There is a lack of education, data and definition in the fight against child trafficking in the Pacific, a human rights advocate says. Shamima Ali, of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, said child rape is rife and rampant in many parts of the Pacific. “But as far as trafficking is concerned, it should be of Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Pacific’
Some Pacific men use Bible to justify domestic violence
Monday, May 6th, 2024
Some Pacific men misinterpret Bible verses to justify domestic violence. So says social worker and lecturer Genevieve Sang-Yum. She runs programmes to help Māori and Pacific men break cycles of violence. New Zealand is ranked as the worst developed country in the OECD for domestic violence. Controlling or hitting is normal Sang-Yum is seeing more Read more
Storm brewing over Pacific climate and debt
Thursday, March 9th, 2023
Across the Pacific, people are picking up the bones of their ancestors like shells on the beach. Burial grounds are being washed away by rising tides. Communities are shoring up seawalls with old tyres. I was raised on the beautiful island of Tonga. When I was a child, my parents and grandparents would come out Read more
Caritas alarmed over Pacific climate change
Thursday, April 4th, 2019Alarm over displacement in Papua New Guinea caused by climate change was expressed last week during a meeting at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Port Moresby. The gathering focused particularly on climate change and specifically on the issue of the Cartaret islands in the autonomous region of Bougainville and the Manam islands in Madang province. Read more
Pacific slave trade – island countries are a source and destination
Thursday, February 21st, 2019The Pacific Immigration Development Community is concerned about the increasing slave trade in the region. It says human trafficking to the point of slavery is increasingly common in industries like logging, mining and fishing. Read more
Māori need to do more for our Pacific cousins
Thursday, March 8th, 2018
As our Pacific Islands cousins face the unprecendented impacts of climate change, they are looking for allies who will support them by taking concrete actions to limit global warming to 1.5oC and will also rehome the now inevitable climate change refugees from low lying Pacific states. Those allies are precious few. Most nations are long Read more
The economics of the Pacific rubbish dump
Friday, March 6th, 2015
If you haven’t already, meet the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a collection of oceanic junk that has ballooned over the last four decades. No one is sure how big it is, but it’s probably enormous. A new study in Science Magazine tried to pin down some firm numbers by digging into various data: waste generation Read more
Pacific climate funding must prioritise the poor
Friday, November 21st, 2014Caritas supports the government’s prioritising of the Pacific for direct climate change related funding, rather than making a major contribution to the global Green Climate Fund. At the G20 summit in Australia on the weekend, Prime Minister John Key pledged $3 million to the Fund, but said New Zealand would continue to focus on the Read more
Saints, pigs and the Bishop of PNG
Tuesday, June 10th, 2014
Stepping over a pig about to be slaughtered while accompanying the relic of a potential saint may seem a somewhat unusual piece of Church business. But for Bishop of Papua New Guinea’s Kimbe province Capuchin Bill Fey such events are not especially unusual. “On that instance, I was part of a procession carrying a relic of Read more
The power of storytelling
Friday, May 23rd, 2014
I’ve recently returned from a visit to Kiribati. For those who don’t know, the Republic of Kiribati is a remote island nation straddling the equator in the Pacific Ocean. It’s also where a small group of Good Samaritan Sisters have been ministering since 1991. I was there to witness the perpetual profession of Kakare Biita as Read more