ON the 24th of March, 2014 we were in a court room at the Honiara Magistrate waiting for our Customary Land Appeal Court (CLAC) cases to be heard. We were all expecting an independent panel that is biased free and have no conflict of interest to appear and preside over our cases. We neither expect…
As the Gordon Darcy Lilo government the National Coalition for Rural Advancement (NCRA) is coming to an end; to be frank his term expires on September when our Parliament will dissolve. I think there are some major achievement Lilo’s government has delivered for the nation under his policy objectives and intentions during their tenure in…
Solomon Islanders are anticipating for going into the pools for national election in December. Interestingly the political climate now is MP’s and intending candidates, joined the political race and campaigning is in top gear, in the streets of Honiara, provincial centres, rural areas even to their door steps. Particularly past experiences should ring a bell,…
THE remarks below were made by an Australian Judge Justice Stephen Pallaras, who had been serving in the country. These were remarks made in relation to a murder case he judged. This is the observation he made in relation to deaths and service provided by the National Referral Hospital. I have been fortunate to have…
ON gender equality – it is no secret that the Pacific is lagging. The region is home to some of the world’s highest domestic violence rates. Economic empowerment of women in many countries, particularly in Melanesia, is desperately low. Women lack access to finance, land, jobs and income. In my country, Solomon Islands, there is…
WHEN you think of SIEA (Solomon Islands Electricity Authority), you normally think of men in orange overalls working on power poles or fixing generators, or checking meter boxes. You never think of women doing this, they are usually in the office behind desks or serving customers. But at around the turn of the century, two…
TEN years after the last time Spain was part of the UN Security Council, my country has decided to launch a new candidacy for a non-permanent seat for the biennium 2015-2016. Why? Because Spain is a reliable international team player. During the past decade our commitment to the United Nations principles has remained as strong…
The Government is facing a budget crisis barely a month after it rushed through an historic $3.2 billion election budget only last December. As a result, Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo’s Government has been forced to slash this year’s constituency funding by a massive 60 per cent. This means that instead of getting $6 million…
THE head of the Forum Fisheries Agency says an informed media can play a key role in helping the public and decision makers to respond effectively to the economic crisis in the Pacific’s albacore long line fisheries. “In recent weeks, there has been a great deal of media interest in the economic difficulties facing tuna…
It is 11 years since 9/11 and here is a wonderful story about that terrible day. It is an amazingly true story from a flight attendant on Delta Flight 15, written following 9-11 disaster. On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, we were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt, flying over the North Atlantic. All…