Chinese fishing company seeks more licenses
China Southern Fishery (Shenzen) Co Ltd (CSFC), which is a subsidiary of Luen Thai Fishing Venture Ltd, has 8 licenses to fish in our EEZ and is seeking to increase that to 20.
The company has advised Minister Bishop by letter early in April 2012, that they consider this to be necessary in order to fully operate the tuna processing plant they want to establish on Rarotonga as part of a business venture to transship up to 500 tonnes of frozen tuna out of Rarotonga, and in the process, create 60 jobs for locals and pump almost $8 million per year into the local economy.
The company is not seeking all 12 extra licences at once. In April it asked that the granting of licenses be staggered so that all 12 are issued by October 2012.
Our legislation caps the number of licenses that may be issued at 47. The Minister has not announced any plans as yet to increase this number. It is understood that 45 vessels are operating at present. It is possible CSFC may pick up other licenses which become available through non-renewal. Also CSFC may be able to persuade other license holders to participate in their venture.
The company say they hope to interest other license holders to process their tuna through their plant. They say 30-40 vessels are an ideal number to ensure the operation is successful in the long term.
There are a further 20 licenses issued under the limited exploratory scheme, a three year period restricted to certain species of tuna only. -Charles Pitt
2012 Annual Health Conference to focus on NCDs
The Annual Cook Islands Health Conference got underway on Wednesday morning at the National Auditorium with a large number of local and overseas medical personnel attending.
This year the Ministry of Health is partnered by the University of Otago’s Department of General Practice and Rural Health.
The theme for the conference is “Vision into action: addressing the NCD crisis in the Cook Islands.”
The sub themes are:
-NCD crisis, scaling up response
-Child and adolescent health
-Health in Education
-Research
-Traditional medicine.
The opening prayer was conducted by Rev N Patia of the Avarua CICC. Minister for health Hon nandi Glassie gave the welcoming speech and the official opening address was delivered by Hon Alfred Ngaro a Cook Islander who is a National List MP in NZ.
There was also a minutes silence in remembrance of Sir Terepai Maoate.
Familiar faces, former Prime Ministers Dr Robert Woonton and Dr Joe Williams are attending, also Dr Kiki Maoate who will chair a session on prostate cancer. -Charels Pitt
OPM take RE lead
Taking a leading step toward government’s visionary goal of achieving 50% renewable energy by 2015, the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) has set the precedent for all other government agencies with the installation of solar panels being mounted and fixed to the roof of the main building.
With funding from the New Zealand government, the solar panel scheme work began at the OPM on Monday and should be completed by mid week well in advance of the Pacific Leaders Forum. Head of the Renewable Energy Division (RED) at OPM, Tangi Tereapii said, “We want this project to highlight that the Prime Minister is very keen about this initiative.”
The project is contracted out to local tenders Andersons and is estimated to reduce the OPM’s $28,000 per annum power bill by an astonishing 80% and comes with a 25 year warranty. Currently, the Cook Islands renewable energy penetration is estimated at 15% but with larger works and projects set to be established for the northern and southern group islands RED will continue to push to the 100% by 2020 goal.-Maria Tanner
Azonto!
The dance revolution is taking its toll on us teenagers and this time, it’s the Azonto that has captured our attention. Even though it’s pretty old to some people (People say that it was out last Christmas. Yikes!), it is still blasting out of every electronic device on this island. Our youth has been utterly captivated by this groovy movement. Now that everybody is over the dougie (Which was quite a hit, back in its day) the Azonto has gone viral, and has affected every single teenager in this country.
When I first heard about it (Which was, like, ages ago) I thought it was a pretty dunb song and I didn’t find it quite to my liking. But I couldn’t escape it. It played everywhere I went: Zumba, on the radio, even on my school bus. I was getting really annoyed. In the end, I couldn’t help but tap my feet to the rhythm each time I heard it. I started getting into it, and it wasn’t until I saw someone dancing to the song that I realized the Azonto was the coolest thing that was happening this season.
