By APR editor – January 24, 20220159SHAREFacebookTwitter ANALYSIS: By Michael Field in Auckland Within a day of the massive volcanic eruption that rocked Tonga and severed the archipelago’s communications with the rest of the world, a handful of countries vying for influence in the region pledged financial aid. Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, 60 km north of the capital Nuku’alofa, blew up on January 15, sending tsunami waves across the Pacific and shock waves around the world. The eruption cut the tiny kingdom’s only fibre-optic cable, to Fiji, 800 km to the west, leaving its 110,000 residents without internet or voice connections to the world.
A Royal New Zealand Air Force surveillance flight showed that several small islands suffered catastrophic damage, and it has become clear there is extensive damage in Nuku’alofa. New Zealand has sent two naval ships equipped with desalination equipment and aid materials to Tonga, which is covid-free and has effectively closed its borders. Only fully vaccinated personnel are allowed to enter the country. Within hours of the eruption, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced an immediate grant of NZ$100,000 (US$68,000) and mobilised naval and air forces to rush help to Tonga. Australia followed, and a day later China pledged $100,000. The US followed shortly thereafter, with all donors making it clear it was the first round of aid. Heavy debt to Beijing Tonga still owes $108 million to the Export-Import Bank of China, equivalent to about 25 percent of its gross domestic product and about $1000 per Tongan. The debt at times has threatened to bankrupt Tonga, one of the Pacific’s poorest countries, but China repeatedly declines to write it off. Suspicion around Beijing’s agenda has grown with the construction of a lavish and large embassy in Nuku’alofa. Surveillance pictures suggest it was undamaged by the tsunami. Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tweeted that Australia must be first to give Tonga assistance. “Failing that,” he said, “China will be there in spades.” He added that large Australian warships should be sent immediately: “It’s why we built them.” China’s Global Times, the English language mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, published an editorial saying, “Tonga is in need of emergency aid, and China said it is willing to help.” Huawei interests in Pacific “It is important to note that in addition to providing necessary supplies, China is capable of helping Pacific island nations with their reconstruction work,” the Global Times said. “In fact, in recent years, Chinese companies such as technology giant Huawei have been actively pursuing infrastructure projects in Pacific island nations, of which the construction of submarine fibre optic cables is an important part.” Huawei had attempted to be involved in cables in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, but Australia succeeded in blocking the bids. The Global Times said some Western countries, led by the US, are trying to block such cooperation as they see Pacific island nations “as a place for competing for geopolitical influence and publicly claim to counter China’s growing influence in the Pacific”. The tabloid added Pacific island nations did not want to be forced to pick sides between China and the US. The Nuku’alofa riot occurred on 16 November 2006 when the country was under a royal and noble-dominated regime that essentially ruled out democracy. Following the ascension to the throne of the late King Tupou V, pro-democracy and criminal groups set fire to the capital. Consequences of ‘soft loan’ The consequences of the loan were profound for Tonga, and a subsequent prime minister, the late ‘Akilisi Pohiva, used the matter to win elections. In 2013 Pohiva said the kingdom had debts it could never repay: “Our hands and feet have already been tied,” he said. “We need a government by the people that can work this out with the Chinese government in a way Tongans now and in the future will not suffer catastrophic consequences.” He said he feared the Chinese would take over the running of Tonga. “If we fail to meet the requirements and conditions set out in the agreement,” he said, “we have to pay the cost for our failure to meet the conditions.” Help less flat-footed “While valuable in its own right, the support Australia and New Zealand provide is not entirely altruistic,” Pryke said. “This support generates a lot of goodwill and ‘soft power’ in the region, and gives Australian and New Zealand defence assets the chance to ‘get into the field.’” Pryke said Australia and New Zealand were both eager, now more than ever, in light of the geostrategic competition with China, to show the region that they were its best and most reliable foreign partners. “With that