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World Teachers Day 2018 opens in Auki

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Guadalcanal teachers during the official opening program to mark the world teacher's day in Auki

BY GEORGE MANFORD

AUKI

THIS year’s World Teachers Day has officially opened at the Auki primary school sports ground yesterday in Auki, Malaita province.

Thousands of teachers from the provinces around the country including the host province Malaita gathered to witness the colourful official ceremony programme yesterday in Auki.

During the official opening programme Chief Education Officer (CEO) of Malaita province Mr Andy Siarani said, “It is another milestone in history making to celebrate our world teacher’s day and we are very proud to be able to host it in Malaita at Auki with all of you.

“I express my gratitude to all of you who so generously helped us make this event come together smoothly, the Ministry of Education Human Resources Department (MEHRD) and Solomon Islands National Teachers Association (SINTA) and the local organising committee; we couldn’t have done it without you.

“We are delighted to have you with us to participate and share in our world teachers day.

“We thank you for coming that many of you have travelled long distances to be here serves as a reminder to us all just how important our work is.

“It is a great honour, dignity, humility and joy to officiate and make welcome for you all to the shores of Malaita province to mark this year’s world teacher’s day celebrations.

Makira teachers during the parade

The 2018 theme is ‘The right to education means the right to a quality education’ I know a lot planning and effort with a lot of resources was placed into this programme by MEHRD and SINTA as well as the various teachers of our beloved sister provinces and obviously the Malaita world teacher’s day working committee where you have put together to make this programme eventuated.

“As the host province, we are very excited to have the world teacher’s day celebrated and commemorated on the soils of Malaita province.

“I felt much honoured to convey the Malaita education authority sincere welcome to all of you and to thank you for joining us to celebrate this great event.”

Siarani thanked the public of Auki and the surrounding communities for their presence during the official celebration programme.

To the teachers he said, “Prepare yourself to be challenged, excited and inspire but remember to attempt to get as much knowledge and information as possible from the sessions organized and enjoy every piece of the whole celebrations, information sharing, meet and greet our brothers and colleagues in the service as teachers of Solomon Islands serving one goal of educating our children.”

Guadalcanal teachers during the official opening program to mark the world teacher’s day in Auki

Hasset visits Gizo’s new market house project

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Project Manager Mr McEvoy briefs Deputy Commissioner Hassett on work progress.

BY ALFRED PAGEPITU

GIZO

Project Manager Mr McEvoy briefs Deputy Commissioner Hassett on work progress.

DEPUTY Australian High Commissioner Michael Hassett and Western provincial government delegation consisting of Premier David Gina, Provincial Secretary Jeffery Wickham   and officials on Tuesday held an informal visit to the new Gizo re-development market house project site to see the progress done by the Reeves International and local contractors in Western province.

The one-day visit came as part of an invitation from the Reeves International Project Manager Andrew McEvoy after a short discussion on latest work being carried out with the Deputy High Commissioner Australian Michael Hasset, Premier David Gina, Provincial Secretary Jeffery Wickham and other officials at the provincial assembly conference room yesterday.

The delegation led by the Project Manager visited the gabion wall sites from the eastern section to northern section at the new re-development market house project.

Mr McEvoy briefed the delegates at the site saying the seawall is finally completed. The small delay was due to bad weather over the month of August, an estimate of 40-plus hours were lost due to the bad weather.

The group also visited the footing site, concreting works sites and seawall gabion concrete slab sites.

Commissioner Hasset is happy with the current progress at the new Gizo re-development market project house site.

“I would like to thank Reeves International, local contractors and provincial government for your strong support to complete this market project for the people in the province.”

Let us work together so change the attitude: Bosamata

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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NGF’s representative and Chairman Charles Gauba explaining the insight vision of NGF for Ngella citizens.

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

NGF’s representative and Chairman Charles Gauba explaining the insight vision of NGF for Ngella citizens.

CENTRAL Islands Provincial Speaker Mr John Bosamata raises disappointment over certain prominent figures not attending the recent launching of Ngella Forum’s Constitution.

For such, the Provincial Speaker strongly calls on all Ngella stakeholders, representatives from the churches, traditional leaders, Chiefs and everybody including women and youths to work together in order to change the future of their islands.

Since coming into existence and famously standing against negative issues, Ngella’s famous social media Forum (NGF) finally launched its own Constitution at Tulaghi over the weekend on Saturday, seeing it creating a legal platform for Ngella people to discuss issues concerning their islands and Central Islands Province (CIP) as a whole.

