ACCORDING to the WHO estimate released on April 21, 2014, a total of 774 lives were claimed in the SARS outbreak in 2003. Far beyond the nations where it claimed the most victims, SARS traumatized the world with vast economic disruptions, deeply impacting international trade and travel that year and in the nervous months that…
IN 2013, just three years ago, the majority of an estimated 289,000 women and about three million newborn babies died globally from preventable complications and illnesses. They could have been saved with proper antenatal, delivery and post-natal care – services provided by trained midwives. The world has seen a steady decline in maternal and newborn…
STAYING in touch with people now through the mediums of smart gadgets and new age technology has been fixed into our way of life here in the islands with an important role to our communities. Local people have been swept into the hype and need of owning a smart gadget, to be trendy, up to…
LAST week, the European Union (EU) observed 9 May as Europe Day. Sixty six years ago on 9 May 1950, the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman, pleaded to fellow nations in the continent to unite and open a new chapter of peace and tranquility. The statement, known as Schuman Declaration , is considered a milestone…
The Chinese Renminbi Yet another advanced country is in the grip of fear of falling price level. On Tuesday, May 3, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) reduced its benchmark interest rate to 1.75 percent from 2.0 percent: the lowest rate ever. Interest rates charged by Australian banks for loans to consumers and businesses…
IMF loan for Saudi Arabia? Would you believe that Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of oil needs temporary accommodation to meet dollar shortages and might go to IMF? The culprit is the tumbling oil price: a steep fall from US$115 a barrel in 2014 to US$43 a barrel now. Export earnings of oil exporting…
Speech presented in parliament by the Opposition leader on the Penal Code (Amendment)(Sexual Offences) Bill 2016 THANK you for giving me the opportunity to speak on this very important bill, the Penal code (amendment) (sexual offences) bill 2016. On the outset I would like to thank and congratulate the DCC Government for bring this very,…
An analysis of the sacking of the SIPA chairman and board member MINISTER for Infrastructure Development, Jimmy Lusibaea, caused a political stir when he sacked SIPA chairman Billy Titiulu and Board member, Johnny Sy on the weekend. “I have taken the action because it has come to my knowledge that both men have been secretly…
Today more than 85% of the Solomon Islands live in rural area that include in the 3.3 billion people live in rural areas around the world. Rural development is therefore of vital significance if the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – “a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity” – is to become reality.…
Shortly before the then deputy prime minister forced Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s hand to push me to jump ship last July, I had a number of visits by displaced or aggrieved employees of the Solomon Islands Ports Authority (SIPA). This was at the time Mr Colin Yow had just taken over as the Chief Executive…