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By Francis Whippy

SUVA, Fiji (Fiji Times, May 31, 2009) – You wake up in the morning to the hoot of the whistle that blows at 6am and then again at 7. Wives prepare their husband's and children's lunches before the whistle blows again at 7 and 7.30 which is the signal that the buses are around the corner. The 8am whistle means you are to be at work. This is Vatukoula.

Home is always home. Every corner, nook and cranny has a memory. People from your community know you inside and out and you know them in a similar fashion. You accept the bad and the good and move on, making it a part of your life and eventually you become unaware of it because it becomes a part of you and who you are. This is the case with Vatukoula.

You wake up in the morning to the hoot of the whistle that blows at 6am and then again at 7. Wives prepare their husband's and children's lunches before the whistle blows again at 7 and 7.30 which is the signal that the buses are...

The Contemporary Pacific Volume 21, Number 1, Spring 2009, pp. 132-136

Samuel F. McPhetres

Whether shouted from the rooftops or whispered in dark alleys, the word federalization has different meanings for different people. For some it is a cure for the cancer that has been growing for decades in the body politic of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). For others, it is itself a deadly cancer that will eventually be fatal. Both extremes are well represented in popular discourse and, of course, majority opinion falls somewhere in between. Every other topic covered in this report is locally evaluated in terms of its relationship to growing federal authority in the commonwealth.

When the US Congress decided to implement section 503 of the CNMI Covenant, which gave Congress the authority to federalize immigration and minimum wage rates, there were several distinct interpretations among the population. For the administration of the commonwealth...

The Contemporary Pacific Volume 21, Number 1, Spring 2009, pp. 169-175

Lorenz Gonschor

Politics on Rapa Nui during the review period focused mainly on the organic law bill for the future special administrative status of the island. The bill was subject to continuous debates, until being finally introduced in Congress in a watered-down version. On the local political scene, the established politicians are clearing the way for a new generation of leadership, some very reluctantly, others more freely.

The process of replacing the political elite started in early June 2007, when pro-independence opposition leaders Mario Tuki and Raúl Teao won the highest numbers of votes in the elections to the Easter Island Development Commission (Gonschor 2008, 242). This electoral success boosted the ambitions of the opposition leaders, and their next campaign aimed at unseating veteran community leader Alberto Hotus from the presidency of the Council of Elders. Hotus,...

The Contemporary Pacific Volume 21, Number 1, Spring 2009, pp. 175-181

Unasa L. F. Va'a

During the year in review, the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) maintained its dominance over the unofficial minority parties. However, the introduction of several controversial policies led to some fragmentation of the party following the defection of two HRPP stalwarts. With the breakup of the Samoa Development United Party (SDUP) the previous year, there was no official opposition party in the Samoan Parliament, so effective opposition to government measures was missing. The year may be described as one where the Human Rights Protection Party, principally through its leader, the effervescent Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, attempted to test the limits of its political power. The result was the emergence of people power, but will that be enough to halt the HRPP juggernaut?

The most controversial issue, which has led to some fragmentation in the HRPP...