Tongan borders to open?

The Tongan government will announced its decision on whether to open its borders on Friday.

Tonga has remained free of Covid-29.

Tongans and others who work in Tonga stuck overseas are asking for special flights to take them back into the Kingdom. However, that has been delayed because government has stated it is not ready to cater for the influx of returning passengers.

Some Pacific countries have already started flying their own back into the countries, like Vanuatu, Solomons, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Cook Islands and Fiji.

Tongan workers head for warmer climes

Tongan seasonal workers in Australia have begun migrating to farms in the warmer parts of Australia as the winter season reduces harvests and working hours.

A seasonal worker in Tasmania told Matangi Tonga that more than 30 Tongans were set to migrate to Queensland this weekend.

The Australian government changed the rules governing seasonal workers during the Coronavirus pandemic to accommodate seasonal workers who were unable to return home because of the border closure.

The National Secretary of The Australian Workers’ Union, Daniel Walton said that during the coronavirus lockdown some Tongan workers were completely unemployed and relied on local assistance.

Chinese doctor honoured

A Chinese doctor is being inducted into the ‘Atenisi Institute’s Hall of Critics at a ceremony in Nuku’alofa tonight.

Ai Fen, the head of Emergency Services at Wuhan Central Hospital, was reportedly prevented by authorities from alerting the world about the severity of the Covid-19 outbreak as early as December.

The university dean at ‘Atenisi, Michael Horowitz, said the institute was the first in the world to award Dr Fen.

Dr Horowitz said Dr Fen was regarded as a national hero in China because of her courage and bravery to hold the government to account.

Prizewinning photo taken in Tonga

Brisbane underwater photographer Jasmine Carey has won the grand prize of $172,140 in the Hamdan International Photography award with her image of a humpback whale and its two-week old calf off the coast of Tonga.

The photograph was taken Vava’u in Tonga on July 30, 2019.

The calf was thought to be about two weeks old.

Nurses’ choir praised

World Health Organisation Assembly Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus has  praised nurses from Vaiola Hospital in Nuku’alofa who were due to sing at a WHO event in Switzerland.

“When we originally planned this year’s World Health Assembly, we invited that choir from Tonga — a choir of nurses and midwives — to perform and to mark the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.”

“COVID-19 has deprived us of that privilege,” the Director General said.

The nurses group had sung for the WHO leader during his visit to Pacific last year, sparking the invitation.

The nurses choir had prepared a special song for the Director General, but it’s keeping the details under wraps until they can perform it.

“We are keeping on to the song and waiting on a good time to release it,” she said.

Author “could have done better”

The Dutch historian and author Rutger Bregman has responded to backlash from the Pacific Islander community about his re-telling of a Tongan story, saying that he “could have done better”.

As reported in Kaniva News, Bregman’s latest book, Humankind: A Hopeful History, contains the story of six Tongan boys who were shipwrecked on ‘Ata Island for 15 months, before being rescued by an Australian sea captain in 1966.

An extract of the story garnered millions of readers when it was published by The Guardian and result in a film deal for the story.

Mr Bregman said criticisms of him not including the spirituality, culture, and the background of the boys as reasons why they survived so long on the island were fair.

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