NEWS
The new annual report from the Ministry of the Environment in New Zealand is out.
And there are only two "urgent" issues.
Yes, two.
bbc - climate clearly out of balance
Fifty thousand scientists say it is
time to stop looking at global
warming and start acting
NEWS
Global warming is no longer something to be looked at but acted upon, says the world's largest group of scientists.
With 50,000 members across 137 countries, the American Geophysical Union says that the global temperature is "clearly out of balance and is warming" and is "not natural."
AGU is calling for a reduction by half in human emissions - by 2100 - reports the BBC, a timeframe that some may doubt is possible, while others will hold concern that target is too distant to avoid risk of extinction level events.
more clean, green spin doctors
Opposition party officials in New Zealand have sniped at government for doubling the number of "spin doctors." The National Party says in the past five years government agencies have taken on an extra 210 communications staff and contractors, to a total cost of nz$50 million, about us$33 million. More journalists work for the state than major newspapers.
read more | digg story
tough love key to nauru's future | the australian
COMMENT ... an astonishing opinion piece from Australian academic Helen Hughes, calling for Nauru to be reduced to the status of "country shire" in "association" with ... Australia. So? First, Australia helps strip Nauru of bulk phosphate through corrupt means, then, secondly, Australia helps strip Nauru of sovereignty. Less than four decades later, a brave experiment in independence is over! read more | digg story
samoa should say no to sale of 2ap
Staff at the national broadcaster, Samoa, may face the sack if they are privatised.
EDITORIAL
By now, acres of editorial space have been given to the controversial decision to adopt right hand drive in Samoa - right hand drive meaning in this case cars with steering wheels on the right side of the vehicle, driving on the left side of the road.
So far, however, just one story has appeared internationally on the possible sale of 2AP, the country's long serving national radio station.
Ever faithful Radio New Zealand quotes an independent MP, Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi, as calling on government to stop the sale.
CRISIS
The MP questions whether station services will be available at times of national crisis, like a cyclone.
"But the Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, says the sale of the broadcaster has been in the pipeline for years and there is nothing to worry about as government will pay to get media access."
Listeners next door in the Cook Islands might disagree.
WEAK
For years, for example, residents on the atoll of Pukapuka have tuned into 2ap not just because the language is closer to their own but because the signal from their supposed capital, Rarotonga, has been too weak to pick up.
That's because the station was privatised in the mid-1990's by an acting broadcasting minister and friend of the current owners, while the real broadcasting minister was out of the country.
Among other things, like cutting news bulletins, the new owners dialed down the broadcast strength to save power, i.e. money.
CYCLONE
This had tragic consequences for the northern atoll of Manihiki.
Fatally unaware of looming hysteria in Rarotonga over cyclone warnings of an approaching cyclone, 19 people died in Manihiki on the first day of the cyclone season, 1st November 1997.
Not everyone could be reached by phone, local Manihiki police did not have time to travel the large lagoon warning everyone, not everyone took the warnings seriously.
BLOOD
As well as surreptiously selling the station in the first place, Disaster manager Tepure Tapaitau added blood to his hands by badly bungling the rescue operation.
No commission of inquiry was ever held despite it being the worst loss of life in the country's history, and today Tapaitau sits, slightly less smug, as the Cook Islands High Commissioner in Wellington.
Back to Samoa.
BBC
Two large islands, with eight much smaller islets, are nowhere near as widely scattered as the Cook Islands, so concerns over strength of radio signal may not apply.
But in pushing for a sale now, after "years" of being in the pipeline, Samoa risks achieving corporate notions of privatisation just as the wheels seem to be coming off the globalisation juggernaut.
Forget New Zealand and its pathetically resourced public broadcasters, the model that Pacific Islands nations should be seeking to emulate, in our view, is that of the BBC.
MILLIONS
Strongly funded at home, through a household tax, the BBC has weathered corporate cyclones of its own, including decades of calls for privatisation from cash crazy-captains of industry, and, proudly survived, a bit battered, but alive.
Today BBC World service online attracts an astonishing amount of world attention, and respect, for its continued efforts at independent journalism.
Website visitors are counted in the millions each month.
PENNY PINCHING
Instead of listening to penny pinching entrepreneurs, the government of Samoa should seek to strengthen its public radio, under independent authority, preferably a community-wide board of directors from all sectors.
Given credible, independent information as an "output" there is no reason why 2ap and associated news online should not serve as a proud portal to the world, more than paying for itself, indirectly, through increased tourism.
And, it will save lives too. Perhaps by reminding people, frequently, to drive on the other side of the road.
first the queen's counsel, then the queen
Slow disappearance of old country links like the Queen's Counsels and even portraits of the queen herself are noted here by two political scientists, warning against calls for moves in New Zealand to a written constitution. This is, they warn, not a slow maturation towards republicanism but a blatantly naked grab for power. "New Zealanders should not be under any illusion. Moves to republicanism have been made with stealth. To date we have seen the abolition of appeals to the Privy Council, and the renaming of "Queens Counsels" to the meaningless title "Senior Counsel". The General Salute of the armed forces has been taken away from the Governor-General and assumed by the Prime Minister. Even the portraits of our Head of State have been removed from our overseas embassies. Each underhanded change has been justified with the absurd claim that the removal of our current constitutional monarchy will make New Zealand a more open and mature society. Such changes show a slow grab for power, and a disregard for tradition and democratic values."- Sean Palmer and Simon O'Connor read more digg story
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