I looked it up on the Internet, hoping to find something inspiring about it. Apparently, it originated in some place called James Town in Ghana, West Africa. Well, the dance did look a little African-y, if you get what I mean. I watched one video from my friend’s phone and I fell absolutely in love with it! I think I repeated it until the phone got flat (And of course, my mate got a bit peeved at me. Sorry about that, friend! Love you!) I tried my best to imitate the actions, but I just ended up looking like an old person having a stroke. It was that dreadful.
My awesome cousins, Justin, Nga and Robyn, were working on the hottest dance routine ever. Because of my non-existent dancing skills, I made a wise decision of staying out of the routine and filming the entire thing. I took it from all angles and I planned on posting it in the Web, but due to “Social Responsibility” (They didn’t want to “expose” their greatness just yet) I had to scrap that plan altogether. It’s a pity, though. It would’ve gotten some great ratings from the viewers. There were a couple of brave boys who tried it out. For beginners, they were pretty good at it. One dude did the Azonto as if he had done it his whole life (I’m not allowed to mention his name; his newspaper shy). I felt left out, so I decided to make a complete fool of myself and did what I thought was cool, even if the others were laughing their butts off. Well, at least they were having a good time. We cranked up the music louder until a teacher came along and told us to get lost. Oh, how rude! But honestly, we didn’t care. Who would’ve known that the Azonto would be this cool? -Norma Ngatamariki
Cross island walk
Last week my friends and I decided to gear ourselves up, and tackle the well-known ‘Cross Island Walk’! We were all hyped up in the beginning, bouncing off the truck, linking arms and bounding off past the entry sign, but then after about twenty minutes of slogging up the side of a mountain we were all loosing that hyperactive energy, so we began taking photos with gigantic leaves and swinging on vines to entertain ourselves.
So as I was dragging myself along, clinging onto the roots of trees and trying not fall backwards, my other friend leapt past me and sprinted ahead like a burst of energy and started yelling at us ‘Come on guys, nearly there!’ Twenty minutes later we still weren’t there, and I was beginning to doubt my friend’s motivational skills.
Normal people go in actual hiking shoes. We all went in jandals because that’s what cool people do. Surprisingly they didn’t break and I only tripped once in them! On the way there I swear we discovered a new species! It was this creepy looking bug with blue and yellow stripes! We’ll be famous one day for finding it.
When we finally reached the top it was like omg! FINALLY! We all collapsed on a rock and took pictures of our tired worn out expressions. I was hoping it would be windy, but it wasn’t, it was just dead heat. This friendly little rooster kept hanging around us, I tried to feed it leaves, but it just kept trying to eat my fingers and my friend’s nail polish. And now when I think about it, roosters don’t even eat leaves, so that was actually pretty stupid.
We clambered all the way to the top, took some pictures, screamed ‘were awesome’ heard a booming echo, laughed a little then headed down again. Going down is just as tiring as going up! I came up with this tactic of just sort of letting yourself fall and then catching yourself on a tree and swinging downwards, kind of like Tarzan. It worked for a while until I nearly slipped off the tree and got too scared to try it again. I can be so useless like that sometimes.
We sang random songs about going down mountains to pass time and we even had a few deep conversations. By the end, I was getting pretty tired and it felt like the track would never end! It just kept going and going, and just when I thought we were at the end, around the corner there were more trees and logs and vines and ferns and I swear it felt like a never-ending track of shrubs.
But we did eventually reach the end and I ran out like a crazy person screaming ‘YAY!’ got a couple of weird looks from some tourist and then went for a refreshing and freaking freezing swim in the waterfall.
It was fun, but I’m never doing that again! YOLO! -Dante Numa
Herald Issue 608 21 March
- Terms of one China Policy document should be reviewed
- Pacific Media Assistance Scheme Seeks Innovation
- Successful NZ visit by PM
- Rerekura Teaurere New Climate Change Coordinator
- News Briefs
