A new warehouse containing equipment that can be used during natural disasters and supplies for distribution to families was officially opened at Malololelei on Monday.

WE RISE is the US$1.5 million Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Expansion, Resilient Islands, Strengthened Environments (WE RISE), and is backed by USAID.

The project is also being launched in Fiji and Tonga and implemented by Catholic Relief Services in partnership with local organisations Caritas Samoa, Caritas Suva and Caritas Tonga.

Karen Anaya, head of the programme from Caritas Samoa, said the project will help them enhance their support to the Disaster Management Office - the primary agency for emergency response - by strategically prepositioning more resilient supplies across the country.

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One man mentioned a black-winged storm bird known as "manumanunicagi" that glides above the land only when a cyclone is forming out to sea.

As the conversation continued, residents named at least 11 bird species, the odd behaviour of which signalled imminent changes in the weather.

As we were leaving later that evening, an elder took us aside.

He was pleased we had taken their beliefs seriously and said many older Pacific people won't talk about traditional knowledge for fear of ridicule.

This reflects the dominance of science-based understandings in adapting to climate change and its threats to ways of life. Our new research suggests this attitude should change.

Climate change

We reviewed evidence on traditional knowledge in the Pacific for coping with climate change, and found much of it was scientifically plausible.

This indicates such knowledge should play a significant role in sustaining Pacific Island communities in future.

Our research was co-authored with 26 others, most Pacific Islanders with long-standing research interests in traditional knowledge.

People have inhabited the Pacific Islands for 3,000  years or more and have experienced many climate-driven challenges to their livelihoods and survival.

They have coped not by luck but by design - through robust systems of traditional knowledge built by diverse groups of people over time.

The main short-term climate-related threats to island livelihoods in the Pacific are tropical cyclones which can damage food crops, pollute fresh water and destroy infrastructure.

Prolonged droughts - common during El Niño events in the southwest Pacific - also cause widespread damage.

Traditional knowledge in the Pacific explains the causes and manifestations of natural phenomena, and identifies the best ways to respond. It is commonly communicated orally between generations.

Here, we describe such knowledge relating to animals, plants, water and sky - and show how these beliefs make scientific sense.

It's important to note, however, that traditional knowledge has its own intrinsic value. Scientific explanations are not required to validate it.

Reading the ocean and sky

Residents of Fiji's Druadrua Island interpret breaking waves to predict a cyclone as long as one  month before it hits.

In Vanuatu's Torres Islands, 13 phrases exist to describe the state of the tide, including anomalies that herald uncommon events.

These observations make scientific sense. Distant storms can drive ocean swells onto coasts long before the winds and rain arrive, changing the usual patterns of waves.

In Samoa, ten types of wind are recognised in traditional lore. Winds that blow from the east (mata ‘upolu) indicate the imminent arrival of heavy rain, possibly a tropical cyclone.

The south wind (tua'oloa) is most feared. It will cease to blow, it is said, only when its appetite for death is sated.

Many Pacific Island communities believe a cloudless, dark blue sky signals the arrival of a tropical cyclone. Other signs include unusually rapid cloud movements and the appearance of "short rainbows".

These beliefs are supported by science.

Rainbows are sometimes "shortened" or partly obscured by a distant rain shower. And Western science has long recognised changes in clouds and winds can signal the development of cyclones.

In Vanuatu, a halo around a moon signals imminent rainfall.

Again, this belief is scientifically sound. According to Western science, high thin cirrus clouds signal nearby storms. The clouds contain ice crystals through which moonlight is filtered, creating a halo effect.

• First published in The Conversation. Republished with permission.
• Patrick D. Nunn is a Professor of Geography, School of Law and Society, University of the Sunshine Coast
• Roselyn Kumar is an Adjunct Research Fellow in Geography and Social Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast

Faith alone will not be enough to combat Covid-19, the Conference says.

The Conference has told preachers not to claim the pandemic is a punishment from God. Nor may they vilify those who are infected.

Reports from around the Pacific region say church services were being held despite lockdowns. They also mention preachers claiming the global pandemic is a punishment.

General secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches, Reverend James Bhagwan, stamps on simplistic and reckless claims that religion and prayers are the only solution.

Churches in the Pacific have a key role in binding communities while science deals with the virus in practical ways, Bhagwan says.

He also notes that at least 60 priests have died from COVID-19 in Italy. Many of those who died chose to continue to provide services to congregations, he says.

Six Pacific Island territories have confirmed cases of Covid-19.

To date Guam has recorded the only death, although is currently has 55 cases.

The Northern Marianas is the latest country to confirm cases. Papua New Guinea has had one foreigner infected, but that person has been taken to Australia.

In Fiji, which has five cases, a nationwide curfew from 10pm to 5am is in force. To ensure the curfew is kept, Fiji is establishing 101 police checkpoints. The Navy will ensure there is no travel between islands.

Lautoka, where four of the five cases have been, remains in lockdown.

Tonga is now locked down. There are church services in the island kingdom.

In New Zealand, health officials said 2.3 per cent of the 514 positive tests have been in Pasifika people. This accounts for about 12 cases.

Source

• One News
• Radio New Zealand
• Image: Catholics & Cultures

Among the confused questions:

• Is Pope Francis open to married priests?
• Is he committed to maintaining celibacy for priests?
• Will men who are already priests be allowed to marry?
• Who are these "viri probati" who might make up the bulk of married priests?
• And what are we to make of the fact that there are already some married Catholic priests?

Part of the confusion has to do with the variety of options and terms that come together in this conversation.

In an in-flight interview with reporters on the papal plane, Pope Francis drew a distinction between his own personal beliefs regarding celibacy and what might be required for the church to provide proper pastoral care.

"Personally, I believe that celibacy is a gift to the church. Secondly, I'm not in agreement with allowing optional celibacy. No!"

However, he continued, "there could only be a possibility in these far, faraway places—I think about the islands in the Pacific. It's something to think about when there's a pastoral need; there the shepherd has to think about the faithful."

Pope Francis also referenced the writings of Bishop Fritz Lobinger, the bishop emeritus of Aliwal, South Africa, who published two books on the subject: Teams of Elders: Moving Beyond "Viri Probati" (Claretian Publications, 2007) and Every Community Its Own Ordained Leaders (Claretian Publications, Philippines, 2008). Bishop Lobinger, Francis noted, said:

The church makes the Eucharist and the Eucharist makes the church.

In the islands in the Pacific Lobinger [asks], ‘Who makes the Eucharist' in these places? Who leads in these communities?

It's the deacons, the religious sisters or the laity.

So Lobinger asks, whether an elder, a married man, could be ordained, but only to perform the sanctifying role: to say Mass, give the sacrament of reconciliation and the anointing of the sick.

Francis then noted that "priestly ordination gives three roles or functions (munus)"—teaching, sanctifying and governing—"but the bishop could give the license for only one: the sanctifying role."

In that formulation, the ordained man would not necessarily be a pastor or even a homilist, but might perform the sacramental duties from which Catholic deacons are currently restricted, presumably including hearing confessions and presiding at Mass.

Such a provision could help the church attenuate the "sacramental famine" occurring in various geographic locales worldwide, where a shortage of priests prevents many Catholics from access to the sacraments—in particular, the Eucharist. Continue reading

He says they are putting their own economic interests ahead of the need to protect Pacific Island nations from the effect of climate change.

"I won't be going to Paris wearing the usual friendly, compliant Pacific smile," warned Bainimarama. "In fact, I won't be going to Paris in a Pacific frame of mind at all. I fear that our interests are about to be sacrificed."

He said the Pacific Island nations are "Doomed to suffer the most negative impact of the rising temperatures caused by the carbon emissions that have accompanied the industrial age without having contributed to those emissions in any meaningful way at all.

"In fact, we in the Pacific are innocent bystanders in the greatest act of folly of any age."

"The industrialised nations (are) putting the welfare of the entire planet at risk so that their economic growth is assured and their citizens can continue to enjoy lives of comparative ease."

"All at the expense of those of us in low-lying areas of the Pacific and the rest of the world."

