bairnsdale Friends of East Timor

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Manuel da Silva in Dili

Education Minister Joao Cancio Freitas has admitted that monthly salary payments are still being made to teachers who have died in East Timor.

But he declined to reveal who was collecting the wages on behalf of the deceased. Freitas said payments were made to dead teachers because there was no law to regulate them.

“We, in the Education Ministry, have (made payments for dead teachers) since the first constitutional government,” the minister told the Independente. Read more »

Rio de Janeiro ... venue for Earth Summit 2012 next June. Photo: GranvilleOnline

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Corazon Miller and Alexa Villano in Manila

The Philippines should step up and lead Asia-Pacific and the rest of the developing world in pushing for meaningful changes during the upcoming Earth Summit in Brazil next year.

Pierre Calame, director of the French humanitarian group Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation, said the Asian bloc should challenge the world’s richest nations to face up to past failures at the Rio+20 Earth Summit on 4-6 June 2012.

The Philippines is one of the forerunners of sustainable development in Asia. Read more »

South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and South Prime Minister John Key during the Pacific Islands Forum in Auckland. Photo: Myles Idoko Ojabo.

THE Pacific Islands Forum was overshadowed by the launch of the Rugby World Cup last month. But as the six-week cup hype draws to a close, South African interest in the Pacific comes out of the shadows.

Pacific Scoop:
Commentary – By Myles Idoko Ojabo

It was unusual for an African political leader to attend the Pacific Islands Forum that was hosted in Auckland last month.

But South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe arrived in New Zealand on the last day of the forum.

While the United States and China were strongly represented because of their growing  partnerships to the Pacific region, the African continent has had few connections with Pacific nations other than Australia and New Zealand. Read more »

Wreck diving among sunken World War II battleships has become a fashionable holiday pastime in the Pacific. But the flip side is the danger many of these hulks pose. Photo: National Geographic

APART from risking life and limb when digging a new taro patch, derelict weapons hamper economic development. Tourism cannot be properly developed until areas have been declared safe.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Kim Austin

World War II may have ended more than 60 years ago, but for those living in the Pacific “theatre of war” the legacy of death and devastation remains.

When fighting finally ceased in 1945, foreign military forces packed up and returned to their respective homelands, leaving a swath of destruction in their wake.

They also left piles of unexploded ordnance (UXO), which still plague the region today. Read more »

Wansolwara ... latest edition of the University of the South Pacific journalism newspaper. Image: PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Parijata Gurdayal in Suva

The Pacific needs a regional youth fund to provide young people with the needed resources to address their issues.

This was one of the recommendations in the State of Pacific Youth 2011: Opportunities and Obstacles report that has been released by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The report calls for specific attention to providing youths with the opportunities to propose projects that have a strong community focus. Read more »

Pacific Showcase meets global rugby ... Karen Mapusua and Gilles Parzy Te Hau from POETCom. Photo: Kim Austin / PMC

Rugby World Cup visitors have thronged through the Cloud, catching a glimpse of what the Pacific has to offer while canny entrepreneurs showcase a huge range of regionally made products.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Kim Austin

One of the key objectives of the 2011 Pacific Islands Forum this month was to “improve business skills, realise economic potential, and provide a sustainable network of business mentoring for the future”.

And nowhere was this better displayed than at the Pacific Showcase, held at the developed Cloud on Queens Wharf.

As thousands of Rugby World Cup visitors have thronged through the venue, keen for a glimpse of what the Pacific has to offer, canny entrepreneurs plied a huge range of regionally made products. Read more »