said, Tongan officials are much wiser now in what support they will accept from China than in 2006, as repayments on that debt continue to be pushed off but will be monumentally costly for the government when they finally do come due.” New Zealand-based security consultant Dr Paul Buchanan of 36th-Parallel.com said he wondered why China was being slow in its reaction. It previously sent a navy hospital ship to Tonga, but not this time. He noted the cable had only recently gone into Tonga and that two years ago it was damaged by a ship’s anchor. While coincidental, the latest severing offers an opportunity for China. Opportunity for China’s signals fleet Noting Beijing’s unexpectedly large embassy in Tonga, Dr Buchanan said China might act in its own self-interest rather than out of a sense of humanitarianism. “Perhaps the kingdom knows this and will try to leverage the PRC’s slow response in favour of more favorable reconstruction terms,” Dr Buchanan said. “But I am not sure that the king and his court play that way. “New Zealand and Australia seem to have responded as could be expected, but if my read is correct, [China] seems willing to cede [the] diplomatic initiative to the ‘traditional’ patrons on the issue of immediate humanitarian relief.” Michael Field is an independent New Zealand journalist and co-editor of The Pacific Newsroom. This article was first published by Nikkei Asia and is republished with permission. from JCs Royal New Zealand Navy https://ift.tt/34agzUU via JCs Royal New Zealand Navy Ships and News https://ift.tt/3IDFlM1 Global aid effort underway for Tonga’s recovery from the Hunga tsunamiBy APR editor – January 23, 2022051SHAREFacebookTwitter By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist A global aid effort is underway for Tonga with vessels en route to the Pacific kingdom from Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan and the US as well as New Zealand. NZ Defence Force Maritime Component Commander Commodore Garin Golding told RNZ Pacific nearby Fiji was also assisting in the relief efforts. “Fiji is assisting Tonga, they are providing land forces which are going to be embarked on the Adelaide,” he said.
Three New Zealand Navy vessels have departed already and a second C-130 Hercules dropped aid off yesterday following the devastating undersea eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano and tsunami on January 15. The HMNZS Canterbury set sail for Tonga on Friday night, the latest to assist with the aid effort. The ship has two NH90 helicopters, personnel and supplies onboard. “On board the HMNZS Canterbury is water, milk powder and tarpaulins, but due to her size they have also embarked vehicles and forklifts which are needed to help distribute aid around the airport and port,” Commodore Golding said. Engineer task force embarked The HMNZS Wellington and Aotearoa are already in Tonga. Commodore Golding said the team onboard the Aotearoa had successfully offloaded five containers of stores and spent Saturday offloading bulk water supplies to be distributed across the island. “They will be doing that today right through to early next week,” Golding said. “The HMNZS Wellington sailed overnight [Friday], they received another survey task to the island ‘Eua which is the south east of Tongatapu, they will spend the whole day using their hydrographic and diving personnel just to verify that it is safe for shipping to go in and out.” Wellington was set to return to Nuku’alofa to continue the survey task, with Aotearoa to stay alongside to continue to offload water supplies. Australian efforts “My understanding is, in addition to the three ships we will have, [the] Adelaide from Australia, the [Royal Navy ship HMS] Spey from the UK, and the US already has the Sampson [there] and a coast guard vessel is on its way down. I understand a Japanese vessel is on route. I have no information with respects to China,” Commodore Golding said. The Tongan government has requested covid-19 measures be observed during the effort and Golding said that was a major focus of the team. “We will be receiving tasks from the Tongan government and we will be responsive to whatever these tasks are.” This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. Tagata Pasifika on the latest aid efforts for Tonga. Video: Tagata Pasifika from JCs Royal New Zealand Navy https://ift.tt/3qPF16M via JCs Royal New Zealand Navy Ships and News https://ift.tt/3fQX7ih Source: Xinhua| 2022-01-21 15:46:45|Editor: huaxia Hydrographers on New Zealand navy vessel HMNZS Wellington check shipping channels and wharf approaches near Nuku’alofa, capital of Tonga, Jan. 20, 2022. New Zealand navy vessel HMNZS Wellington arrived in Tonga on late Thursday. (New Zealand Ministry of Defense/Handout via Xinhua) Hydrographers on New Zealand navy vessel HMNZS