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Corruption, disease and poverty threaten the futures of Melanesian countries that are home to 85 percent of Pacific Islands people, a top New Zealand official said Tuesday.

The populations of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are rising at a pace that is outstripping economic growth, Pacific Island Affairs Minister Winnie Laban said at the opening of a symposium on Melanesia in the New Zealand capital, Wellington.

The countries also suffer from youth unemployment, law-and-order “problems,” and adverse effects of global warming, Laban said. All these conditions together represent a “toxic mix” undermining growth and stability in these countries, she said.

“In combination, these factors pose clear and present danger to the ability of states in the region to provide for their people and ensure national viability,” Laban said at the event, sponsored by the Pacific Cooperation Foundation.

HIV, AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis are a brake on the region’s potential, while education trends are also troubling, she said.

Four years of communal fighting in the Solomon Islands have left education services “in tatters,” with only 70 percent of children able to access limited education, Laban said.

“To be blunt, corruption seems endemic and undermines governance at almost every turn,” she said.

Melanesian countries play a major role in the Pacific tuna fishery, currently worth around US$3 billion a year. But overfishing of a number of tuna species means reductions in catches are urgently required to preserve the industry’s sustainability, she said.

Laban praised Melanesian countries New Guinea, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands for maintaining a unified front in pressuring Fiji’s military government to honor its pledge to hold elections by March 2009.

Melanesian leaders last month joined other Pacific Islands’ Forum states in expressing disappointment at Fiji’s delays in restoring a democratic government.

The United Nations Fund for Population Development has revealed that Fiji is rated in the same category as the Philippines and Tuvalu in terms of teenage fertility and this is an alarming rate as young mothers are at high risk of losing their babies or their lives.

Fiji, the Philippines and Tuvalu fertility rate is currently at 40 percent, with the young mothers likely to lose their babies or their lives through their young age or through the lack of qualified professionals especially in developing countries.

Following concerns about the shortage of nurses and doctors, UNFPA Sub Regional Director, Najib Assifi said the shortage should not be taken lightly as the matter concerns lives.

The Fiji School of Medicine had recently started their Reproductive Health Training Programme where Acting Dean Robert Mould said that they are trying to address the issue of having trained professionals to attend to births.

The medical authorities in Fiji confirmed a national dengue fever outbreak, the Fiji Times reported on Wednesday.

Sources close to the Health Ministry said divisional teams had been activated after a marked increase in cases reported at hospitals and health centers throughout the country.

It is understood that more than four cases of dengue per day have been reported at public and private health facilities over the past few weeks.

Interim Health Minister Jiko Luveni said as of Friday, 53 suspected cases of dengue had been reported throughout Fiji.

Luveni advised the general public to destroy all mosquito breeding places.

She said those who are suspected to be suffering from the disease should drink plenty of fluids.

But the Health Ministry has not made a public statement on the disease despite a meeting of senior doctors in the Western Division

Medical teams could soon begin massive spraying campaigns in an effort to kill the aedes aegyptii mosquito which carries the dengue virus.

Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease and has the potential to kill if patients are severely dehydrated or begin to lose blood.

Dengue fever symptoms include headaches, joint pains and bleeding from the mouth. The origins of the word dengue are not clear, but one theory is that it is derived from the Swahili phrase “Ka-dinga pepo”, which describes the disease as being caused by an evil spirit. The Swahili word “dinga” may possibly have its origin in the Spanish word “dengue” (fastidious or careful), describing the gait of a person suffering dengue fever or, alternatively, the Spanish word may derive from the Swahili. It may also be attributed to the phrase meaning “Break bone fever”, referencing the fact that pain in the bones is a common symptom.

South Pacific island nations have armies of unemployed and underemployed people who will turn to violence if its economic, social and political problems are not dealt with, a report by a Sydney-based think-tank said.

“It is only a matter of time before the growing army of unemployed and underemployed turns from restless to violent,” said a new report on the South Pacific released on Thursday, adding that the region’s poor economic development lags similar island nations like those in the Caribbean.

The report by the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney said two million Pacific island men, or four out of five, were unemployed in towns or villages.

“These islanders are bored and frustrated. Unemployment and underemployment are at the core of the Pacific’s ‘arc of instability,’ ” it said.

The South Pacific has some of the world’s smallest and poorest countries, with economies reliant upon tourism, logging, royalties from fishing and foreign aid. The island nations of Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji have all suffered coups, military rebellions and civil unrest, and have been labelled an “arc of instability” by Pacific analysts.

The report titled The Bipolar Pacific”said the South Pacific was divided into nations which are developing and those failing to even supply running water and electricity in homes. Those floundering islands included Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, while those developing were the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Samoa and Tonga.

“Without employment-led growth, crime and corruption will worsen. Port Moresby (the capital of Papua New Guinea) has become one of the most violent cities in the world,” it said.

“With major criminal interests now operating in the region, the Pacific is developing its comparative advantage as a location for international criminal activities such as people-smuggling, drug production, and arms trafficking,” the report noted.

The danger was that about 80 per cent of the South Pacific’s population was found in the failing group of islands, where employment was rare and living standards were not rising, it said.

The international journalists’ organisation, Reporters Without Borders, has condemned two cases of Fiji journalists being arrested and questioned for several hours by police in the past 10 days.

The latest was that of Fiji Times reporter Serafina Salaitoga, who was arrested at her home in the presence of her children, after writing a story that quoted a businessman Charan Jeath Singh as commenting about Suva politics.

Isaac Lal of the Daily Post was arrested and interrogated about an article linking a convict, Josefa Baleiloa, to an alleged plot to assassinate national leaders.

