Publish date/time: 31/03/2011 12:51

“Set your priorities right”.

This is the message from FASANOC President, Vidya Lakhan to National Federations that have outstanding levies for athletes that are preparing for the Pacific Games in Noumea.

Lakhan said some of the teams with outstanding levies are opting to travel abroad instead of paying up.

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Fiji will be represented in 27 sports at the Pacific Games with a total of 450 athletes, a decrease of 100 athletes from the last Pacific Games in 2007 in Samoa.

Lakhan added that it will take them $1.5million to get the team across, of which they have handed in their submission requesting $500,000 from Government, which is now with the Finance Ministry, the National Federations give $470,000 while the rest is covered by FASANOC.

The 2011 Pacific Games kicks off in Noumea on August 27.

Story by: Selina Navuso

Fiji has established a new visitor arrival record welcoming close on 632,000 international visitors across 2010. Figures released by the Fiji Bureau of Statistics show a total of 631,868 international visitors travelled to the destination for the 12-month period January-December 2010. That figure eclipses the 542,186 total achieved for the same period in 2009 by more than 16 per cent.

Tourism Fiji CEO, Josefa Tuamoto said the 2010 result had “effectively obliterated” previous VA projections set in 2009 when the destination aimed its sights on attracting 600,000 international visitors by 2012.

Australia again continued to be the primary source of arrivals to Fiji for the 12 month period with visitation building to 318,185, a 28 per cent increase over the 248,489 recorded across 2009. This accounted for 50.4 per cent of Fiji’s total international arrivals for the year.

In other markets, New Zealand visitor numbers reached 97,857, a 7.36 per cent increase over the 90,898 recorded for 2009.

Arrivals from the EEC stayed positive, the 73,043 arrivals recorded for the 12 month period representing a 1.89 per cent increase over the 71,731 achieved in 2009.

United States of America arrivals also increased from 51,592 to reach 53,122, a three per cent year on year increase.

Chinese visitor arrivals continued to increase in 2010, reaching 18,227, a 31.89 per cent growth over the 13,820 achieved for the same period in 2009.

The national tourist office anticipates a strong 2011 performance from China building on from a five city tour of the country this month where a Fiji industry team met travel industry professionals in Guangzhou, Hangzhou Hong Kong, Shenyang and Shenzen.

The same applies to Tourism Fiji’s aspirations in India where arrivals increased by 22.32 per cent from 2375 in 2009 to reach 2905 in 2010.

Fiji’s Attorney General and Minister for Tourism, Mr Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum personally headed a key five-day tourism mission to India in February attending travel industry workshops in Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Foreign exchange earnings emanating from Fiji’s international visitation now contribute an estimated FJD900 million to the local economy.

Tourism now represents around 31 per cent of the country’s total GDP and is responsible for employing some 45,000 full time equivalent jobs within the total Fijian workforce.

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Updated March 31, 2011 10:28:08

As the leaders of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu gather for their Melanesian Spearhead Group summit in Suva, Australia is playing down suggestions that by acting as host, the interim Fijian government is being legitimised in any way, The meeting has taken on greater importance than usual with Indonesia, East Timor and Luxembourg all attending as observers. But Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs says international attitudes to Fiji’s military regime won’t change, however much gloss its leaders attempt to put on it.

Presenter:Richard Ewart
Speaker: Richard Marles, Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs

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MARLES: It certainly doesn’t legitimatise the Fijian regime in the eyes of Australia, or indeed I think the region, and the important point to make here is that if you look at all the participating countries in the Melanesian Spearhead Group, with the exception of Fiji of course, they have all made very strong statements about the need for Fiji to return to democracy at the earliest opportunity, to see a restoration of human rights in Fiji and a return to the rule of law and those countries have been very strong both in their contribution to the position that the Pacific Islands Forum has taken, but also, for example, in relation to PNG the work that we did with PNG in the Ministerial Contact Group at Port Vila a month or so ago. So we’ve got no concerns about that. I would say that I think the Melanesian Spearhead Group has a very important role to play in relation to Fiji and we welcome the roles they have to play in relation to Fiji. Melanesian solidarity is clearly a key issue, but I think it’s important to remember that when Fiji has in place public emergency regulations, which stifle the freedom of speech, it’s Melanesians whose freedom of speech is being stifled. When there are abuses of human rights in Fiji, it is Melanesians who are suffering the abuse of human rights and I think Melanesian solidarity, it needs to be seen in that context, and I’m sure it will be and I know in my discussions with all, in fact, governments of countries that are participating in the MSG with the exception of Fiji. The fact that there is a strong concern and anxiety about where Fiji is at and about the need for Fiji to return to democracy at the earliest opportunity.

EWART: What do you make of the presence of Indonesia as an observer at the summit? Can that muddy the waters in some way?

MARLES: It’s for the MSG to sort out its own arrangements. Obviously they are having Indonesia there, because Indonesia does have a significant Melanesian population and we understand that, so that makes sense in our eyes. There’s a logic to that, but ultimately, that’s a matter for the MSG and no, I don’t think it really muddies the waters in the context of issues around Fiji.

EWART: Is Australia’s policy generally though one of maintaining if you like Fiji’s isolation, because there’s new research just been published in the last day or so by the Pacific Policy Institute. They’ve been talking to people around the region from the four Melanesian countries and all be it it’s a relatively small sample of around 400 people, but there seems to be an overwhelming sense that they would like to see Fiji engaged more and that may be that is the way to try and resolve the problems in the long term?

