The 3^rd Annual “Battle of the Bands” is a music festival of ethnic youth and young people within Victoria. The night will include ethnic action dancing, sway of the pacific, the glitter of Asia, Bands from the church groups will range from heavy rock to gospel country.

Many of the stars of the music festival will be “Second Generation” Australian born children of immigrants and refugees as performers.

Everyone is welcome to come and join in the fun and audience members are encouraged to come in costume of your ethnic heritage which include Anglo, European background.(Dutch, German, Scottish, English, Wales, etc)

It is proudly supported by the Uniting Church in Australia.

Date 22 November 2008.

Location Box Hill Wesley Uniting Church in 2-6 Oxford Street, Box Hill, Melbourne.

Times 3pm to 9.30pm

parking details Street parking

Tickets secretary. Tee Makoni - talaheumakoni@hotmail.com

Adults $5.00

Young people 12 to 25 Goldcoin donation

Children under 12 free.

Food stalls will be available

New Performers wishing to join in should contact:

Don Ikitoelagi (03) 9251- 5287 email Don.Ikitoelagi@victas.uca.org.au

One of the wonderful things about Open Source software is that there is a continuum of upgrades where users and developers find things that are broken and fix them.

Unfortunately, some of the fixes cause more breaks than existed in the system.

Gallery 2.1 upgrade to 2.3svn failings

Posted by: Samiuela LV Taufa on January 11, 2008 2:56:59 PM (821 Reads)

The regular problems taking for ever and a day to resolve happened again when I tried upgrading (due to security warnings) to a more current version of Gallery2.

Unfortunately, the upgrade coincided with Tonfon deciding to give me a hard time with Internet connections.

Clear problems from the upgrade.

it’s a good thing I’ve wandered this space often enough that my own records are augmenting poor memory, such that I can fix the new problem with the old fix.

Upgraded my Gallery to the current release as there were a number of documented security reasons to upgrade. Unfortunately, the update broke my Gallery and I haven’t been able to dedicate the time to fixing it, until I decided to google nomoa.com!!! Way to go nomoa.com.

We all knew nz’s?

THE Federal Opposition's new immigration spokeswoman has raised strong concerns about the Government's new seasonal worker program.

Sharman Stone, from regional Victoria, where many of the new visa-holders would work, said the program was confusing and lacked detail.

Regulations to allow 2500 Pacific Islanders into Australia as guest workers were introduced into Parliament on Tuesday.

Unease over seasonal jobs - National News - National - General - Central Western Daily

Minister of Finance asked to walk, and you have to wonder how long the Minister had been waiting for the 'cut-off' date to be rung?

Unfortunately for the former Minister of Finance, who seems to have been within the few generally respected both in and out of government, he was just too willing to let the opposition thinking be aired, and especially on the ever popular Tonga-Now (morphed) Tonga Review.

Good luck to Mssrs 'Utoikamanu and his family.

Talanoa Oceania - Be There or be rocked!

Talanoa Oceania are gatherings for people from the South Seas (or Pacific Islanders, abbreviated as PIs), who currently live in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. Several reasons make these gatherings necessary, including the following:

1. PIs are torn between where we live and our home islands, partly because we have not been welcomed (to our new locations) and released (from our island homes)

2. PIs continue to look for direction from our home islands partly because a sea of talanoa[1] has not been gathered to root us in our current locations

3. PIs are searching for creative and meaningful ways of continuing to be connected to our island cultures, churches and homes

4. PIs often misunderstand other cultures partly because we are confused about who we are, in our current locations, and we are consequently easily misunderstood

5. PIs are not homogenous, and we need to name and come to terms with our differences

Talanoa Oceania 2008: Mana, Vanua, Talanoa

Under the shadows of those needs, the Talanoa Oceania 2008 gathering will provide opportunities for presentations on three significant PI concepts: Mana, Vanua, Talanoa. These concepts have multiple meanings in the various language and island groups:

· Mana can mean sacred, magic, courage, power, transformation, creativity, healing, imagination, and so forth

· Vanua (fonua, fenua, whenua, etc) can mean land, womb, home, identity, roots, tradition, and so forth

· Talanoa can mean story, storytelling, conversation, orality, empty-talk, and so forth

Call for presentations:

Persons who are related (by birth and/or migration) to the South Seas are invited to propose presentations for the 2008 gathering. The presentations should address at least one of the five needs and at least one of the three concepts outlined above, and they may be offered from and/or address any of the areas of interest to PIs, such as:

§ art, handicraft & body-art

§ poetry, lyrics & rhythms

§ performance, dance & storytelling

§ Pacific, oceanic & indigenous studies

§ academic, theological & island disciplines

§ ministerial, cultural & ethnic praxis

§ and so forth

Presentations by Women and Second Gens are especially encouraged; all presenters are also urged to help PI communities respond to:

§ the challenges of global warming and our drifting generations

§ the realities of dispersion, diaspora and cultural confusions

To propose a presentation for the Talanoa Oceania 2008: Mana, Vanua, Talanoa gathering, please send the following information to Jione Havea {email: jhavea@csu.edu.au; Postal address: United Theological College, 16 Masons Drive, North Parramatta, NSW 2151, Australia; Fax: (+612) 9683-6617}:

1. Your full name, and the island group(s) to which you relate

2. Current email and mailing addresses (tin-can-mail is possible!)

3. Descriptive title of presentation (no more than 20 words)

4. Short description of presentation (no more than 300 words)

Deadline for proposals:

Jan 31, 2008 (pālangi time!)

Unsure of what to do:

If you are interested in participating in the 2008 gathering but are unsure with how you might make a contribution, please contact one of the persons listed below and we will talk with you about how you might present and participate at this event.

Date & venue:

September 29 – October 01, 2008

Centre for Ministry, 16 Masons Drive, North Parramatta, NSW 2151, Australia

Next Talanoa Oceania: Aotearoa/New Zealand (date to be determined)

Contacts in the Southern Sea of Islands:

Fe‘iloakitau Tevi (fkt@wcc-coe.org)

Koila Olsson (arietakoilaolsson@yahoo.com)

Tevita K. Havea (tkhavea@ptc.ac.fj)

Samiuela L.V. Taufa (samtaufa@gmail.com)

Contacts in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Tevita Finau (tfinau@gmail.com)

Aso Saleupolu (asos@methodist.org.nz)

Fei Taule‘ale‘ausumai (fei_taulealea@xtra.co.nz)

Nasili Vaka‘uta (nvakauta@gmail.com)

Contacts in Australia

Seforosa Carroll (sefc@bigpond.com)

Vinnie Ravetali (vravetali62@yahoo.com)

Salesi Faupula (salesif@nsw.uca.org.au)

Filimone Oliveti (filimone7@optisnet.com.au)

Jione Havea (jhavea@csu.edu.au)

Katalina Tahaafe-Williams (katalinatw@nsw.uca.org.au)

Liva Tukutama (livasoffice@netspeed.com.au)

[1] When someone from the South Seas shares a talanoa (story), it is not just about sharing information and entertaining listeners. A talanoa also has to do with locating identity (in space and in relationships), with offering instructions (to listeners), with explaining struggles and journeys, with customs and rituals, with hope and more. Sharing of talanoa can also make storytellers and their people vulnerable, as if they have become telenoa (Samoan: naked), so it is a sharing that needs to be offered and received responsibly.

With downtown still empty, the rubble cleared out, but the emptiness still leary we have been getting a regular dose of patriotic fervor from government publications, but especially television broadcasts sponsored through the Prime Minister's Office. At first, the patriotic (were they patriotic or self-serving) broadcasts were interesting if not repetitive, but now they just aren't even interesting at all (even if you really wanted to learn about whatever it was they were reviewing.)

The Public Servants Association (PSA) were allowed to air a program last night, and things were quite refreshing.

1st, let's just be plain clear that I have serious differences with Mele 'Amanaki. We grew up together some time in the past but we have definitely divergent paths.

The Government broadcasts are articulate, but difficult to follow. Hey, I'll admit that probably the poetry and visualisms in the language are beyond my uneducated years.  Mele 'Amanaki and Vili Vete were not only articulate but made a whole lot of simple sense (leaving your biases away for a minute or two.) Listening to Mele and Vili present their arguments you really have to worry if you were in government. If these two can make an impact with listeners (although as unlikely their petition will get another airing as opposed to government spots going on ad-nauseam) then we have another ball-game starting soon.