New Zealand prime minister John Key doesn't think other Pacific leaders share Bainimarama's views towards New Zealand and Australia.

He said leaders who attended the Pacific Forum meeting, "speak very fondly of New Zealand, they have a strong relationship with us and they want to engage even more with us in the future."

Bainimarama did not attend the Pacific Forum meeting.

He says the Australian government, in particular, seems intent on putting its own immediate economic interests first.

"The ‘lucky country' determined to stay lucky, at least for the short term, at the expense of its unlucky island neighbours.

Bainimarama said the prime minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull should halt new coalmines in Australia and embrace an economy based on clean energy. Such a ban has been proposed by a coalition of Pacific nations in the recent Suva declaration.

However, Turnbull, who lost the leadership of the Liberal party in 2009 over his support for an emissions trading scheme to combat climate change, dismissed the idea of a ban.

"I don't agree with the idea of a moratorium on exporting coal," he said. "With great respect to the people who advocated it, it would make not the blindest bit of difference to global emissions.

"If Australia stopped exporting coal, the countries to which we export it would buy it from somewhere else."

Australia has the highest per-capita carbon emissions of any industrialised country.

It is also a leading exporter of coal and recently approved Adani's $16.5bn Carmichael mine in Queensland, which will extract up to 60m tonnes of coal a year for export to India.

The annual emissions from this coal will be higher than the entire carbon output of New Zealand.

Source

• theguardian.com
• theguardian.com
• 3news.co.nz
• news.com.au

When the sun sinks, and the baking heat subsides, the 1.7km airplane runway in the capital Funafuti comes to life as the main sports ground on the island with games of football and volleyball taking place all around.

It turned out that the airfield was built during World War II, which gave Tuvalu a fast link to the outside world and also a vast area that for many decades was its only playing field.

However, this runway also paved over the farmland on the main island and Tuvalu has been reliant on imported food ever since.

One of the main reasons that football is the national sport here instead of rugby, which is very popular throughout the Pacific region, is you simply can't play rugby on a runway - or not without serious injury! Continue reading.

Mark Beaumont is following the Queen's Baton Relay around the Commonwealth, leading to next year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, UK. Regular updates are posted on his blog.

Source: BBC

Image: Twitter

The book describes the hopes and fears of early Pacific political leaders in the period from 1960 to 1990 as islands across the Pacific gained independence or self-government.

Ian Johnstone and Michael Powles interviewed the Pacific people in key leadership positions in the lead-up to and achievement on independence, many of whom became well-known in the Pacific and more widely.

The book presents a nation-by-nation history of this change from being colonial subjects to citizens of Pacific nations from the point of view of the leaders involved. Accompanied by maps, photographs and background information about the Pacific nations, the book explores the leaders' views on independence and the process of gaining it.

Ian Johnstone is a journalist and broadcaster with a long-time interest in Pacific Island affairs. Michael Powles is a diplomat and the son of Sir Guy Powles who was the New Zealand High Commissioner to Samoa in the formative years of the country's independence.

Source

• Talamua
• Image: Radio New Zealand International

The man making the proposal, Ueli Sasagi, says that with 26 per cent of Porirua's community made up of Pacific people, it was the ideal place for the proposed village.

Ueli, a resource management planner, has proposed the "Pacific on Show" village to Porirua City Council, which is this week taking submissions on its 10-year plan.

It would be strongly rooted in the area's cultural heritage, rather than being a "Hollywood show", said Ueli.

Source

• DomPost
• Image: About.com

The Pacific Island members of the United Nations now meet under the rubric of the Pacific Small Islands Developing States that excludes Australia.

The Melanesian Spearhead Group has backed fellow member Fiji against Australian sanctions. The MSG doesn't include Australia.

Australia is losing influence over collective decision-making in the South Pacific.

Australia should re-gather the threads of regional leadership.

Continue reading 'Our near abroad: Australia and Pacific Islands regionalism.'

You can watch Anthony Bergin discussing this paper on ASPI's YouTube channel.

