Archive - Apr 19, 2012

ANALYSIS - The South Pacific Tuna Treaty is currently being renegotiated. Tuna is the the largest economic interest shared by the US and the Pacific Islands.
Charlotte Johnston, Editor

In 1988 the South Pacific Tuna Treaty was established to provide aid and development to the island nations, in return for US access to the Western and Central Pacific Ocean’s tuna resources.

Last year, Papua New Guinea threatened to withdraw from the agreement, forcing the 18 parties left to take a fresh look at the agreement.

Speaking at yesterday’s closing of the 2012 Flag Day ceremony, Samoa Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi described the celebration as a success. He said the siva and pese entertainment was beautiful, and he appreciated the many gifts and traditional sua presented to him and to other dignitaries.

Tuilaepa also noted that Gov. Togiola Tulafono’s tenure as chief executive is coming to an end soon, and he expressed his “deep gratitude” to the governor “for your valuable assistance and support” to Samoa over the years.

One of the things that attracts a lot of attention at every Flag Day celebration are the statements made by groups through their “pese”, which at times criticize the government or request support.

It was the village of Ofu on Tuesday who sang that Tutuila is so very blessed with everything — including federal money — adding that Tutuila always gets everything. However, they sang that it takes months and years before Manu’a gets anything.

POLICE

As of late afternoon yesterday, the Department of Public Safety has reported that it has been a peaceful Flag Day. Warden Lumana’i Maifea who oversees the Tafuna Correctional Facility under the umbrella of DPS, said no one has been arrested for public peace disturbance or driving under the influence from Tuesday up to late afternoon yesterday.

 The Samoa Victim Support Group American Samoa (SVSG-AS), a non-profit organization, originating from independent Samoa, officially opened their local office on Monday, in Lepuapua, Leone.

SVSG has helped thousands of victims of crime in Samoa.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It isn't Mitt Romney who's giving Barack Obama fits as the president pivots to re-election mode. It's those federal bureaucrats carousing in Las Vegas, the Secret Service consorting with Columbian prostitutes and U.S. soldiers posing with bloody enemy corpses.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Apple generates more gossip than the Kardashians.

There's a constantly spinning mill of rumors about Apple products, most of which turn out to be untrue. What's unusual this week is that talk has revived of a smaller iPad model, an idea company founder Steve Jobs derided publicly a year before he died.

BARATARIA BAY, La. (AP) -- Open sores. Parasitic infections. Chewed-up-looking fins. Gashes. Mysterious black streaks. Two years after the drilling-rig explosion that touched off the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, scientists are beginning to suspect that fish in the Gulf of Mexico are suffering the effects of the petroleum.

The evidence is nowhere near conclusive. But if those suspicions prove correct, it could mean that the environmental damage to the Gulf from the BP disaster is still unfolding and the picture isn't as rosy as it might have seemed just a year ago.

Ua tulaga ese fa’afiafiaga o le Sisiga Fu’a a Amerika Samoa i lenei tausaga, ona e le gata i le pupu’u ae o le ‘ese’ese fo’i i taga ma fika.

O le Aso Lua, ina ua mae’a taumafataga o le aoauli, na toe nofoia ai le malae i Lupelele, e malo fa’aaloalogia, o ta’itai o le malo aemaise le afioga i le kovana sili, aua le amataga o fa’afiafiaga o le Sisiga Fu’a.

‘OFU - MANU’ATELE

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa— The National Park of American Samoa, in partnership with the American Samoa Historic Preservation Office (ASHPO), the American Samoa Visitor's Bureau (ASVB), and Samoana High School, completed a rehabilitation project on the upper gun of the World War II era Blunts Point Guns above Pago Pago Harbor.

The project, which took place on private lands with the blessing of the owners, started in March and was completed just in time for Flag Day celebrations.