Neu: 2001-08-26 Contents of this issue: 1. Slow and Low 2. Warming Up 3. Aid Probe 4. Niue Represented ======================================================================== August 26th, 2001 1. Slow and Low: Fiji's first democratic election since last year's coup has had a slow start amid promises by the military it would keep a low profile over a week of polling. The Army installed an interim government last year after nationalist rebels stormed Fiji's parliament, taking ethnic Indian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and members of his coalition government hostage in a siege lasting 56 days. "We have turned security for the election over to the police," said army spokesman Captain Ned Taito. "The police will be the primary security providers and will only be backed by the military if the police need it," said Elections Supervisor Walter Rigamoto.(NZ Herald) 2. Warming Up: A weak or moderate El Niņo is expected in the Pacific by late this year or early in 2002, the Climate Prediction Centre of the U.S. National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration forecast. The centre's Vernon Kousky said on the agency's website that sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific warmed again last month. El Niņo, which is preceded by such an abnormal warming of waters, wreaks devastation in weather patterns. Mr Kousky said surface temperatures have been rising steadily since February and will likely continue to rise for the remainder of 2001 and into first half of 2002. "The impacts that this warming will have on global temperature and precipitation patterns depend to a large degree on its intensity," the website report said. "At the moment ... most predictions indicating a weak or moderate episode (El Niņo) by the end of 2001 and the beginning of 2002," it added. Last week The Fiji Times reported some experts predict a drought brought on by the El Niņo could grip Fiji as early as January or February. 3. Aid Probe: Niue's future spending of New Zealand aid will be subject to rigid examination, warns New Zealand Associate Foreign Affairs Minister Matt Robson. "New Zealand has been spending around $2000 per person, annually, in Niue and Tokelau. "Many of the people who have emigrated [to New Zealand] tell me that the money has not been well spent," he said. "I see it as a negative indicator of what the New Zealand Government has been able to achieve in partnership with those Governments," said Mr Robson this week. He also hinted that there would be more rigorous examination of how the money was spent. He said Parliament knew how much was being given but little about whether it was effectively used. "We need to put more resources into monitoring and evaluating the impact of our aid interventions." He used Niue and Tokelau as examples. The New Zealand Government has indicated that it plans to give more aid to Pacific countries, and less to distant nations, when grants are handed out in next year's Budget. Mr Robson said New Zealand's $226 million-a-year foreign aid programme was spread across 92 countries. "If we are going to get more bangs for our bucks we must question if we are, in fact, giving aid to too many countries," he told the Council for International Development in Wellington. Mr Robson said he had commissioned an inquiry into the way New Zealand delivered its aid and a report would be published soon. 4. Niue Represented: Information and Communication Technology workers, decision-makers, researchers and policy makers have come together in Noumea to discuss a regional strategy.Representing the Internet Users Society was its technical manager Richard St Clair who is also chair of the Pacific Chapter of the Internet Society. A government delegation was headed by Dess Sioneholo. The Secretariat of the Pacific Community-hosted workshop will hear country reports from 22 member countries and territories as well as about projects in the region. Keynote speakers are Tony Hill, of the Internet Society of Australia; Elizabeth Longworth, a New Zealand expert on Cyber-ethics and Law; and Greg Gurr, of Australia's National Office for the Information Economy. – PINA Nius Online. __END__
