The Pacific Islands and the USA.

Between 1987 and 2006 Fiji experienced four coups in which Governments were overthrown by their military forces or parts of it. After the fourth coup in December 2006 old metropolitan friends such as Australia, New Zealand, the USA and the EU responded with travel sanctions, cancellation of military cooperation and frozen development assistance. When Fiji was politically isolated it fostered secondary political friendships of olden days and established new ones. The paper searches for evidence of Fiji’s agency to change the structure of its International Relations (IR) after the coup of 2000. Such relations were first shaped in Prime Minister Qarase’s ‘Look North’ policy, but following the coup of December 2006 Fiji’s IR took a new quality once political isolation was overcome and internal power stabilized. The paper concentrates on Indo- Fijian relations, which, however, are embedded in Fiji’s general effort to achieve greater independence from old friends by forcing new international relationships. Of particular interest in this context is, if Fiji’s political orientation after 2006 has just been a temporary necessity born out of political isolation or if Fiji’s policy of fostering South–South relations will remain a decisive element of the country’s foreign policy in the long term. To understand IR in the context of Fiji and India it is essential to look at both countries, their interests and agency. Looking at Fiji alone would leave the question unanswered, why Indian Governments had an interest to cooperate with the country in the Pacific Islands despite hard-core nationalist anti-Indian sentiments and politics pursued in Fiji after the coup of 2000. It also won’t be conclusive why India should be interested at all to foster high profile relations with a tiny country like Fiji in a situation when Indian governments were aiming at much higher goals.

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Solanum elaeagnifolium (silverleaf nightshade).

10.1079/cpc.50516.20210099930 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Marianne Jennifer Datiles ◽

Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez

Keyword(s):

Pacific Islands ◽

Plant Diseases ◽

Tropical Regions ◽

Perennial Plant ◽

The Pacific ◽

Silverleaf Nightshade ◽

Agricultural Weed ◽

The Usa ◽

Solanum Elaeagnifolium ◽

Noxious Weed

Abstract S. elaeagnifolium is a deep-rooted summer-growing perennial plant, native to the Americas, but now widely naturalized beyond its native range in extra-tropical regions. It is considered a tenacious weed in many arid to semi-arid places including India, Australia, South Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the USA (Holm et al., 1979; Wagner et al., 1999; Randall, 2012; USDA-ARS, 2014). It is known to be invasive in Cuba (Oviedo-Prieto et al., 2012) and Hawaii (PIER, 2014), a principal weed in India (Holm et al., 1979), and an agricultural weed in Java (Randall, 2012). It has been declared a noxious weed in the U.S. states of Arkansas, California, Idaho, Nevada, and Washington, and an "A" designated weed for quarantine in Oregon and Washington (USDA-NRCS, 2014). The species competes with crops, interferes with livestock, acts as a host for insects and plant diseases, and spreads by forming dense colonies from its extensive root system as well as by propagation of seeds (Boyd et al., 1984; Wagner et al., 1999; EPPO, 2007; PIER, 2014). The species is difficult to control without chemicals (UC Davis Weed Research and Information Center, 2013) and it is essential to keep it out of uncontaminated areas (EPPO, 2007). The species is known to be toxic to cattle, causing damage to intestinal tract and nervous systems and, in severe cases, can cause hallucinations, paralysis, and death (Mas and Lugo-Torres, 2013).

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Angiostrongylus cantonensis and Human angiostrongylosis

10.1093/med/9780198570028.003.0066 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Qiao-Ping Wang ◽

Zhao-Rong Lun

Keyword(s):

Pacific Islands ◽

Angiostrongylus Cantonensis ◽

Eosinophilic Meningitis ◽

Human Beings ◽

Zoonotic Pathogen ◽

The Past ◽

First Case ◽

The Pacific ◽

The Usa ◽

Main Clinical Manifestation

Angiostrongylus cantonensis was first discovered in rats in Guangzhou (Canton), China in 1935 (Chen 1935). A. cantonensis is a zoonotic pathogen, which causes human angiostrongylosis with the main clinical manifestation of eosinophilic meningitis. The first case of human angiostrongylosis was reported in Taiwan in 1945. Subsequently several outbreaks of this disease occurred in Pacific Islands (Rosen et al. 1961; Kliks and Palumbo 1992). In the past decade, a number of outbreaks of human angiostrongylosis have emerged in some endemic regions, especially in China (Wang et al. 2008). Additionally, increasing numbers of travellers are diagnosed with eosinophilic meningitis caused by A. cantonensis after returning from endemic regions (Lo et al. 2001; Slom et al. 2002; Bartschi et al. 2004; Podwall et al. 2004; Kumar et al. 2005; Leone et al. 2007; Ali et al. 2008). The parasite continues to threaten human beings, especially people living in the Pacific Islands and Asia. So far, at least 2,825 cases have been recorded; of them, 1,337 were reported in Thailand, 769 in China (Hong Kong and Taiwan), 256 in Tahiti, 116 in the USA (Hawaii and Samoa) and 114 cases in Cuba (Wang et al. 2008).

