[updated with Government links, Profile Links]

Tuesday May 16th, 2006

Wow, this is a big assignment.

The Prime Minister of Tonga came on radio/tv today 7:00pm to make a special announcement with the below details.

1. Ministers with Changed Portfolios
2. Ministers without Changed Portfolios
3. Rearrangement of Ministries
4. New Ministers

The appointments take effect from today and previous appointments ceased yesterday

Ministers with Changed Portfolios

Hon. Cecil Cocker, Minister of Works, Tourism and Deputy Prime Minister is appointed to a new post in San Francisco.

Noble Fielakepa, Minister of Lands, Survey, Natural Resources and the Environment has been appointed Lord Chamberlain.

Hon. Viliami Tangi, Minister of Health is the new Deputy Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister retains the portfolios of Ministry of Labour Commerce, and Small Industries (?)

Ministers without Changed Portfolios

Minister of Finance - Hon. Siosiua 'Utoikamanu retains portfolio including other non-Ministry Portfolios (e.g. Commissioner for Revenues)

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Interim Governor of Vava'u -

Minister of Education - Hon. Rev. Dr. Tevita Palefau 

Governor for Ha'apai - Noble Malupo

Rearrangement of Ministries

Noble Tuita is allocated the portfolio of Ministry of Lands, Survey, Natural Resources and Environment

Hon. Siaosi Taimani 'Aho is allocated the Ministry of Police, Prisons and Fire Department

Noble Tu'ivakano is allocated the new Ministry of Vocational Training, Youth and Sports

Hon. Peauafi Haukinima is allocated the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

New Ministers

Hon. 'Alisi Viviene Afeaki Taumoepeau is newly appointed to be Attorney General and Minister of Justice(Lao).

Hon. Fineasi Funaki is the new Minister for Tourism

Hon. Paul Karalus is the new Minister of Civil Aviation, Marines and Ports.

Visit bTonga

Official (Government) Links ?

Tonga Broadcasting Commission (Transcript - Faka-Tonga): http://www.tonga-broadcasting.com/artman/publish/article_101.shtml

Tonga Broadcasting Commission (English) http://www.tonga-broadcasting.com/artman/publish/article_105.shtml

Tonga Now (English) http://www.tonga-now.to/Article.aspx?ID=521

Parliamentary Profiles: http://parliament.gov.to/ministers1.htm

Feleti Sevele: WikiPedia, Answers.com
Sonatane Tu'a Taumoepeau Tupou: WikiPedia

Flags of Tonga: WikiPedia

Our irreverent take ?

Deputy Prime Minister. The People's Representatives better take note of the new Deputy and started mending their ways. The Hon. Minister of Health is not well known for using subtlety nor tact to communicate matters and will just as efficiently tell you off for being an idiot, imbecile if that is the way things are turning out.

Lord Chamberlain Noble Fielakepa, is a very important appointment that has been missing for way too many years. Hopefully this new appointment of a trusted royalist/loyalist will cut down on the number of shady activities being pushed on the Crown. It is the best for the country should the new Lord Chamberlain be efficient.

Attorney General's office and Ministry of Justice (Lao) are being packaged together which to my understanding is a definite conflict of interest. Considering that the courts have recently judged against government it seems difficult for a single person to advocate government and to ensure the integrity of the courts.

Our Audio Output

We recorded the special announcement off the radio, so there is a bit of noise and hopefully http://www.tonga-broadcasting.com may release an English version of the announcement as well as a better and smaller quality audio report.

Audio Tongan: DVF Format (846Kb)
Audio Tongan: MP3 Format (13Mb)
Audio Tongan: Ogg Vorbis Format (3Mb)
Audio Tongan: Windows Executable (946Kb)

Audio Radio Tonga (English): DVF Format (180Kb)
Audio Radio Tonga (English): MP3 Format (3.5 Mb)
Audio Radio Tonga (English): Ogg Vorbis Format (784Kb)
Audio Radio Tonga (English): Windows Executable (276Kb)

DVF Format

The DVF File Format is the raw format used on my digital recorder. It is not the standard Sony DVF Format but same variant from the firmware developer COWON. Unfortunately I have not found an independent player on the 'NET for it although if you have a JNC SSF Digital Audio Recorder/Player you can download this file and your software will allow playing as well as conversion of the file to other formats (such as WAV and MP3)

Windows Executable

The Windows Executable version of the audio podcast is the smallest functional format. This is a small Windows application that plays the audio file. The primary advantage is size, unfortunately you must listen to the audio from beginning to end.

There is no installation required, the file runs and plays the audio on Windows XP machines (and hopefully Windows 2000.)

If you don't have the time to wait, then download this file and be ready to listen faster than the other formats Ogg Vorbis or MP3.

Ogg Vorbis Format

Ogg Vorbis is a new audio compression format. It is roughly comparable to other formats used to store and play digital music, such as MP3, VQF, AAC, and other digital audio formats. It is different from these other formats because it is completely free, open, and unpatented.

A list of Ogg Compatible Players for MS Windows is listed at: http://www.vorbis.com/setup_windows/, Mac OSX players are listed at: http://www.vorbis.com/setup_osx/, other platforms http://www.vorbis.com/setup_other/

If you are adventurous, download this file format and begin to enjoy some smaller download files for your music on the Internet.

MP3 Format

The MP3 file format is the most popular format for music and audio. Most Music players can play files of this format. Unfortunately, as seen for our purpose, it is also the largest file of the formats available for this announcement.

If you have good bandwidth/download speeds, and the time, go ahead and download this format as it is the least likely to cause you problems.