APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, May 22, 2008

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APSNet 22 May 2008

  1. Workers for All Seasons? Issues from New Zealand’s Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Program
  2. Diggers Launch Strike on Taliban in Afghanistan’s Oruzgan Province
  3. Taliban Crank up Recruiting Drive for Young Men in Afghan Villages
  4. Pacific Means Business and Bans High Seas Tuna Fishing: Greenpeace
  5. Papua New Guinea Border Officers Reliant on Indonesian Facilities
  6. Diet OK’s Military Use of Space / Law Marks Shift Toward Space Strategy
  7. India to Part with Flu Data Only if It Gets Cheap Vaccines

1. Workers for All Seasons? Issues from New Zealand’s Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Program, Nic Maclellan, Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University, May 2008 [493 KB, PDF]

The experience of New Zealand’s seasonal worker program shows that the social, cultural and development impacts in small island states are a central element of the RSE program. There are significant dangers in regarding seasonal workers as commodities to be traded between countries – seasonal labour programs in Australia will only work if they take account of the rights and interests of the workers from the Pacific.

2. Diggers Launch Strike on Taliban in Afghanistan’s Oruzgan Province, Mark Dodd, Australian, 2008-05-20

Australian and coalition forces have launched a major strike against Taliban insurgents in the violence-prone Baluchi Pass of Afghanistan’s southern Oruzgan province. A Defence Department spokesman said the operation’s purpose was to evict Taliban extremists, restore vital infrastructure and establish a safe environment for Afghan people living there.

3. Taliban Crank up Recruiting Drive for Young Men in Afghan Villages, Canadian Press, 2008-05-21

The western alliance’s principal base in the region, Kandahar Airfield, was hit three out of four nights recently with wildly erratic 107-mm rockets. There have been brutal fire-fights between militants and NATO troops in the northern parts of Kandahar province. Last week, the Taliban used a child to deliver a suicide bomb that injured two Canadian soldiers and killed an Afghan trooper.

4. Pacific Means Business and Bans High Seas Tuna Fishing: Greenpeace, Pacific Magazine, 2008-05-21

Greenpeace has applauded a decision to ban tuna fishing in high seas areas, as a landmark for tuna conservation and biodiversity protection by the eight Pacific Island Countries of the Palau Nauru Agreement (PNA) group meeting in Palau this week. Foreign fishing vessels will not be allowed to fish in the two major high seas pockets in the Pacific.

5. Papua New Guinea Border Officers Reliant on Indonesian Facilities, Elias Nanau, National, 2008-05-21

PNG government officials working at the Wutung border post in Vanimo, Sandaun [West Sepik] Province, have resorted to using facilities provided by the Indonesians because they do not have the resources to do their jobs effectively. Government officials have also complained of manpower shortage to properly screen people and goods entering and leaving the country.

6. Diet OK’s Military Use of Space / Law Marks Shift Toward Space Strategy, Yomiuri Shimbun, Daily Yomiuri, 2008-05-22

The Diet passed a law allowing Japan to possess early-warning satellites that could be used as part of a missile-defense system and to jointly develop with the United States satellites for defense purposes. The law also includes provisions for the establishment of a new strategy headquarters, headed by the prime minister, to deal with space development, in order to strengthen Japan’s competitiveness in the global space industry.

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7. India to Part with Flu Data Only if It Gets Cheap Vaccines, Kounteya Sinha, Times Of India, 2008-05-18

Indonesia – the nation with the highest rates of infection and deaths in humans from the highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) – has found a friend in India, on the controversial issue of sharing the deadly H5N1 virus. Union health minister A Ramadoss will pressurise the WHO to guarantee benefits like access to cheap vaccines made from the virulent virus strains,circulating in developing countries.

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