Wellington check shipping channels and wharf approaches near Nuku’alofa, capital of Tonga, Jan. 20, 2022. New Zealand navy vessel HMNZS Wellington arrived in Tonga on late Thursday. (New Zealand Ministry of Defense/Handout via Xinhua) from JCs Royal New Zealand Navy https://ift.tt/3Aq1wSP via JCs Royal New Zealand Navy Ships and News https://ift.tt/3AkqaEq SHAREBOOKMARKLISTEN TO ARTICLE Life-saving water supplies from a New Zealand navy ship were distributed across Tonga’s main island on Friday, as other countries battled the logistics of delivering aid to one of the world’s remotest communities. Six days after the South Pacific archipelago was devastated by a volcanic eruption and tsunami that deposited a blanket of ash and polluted its water sources, the HMNZS Aotearoa docked in the Tonga capital, Nuku’alofa. The ship carried 250,000 litres of water and desalination equipment able to produce 70,000 litres more per day, New Zealand’s High Commission said. “Trucks … have begun collecting and delivering water supplies from Aotearoa,” the Commission said on its Facebook page. The first flights from Australia and New Zealand landed on Thursday with some water as well as shelter, communication equipment and generators. On Thursday, an Australian flight was forced to return to base because of a positive COVID-19 case on board, while on Friday technical problems delayed one of two Japanese C-130 transporters carrying 5,000 litres of drinking water, Japan’s Self-Defence Forces said. Underlining the complexity of mounting a contactless international aid operation to one of the few countries free of COVID-19, the Australian plane was turned around midflight after PCR tests showed a positive result, an Australian defence spokeswoman told Reuters. All crew had earlier returned negative rapid antigen tests, she said. The supplies were moved to another flight that took off on Friday. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano eruption last Saturday triggered a tsunami that destroyed villages and resorts and knocked out communications for the nation of about 105,000 people. Three people have been reported killed, authorities said. Salt water from the tsunami spoiled most sources of water and Tongans have been struggling to find clean water as they clear away the ash. “We are cleaning the ash and have been since Monday,” said Branko Sugar, 61, who runs a bottle shop and fishing charter business from Nuku’alofa. “Everything is so dusty, and we are running out of water,” he said over a patchy telephone line. “We only have the tap water, and it’s been contaminated. We … can hardly breathe for all the dust.” NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has said the force of the eruption was estimated to be equivalent to 5-10 megatons of TNT, or more than 500 times that of the nuclear bomb the United States dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War. Astronaut Kayla Barron said she could see the volcanic ash in the atmosphere from the International Space Station. “I opened the window shutter to see if we could see any effects of the eruption, and saw this dramatic, high-altitude plume blocking out the sun,” Ms. Barron said on Facebook. NASA released photographs showing a huge grey smudge over the blue Pacific. United Nations spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told a briefing Tonga had asked for urgent assistance. “We remain seriously concerned about access to safe water for 50,000 people … Water quality testing continues, and most people are relying on bottled water,” he said, speaking before the Aotearoa arrived. Dujarric said there were reports of fuel shortages, while some 60,000 Tongans have been affected by damage to crops, livestock and fisheries due to ashfall, saltwater intrusion and the potential for acid rain. Many have turned to social media to post images of the destruction by the tsunami and give accounts of their shock after the massive explosion, while tales of incredible escapes from the disaster have also emerged. Seaborne assistance was also en route for the archipelago. Australia’s HMAS Adelaide was due in Tonga next week after leaving Brisbane. Reliance, a repair ship due to reconnect the undersea cable that links Tonga to international telecoms networks, left its Port Moresby mooring and was expected in Tonga on Jan. 30, according to Refinitiv data on shipping movements. The Reliance’s operator, SubCom, did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for confirmation. Telephone links between Tonga and the outside world were reconnected late on Wednesday, although restoring full internet services is expected to take a month or more. Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk asked in a post on Twitter if Tongans would like help from his Starlink project, which provides internet connection through satellites. Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today. from JCs Royal New Zealand Navy https://ift.tt/3tNdyEB via JCs Royal New Zealand Navy Ships and News https://ift.tt/3qPP8Z7 While he contracted polio as a 15-year-old, and as a result ended up with one leg shorter than the other, he was still able to join the Royal NZ Navy at 18 as a stoker. Esther Ashby-Coventry 16:05, Jan 12 2022 A loving husband, father and grandfather, keen whitebaiter, home brewer, and vegetable gardener, former Navyman Hank Cowan has been remembered as someone who was “humble and engaging’’. George Bryce ‘Hank’ Cowan died at Hospice South Canterbury on November 26, aged 88. While he contracted polio as a 15-year-old, and as a result ended up with one leg shorter than the other, he was still able to join the Royal NZ Navy at 18 as a stoker. His parents always called him Bryce but when he joined up, it was automatically changed to Hank as that is what the family nicknamed everyone who went to sea, and the name stuck. Carole, his wife of 64 years, recalled the first time she met her husband to be, at a dance in Christchurch in 1954. At the end of the evening he asked where she was going for Christmas, and she said Timaru. Off the cuff, he replied he would ‘’see her there’’. ADVERTISEMENTAdvertise with Stuff “At the midnight dance [on New Year’s Eve] he was the first person I saw at the Caroline Bay Hall. Later we went for a ride on the Octopus [a carnival ride], he hated it,” she said. Their relationship grew long distance as he was based in Auckland and in the Navy, and she was still living in Christchurch. They wrote letters, got engaged in 1956, and married a year later and went on to have three children – two boys and a girl. He was at sea for months working and was on the HMSNZ Pukaki, operating around the Christmas Islands during the British nuclear testing in the late 1950s. “He saw every bomb go off,” Carole said. Being part of Operation Grapple (testing atomic and hydrogen bombs), Hank believed had impacted on their son Tony’s health. Tony became sick at the age of 13 with the rare diagnosis in one so young of sclerosis of the liver, which went on to affect his lungs and heart. He died in 2000, of cardiac arrest, aged 31. “Hank always blamed himself,” Carole said. The Government contributed $250,000 towards research into the effects of the testing but did not really acknowledge the harm, Carole said. “NZ Nuclear Veterans Association joined with the British equivalent and took it to court in England, but it never came to anything despite the men and their children dying early of unusual problems. “Though they did recognise a list of illnesses they would accept and pay a pension to them comparable to going to war.” In retirement, he and Carole visited the Christmas Islands on one of the cruises they went on. “He was shocked there were no manta rays or sting rays – there was nothing left.” Linda Moore, the Cowan’s middle child, said doctors couldn’t explain Tony’s condition but could not rule out the potential of chromosome damage caused by the radiation Hank was subject to. While at the islands during testing some men would fish on their shifts off and eat what they caught or go swimming but Hank never did. “He didn’t know why, he just felt it wasn’t right,” she said. He left the Navy in 1959 and the family moved to Timaru where Hank started working at the freezing works at Smithfield and Pareora. He became a watersider four years later and remained on the wharf until his retirement. Moore remembers her dad as being a great whitebaiter and family man. His favourite places were the Opihi River mouth and Smithfield during whitebait season. “[My parents had] an extremely happy and loving marriage and I learnt through Dad’s actions, very early on in my life, how a man should treat a woman. ‘’Dad set the bar unbelievably high when it came to me choosing a life partner,” Moore said. Many days he would take her to swimming at 6am and read the paper as she trained before he went to work and she went to school. When he had time to relax at home he would make home brew beer which he shared with friends and family. “He was humble, engaging and everybody liked him. He was welcoming and smiled a lot,” Moore said. A celebration of Hank’s life was held on December 2 at Betts Funeral Services. He is survived by his wife Carole, children Allan and Linda, and grandchildren Annabel, and Jack Cowan, and Patrick Moore. from JCs Royal New Zealand Navy https://ift.tt/3raynad via JCs Royal New Zealand Navy Ships and News https://ift.tt/3Go48CN |
AuthorJohn Currin served 15 years in the Royal New Zealand Navy and has retained an interest in naval, marine, military and happenings around the world. Archives
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