Mr Bosamata during then said that if it is questioned that everyone can change Ngella into a better place through NGF, “yes”.

“My only appeal to the people of Ngella is that please let us all work together for the betterment of our future. I believe a more good number of people especially in the rural areas will have access to the forum’s program online social media soon as this is one of the only ways and approach that we can be able to make a change for Ngella Constituency especially on issues that affect our people,” said Mr Bosamata.

“Disseminating Information is very important. A truth is that one has to change his or her attitude first too before we can solve and change the whole situation together.

“Despite of the unavailability of the Premier and other leaders of the Provincial Executive and the Provincial Administration as well, I would like to say thank you to the NGF members having them come facilitate together with us on the launching of the NGF Constitution, 2018.

Active members of NGF and invited guests pose for a group photo after NGF successfully launched its own Constitution over the weekend at Tulaghi. History in the making for NGF. PHOTOS BY MANEBONA BARNABAS

NGF’s rep and Chairman Mr Charles Gauba during the launching of NGF’s Constitution personally thanked the forum members for holding hands together all through times for the past few years to come up with the Constitution.

“The constitution is very important, without it NGF will have no equal part in giving advice or the legal implications that come up regarding the activities, approach and the stand of NGF which will have the risk of being threatened. But with the constitution, we are in good hands because it is now a legal constitution,” explained a pleased Mr Gauba.

“CIP’s Provincial Government has its own mandate, NGF having its own legal constitution does not mean we will daily interfere with the provincial government, churches and whatsoever group in their daily businesses. What we are here for today is to rally support from our provincial government, help church leaders and strengthen the youth and women leaders to be good role models in the society.

“Let us set a way as leaders and see the importance of informing the ordinary citizens of Ngella to make well informed decisions on when it comes to development and social activities affecting daily lives. NGF is there to criticize when there are not fair decisions.

“To all children and citizens of Ngella, NGF will always stand for good leadership and not bad leadership and decisions. So we must all hold hands together to work with our communities, churches and CIP’s Provincial Government on issues for the best interest of the children of Ngella.”

NGF’s launching becoming a legal Constitution strongly seals the right for proper transparency on issues taking place and to take place in the future within Ngella islands. A historical move being new.

MASI convenes successful 2018 AGM

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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MASI President, Charles Kadamana
MASI President, Charles Kadamana

“A successful year but one filled with many challenges for MASI.”

These were the words expressed by the President of the Media Assocation of Solomon Islands (MASI), Mr Charles Kadamana, during the 2018 MASI Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Saturday, September 29.

Kadamana described to his members that 2017-2018 was a very tough year for the association.

“Whilst our journey over the past 12 months was filled with successes and achievements, MASI also encountered turbulent challenges along the way.

“But the good news is that, we have overcome all those challenges and through those experiences, it is a stepping stone to further up-lift MASI.”

The MASI AGM took place at the Mothers Union Hall at All Saints, Pt Cruz with members in attendance, receiving first-hand information about MASI’s operations over the past financial year.

Members, mostly journalists and media industry workers were briefed over MASIs’ Financial Report and President’s Report, which produced in detail MASI’s overall operations under its current fully funded donor support set-up.

“This is an important event for (MASI) because it is the only time of the year where we come together to report on the progress of our work, achievements, challenges and openly discuss and assess how we can move forward from now and on, as an organization,” Kadamana added.

MASI board members highlighted and acknowledged DFAT through UNDP/SECSIP, Strengthening Electoral Cycle Solomon Islands Project (SECSIP) for the Grant Agreement signed.

The support catered for the establishment of the new MASI Office, with dedicated human resources established to manage, operate and implement MASI funded and supported activities and events.

During the AGM, MASI members were given the opportunity to also comment and ask questions with few highlighting the importance of MASI to engage more with them (members).

It was also highlighted during the meeting about the urgency for MASI to secure other funding opportunities. MASI currently relies heavily on one donor, and therefore other partnerships and alternative revenue streams is necessary for MASI going forward. A call for MASI members to take ownership of the association was also made during the AGM.

According to Kadamana, MASI is futuristic; strategically placed to execute many plans.

However, it requires MASI members to be proactively involved in the process.

Kadamana believes that the visionary plans can only become reality when everyone is like-minded and working together to propel MASI forward.

MASI continues to maintain its pivotal role to provide strong leadership and support members of the media industry, collaborate with its stakeholders and the community to provide up to date quality news and information to all Solomon Islanders.

