NZ nuclear-free activists, campaigners back Tahiti’s Mā’ohi Lives Matter rally

Three generations of Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific activists crossing paths
- Hilda Halyard-Harawira, Ena Manuireva, and India Logan-Riley - asking for reparations
for the damage caused by nuclear testing and fighting for a better future
for the next generation. IMAGE: Jos Wheeler

By Asia Pacific Report

Moana activists, campaigners, scholars, researchers and Green MPs gathered last Sunday in a show of solidarity for Tahiti’s Ma’ohi Lives Matter rally at Auckland University of Technology and vowed to work towards independence for the French-occupied Pacific territory.

A live feed from the Tahitian capital of Pape’ete was screened and simultaneous events happened across the Pacific, such as in Fiji.

Many of the Auckland participants were stalwarts from the early days of the Nuclear-Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) movement from the 1970s and 1980s and declared their support for pro-independence Tahitian leader Oscar Temaru.

• READ MORE: The Auckland event on Sunday mirroring the Mā’ohi Lives Matter rally in Pape’ete
• Nine takeaways from the Mā’ohi Lives Matter solidarity rally in NZ
• Thousands rally in Tahiti in protest over nuclear weapons legacy
• Temaru calls for massive turnout for Mā’ohi Lives Matter nuclear-free rally
• Mā’ohi Nui’s search for nuclear justice – the French ‘reset’ button still to be reset
• France denies cover-up over deadly nucear tests
• Macron hosts French ‘truth and justice’ Pacific nuclear test legacy talks
• A round table on nuclear power to determine relations between France and Polynesia
• French nuclear tests: ‘I bury people nearly every day, what was our sin?’
• French nuclear tests legacy and Disclose revelations

Bomb, baby, bomb! ... another Western no-brainer

A Tuareg independantiste in Mali ... sidelined by the Salafi-jihadis.
Photo: Global Dispatches

Getting to know the imperial disaster in Mali: Apparently, it's a no-brainer [excerpt]

By Pepe Escobar, an independent Brazilian investigative journalist and commentator

ONE has to love the sound of a Frenchman's Mirage 2000 fighter jet in the morning. Smells like... a delicious neo-colonial breakfast in Hollandaise sauce. Make it quagmire sauce.

Apparently, it's a no-brainer. Mali holds 15.8 million people - with a per capita gross domestic product of only around US$1000 a year and average life expectancy of only 51 years - in a territory twice the size of France (per capita GDP $35,000 and upwards). Now almost two-thirds of this territory is occupied by heavily weaponised Islamist outfits.

What next? Bomb, baby, bomb.

So welcome to the latest African war; Chad-based French Mirages and Gazelle helicopters, plus a smatter of France-based Rafales bombing evil Islamist jihadis in northern Mali. Business is good; French president Francois Hollande spent time last month in Abu Dhabi clinching the sale of up to 60 Rafales to that Gulf paragon of democracy, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

PIAF swipes at Pacific Aids misinformation

PIAF is annoyed over yet another batch of emailed sensationalised misinformation doing the media rounds across the Pacific at the moment. It has sent out its own reminders about the media HIV/Aids code worked out at a regional health seminar in Fiji in 2002. I'm posting it here as a catch up call. As a preamble, the journos from 13 South Pacific nations taking part at that Suva conference stated: "We express concern about the rise of HIV/Aids in our respective countries. Moreover, we find this a difficult disease to report and ask our editorial staff for clear guidelines on the topic. We offer the following suggestions:"

• Confidentiality surrounding news items on HIV/Aids should be maintained at all times. Therefore no names or addresses should be mentioned.
  
• The use of responsible language that reflects a fair and accurate account of the current situation. Past experience has shown that sensational stories on HIV/Aids distort the situation and only increase stigma and fear among readers, listeners and viewers.
  
• Terms such as 'victim' and 'sufferer' need to be dropped and replaced by 'people living with HIV/AIDS'. This gives the story a more positive tone.
  
• It is unhelpful to focus only on the latest figures for HIV/Aids. Often they are inaccurate and misleading. They provide a false sense of security and can promote complacency.
  
• Concentrate more on people living positively with the virus. Let them tell their story. This puts a human face on the story. This has proved far more effective in educating people.
  
• It is vital to include more news items on how to prevent infection and to highlight risk behaviour rather than just risk groups.
  
• Partnerships need to be developed between media representatives, NGOs and local organisations in the South Pacific in regard to HIV/Aids. Joining the email forum, AIDSTOK, is a practical way to discuss issues relevant to HIV/Aids.
  
• Encourage journalists to attend in-country training courses or workshops on HIV/Aids and other related health issues.
  
• Where possible, designate a journalist to work full-time on health stories and introduce a health page. Research in the Pacific has shown that when these two conditions exist, there is broader and more consistent reporting on health issues.
  
• Media organizations need to acknowledge and address the increasing threat posed to young people by HIV/Aids.
  
• Publish a correction for any story on HIV/Aids that is found to be seriously inaccurate and offensive.
  
• All media should encourage greater partnership with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and stress the need to include a media component in their workshops, training and National Aids Councils.
  
  Thanks to Zoe Bake-Paterson at PIAF:
  news@pacificaids.org

PNG Aids victims 'buried alive'

Worth a look: Whenua, fenua, enua, vanua - revolutionary anti-colonialism and anti-capitalism in the Pacific.