Archive for the ‘Pacific Region’ Category
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
Joanna Sireheti; 19/11/08
Various stakeholders within Honiara are preparing for the World AIDS Day to be celebrated on the 1st of December. The 2008 theme is ‘Leadership, Stop AIDS, Keep the Promise’ and stakeholders hope the theme itself would speak volumes during their campaign on the disease. As it nears the date, stakeholders yesterday had a training at the Solomon Islands Planned Parenthood Association particularly aimed at preparing stakeholders for the day. According to the Assistant Community Health Education Officer, Mr. Oscar Watesao, 68 participants from the Ministry of Health, SIPPA, ADRA, Oxfam, Save the Children, Church of Melanesia and the Universal Federation for Peace attended the training.
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Tags: HIV/Aids, Solomon Islands
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Monday, November 17th, 2008
Peter Alford; 17/11/08; (2 Items)
Conservation Minister Peter Garrett has called on Japan to join a $4 million Australia-funded whaling research program. “I would urge all nations of the IWC to join with us in this exciting new venture and Australia would warmly welcome the participation of Japan,” Mr Garrett said in a statement. The new Southern Ocean whaling partnerships are part of a $6.15 million whale conservation program to be announced today by Mr Garrett.
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Japan, Pacific
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Monday, November 17th, 2008
Gina Maka’a; 17/11/08; (2 Items)
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has taken another step in the fight against a recent rising problem, particularly amongst youths - Mental Illness. According to Solomon Islands psychiatrist, Dr. Paul Orotaloa, a consultant under the World Health Organization (WHO) is currently in the country to draft a Mental Health policy after consultations with key stakeholders. Dr. Orotaloa revealed that the mentally ill face a lot of stigma and discrimination, which is a challenge in the fight against the disease. He revealed that just like anyone, the mentally ill do have rights, saying that mental health is developed by various factors, stress and depression being the main ones.
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Tags: Diabetes, Mental Health, Solomon Islands, Young People
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Saturday, November 15th, 2008
Peter Alford; 15/11/08
The Japanese Government has decided against sending coastguard officers or a vessel to protect whaling crews in the Antarctic this summer, another signal Tokyo and Canberra are working to ease the most serious dispute between the two nations. A Japan Fisheries Agency official confirmed yesterday that, unlike last summer, there would be no coastguard officers aboard the southern whaling fleet when it leaves Shimonoseki port, probably this weekend. As for reports Tokyo was considering sending an armed Japan Coast Guard vessel to accompany the whaling fleet, the official said: “There’s absolutely no possibility.” The Rudd Government, which angered the Japanese last summer by sending a coastguard vessel to gather evidence against the whalers for a possible international legal action, has decided against dispatching another ship.
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Japan, Pacific
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Friday, November 14th, 2008
Gina, Maka’a; 14/11/08
Psychiatrist, Dr Paul Orotaloa of the Acute Mental Health Unit, said that suicide cases in the Solomon Islands have increased to levels not seen before. Although the exact statistics were not available, Dr Orotaloa says that “a very high number of most of these suicide, and attempted suicide cases, are among young people.” Dr. Orotaloa said that from what they could ascertain, it appears that most of these suicide cases occur either because of an argument or a misunderstanding, and others due to depression. Dr. Orotaloa also encourages young people who suffer from depression to seek help. “One way of overcoming depression is by attending one of our awareness talks…or through a private consultation with an elder in the community or a church pastor.”
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Tags: Solomon Islands; Young People
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Friday, November 14th, 2008
Peter Alford; 14/11/08; (2 Items)
Japanese whaling officials have denied scaling back their planned catch in the Antarctic this summer, but as the fleet readies to head south there are numerous signs the government-sponsored “scientific” operation is fraying at the edges. “That’s impossible to believe,” an official from Kyodo Sempaku, the whaling fleet operator, said in response to a report in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper yesterday that the planned kill had been reduced from 850 minke whales to 700. The official, who declined to be named, also insisted the fleet would again try to kill 50 fin whales though last season, severely disrupted by Sea Shepherd Society and Greenpeace International vessels, it did not catch a single fin whale.
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Japan, Pacific
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Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
11/11/08; (2 Items)
Australia’s anti-whaling crusade appears to have been harpooned with fewer ships to take on the Japanese whalers this summer. Japanese whaling vessels were last season trailed by the Australian government, and conservation groups Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd. But with the whaling season due to start within the next month, Greenpeace has pulled out and the government won’t say if it will send a ship. The Greens have called on Environment Minister Peter Garrett to take action.
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Japan, Pacific
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Saturday, November 8th, 2008
8/11/08
The Australian Government is calling for restraint as Japanese whalers and protesters prepare for a confrontation in the Southern Ocean. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-whaling group that call themselves the pirates of the sea, are not afraid of meeting the Japanese coast guard in Antarctica. Environmental groups are expecting the Japanese will send a coast guard ship to protect the whaling fleet from protesters this summer. But Greenpeace has decided not to send its protest ships down to Antarctica this time.
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Tags: Antarctica, Australia, Environment, Japan, Pacific
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Monday, November 3rd, 2008
3/11/08
About 150 people living with HIV are expected to attend the first national people living with HIV conference in Port Moresby this week. The three-day event was officially opened at Holiday Inn yesterday by the chairman of the Special Parliamentary Committee on HIV/AIDS Jamie Maxtone-Graham. Co-ordinator of Igat Hope Inc Annie MacPherson said 47 of the participants of the conference were coming from the 20 provinces, including the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. Sixty per cent of these people have also not yet disclosed their HIV status to the public. Overseas participants include representatives from the National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA) in Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands, Solomon Islands and the Pacific Islands Association Federation in Cook Islands.
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Tags: HIV/Aids, Pacific, PNG
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Monday, November 3rd, 2008
3/12/08
The number of people living with HIV virus has increased to 12 after results from bloods samples sent to Australia returned to the country. The new HIV positive case was revealed to National Express by a reliable source. But attempts by National Express to contact medical authorities to confirm the new case was futile as they were reluctant to provide information. “The increasing number of cases shows that people are not responsible for themselves. The 12 confirmed cases are only from people who are willing to provide blood samples to be tested,” said the source
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Tags: HIV/Aids, Solomon Islands
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