Mr Lal was picked up after the police spokeswoman complained about being quoted in the report.

Reporters Without Borders says these arrests will foster a climate of fear among journalists and harm news coverage.

The population of the Pacific is set to reach nearly 9.5 million by the middle of this year.

New data from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community shows the region’s population is growing by 1.9 per cent a year, or 500 people a day.

The population estimates are compiled by the Secretariat from country statistics.

The report predicts the population of Melanesia will grow to more than eight-point-three million people, Polynesia to more than 655,000 and Micronesia more than 530,000 by mid-year.

The largest individual country population is that of Papua New Guinea, which has an estimated six-point-five million people, followed by Fiji with nearly 840,000.

The smallest is Pitcairn Island with just 66 people.

Predictably, the fastest-growing population is that of Guam, where thousands of American troops are being relocated from Japan.

Both Niue and the Northern Marianas are experiencing a decrease in residents, the latter because of the lack of jobs.

Fiji and Papua New Guinea have been added to a United States blacklist of countries trafficking in people.

The Tier Three blacklist is contained in the US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons report.

The report analyses efforts in 170 countries to combat trafficking for forced labour, prostitution, military service and other purposes.

Pacific correspondent, Campbell Cooney, says the report claims Fiji is a source country for children trafficked for sexual exploitation, and a destination for women from China and India for forced labour and exploitation.

It also claims Papua New Guinea is the destination for women and children from Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and China for sexual exploitation in cities, towns and isolated logging and mining camps.

Remaining on the Tier Three list are Sudan, Syria, Algeria, Iran, Burma and Cuba, while Malaysia and Bahrain have been removed.

In introducing the report, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said human trafficking deprives people of their human rights and dignity, and “bankrolls the growth of organised crime”.

“The petty tyrants who exploit their labourers rarely receive serious punishment,” she said.

“We and our allies must remember that a robust law enforcement response is essential.”

Meanwhile, the Netherlands has allocated $US2.5 million for the elimination of child labour in Papua New Guinea.

The National newspaper reports the funding is part of a 36-month program that also covers Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

PNG acting deputy secretary for Labour and Industrial Relations, Martin Kase, says the program will help determine the extent of child labour in the country.

He says current data is inadequate.

More expatriates will be deported and Fiji’s military has threatened to close down the Pacific nation’s news media.

But military strongman Voreqe Bainimarama - who has installed himself as prime minister - says he did not want to close media down.

Bainimarama has confronted Fiji’s media bosses after last week deporting Fiji Times publisher Evan Hannah, three months after Fiji Sun publisher Russell Hunter was also kicked out.

Regional news agency Pacnews said Bainimarama told the meeting that Hannah will not be the last of the expatriates to be deported.

He told the executives he could not reveal why Hannah had been deported but said that others are likely to follow.

He said the news media were publishing “inciteful” articles and called for balance and fair reporting.

Pacnews said Bainimarama added the last thing he would want to do is close down the media and his government should not be likened to Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

The Fiji Times is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Ltd.

The Australian, owned by the same stable, reported this morning that the Fiji Times editor Netani Rika described how Bainimarama claimed that local journalists hate him.

Bainimarama claimed that shutting down the country’s media would be the worst-case scenario.

“He told us that he can shut the media down, but in his quotes, ‘I don’t want to do that’,” Rika told The Australian.

“He told us today that he did not want us to go down the path of Zimbabwe, but he was quite clear … while he did not want to close the media down, that would be an option if we did not take on board the concerns that he raised today.”

During the meeting, Bainimarama became agitated when the media representatives made it clear they would not “roll over and do what he wanted”, Rika said.

Bainimarama refused to explain how Hannah had breached his work permit, he said.

“The actual words he said was: ‘There’s no use discussing that matter. This person, Russell Hunter, and the other, Hannah whatever-his-name is, are not coming back’.”

Fiji has a dedicated and thriving Sikh community. From 1900- 1930 Sikhs from Punjab came to the Fiji Islands and became involved in farming, especially the sugarcane industry. The Punjabis have established themselves irreversibly, firmly and successfully in Fiji. The colorful and distinctive culture of the Punjabis have indeed contributed to the variety and attractiveness of Fiji.

There are five Gurdwaras in different parts of Fiji. They also have one Kindergarten, three Primary schools and one Khalsa College. There are about 800 members in the Sikh community in Lakoutta and about 1,500 in Fiji.

People of Indian descent have settled in Fiji for over 130 years and now constitute over 350,000 people. Most Punjabis arrived in Fiji during early 1900’s.

In Fiji however, the earliest Indians were brought over to the Fiji islands in by the British. They were brought to the Fiji Islands by the British Raj in India under 5 year term, but when they arrived in Fiji they were forced to work do menial labour for the Europeans.

Coconut oil is a local resource that is abundantly available in Fiji and especially in the rural coastal communities. While it has for years it has traditonally priovided food and shelter, its is now being used to generate electricity. This is through a specially designed generator that utilizes coconut oil as its primary fuel source 90% - 95% of the total running time of the generator.

Two such communities that are greatly benefiting from the coconut biofuel programs are Lomaloma, Naqara and Sawana villages in Vanua Balavu and Welagi village in Taveuni. The projects were setup through DOE - Secretariat of the Pacific Community(SPC) cooperation and technology provided by CIRAD Fance through French Government funding.

The Ministry of Agriculture (Taveuni Coconut Centre) and Public Works Department(Electrical) were vital partners in this project implementation and not to mention the four villages that are now part of the project.
Yearly inspections are carried out on the project sites for repairs and training of technicians to run the generators.