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Envisioning South-South relations in the fields of environmental change and migration in the Pacific Islands - past, present and futures

Bandung Journal of the Global South ◽

10.1186/s40728-014-0009-z ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 1-21 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Eberhard Weber

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Developing Countries ◽

Pacific Islands ◽

Pacific Islanders ◽

Marshall Islands ◽

Pacific Island ◽

The Pacific ◽

The Usa ◽

Migration Flows ◽

Pacific Island Countries

Climate change poses severe threats to developing countries. Scientists predict entire states (e.g. Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, and Maldives) will become inhabitable. People living in these states have to resettle to other countries. Media and politicians warn that climate change will trigger migration flows in dimensions unknown to date. It is feared that millions from developing countries overwhelm developed societies and increase pressures on anyway ailing social support systems destabilizing societies and becoming a potential source of conflict.Inhabitants of Pacific Islandsahave been mobile since the islands were first settled not longer than 3,500 years ago. Since then people moved around, expanded their reach, and traded with neighbouring tribes (and later countries). With the event of European powers in the 15thcentury independent mobility became restricted after the beginning of the 19thcentury. From the second half of the 19thcentury movements of people predominately served economic interests of colonial powers, in particular a huge colonial appetite for labour. After independence emigration from Pacific Island countries continued to serve economic interest of metropolitan countries at the rim of the Pacific Ocean, which are able to direct migration flows according to their economic requirements.If climate change resettlements become necessary in big numbers then Pacific Islanders do not want to become climate change refugees. To include environmental reasons in refugee conventions is not what Pacific Islanders want. They want to migrate in dignity, if it becomes unavoidable to leave their homes. There are good reasons to solve the challenges within Pacific Island societies and do not depend too much on metropolitan neighbours at the rim of the Pacific such as Australia, New Zealand and the USA. To rise to the challenge requires enhanced Pan-Pacific Island solidarity and South-South cooperation. This then would result in a reduction of dependencies. For metropolitan powers still much can be done in supporting capacity building in Pacific Island countries and helping the economies to proposer so that climate change migrants easier can be absorbed by expanding labour markets in Pacific Island countries.

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The times of the curator

Curatopia ◽

10.7228/manchester/9781526118196.003.0008 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 109-123

Author(s):

James Clifford

Keyword(s):

Pacific Islands ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Material Forces ◽

Indigenous Cultures ◽

The Pacific ◽

Wide Debate ◽

The Usa ◽

History Of ◽

The Times ◽

Push And Pull

The museum is an inventive, globally and locally translated form, no longer anchored to its modern origins in Europe. Contemporary curatorial work, in these excessive times of decolonisation and globalisation, by engaging with discrepant temporalities—not resisting, or homogenising, their inescapable friction—has the potential to open up common-sense, ‘given’ histories. It does so under serious constraints—a push and pull of material forces and ideological legacies it cannot evade. This chapter explores the ‘times’ of the curator, both in terms of these times we live in, in which curatorial theory and practice seems to be ever-present, and a sense of the curator’s task as enmeshed in multiple, overlapping, sometimes conflicting times. It is concerned primarily with the later, the discrepant temporalities, or perhaps that should be ‘histories’, or even ‘futures’, that are integral to the task of the curator today. In contrast to the history of museum curating, curatorial work in recent years has been transformed by the re-emergence of indigenous cultures in former settler colonies which suggest the de-centering of the west. Drawing on research in the USA, Canada and the Pacific Islands, and analysing several diverse case studies and examples, the chapter explores examples of ‘indigenous curating’, that is to say, working with things and relations in transforming times. In doing so, it contributes to a world-wide debate, which this book is part of, about museums and the future of curatorship.

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Gewalt und Staatsversagen in Fidschi

Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie ◽

10.1515/zfw.2007.0016 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 51 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Eberhard Weber

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Political Violence ◽

Pacific Islands ◽

Political Instability ◽

International Terrorism ◽

Indian Origin ◽

The Pacific ◽

Complex Picture ◽

The Usa ◽

Peripheral Areas

Political violence and state failure in Fiji. Between 1987 and 2006 Fiji experienced four coups in which governments were overthrown by their own military forces. Many observers attribute political violence in Fiji to ethnic tensions between indigenous ethnic Fijians and descendants of persons of Indian origin, who immigrated to Fiji mainly between 1880 and 1920. While ethnicity contributes to political instability in Fiji, the existence of additional cleavages based on class, kinship and centre-periphery dichotomy creates a rather complex picture. The coups are also offsprings of conflicts within the Fijian society, conflicts about the loss of political and economic power in the course of modernization, experienced by traditional chiefs of tribal confederacies, as well as conflicts caused by marginalization of indigenous people living in peripheral areas. External actors like Australia, New Zealand and the USA add another layer to the conflicts. During the socalled Cold War the Pacific islands were nuclear testing grounds for the USA, France and Great Britain as well as a strategic region for the US-American Pacific fleet. Since 9/11 the USA as well as Australia and New Zealand consider political instability in the Pacific island region as a breeding ground for international terrorism and thus a threat to their national security.

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