Mission & Justice

3/11/08

Doctors and Nurses of the Taiwan Health Center in Solomon Islands will be extending their medical service assistance to a rural hospital. The medical officers will be providing free professional and medical services to North Guadalcanal residents working in collaboration with the Good Samaritan Hospital located in the Guadalcanal plains every Wednesdays. The free medical service began on the 15th of October and has shown to have eased the shortage of medical manpower in the newly-established rural hospital.

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3/10/08

Young people across the Pacific have been given the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns on social, cultural and political issues in a new report commissioned by the World Bank. The very real prospect of being marginalized by their community ranks at the top of a list of fears many youth across the region are experiencing. Giving South Pacific youth a voice surveyed young people throughout six Pacific nations to gain an understanding of the changes they themselves wanted to see in their communities in order to make some practical recommendations to help implement these changes.

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31/10/08

A second meeting of the Guadalcanal Peace and Reconciliation Committee is rescheduled to kick-off early next month. The Committee is an important body mandated to plan the reconciliation and peace process on Guadalcanal. The Ministry of National Unity, Reconciliation and Peace (MNURP) in partnership with the Guadalcanal Provincial Government will facilitate the meeting. Members of the Committee comprises of various community-based organizations represented by chiefs, church leaders, ex-combatants, youth, women and other prominent leaders within the Province.

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Joy Basi; 30/10/08

With the season for mango slowly coming to its end in Solomon Islands, another local fruit season is here, looks like an apple but tastes nothing like an apple. Solomon Islanders call this rather delicious fruit ‘Kabarai.’ The taste, some say, is a cross between an apple and an orange. Solomon Islanders like to say that it is far more delicious than apples, whether they have tasted apple before is a non issue to most. Joy Neala, a form five student at Bishop Epalle, said that her grandparents used to always tell her that the ‘Kabarai’ is good for ones sight. “That’s hard to prove though, but my grandparents, who enjoy eating the fruit, are still reading without glasses.”

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30/10/08

Honiara police are searching for the owner of at least 14 fully grown marijuana plants seized in a raid carried out recently. Police uprooted and seized 14 marijuana plants which have grown to almost three meters tall at a back-yard garden of the owner’s residential home at Mbokona housing estate in Honiara. Police say the plants were well nurtured to maturity and were estimated to have been worth tens of thousands of dollars in the black market. A tip off from an anonymous caller helped police to locate and seize the plants. However, the owner of the marijuana plants fled before the police raided his backyard. Police are reportedly concerned with the high use of the drug amongst the youthful population.

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28/10/08

At least six Malaysian logging companies, mostly family based, are reported to be supporting the formation of the National Alliance Party of Solomon Islands (NAPSI), led by Honiara businessman, Bobo Dettke. This was according to a well placed source within the logging industry who was interviewed by the National Express this week. He said that Mr. Dettke does not have that sort of spare money to play around with, making reference to the payment of $50,000 to each of the sixteen Government MPs to join NAPSI. The source said that the money was originally paid directly to the MPs as incentive payment to join NAPSI.

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23/10/08

The HIV Department of the Ministry of Health has rejected claims that there are herbal medicines that can heal the HIV virus. This stern warning has come about because of a recent claim that a young boy with HIV infection had been healed using herbal medicines. The Department calls on the public not to believe such rumors pointing out that even if it were true, this would have to be verified and declared as such by the National Aids Council. An officer of the HIV Department made the clarifications following rumors that someone has been healed through the use of herbal medicines.

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Gina Maka’a; 23/10/08

In Temotu Province, one of the unique things that people in Grasiosa Bay are known for is the weaving of banana fibre into hand bags, which they call ‘Topla Birpi.’ “Banana weaving is an intricate part of our culture…very tedious work but the finished product makes it all worthwhile,” said young Walter Kola, a primary school student who took up the passion of weaving bags at a very young age. Walter Kola said that he learned how to make banana basket from his father who was one of those instrumental in setting up the ‘Kale Weavers of Santa Cruz.’

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22/10/08

Forest resource owners must be encouraged to do downstream processing, and at the same time replant logged land areas so as to minimise the disasterous effects of unsustainable timber harvesting. This is the message that the Minister for Forestry and Research Hon Job Duddley Tausinga emphasised as he took delivery of portable sawmills and reforestation equipments funded by the Taiwan (ROC) government. “The rate of timber harvesting is at an alarming rate, and in 2007 it stood at 1.5 million cubic meters, which is four times the annual allowable rate” and is therefore “detrimental to the economic well-being of the state”, Mr Tausinga said.

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21/10/08

The Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Environment, Mr. Rence Sore has stated that relocation would not be forced upon inhabitants of the remote atoll of Ontong Java in the Solomon Islands. The Ontong Java atoll is currently being threatened by the effects of climate change. According to Mr. Sore, the relocation for Ontong Java atoll dwellers would only be done through intensive consultations.Mr. Sore said they have been living next to the sea all their lives, eating fish and coconuts so these Islanders cannot be relocated to a place different from what they are used to.

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