–MASI PRESS

Sexting is illegal in Solomon Islands

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0

DEAR EDITOR, the question of whether sexing is an offense can be considered as one of the rejected one, which no one would like to talk about it as well as, it may be sensitive or not of public interest.

As a regular Facebook user, this is an opportunity that we must talk about sexting. It is a cybercrime and a serious offense which affect children and young people.

We need to protect them from abuse by adults online.

What is Sexting?

‘Sexting is an act of taking nude or partly nude photos or videos of yourself posing in a sexual manner and sharing these photos or video with other online on using the internet or through your smart phones.

Sexting also counts when you engaged in receiving, forwarding or re-posting these nude pictures or video clips through your computers or smart phones.

Sexting is a crime which held all age accountable if involved and it can be a serious offense if a child under age of 18 is abused by an adult online.

For example, exposing a child’s sexual organs, genital areas or showing of a female with undergarments.

Furthermore, there are short video clips which may be disturbing in some ways, showing striptease girls dancing, child, and a teenager having oral or sexual intercourse with adults.

Other forms of sexting were present in drawing of cartoons in a sexual behaviour and pornography material on other social media.

Sexting is a serious offense which against Solomon Islands Laws.

One can be held accountable for sexting against child and teenagers online.

It is the duty of parents and guardians to protect your child from sexting and abused online and if one found sexting report it to the police sooner the better.

 

Jerolie Navala Belabule

Emalus, USP

Fish sellers with dishonest scales – Honiara Central Market

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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DEAR EDITOR, Honiara City Council Mayor, Andrew Mua speaking to Island Sun issue of 10/9/18 stated that an Ordinance to ensure that fish sellers at the Central Market are not deceiving customers with false scale reading is in the making.

Mr. Mua related that if you weigh fish on different scales, you can see that the price will vary which results in some customers purchasing fish at a far higher price than expected.

If only the Honiara City Mayor has performed his home work, he would have known that there is an existing act titled: The Weights and Measures Act (Laws of Solomon Islands).

This is an Act to make provision with respect to weights and Measures, for the protection of consumers purchasing commodities by weight or measure and for matters incidental thereto and connected therewith.

Apparently, Mr. Mua is well aware of the fact that certain fish sellers are using faulty scales at the Central Market.

This is a long standing issue ever since the very first scales were introduced in Honiara. This was the very reason why the National Parliament legislate the Weights and Measures Act.

I do not understand why the Honiara City Council being a sub national Government should find it hard to enforce the provisions of the above act to avoid making excuses.

Should the HCC makes its own Weights and Measures ordinance inorder to implement it successfully? Or are there any difficulties with HCC enforcing this piece of legislation?

HCC’s law enforcement is weak, thus they cannot take the lead role in ensuring that all weighing instruments such as scales used in trade be tested regularly to verify that they perform to their purported function.

A standard weight should be deposited in the Central Market Office to monitor and make daily check on scales that have been intentionally tampered with by fish vendors to illegally increase their earnings.

This is a form of fraud and those fish sellers involved in this kind of activity should be charged by the RSIP police officers stationed at the Central Market Office. In law, fraud is deliberate deception to secure unfair gain.

The Central Market area has been a host venue to many illegal activities: sale of kwaso, marijuana, cigarette rolls, betelnuts, the use of dishonest scales and pick-pocketing right under the nose of the HCC security officers.

I think the task of policing the market should be performed with minimal cost: HCC is collecting market and parking fees daily; thus some of those moneys should help with policing and security at the Central Market inorder to weed out any criminal activities.

The Bible warns us against the use of dishonest weights (scales) and measures with the following scriptures:                                                                                                                                                                         Differing weights and differing measure, both of them are abominable to the Lord.'' (Proverbs 20: 10). `A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight''. (Proverbs 11:1).                                                                                                        You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a large and a small. “You shall not have in your differing measures, a large and a small. `You shall have a full and a just weight, you shall have a full and just measure, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. (Deuteronomy 25: 13-16).

The use of dishonest scales is abominable to God: and being abominable is dreadful, repulsive or offensive to God.

Fish vendors who engage in that kind of activity are actually cheating, committing a fraud, and a covenant breaker, and those certainly are criminal activities which should require the attention of the Police for legal prosecution.

Whenever I buy fish at the Central Market, I always make sure that I reweigh my fish on another scale: on five occasions I have had to return my purchase of fish to the respective vendors, and telling them that their scale is faulty.