There were admitable blots in the presentation, like a lack of repetition of who was being boycotted. But I presume those who follow the PSA know who they are going to boycott.

The PSA brought up some serious accusations or questions that need answering from Government. The following points are what I could pick up from Mele and Vili's presentation

1. Common Courtesy, Contracts do not apply to the Governance of Tonga.
2. The efficacy of the selection process for the Public Service Commissioners.
3. Petitions don't mean much

Common Courtesy, Contracts do not apply to the Governance of Tonga.

A review of the signed Memorandum of Understanding between the PSA and Government/Cabinet indicates that Government have selectively ignored important sections of this document, and worse will not respond to enquiries by the PSA to why Government has chosen to ignore their agreement. (Of course, we are not hearing which parts of the agreement the PSA and Government workers have broken or not kept in good faith.)

Key positions? The redundancies were supposed to be a review of unnecessary posts, but they seem to have specifically targeted PSA members in that a good majority of the offers of redundancy can be attributed to PSA members, and more importantly there are supposedly unnecessary posts still in place because they include supporters of Government.

Key political aspects of the MOU were ignored and only afterwards were PSA executives informed on a this is what we have done, take it.

The efficacy of the selection process for the Public Service Commissioners.

Government quickly came out with a statement last week that the Public Service Commissioners are legal positions and accusations (listed with the above statement) are groundless and will be ignored (my wording)

Mele refers the points mentioned in the Government Press Release as disagreements PSA have running with Cabinet, with whom they made the Memorandum of Understanding, whilst the key problem PSA (and a number of people I have met) is that no-one believes that a sound methodology was used to select these commissioners.

Colloquially:

How in the hell do people who have always lived in the Private Sector, have no human resource management background, get pre-selected to positions of reviewing Public Servants ? Otherwise known as, are these people in place because they are good friends of the Prime Minister ? 

Petitions don't mean much

800+ signatures (presumably of Public Servants, but not specifically stated) were supposedly collected in their petition to Government. In response, Government makes a press-release that is not in the true spirit of the petition.

The Minister for Public Enterprises will be ready to meet with the Executive Committee of the PSA and discuss their concerns if this can bridge the relationship between the PSA and Government.

[ref: link]

 You gotta love the big state mentality in our small country. Like, it's three appointments, two nations away to grab these people and just talk it out ? Geezzzz, you don't even have to like them, or agree with them, but you can sure as hell get them if you want.

You'd think with the way we're running our hands-off between Government and detractors that it is really hard to get time for these people to get together. Really people, if you wanted to talk to the PSA executives, they are frikkin' government employees, you can force them to sit at the table with you because you run their daily agendas (or am I mistaken and Government employees in Tonga don't have executives above them, and therefore just sit under the coconut tree all day?)

Let's see:

Mele 'Amanaki works for government, Vili Vete works for government, other PSA executives work for Government.

Minister in charge of negotiations calls Minister in charge of Mele 'Amanaki:

"Set Mele's appointment so she can be in this office this afternoon, 4:00 pm"

Minister for Mele: "I think she's not going to be in the office"

"Did you hear me say please?"

Minister in charge of negotiations calls Minister in charge of Vili Vete:

"Set Vili's appointment so he can be in this office this afternoon, 4:00 pm" 

Minister for Vili Vete: "Sorry dude, we suspended him for some reason"

"Fishcakes Foobar, well send one of those drivers you have to his house and tell him I'll talk with him this afternoon 4:00 pm"

Minister in charge of negotiations secretary says: "But Minister, you're scheduled at the buffet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs from Australia."

"Girl/Dude the frikkin reason everyone's visiting us all the time is because I haven't met with these ornery folks! Go get me some coffee and get someone in here who can tell me what's been happening the past six months."

Probably took me longer to dream up the above scenario than for the action to have taken place.

Go read Government's take on the whole story.

Go Tonga!!!

ABC Radio Australia Reports

 Pro-democracy Tongans criticise China loanA bid by the Tongan government to secure a big loan from China has been criticised by the country's pro-democracy movement.

The loan is expected to be announced during a visit by Tongan Prime Minister Fred Sevele to the Chinese capital Beijing this week.

