| 10th Pacific
Arts Festival |
|
|
Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC),
Pago Pago, American Samoa, Tuesday 22
July 2008 – Both men and women, young
and old played their respective roles in
the official welcome ceremony for
delegates to the Tenth Festival of
Pacific Arts in American Samoa yesterday
morning. While the men were busy
preparing for the ava ceremony (kava
ceremony), the women were getting ready
to display their finely woven mats. Boys
and girls also pitched in, taking their
place beside their elders to help in
welcoming guests to their shores.
Despite a downpour during the ceremony,
the beautiful array of colourful outfits
worn by the hosts and different groups
from participating countries brightened
the ceremony and kept spirits high. Men
in traditional dress took part in the
ava ceremony after which women displayed
their fine weaving. As is the tradition,
the first cup of ava was poured on the
ground to mark appreciation and respect
for the earth, the provider of wealth
and good health. |
|
|
SUMMER READING John Francis
Kinsella's novel, Borneo Pulp,
tells the story of how a group of
industrialists planned the destruction
of Borneo's rain forests in their race
for profits. |
|
In the last decades of the
twentieth century the destruction of the
Indonesian rainforest accelerated with the
arrival of large multinational forestry industry
companies. The promoters are Europeans,
Indonesians and Taiwanese, backed by
international banks who vie for a share in the
rich rewards, in total disregard for the
destruction that will be wreaked on the habitat
of the indigenous peoples and the terrible
effect that the mill would have on the natural
environment. John Ennis arrives in Jakarta, on
behalf of the consortium formed to promote the
project, where he discovers an unexpectedly new
world. Assigned to head the development by
Antoine Brodzski the promoter and a Scandinavian
multinational, he is plunged into a conflict of
financial and political interests in Suharto’s
Indonesia, where dollars are more important than
the obliteration of huge swaths of Borneo’s
primary forests and its unique wildlife and
ecosystem. From the boardrooms of Europe to the
steaming forests and capitals of South East
Asia, John Ennis is confronted with the dilemma
of investment and employment, the motors of
development for 200 million Indonesians, and the
unaffordable cost that future generations will
have to pay. |
|
The Indonesian island
of Sumatra is the
sixth largest island in
the world and once
boasted some of the most
extensive and richest
areas of tropical
rainforest anywhere on
the planet - but no
longer. It is estimated
60% of the total forest
cover has been destroyed
over the past 100 years,
with the rate of
destruction increasing
rapidly in the 1970s and
80s under the
authoritarian regime of
former President Suharto.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
A senior French
minister linked
romantically with
President Nicolas
Sarkozy during his
bachelor days today
confirmed she was
pregnant through an
unnamed lover.
Rachida Dati, 42,
admitted she led a
"complicated private
life" and that "I
want to be careful
because I'm still at
a risky stage."
It was only at the
end of last year,
following Mr
Sarkozy's divorce
from his second
wife, that the
Justice Minister was
said to have been a
girlfriend.
At a New Year's Eve
party Carla Bruni -
also competing for
the president's
affections at the
time - is said to
have pointed at a
double bed in the
Elysée Palace and -
turning to Miss Dati
- said: "You’d have
loved to occupy it,
wouldn't you?" The
scene is recounted
in the highly
authoritative book
"Carla and Nicolas -
The True Story",
which charts the
couple's 80-day
romance which
culminated in
marriage in
February.
The book says the
women "who were just
getting to know each
other, were also
learning how to
detest each other".
Miss Bruni finally
married the
President in
February. The
latest controversy
is likely to be like
water off a duck’s
back for the tough
Miss Dati, one of
twelve children of a
Moroccan bricklayer
and an illiterate
Algerian housewife.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
EU-Russia cooperation on the world stage will
have implications for energy policy. No matter
what the EU may desire, energy relations will
never be ‘solved’ through purely legal and
commercial means, but will always take place
against a larger political backdrop. In other
words, whether or not one should be worried by
the EU’s current and future energy dependence on
Russia, it is undoubtedly true that the current
atmosphere of mistrust does not arise solely
from energy anxieties but reflects a more
fundamental discrepancy between the EU’s and
Russia’s political leanings and outlooks - by
Quentin Perret |
|
|
 |
| Marauding
elephants, aggressive sea lions, snap-happy
crocodiles... As animal attacks on humans reach
frightening levels, scientists are beginning to
understand exactly what the beasts are thinking.
And it's not good. One of the world's
leading specialists in animal behavior believes
that a critical point has been crossed and
animals are beginning to snap back. After
centuries of being eaten, evicted, subjected to
vivisection, killed for fun, worn as hats and
made to ride bicycles in circuses, something is
causing them to turn on us. And it is being
taken seriously enough by scientists that it has
earned its own acronym: HAC - 'human-animal
conflict'. It's happening everywhere.
