Nauru’s Top Ten weightlifting finish
Itte Detenamo, Nauru’s only athlete at the Olympics, finished 10th in the mens’ 105+ kg weightlifting event. Top stuff.
http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/WL/C73/WLM025000.shtml#WLM025B01
Sphere: Related ContentNauru’s sole athlete at the Olympics
As previously reported, Nauru has one athlete at the Beijing Olympics, a weightlifter in the top weight division, Itte Detenamo.
That the small size of Nauru’s team, relative to others, matches the size of the island of Nauru, hasn’t been lost on some of the world’s media. Nauru has gained a bit of passing comment as a result. Here is some of their response, mainly, it seems, from North American media:
- The Team USA website has a great feature article on Nauru and an interview with Itte Detenamo.
- Mashable has a nice article on small countries (by team size) at the Olympics, noting that Nauru is one of 5 countries with only a sole athlete. (For the record, the others are Togo, Guinea, Grenada & Haiti.)
- The Toronto Star reported that Team Nauru turned up to Beijing without uniforms for the opening ceremony, so headed down to the market to have some made up.
- Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee) blogs about the usual Nauru question – where is it?
- Commercial Appeal (Memphis), has a few quotes from Itte Detenamo about his excitement in carrying his flag out in the Opening Ceremony.
Detenamo’s event (Men’s Weightlifting, 105+ kg category, Group B) starts at 15:30 (Beijing time) on 19 August (Tuesday). Keep a watch here for his results.
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Sportz Crazy Nauru?
With the Olympics due to commence next week, Nauru has named its team to Beijing 2008. Nauru’s sole Olympic athlete is a weightlifter, Itte Detenamo, who will compete in the 105+ kg category (the heaviest weight division). A report of the story is here. And here’s the website of the Nauru Olympic Committee. Watch the Oceania in Beijing website to see how he goes, along with other athletes from Pacific countries.
Nauru’s President, Marcus Stephen, is an Olympian (Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000) and a former weightlifting champion, having won Commonwealth Games gold medals at three different Games. However, the President reportedly won’t be attending Beijing due to Nauru’s diplomatic relationship with Taiwan.
But perhaps more important to Nauru than the Beijing Olympics is the forthcoming International Cup, commencing at the end of August. Of course, this is Australian Rules Football.
The Nauruan team, the Nauru Chiefs, is already in Stawell, a town in western Victoria, preparing for the competition. Nauru is football crazy, and even had its domestic competition shut down due to the social unrest that bitter competition was causing. A close football relationship has developed between Stawell and Nauru, and the team is using the town as its base.
I’ve never been much of a football fan, despite having been brought up in Melbourne. So I’m not much qualified to offer expert opinion on the Nauru Chiefs’ chances in the competition. But there are some articles to have a look at (see links below), which seem to think that Nauru has a good chance of a strong result in 2008.
- World Footy News on Nauru Chiefs at Stawell
- The Stawell Times-News article on Nauru Chiefs
- AFL website preview of the Nauru Chiefs
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Book publisher rips off my photo – copyright infringement
I’ve been ripped off. My photo of Anibare Bay in Nauru has been used, without my permission, as the front cover of a book entitled “Nauru Country Study Guide” (2004 edition, ISBN 0-7397-6196-X). The book is available for sale on the Internet, including via Amazon.
See for yourself. Here’s the book cover (I don’t think I need permission to reproduce my own photo…), and below is the original photo. The best giveaway is that the cloud on the left hand side is in the same place – surely more than just a coincidence.
The photo could only have been lifted from an earlier incarnation of this website. It certainly isn’t the first time someone has thought that the Internet is a copyright-free-zone, and it won’t be the last.
But real-world book pulishers should know better. They are usually only too quick to claim copyright in their own publications.
I’ve had a book publisher approach me before asking for permission to use photos from my website, and a licence fee has been paid. If your business is the collation of other people’s copyright works and re-using them, it’s only fair to pay for their use.
In an extraordinary statement on the inside title page, a statement reads:
“Cover Design: International Business Publications, USA“
It’s a bit galling to claim credit for someone else’s work.
And then this:
“We express our sincere appreciation to all government agencies and international organizations which provided information and other materials for this guide.”
I think that means it’s trying to thank me for ripping off my photo.
The publisher is International Business Publications, USA. There’s a good chance it will be hearing from me again soon.
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Getting in and out of Pohnpei
I remember arriving by plane in Pohnpei was a bit dramatic, as the runway is constructed from end-to-end of a small island (Takatik Island). This is linked to the main island by a causeway.
To give you an idea, this is a photo I took of the airport from the top of Sokehs Rock in 1999.
According to my trusty manual on Pohnpei (”An Island Argosy” by Gene Ashby), tradition has it that Takatik Island is inhabited by a female ghost. She apparently shows her anger from time to time, and has previously caused the runway to sink, requiring the airport to be closed for repairs.
Maybe the ghost got angry again. Earlier this week, a 727 cargo plane slid off the side of the runway and has blocked it, and closed the airport until it can be moved. This article at Pacific Magazine has a picture of the stuck place. There’s a full story of the incident at this Pacific Magazine article.