AM Junia Port Adam,

Small Malaita

It is not over until it’s over

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0

IT was good to see the voter registration exercise was completed without much drama – at least that’s how the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission would have loved to have it recorded.

It was not an easy job. That much must be acknowledged

It is only fair that credit is given where it’s due. But there are issues that SIEC must deal with and deal with now to ensure there is no confusion, particularly when the moment of truth arrives.

There are disturbing signs last week for example. One message was sent through Our Telekom SMS messaging to all on the network asking voters to check Provisional Voter List, which SIEC says are now being displayed at all Polling stations around the country.

A telephone call to some of the polling stations confirmed there were no Provisional Voter lists on display. I don’t know what to call it, a white lie perhaps. But to spread such untruth about something so important as the National General Election is being totally irresponsible on the part of the SIEC and its field staff.

As well as that, the premature announcement appears to be suggesting something of the past. By making such a false announcement, are the SIEC staff suggesting that they have a list of their own? It is a very serious matter.

SIEC staff in the past were known for allegedly providing certain individual candidates, particularly government ministers two sets of voter lists. By telling voters around the nation to check for their names on the Provisional Voter List when they know that even the provisional list from the voter registration is being compiled is rather disturbing.

At the time of sending the SMS, SIEC staff know that even the provisional list from the voter registration were not quite complete, let alone, ready.

So why are they behaving like this?

The Solomon Islands Electoral Commission has a duty to the people of this country in keeping them informed correctly and timely. SIEC must come out and tell us that what they did was wrong.

The 2019 National General Election is and should be the turning point for this nation. It should not be marred by actions of a few individuals whose intention is to make money from those who want to secure a seat at the next election at the expense of the unsuspecting majority.

I just hope that it was a genuine mistake.

The other area of concern is why the provision in the new Electoral Act 2018 on voting in Constituencies other than your own.

One lawyer has made it clear that the provision has not been activated which means that those who registered in other Constituencies are allowed to do so. It was rather unfortunate that the media troupe engaged by the SIEC has not highlighted this prior to and during the voter registration period.

They should have done so to avoid the confusion which forced many people to deregister and to return to their constituencies of their origin. In a way it was good the SIEC did not put any emphasis on this. Doing so would have emptied some constituencies of voters whose ultimate aim is to receive monetary rewards for migrating to constituencies other than their own.

One can only hope that challenges ahead are not going to deny genuine voters their responsibility to be free from coercion and inducements by those who are very desperate to grab a seat.

What a pity.

Genuine voters should keep in mind that winning back this nation is not going to be over until the election is over.

By Alfred Sasako

SI graduation from LDC status likely to threaten duty free access to EU tuna market

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0

BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

SOLOMON Islands graduation from its LDC (Least Developing Country) status would mean having to lose benefits associated with the status.

According to Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) Trade and Industry News Volume 11, Issue 3, May to June 2018, should Solomon Islands graduate from its LDC status, benefits like exporting tuna to the EU duty-free and quota-free with exception of armaments under EU’s Everything but Arm’s (EBA) initiative would no longer be enjoyed at the same time threatening the country’s tuna industry.

The agency stated that this move if taken by Solomon Islands would jeopardize Soltuna’s direct onshore employment of 2,350 people where 67 percent are women, bringing in annual employment earnings of around US$12 million into the economy.

Additionally, FFA said a conservative multiplier effect for indirect and induced employment would push this to at least 7,000 jobs and more optimistically, over 13,000.

Moreover, given the great importance tuna processing is in the country, it was expressed that the Commonwealth Secretariat undertook an analysis of the ‘competitiveness challenges’ of graduation for Solomon Islands’ position in the global value chain in tuna.

The LDC status calculated was based upon three measures namely; Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, Human Assets Index (HAI) and Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI).

GNI is taken from national accounts data and converted into US dollars, HAI is a composite of human health and education while EVI comprises of 8 indicators which include population size, export concentration, remoteness, share of primary sector in GDP (agriculture, fisheries and forestry), as well as the vulnerability to trade shocks and environmental change and disasters.

As for GNI and HAI, FFA stated that Solomon Islands was above the eligibility threshold in the UN Committee for Development Policy’s 2015 review.

Also noted was that the United Nation’s LDC Identification Criteria and Indicators do not take into account counter-factuals should a country graduate from its LDC status, particularly, economic vulnerability.

Hence, if Solomon Islands graduates from its LDC status, the loss of the duty-free access to the EU market may undermine the government’s attempt to ease logging and engage in reforestation.