It has been reported that the low-interest $US50 million loan would aid in the reconstruction of central Nuku'alofa.

The loan has been criticised by Tonga's opposition democracy movement, which fears borrowing such a large amount will increase Chinese political influence in the Pacific state.

Mr Sevele has told Radio Australia he does not believe that the loan would cause a problem.

"We borrow from the Asian Development Bank, we borrow from the World Bank, private companies borrow locally and from overseas," he said.

"So I would say that good, well-intentioned people would not look at it that way.

"The thing to remember here is that we need the injection of such funds to rebuild Nuku'alofa."

Around 80 percent of Tonga's capital was destroyed in pro-democracy riots last November.

There's problems with both sides of this story, but it sure as hell ain't as big as a problem as the one we now have because downtown doesn't exist anymore!!

Some good are good at kissing a**, some people are good at just being it.

It's all the rage to pick out the flaws and inconsistencies in USA Political promises/democracies and realities, read a little of British Imperialism and we'll see that democracy likewise has a 2nd role to other needs and desires of the British Empire.

Apparently this attitude towards 'democracy' seems to be encroaching on Australian politicians, according to the Sydney Morning Herald's Alan Ramsey's article "Stop the presses: the story Rudd tried to kill." and a subsequent reply from Kevin Rudd's office posted at "Rudd denies trying to suppress story."

Visit bTonga

Kalafi Moala has a great article on Drinking the Kool-Aid, Inu Lemani Mahi with another perspective on the Pro Democracy Movement in Tonga.

My slant on the cool-aid is not so much that the drunken (as yet to be officially confirmed) supporters, aided the by the adrenaline charged looters, may be drinking the cool-aid. What is beginning to worry me is from all reports that we are hearing from Tonga, and being pushed by the meta-reporting 'journalists,' the Pro Democracy leaders seem to be drinking too much of their own Kool-Aid.

Just as the former Prime Minister 'Ulukalala Lavaka 'Ata screwed up big time by not apologising, acknowledging the failures of the Royal Tongan Airlines/Brunei Airlines screw-up, the cool-aid drinking leaders of the Tonga Pro Democracy Movement can't get their minds around the big f*ck up this whole burning and looting of private property has been in Tonga.

The Pro Democracy Movement would have you all believe that to transition from a corrupt, inept autocracy where you feared for being screwed of your life's earnings is much better than the situation that they have orchestrated. Live in a Democractic Tonga where you no-longer fear of corruption in Government, but you darn sure fear for your life and property, you fear for your family's life, you fear for your friends lives and you fear whether your job will last until tomorrow.

The Government in Tonga continues to be pss poor when it comes to staying in touch with the general populace, relying on the continued good will of the Tongan populace. This arrogance is no more evident than the lack of investment in the Government Press, Tonga Chronicle. If you're going to let that die, you may as well kill it quickly so you can spend better time on talking to the people in other forums.

The Pro Demolition squad are doing a rip-roaring job influencing the sound-byte, meta research journalists. Just today I've spoken with a few people upset with the way the Australian news is representing Tonga (and they too are calling home to double check what the Australian news services are saying.) If you didn't know any better, the picture being painted of Tonga is like Rwanda or Somalia. They have no excuse, but the meta-journalists really are pressed for time, and in their field Tonga is not that important (sad to say?) Government and Pro Stablity people really need to step up the noise mill and get their words out.

When I first read the reports on what the Pro-Demolition Squad were saying, they reminded me of the reports of Germany during Hitler's rise to power, or Russia and Stalin's rise to power. Anything and everything is justified because the faithful believe in their rhetoric. Kalafi's article worries us more by alluding to something/someone more sinister.

In the meantime, watch what you're drinking these days. Some of the stuff offered out there can be hazard to your health, if not to others.

The Drink the Kool-Aid message brought by the People's Temple promised hope, and in this dysfunctional world the dream is alive (with them.)

Required viewing.

One of the last scenes in the trailer, is a view of Jim Jones silhoutted by images of Jonestown going up in flames. Something not too dissimilar with the imagery offered by the Times of Tonga and 'Akilisi Pohiva.

This video explores the origins of the cult responsible for over 900 deaths. It takes you throught its origins as the People's Church in Indiana. Founded by Jim Jones, he moves the group out to California and eventually down to Guyuna, South America.