This has happened before. In 2001, the runway was closed when another 727 had a landing gear collapse on the Pohnpei runway. Maybe that ghost has a lot of pent up anger at the runway on her island!
Anyway, I found the below passenger’s video out the window from a plane taking off from Pohnpei. It’s a bit grainy, but once the plane takes off, it shows Pohnpei through the clouds.
This video appears to be have been taken from the Continental Micronesia “Island Hopper” service, which runs from Guam to Honolulu, stopping at islands in Micronesia and the Marshall Islands along the way. Visiting all of the islands on the run would be a lot of fun, although I think that the US Military won’t let you off the plane at Kwajalein. I found some photos and trip reports from some people who have done it before:
- The Island Hopper: http://gmbhome.com/micro05/Islandhop.htm
- Photo Tour: The Island Hopper Flight: http://photomondiale.com/tours/micronesia_2002/1_island_hopper.html
- A trip report of a ride on the Island Hopper at Airliners.net (including a great photo looking down on Pohnpei airport)
“An Island Argosy” reminds me that the causeway out to Takatik Island is the longest straight stretch of road in Pohnpei. Apparently, it’s where all the traffic accidents occur (still?) at night. I found another video of the drive down Main Street, Kolonia, and out along the causeway to the airport. Again, it’s a bit grainy, but it’s just as I remember it.
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Nauru video 1998
After the seriousness of the last few posts, here’s something more upbeat. It looks like a tourist (?) video of Nauru, taken in 1998.
Sphere: Related ContentNauru election brings stability?
I haven’t had time to post here for a while. An election has come and gone, and the state of emergency is lifted. So, it’s old news now that the Nauruan government was comfortably returned in the 26 April snap election, with all government members re-elected. After the pre-election turmoil, unsurprisingly, there is a new Speaker of the Parliament, drawn from government numbers.
The quest for ongoing stability is the main game. The Nauru Government’s press release quoted Justice Minister Mathew Batsiua as saying that the election result “… more than vindicates the stand we have taken and now lets us get on with the job of governing for the people of Nauru, who have sent a clear message to the entire parliament that they want political stability“.
Here are some links to Internet news reports on the election outcome:
Given that it’s now old news, what threads can we distil from the reports? The reports following the election focused heavily on the political demise of Rene Harris, a former President, who was at the helm when Nauru was at rock bottom. This is notwithstanding that the news leading up to the election focused on Rene Harris’ former political foe turned unlikely political ally, David Adeang, and the political instability that ensued during the time he was Speaker. Mr Adeang was returned to the parliament, but will find himself in opposition.
The Supreme Court of Nauru decision about the infamous candlelight sitting of parliament on Easter Saturday that featured in reports before the election was called has now been posted to Paclii, and is worth a read on account of its recitation of what happened that evening. The Speaker called Parliament to resume at 7:20pm, with only the opposition members in the parliamentary vicinity being verbally informed of the sitting. What hasn’t been previously reported is that the members present purported to fill a vacancy in the privileges committee with one of their own, and then referred an alleged contempt of the parliament by the President to that committee. This is all before the attempt to legislate to exclude dual-citizens from parliament.
Given the election result, this judgment and the underlying facts now seem largely to be of only historical interest, although it shows how fractious things had become. However, this decision might have the pulse of constitutional lawyers racing for some time. This is because the Chief Justice’s decision is at diametrical loggerheads to an earlier (1998) decision of an earlier Chief Justice. Both judgments are in relation to whether the Court has the ability to rule that a sitting of parliament is invalid due to a lack of quorum. The earlier decision held that the Court cannot interfere with the processes of parliament in deciding whether a quorum exists. The second held that the earlier case was wrongly decided, given that it is clear that Parliament remains subject to the Constitutional quorum requirements. On the evidence before the Court that there were insufficient numbers present, the sitting was held invalid. And both judgments relied on the same passage from the same High Court of Australia decision to support their opposite outcomes. Perhaps this casts some light on David Adeang’s reported comments that he was having difficulty with “prevailing practices” being upturned.
That wasn’t the end of the litigation. After the Constitutional Reference was determined, the political heat remained on high temperature. Acting on reports that Mr Adeang intended to ignore the Supreme Court judgment, Kieren Keke and Frederick Pitcher (the two ministers who Mr Adeang had sought to exclude from parliament purportedly on the basis of the dual citizenship) sought an injunction to restrain the Speaker from ejecting him from Parliament. In this, they were unsuccessful, but the election result has cleared any immediate threat of this happening now anyway.
Whilst on the topic of the Constitution, Radio Australia has reported that President Stephen is looking to reinvigorate the debate about updating the Constitution. This blog has previously discussed the constitutional report that made recommendations to directly elect the president, have an independent Speaker, and other changes, all in the hope of political stability.
Sphere: Related ContentNauru government contributes to this blog
I’m quite pleased to report that this blog has attracted the attention of the Nauruan government. In a comment to my last post “Nauru election“, a Nauru government media consultant/spokesperson based in Brisbane, Rod Henshaw, has provided some additional insight to information available on the Internet. I commenced this blog as a bit of a hobby, and didn’t expect to have an online dialogue with the Nauruan government.