Authorities in America and Canada are alarmed at
the increase in attacks on humans by mountain
lions, cougars, foxes and wolves. Romania and
Colombia have seen a rise in bear maulings. In
Mexico, in just the past few months, there's
been a spate of deadly shark attacks with The LA
Times reporting that, 'the worldwide rate in
recent years is double the average of the
previous 50'. |
|
|
|
 |
|
Vladimir Putin was
dismissive of
European leaders
today who suggested
that concrete action
would be taken
against Russia after
its military action
in Georgia –
including suspension
from the G8. The Russian Prime
Minister – shown in
new macho-style
pictures apparently
tranquilising a
tiger – said that
any attempts at
severing relations
would be hampered by
the self-interest of
European nations. EU leaders meet
tomorrow for an
emergency summit to
discuss the Georgian
crisis, and Gordon
Brown said today
that there should be
a “root and branch”
review of ties with
Russia. “In the light of
Russian actions, the
EU should review –
root and branch –
our relationship
with Russia,” he
wrote in The
Observer today. He
made no mention of
possible EU
sanctions against
Russia. There was
pressure too from
other parts of the
EU, with a foreign
policy spokesman for
Chancellor Angela
Merkel’s Christian
Democrat party
saying that Russia
should be suspended
from the Group of
Eight nations. Carl Bildt, the
Swedish Foreign
Minister, said the
EU should create an
“Eastern
Partnership” to help
ex-Soviet states
such as Georgia that
want to pull out of
Moscow’s orbit. But Mr Putin
struck a confident
note, saying he did
not see any signs of
“practical steps
which would indicate
a cooling in
relations.” “If any of the
European countries
wants to serve
someone’s narrow
political interests,
then go ahead. We
cannot stop them.
But we think, as
they say in such
cases, ‘You have to
look out for No1’,”
Mr Putin said in an
interview with the
state-owned Rossiya
television channel. “I think that
many of our
partners, and first
of all our European
partners, will be
guided by this
fairly crude but
very descriptive
saying,” he added.
Analysis say that
Russia’s role as a
supplier of more
than a quarter of
Europe’s gas makes
tough EU action
unlikely at the
summit. The emergency
summit is a test of
unity for the EU,
which struggles to
reconcile
differences between
states which want
punitive action and
others, including
European
heavyweights France
and Germany, which
favour a more
calibrated approach. Russia sent in
its troops after
Georgia’s military
tried to retake
South Ossetia, one
of two Moscow-backed
breakaway regions.
|
|
SHILLER ECONOMIC
ANALYSIS - HOUSE
PRICES |
|
|
|
|
 |
| Francis Bacon has long
been acknowledged as one of the greatest
painters of the 20th century. Now he’s also the
priciest. This May, Roman Abramovich bought
Francis Bacon’s Triptych, 1976, at
Sotheby’s in New York for $86.3 million. It’s a
record for a contemporary work sold at auction.
Behind the rocketing prices lurks a character of
extreme passions and appetites, as well as
intense dedication, who lived amid a colourfully
bohemian coterie. Born in Dublin in 1909, from
the 1930s until his death in 1992 Bacon lived
and worked in South Kensington and drank
regularly (and often copiously) at the Colony
Rooms, a Soho members’ club, with his friends
John Deakin, Lucien Freud, Frank Auerbach,
Henrietta Moraes and countless hangers-on. “He
was great company. His manners were impeccable,
almost mandarin, but quite the opposite of
course when he was drunk. |
|
 |
|
Sarah Palin's
hometown rallied
around her as
mayor - now
Republicans
wonder if the
rest of America
will warm up to
the surprise
pick from cold
country. Though
her
mother-in-law
has doubts. Faye
Palin admitted
she enjoys
hearing Barack
Obama speak, and
still hasn't
decided which
way she'll vote.
"We don't agree
on everything.
But I respect
her passion,"
she said. "Being
pro-life is who
Sarah is." Faye
Palin said the
governor never
considered
ending her
recent pregnancy
when genetic
testing showed
her son Trig,
born in April,
would have Down
syndrome. "There
was no
question," she
said. "She was
going to have
that baby." With
a population of
just 6,715,
Wasilla is a
fast-growing
railroad town
that got its
start as a mail
and supply hub
linking the
coastal towns of
Seward and Knik
to Alaska's
interior mining
camps along the
Iditarod dog
sled trail.
Scores of
reporters
descended
Saturday on the
A-frame wood
hunting lodge
where Sarah
Palin's parents
live amid
hundreds of sets
of trophy
antlers and a
taxidermy
collection that
includes a giant
moose head and a
full-grown
mountain lion.
|
|
|
| Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime
Minister, today held emergency talks
with opposition leaders in a bid to calm
some of the worst Hindu-Muslim clashes
seen in Kashmir in two decades. Tensions
have been simmering in the Himalayan
region since June, when the state
government rescinded a decision to gift
about 40 acres of forest land to
Amarnath, a Hindu cave shrine that hosts
a revered stalagmite to build facilities
for pilgrims. The move, prompted by
violent demonstrations from Kashmir’s
Muslim majority, triggered furious
counter-protests from Hindus. In the
riots, and running battles with police
that followed, at least nine have been
killed and hundreds injured.
|
|
|
|
|
