Articles by Utopia Support

By-election date due on Monday

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in Local

A date for the Pukapuka by-election will definitely be announced by Monday afternoon, confirms the office of acting prime minister Teariki Heather. CEO Ben Mose says the acting PM has been in communication with the Justice department over the by-election date and asked that staff attend to it as a matter of priority. Mose says […]

Govt wants aid money for budget

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in Local

The government is lobbying to change how the country receives aid money – it wants aid funds put directly into the general budget. The government is expected to try and show donor partners that robust financial accountability measures are in place and that it can be trusted to manage donor funds well. When 2010-11 budget […]

Guide grows from Mexico experience

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in Features

Local Girl Guide Anabeth Tetauru recently returned from Mexico, where she and 200 other young Girl Guides attended the Young Women’s World Forum, other sessions of which simultaneously occurred in Switzerland, India and the United Kingdom. The theme of this year’s forum was ‘Grow’ – a fitting term, as Anabeth says she grew socially, spiritually […]

Guiding leadership meets

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in Features

Girl Guides from all over the southern group flocked to Rarotonga last month for the Girl Guides Association Cook Islands weekend training session. Just under 30 Girl Guides leaders from Aitutaki, Atiu, Mauke, Mitiaro, Mangaia and Rarotonga gathered at Sinai Hall to check a number of items off its agenda, including drafting and discussing the […]

Josephine tops the world!

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in Features

As invited guests gathered at the Hospitality Tourism Training Centre yesterday to see 24-year-old Josephine Rattle receive her prestigious award – the dedicated student was in the kitchen preparing tasty morsels for the guests. Rattle was awarded the World’s Top Food and Beverage City and Guilds International Medal yesterday in front of proud family, friends […]

Sustainability explained

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in Features

We must take sustainability seriously because if something is not sustainable, it is doomed to come to an end. Sustainability, simply put, is about ‘providing for today’s needs without compromising the needs of tomorrow’. For example, in agriculture if growers are using inorganic fertilisers that burn microbes and worms in the soil, whilst they may […]

Mauke makes 'Back Yard Farmer'

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in Features

In Australia’s latest ‘Back Yard Farmer’ magazine, a sustainable living venture on Mauke island is among 80 colourful pages of practical information on such subjects as DIY organic hydroponics, drought proof vegetables high in Vitamin C, worthy weeds, chook power, and building soils. As editor Fiona Tunnicliff says, it’s all ‘real stories from real people […]

It's not easy!

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, I read last week’s story about the American visitors being rescued after they attempted the cross island trek. In the article the visitors stated that the hike was referred to in guidebooks as a relatively easy hike. As the two couples found out, it is by no standards an easy hike. As a […]

Here's hoping

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, It’s exciting to see funding has come through for Waste Management. I’m just hoping that all aspects of waste are being addressed. From farm animal and human sewerage, reducing landfill, recycling organic matter, all the way to what to do with industrial waste e.g. whiteware, poor quality imports that very quickly end up […]

Te ara'ara no Akatokamanava

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in Letters to the Editor

Ki te Etita, E te ‘Not 100% Kaakaa’ – Eaa kua mataora koe ia Nane Oaariki raua ko Tumu Mauke. Tu mai ki te atea akariia mai koe. Eaa koe e manako e te ngaro ara koe ki muri i te pu mt. Te na konei oki teia imene “uri taku aro ki te itinga […]

Kata - April 9, 2011

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in Kata

Students make peace plans

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in National

PPSEAWA (Pan-Pacific and Southeast Asia Women’s Association) peace council chairwoman Johanna Simiona-Gifford gathered student and teacher peace ambassadors together from six Rarotonga schools yesterday at USP and encouraged them to draw up their own individual plans for promoting peace this year. Ambassadors from Tereora College, Nikao Maori School, Rutaki School, Arorangi School, Avatea School, St […]

Women want 'in' to politics

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in National

The Pacific islands have slipped behind Arab states to become the region with the world’s lowest proportion of women in politics. The number of women in the Cook Islands parliament ‘flat lined’ for awhile, and now is ‘tipping backwards’, says political reformist Teina Mackenzie. But for Mackenzie, the light at the end of an otherwise […]

Recipe for manure tea

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in National

Soil is a living thing that needs good food to be healthy so that in turn it can feed the plants. Producing our own organic fertilisers makes a huge difference to crops and the pocket. No need to wait for the boat to bring in expensive sacks of NPK granules as we get on with […]

Young doctors choose Cooks

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in National

Thanks to a ‘random internet search’, the Rarotonga Hospital this month has four volunteer medical students on hand to help wherever possible. Patrick Eakin, a fifth-year student at Keele University in the United Kongdom, said he and his med-school mate Sarah Dawson could choose to volunteer ‘anywhere in the world’ – after considering their options, […]

CISNOC 'insolvent' – Stoddart

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in National

The Cook Islands Sports and National Olympic Committee (CISNOC) is facing a financial deficit, although executive board members are confident the books can be balanced. About 70 people at CISNOC’s annual general meeting on Thursday night heard that the committee is insolvent and not likely to be able to fund its financial obligations in the […]

Glass beads and axes?

Saturday 9 April 2011 | Published in Smoke Signals

“If I read Temu Okotai’s view correctly, we have two agreements with Telecom Cook Islands,” a smoke signalller writes. “One being the legislated monopoly as an act of Parliament, the other as an agreement between the shareholders, which is Telecom NZ and the local shareholders, namely the Cook Islands Investment Corporation, who would hold shares […]

Football frenzy among primary schools

Friday 8 April 2011 | Published in Local

It was a case of girls versus boys as the 10 primary schools on Rarotonga went head to head yesterday in the annual one day primary schools soccer tournament. The rivalry and competition gets more intense year by year in the popular sports day hosted and run by Cook Islands Football. Report and results, tomorrow’s […]

Pukapuka by-election date to be set

Friday 8 April 2011 | Published in Local

The office of acting Prime Minister Teariki Heather was yesterday waiting for word from deputy electoral officer Claudine Aunguna on a date for the Pukapuka by-election. Parliament speaker Sir Geoffrey Henry this week signed the declaration which formally establishes the Pukapuka seat as being vacant. Clerk of Parliament Nga Valoa said after the declaration is […]

Demos to decide on national issues

Friday 8 April 2011 | Published in Local

The Opposition Democratic Party will meet next Monday evening to establish a formal position on a number of high profile national issues. Deputy leader Wilkie Rasmussen says he wants opposition MPs to decide where the party stands with respect to a recommendation made by independent MP Norman George that the TOA contract should be legislated […]