In the context of some of my recent posts about Nauruan politician stability surrounding the dual-citizenship of two particular Nauruan politicians, of some insight is that the Nauruan President is also a dual citizen (of Nauru and Samoa), but that no complaint was been made about his eligibility to be a member of parliament. Instead, the targets of the opposition’s attacks were against two reformist politicians. Indeed, as Mr Henshaw points out, this does raise questions as to motivations.
However, the comment makes the point that my posts have not taken into account last year’s “constitutional reform vote”. I did comment on the Nauru Constitutional Review report in my post titled Nauru constitutional review & the present deadlock earlier this month, and noted that there were some key recommendations made that, if acted on, might resolve the recent deadlock. These were the direct election of a President, and the appointment of an independent Speaker of parliament.
However, I’m not aware of any vote at which proposals in the Constitutional Review were accepted by the electorate. From where I sit, I can only comment on things that I can access or find on the Internet, so if I’ve missed something, I’d welcome being corrected.
In the meantime, from what I can piece together, the Constitutional Review was delivered in early 2007, parliamentary elections scheduled were held in August, and instability followed more-or-less thereafter. The process for amendment of the Nauruan Constitution (article 84) requires a bill to be passed by a two-thirds majority of the parliament, at least 90 days after the bill was introduced. I gather that the two-thirds majority might have been a difficulty. Indeed, if the proposals had been enacted by reforming the Constitution, there would be an independent speaker, and the current crisis may not have occurred. That leaves the present Constitution in place, and a series of proposals to change it left open.
It would be great if Nauru’s media consultant could arrange the publication of more information on the Internet. Despite media reports of it, we haven’t yet seen the decision of the Supreme Court ruling on the now infamous “candlelight sitting” of parliament, even though Paclii provides an excellent resource for the publication of judicial reports. I suspect that Paclii’s Nauru legislation and Court decision resources are a little out of date. And, the Nauru government’s website (which can be found via the Nauruan Permanent Mission to the United Nations) is quite out of date.
Sphere: Related ContentNauru election
If you’re a reader of this site, you’ll know by now that Nauru is facing a snap election, called after recent political instability. A state of emergency has been imposed by the President, affording him executive powers, pending the election.
From Cuba to China, the story has attracted some international media attention:
- The Australian newspaper: Focuses on violence at Nauru’s police station earlier this year, rumoured to have been fuelled by opposition politicians. Quotes the President attacking the opposition’s conduct as “self-serving agenda of economic destruction”.
- Radio Netherlands: Reports that the President alleges that the opposition has ben responsible for delaying budget bills and threatening investment projects.
- Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A very similar story to the Radio Australia link I included in my previous post.
- BBC: Summarises the events leading up to the state of emergency, in the context of Nauru’s economic plight
- Xinhua: Notwithstanding that Nauru maintains diplomatic links with Taipei rather than Beijing, Xinhua rather neutrally reports that “Adeang had used his pivotal role to unsuccessfully try to force out government MPs”
- Prensa Latina (Cuba): Another report summarising the tension between opposition and government leading up to the election being called.
The one thing that none of these stories has done is to create any segue between current events and those of late 2004, when almost the same sequence of events occurred. In 2004 also, opposition politicians attempted to exclude Dr Kieren Keke from Parliament on the basis that he is a dual citizen, and the ensuring political crisis was resolved by the President calling a state of emergency and holding elections. In 2004, the government was returned in a landslide, and the “old school” politicians who were associated with presiding over Nauru’s demise, were largely evicted from parliament. This included the then Speaker, who was agitating the dual-citizenship issue, much like his successor has been recently.
The main difference this time is the identity of the players. The present Speaker, David Adeang, was one of the government members swept back into office in 2004, having campaigned on a reform platform and promising better standards of governance. In a dispute with Dr Keke, Mr Adeang was accused of improper conduct last year, which led to the split of the government that won the 2004 election. It’s somewhat ironic that some of the politicians who won on a reform platform have been using the same type of political tactics to attempt to throw out from government their former colleagues.
The Nauruan Constitution contains some articles that govern how states of emergency are to be implemented. Article 77 says that the President may declare a state of emergency when he is satisfied that there is a “grave emergency” threatening Nauru’s security or economy. This is why the President is quoted in the above news stories as saying that Nauru’s economy has been threatened by the political crisis.
Article 77 also says that a state of emergency lasts for 7 days, unless ratified by Parliament. This is presumably why the election has been scheduled to take place within a week, as it seems that the likelihood of ratifying a state of emergency in the current Parliamentary numbers deadlock is most unlikely.
The election will be held on Saturday, 26 April.
Sphere: Related ContentDeja vu in Nauru – state of emergency & fresh elections
In my previous post that I uploaded last night, I set out the background of the current political crisis in Nauru, comparing it to the events leading up to the state of emergency and elections in late 2004.
Well, President Stephen has today declared a state of emergency and called fresh elections. See this article also. The sequence of events, and the dual-citizenship issue that formed its catalyst, is almost the same as four years ago.
The election is reportedly to be held as early as next week.
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