Lands Ministry work on improving service delivery

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0
Assistant Commissioner of Lands Lizzie Tegu.

BY AARON LYNTON FILIA

Assistant Commissioner of Lands Lizzie Tegu.

THE Australian Government is providing technical assistance through the Pacific Community (SPC) to improve service delivery and reform laws in the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Survey.

In a presentation for business owners in the recent Australia Solomon Islands Business Forum in Australia, Acting Commissioner of Lands, Alan McNeil and Assistant Commissioner of Lands Lizzie Tegu took the chance to highlight some of the land issues investors might face in Solomon Islands.

In their presentation, McNeil also talked about the customary land system and how to deal with it.

McNeil said in terms of dealing with customary land, the only legal way to convert unregistered customary land to registered land is through land acquisition by national or provincial government; or customary land recording and registration.

“The land acquisition process has been used as a method for investors and purported customary landowners to collude to get customary land registered then leased to the investors,” he said.

He said it unlawful if the land is not acquired by the government first, before being passed to investors.

With that he also highlighted the issue of ownership below the high watermark.

McNeil mentioned that below high water mark is assumed to be customary and the same rules for customary land apply.

Assistant Commissioner of Lands Lizzie Tegu said, “In relation to registered land, foreign persons or companies can own land for a maximum of 75 years under the law.

“These can be either Fixed Term Estates granted by the Commissioner of Lands or leases granted by any other perpetual estate (freehold) land owner.

“All FTEs are now 75 years. All private land in Honiara is held as FTE. There is no automatic renewal of these FTEs when they expire. You need to apply for a new grant and pay for the land again.”

Moreover, FTEs are subject to an initial “premium” price for the land calculated as 10 percent of the unimproved capital value, and annual land rental of 10 percent of the premium.

Fixed Term Estate owners must abide by the conditions of their grant, and develop the land otherwise land can be forfeited back by government.

Tegu said planning Schemes are relatively new to Solomon Islands, and there are now schemes for Honiara, Gizo and Auki to guide and control development.

Traditionally, land subdivisions have been ad-hoc, she said.

McNeil, having taken on the role of acting Commissioner of Lands two months ago, is aiming to introduce reform, transparency and improved processing in land dealings, in what has frequently been dubbed as one of the most corrupt Ministries in the country.

His presentation at the Australia Solomon Islands Business Forum was aimed at improving business and investor confidence in Solomon Islands.

He has assisted the passage of six Bills through Parliament, including most recently the Strata Titles Bill in August this year.

EU biggest tuna client for SI

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0

BY LYNTON AARON FILIA

EUROPEAN Union (EU) remains as the highest importer of tuna from Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, a report shows.

According to the Forum Fisheries Agency trade and industry news volume 11 issue July 4 -August, 2018, EU import volumes of loins from Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea increased by 48 percent and 64 percent respectively, between 2013-2017.

The quarterly reports from July – August 2018 stated tuna fisheries play crucial role with increasing processing plants from 144 to 215 – a difference of 71 plant processing.

However, on global scale between 2008 and 2017, global tuna processing capacity (whole round and cooked loins) increased 12-13 percent, while total number of processing plants increased from 144 to 215.

FFA bulletin highlighted Thailand remains the world’s largest canned tuna processor, accounting around 15 percent in global production with EU become world’s largest market for canned tuna.

EU also well-known as an important market for pre-cooked frozen loins, it said.

The United States remains as runner up with shelf-stable tuna market, supplied by two domestic plants which process 100 percent imported cooked loins, as well as imports from 35 countries.

Frozen cooked loins import volumes to feed two processing plants on the mainland have declined by 17 percent since 2013, with Fiji as a significant supplier of albacore loins in the range of 11,000-12,000mt/year, the report shows.

Globally, the industry continues to struggle with overcapacity, with a majority of plants operating below full capacity, while new plant investments and expansions continue.

Meanwhile, over the years FFA members have been working hard to develop successful strategies to increase returns from valuable tuna fisheries.

Report suggested that FFA with its interest towards tuna fisheries have continued to innovate new approaches and links with the global industry to further advance such efforts.

Part of such process includes;

-Increasing knowledge about where value is added as the raw material is transformed into finished product

-Gaining an understanding about how industry players across the value chain capture such value

-Examining how Pacific Island countries are positioned within these dynamics.

Recently, FFA published a study that provides industry and market intelligence on the current status of the shelf-stable tuna processing industry—example canned, pouched.

This is a step to advance efforts on tuna industry globally, it said.

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