MARLES: Well, our policy is one of seeking Fiji to return to democracy at the earliest opportunity. We stand ready to engage with Fiji on the issue of them meaningfully returning to democracy. But the notion of dialogue is a two way street and you can’t have dialogue unless you can see your partner coming in the other direction, and I think that’s the issue, we need to see some meaningful steps on the part of Fiji towards democracy and that’s what we await to see, but we are very keen to engage with Fiji around a meaningful return to democracy.

At the most recent Ministerial Contact Group in Port Vila, there was an invitation for the MCG to visit Fiji. We welcome that invitation and really hope that that can occur, because I think that will be a useful opportunity to see first hand what’s occurring in Fiji. But it’s not an issue of trying to put Fiji in a corner and never talk to them again. The point here is we want to talk to them about a meaningful return to democracy. The problem from our point of view is that we’ve been unable to have that dialogue, because there don’t seem to be the steps being taken in that direction and that’s our concern.

EWART: Separating the issues of sport and politics can often be very difficult. I’m wondering if you can see a crunch looming for Fiji, because as you and most of our listeners will know only too well there are a number of people on the banned travel list who will not be allowed in New Zealand for the World Cup later this year unless things change. I mean could that be an incentive, could that get things moving?

MARLES: Ultimately that is a question which is best asked of the regime in Fiji. The travel restrictions that we have in place will continue until we see some meaningful steps towards a return to democracy in Fiji, whether or not those steps are taken, is of course a matter for Fiji and it’s perfectly open for them to take those steps and that will have an effect on the travel restrictions, but at this point, travel restrictions are in place because we don’t see any steps being taken by Fiji towards a return to democracy.

”Melanesia” is an anthropologists’ construct that has no economic and little other sense. In the arcane world of United Nations politics, it was promoted as a ”region” to create jobs for bureaucrats, academics and other consultants. A trade agreement covers negligible actual trade. Pacific islands export raw materials to more developed economies and import manufactures and services from them.

Small elites in governments and the public services, expanding into business, have become wealthy. They live in modern houses, travel and educate their children so they can pass on their wealth. But more than 80per cent of Papua New Guineans, Solomon Islanders and ni-Vanuatu exist at subsistence. Women work gardens, but most men are without income. Education is minimal. Women die in childbirth in the bush. HIV/AIDS rages in Papua New Guinea. It is almost the only country in the world where average lifespan is declining.

The Bainimarama Government, meanwhile, is reducing Fijians’ living standards toward subsistence levels. Vanuatu is relapsing after a brief boost from a US aid grant. Australia cannot be absolved from the disaster of which these four states are the leading edge. It played a major role in structuring post-independence parliaments and public services that have played a major role in the failure of development. It has been the dominant aid donor, but has subsidised international aid agencies such as the World Bank to lead programs that paid for the elites at the cost of islanders’ living standards. This is the cause of government dysfunction.

Most islanders have seen nothing of the more than $100billion of aid the highest per capita that has flowed to the Pacific. Aid has widened the gap between the living standards in the independent Pacific states and the rest of the world. Only a few countries in Africa have done as badly.

Australian aid has created multiple organisations such as the Melanesian Spearhead Group. Where one modest council would have sufficed, these organisations and their many offshoots provide hundreds of highly paid positions for skilled islanders, denying their services to their economic, health and other ministries. Their many meetings provide travel, hotel and shopping opportunities for politicians and officials.

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No matter how far he travels from Reno or how remote his destination — from Fiji to Dublin, Ireland — when Dave Mulligan goes on vacation, his work always finds him.

Or, rather, he finds his work.

Mulligan is the producer and host of “Great Getaways,” a 30-minute travel show that airs on NBC Bay Area, and is about to expand to a new digital sister network called NBC Nonstop, which will broadcast to New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Miami, Dallas, Chicago, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“Great Getaways” has taken Mulligan Fiji; Puerto Vallarta and Cancun, Mexico; Oahu, Maui and Kauai, Hawaii; and Dublin, Ireland.

“It’s a fun job, it really is, and I do realize it,” Mulligan said Wednesday in a phone interview from Deery, Ireland, where he’s doing part of his “Great Getaways” travel segment for Tourism Ireland. “I don’t take this for granted, trust me. I always have to remind myself this is how I make my living.”

Mulligan attended college at the University of Oregon and San Diego State University. He moved to Reno in 1990 after spending a year travelling abroad.

Mulligan, who started out in radio advertising sales at KWNZ 97.3 FM in Reno, has show business in his blood. His father, the late Jim Mulligan, was a television producer and comedy writer.

“He started on ‘Rowan Martin’s Laugh-in,’ then he did ‘The Sonny Cher Comedy Hour,’ and ‘The Smothers Brothers Show,’ and ended up he was a producer on ‘M*A*S*H,’” Mulligan said.

In 2009, Mulligan laid the groundwork for “Great Getaways” with a show for Tahoe Quarterly that aired in the Bay Area.

“It was called ‘Reno-Tahoe Great Value Getaways,’” he said. “We thought the ‘value’ thing might touch a nerve because of the economy, but we found some of the higher-end properties didn’t want to touch it if it had the word ‘value’ in it because it would cheapen the image. We found ‘Great Getaways’ was the way to go.”

Family time

Like a vacation, Mulligan takes his family along for fun and work.

“I wouldn’t be doing this if they didn’t come along,” he said. “I’d be too depressed.”