Brought up in a household where every spare cent/dollar/mattress was sent back to Tonga to help either the family, town, school, church (whichever organisation) it is sometimes bewildering (confusing) how little the Australian community seems to care about their immediate community. (At least the impression of their care seems proportionately lower, and more so taking into consideration their increased wealth.)

Dare Obasanjo (Re: He Bought Houses for the Whole Village) takes up the conversation from Joshua Allen's post entitled He Bought Houses for the Whole Village.

Dare highlights two important items that also goes towards understanding the differences in views that can cause confusion.

Community Heritage. In Tonga, and most of Pasifika(?), the community has a heritage that dates many generations, and in this manner has a much greater influence on personal behaviour (good or bad) than the Western "norm." (good or bad)

Hierarchy of Needs. In Tonga, and much of Pasifika(?), whole communities are bordered between Maslow's hierarchy of needs at between Level 1 and Level 4 (#1: Physiological (biological needs) #2 Safety, #3 Love/belonging, #4 Status (esteem)) and thus a little physical assistance can actually make community wide differences.

There seems to be a significant, visible difference between communities at the four lower levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, than a society at the 5th upper level.

Dare's enlightening observation is helping me understand myself and the different communities I'm living, working with. Possibly this should be prescribed to a lot of the Do Gooders(tm) out there ?

Conversely ?

There seems to be a greater level of nationalism, emphasis/care for the broader community (outside ones immediate surroundings and for people/communities well outside one's sphere of influence/existence.)

As I understand Tongans, we're only truely nationalistic when it is to contrast/combat another national. Whereas we seem to identify much closer to our inner community (township, school.) Of the Australians I grew up with, they would identify themselves closer to their 'nationality' than with their township. The Ethnic Australians identified with their ethnicity whilst in Australia but with their Australianess whilst back in their other home country.

Just boiling down to the world being a truelly complex kaleidoscope to enjoy.

Is there any etiquette or journalistic integrity at Vava'u Press or are we falling into gutter type 'journalism' because it increases our readership ?

I am referring here to the two articles published by MatangiTonga.to regarding an interview with Mssrs. Clive Edwards.

Edwards rejects system of "puppet ministers"

http://www.matangitonga.to/article/tonganews/politics/edwards180105.shtml

and

"I was accussed of a coup plot," reveals Edwards

http://www.matangitonga.to/article/tonganews/politics/edwards170105.shtml

My greatest concern is that the Matangi Tonga is behaving just like a 'National Enquirer.' These two articles reflect: Get an explosive interview with someone, let them say anything they want and publish it as 'news.'

1. The major problem with these two articles is their direct accusations and then Matangi Tonga 's failure to disclose any attempt at verification of the accusations or even an attempt to contact the accused for comment.

The publication of those inflammatory, contested views as 'news' implies that they are true and that whatever integrity exists of the publisher (Vava'u Press/Matangi Tonga) supports the accusations. Note there is no disclaimer on the site that the interview are the views of Mr. Edwards and not the publisher.

2. The publisher then continues to print accusations, counter-accusations between 'bickering' parties. See point 3 below.

3. The use of 'Letters & Comments' at the front-page under the heading "Breaking News" is misleading. Readers are drawn to a sense of sponsorship by the publisher of the letters as actual News.

Letters & Comments are not news, they should not be under the heading "Breaking News".

Again, no disclaimer is evident when reading a letter that disassociates the views of the author from those of the publisher.

Of course there is also no disclaimer on the site that it has a sweet deal with regards to hosting on Shoreline's internet servers.

The type of reporting shown in these two articles and the tit-for-tat that followed is something common on the Internet, we are just used to seeing them on blogs or forums. Blogs and forums are where people get to rant without recourse to being 'checked' or 'corrected' by peers or standards of publication except at the whims of the authors. There are a wonderful range of forums where people dig into this type of 'authorship.'

Ultimately the integrity of the publisher is measured by the value it provides to its readers. The National Enquirer and many papers of their type are very popular and profitable. They understand and nurture their markets. Likewise Playboy magazine makes a play at journalism but peripherally to its target audience.

Please, if your web hits have increased to something more marketable to your advertisers, can we return to some semblance of journalistic integrity?

Thanks,

Sam T