Sources

• Australian Strategic Policy Institute
• Image: Esplanade Travel

The island groups of Tuvalu and Tokelau have declared emergencies, relying on bottled water and seeking more desalination machines. Parts of Samoa are starting to ration water.

Six months of low rainfall have dried out the islands. Climate scientists say it's part of a cyclical Pacific weather pattern known as La Nina - and they predict the coming months will bring no relief, with the pattern expected to continue.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully says other islands in the South Pacific are also reporting water shortages.

He said New Zealand is carrying out a regional assessment amid fears the drought could lead to crop failures and food shortages.

Tuvalu

In Tuvalu supplies are precariously low after a severe lack of rain in a region where underground reserves have been fouled by salt water from rising seas that scientists have linked to climate change.

Families in Tuvalu's capital, Funafuti, are being allowed only two buckets of water a day a. The government estimates the country has five days of drinking water left.

A New Zealand Defence Force Hercules carrying Red Cross supplies and desalination units arrived in Tuvalu on Monday carrying water and desalination units. Andrew McKie from Red Cross New Zealand said they were transported to an island right in the south of Tuvalu, Nookilaulau, which although it's a small island was one of the ones worst affected by the drought

Tokelau

A priest who has just arrived in Tokelau says people are happy to hear that assistance is on the way.

Father Oliver Aro runs a mission on the atoll of Nukunonu, and says people are conscious of using water.

"As far as I have observed, people's lives are limited with things like hygiene, using their bathroom. They are more particular, because they don't want to waste water now."

The three main atolls that make up isolated Tokelau, a New Zealand-administered territory with a population of 1400, residents ran out of fresh water altogether last week and are relying on a seven-day supply of bottled water that was sent on Saturday from Samoa.

A Defence New Zealand Force Hercules carrying water containers flew to Pago Pago in American Samoa on Thursday, where it met up with a US Coastguard vessel. The ship, which has an on-board desalination plant to fill the containers, will then travel to Tokelau's three main islands.

Churches commend swift action and call for long term plans

The Right Rev Peter Cheyne, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand has commended McCully for his prompt action. The Presbyterian Church has a strong relationship with Te Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu.

Bruce Mullen, from the Uniting Church of Australia's Pacific division says Australia may need to consider resettling people from the Pacific in the future, with a number of the island nations in the grip of a serious drought.

"The long term issue is that some of these atoll islands are not going to be sustainable for human habitation indefinitely. So the long-term issue is how we address relocation - there's nothing worse than having to dislocate people as a matter of urgency and trauma. It's much better to think these things through with a bit of time."

Source

• Radio New Zealand International
• Savali
• TVNZ
• New Zealand Herald
• Australia Network News
• Image: CNN

"Due to its geographical position, your country is able to assist in the development of smaller, more distant countries with fewer resources. Some neighbouring countries, including the Small Island Developing States, look to New Zealand as an example of political stability, rule of law and high economic and social standards. They also look to you as a source of assistance, encouragement and support as they develop their own institutions," he said.

"Faithful to the best of its traditions, New Zealand is called to use its position of influence for the peace and stability of the region, the encouragement of mature and stable democratic institutions, and the fostering of authentic human rights and sustainable economic development... I would like to encourage the work being done to promote models of development at home and abroad that reflect a truly human ecology, are economically sustainable and fulfil our duty as stewards of creation."

The Pope said this in a letter to the New Zealand ambassador to the Holy See, His Excellency George Robert Furness Troup, who was one of six new ambassadors whose credential letters were received by the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI last Thursday.

He gave one speech addressing all the new diplomats and then gave letters to each individually, which addressed the specific nations they represent.

In his letter Pope Benedict also expressed his good wishes and prayers for the well-being of the nation and his solidarity with those still suffering from the 22 February Christchurch earthquake.

"Conscious of the considerable work of reconstruction on which you and your fellow citizens have embarked, I am confident that the impressive outpouring of generosity and the countless acts of charity and goodness which were seen in the wake of the disaster will contribute in no small part to meeting the material and moral challenges of the immense task now before you," the Holy Father said.

Source

• VIS News
• Image: theepochtimes.com