· December, 2008

Stories about Oceania from December, 2008

Fiji: Dispute over local jobs

A government infrastructure project in Fiji was delayed after local residents demanded that workers in the project should come from the local community.

31 December 2008

Shaping the Future of World Indigenous Education

Last week 3000 delegates from around the world shared their experiences at The World Indigenous Peoples' Conference: Education at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. There has been little coverage by the mainstream media and surprisingly little activity in the global blogosphere that I’m aware of.

18 December 2008

Fiji and New Zealand Bloggers Debate Diplomatic Row

Bloggers from Fiji and New Zealand are discussing an ongoing diplomatic row between their governments that intensified when New Zealand refused to grant visas to three family members of senior officials in Fiji's government who came to power in a coup in December 2006.

17 December 2008

Activist turned informant creates uproar in New Zealand

New Zealand’s blogosphere is a flutter with the possibility that a left-wing activist has been outed as a police informer. The informer was paid $600 a week (plus expenses) for monitoring groups like Greenpeace, Save Happy Valley, Auckland Animal Action, GE-Free New Zealand and Peace Action Wellington.

16 December 2008

Fiji: Democracies’ double standards

A few members of Fiji’s blogosphere have begun to lash out at what they see as double standards from the international organizations and countries preaching democracy to the Pacific Island nation that has been ruled by military leaders for the past two years.

13 December 2008

Australia rallies to “Stop the Clean Feed”

The Australian blogosphere has largely come together to protest a government internet filtering scheme that will require Internet Service Providers to offer a “Clean-Feed” service to all homes, schools and public access points to the internet.

11 December 2008

New Zealand: ‘Talkfest torpedoed’

A few right-of-center New Zealand bloggers have applauded the new Social Development Minister’s push to cancel a February summit planned by the Families Commission that would bring together 150 leaders and decision makers together at Auckland's Waipuna Lodge.

10 December 2008

Fiji's military coup: Two years on

Fiji’s military coup hits its two-year anniversary, and bloggers around the region have spent the past few days gathering thoughts and opinions on the country’s past, present and future.

8 December 2008

Fiji: How to change the government from within?

As the two-year anniversary of Fiji's military takeover approaches, another international governing body has called the Pacific island nation to hold elections in 2009 as once promised. A discussion has broken out in the blogosphere over how exactly to initiate political change in Fiji.

4 December 2008

Pressure for Fiji

A visiting European Union delegation concludes that there is no reason why Fiji should not continue with the elections next year. There is also a need for more domestic pressure...

3 December 2008

About our Oceania coverage

Mong Palatino
Mong Palatino is the South East Asia editor (his region overlaps with this one). Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.