Critical Literacy: the Bottom up Approach's first step!

10 September 2007

Fidel Castro, Cuba's ageing revolutionary, was driven by a dream! Back in 1959 he won control of Cuba and he planned to make his people the leading South American nation. But he faced a serious problem! Yes, Cubans for the most part were poor! And yes, few had much schooling! But poverty and lack of schooling wasn't exactly the problem. There was something much deeper! The problem he faced was clear as the great, big beard on his face: his people were miserably poor at reading and writing! In fact, most were illiterate!

He knew his people well! No matter how deep their yearning for the better life, in spite of them being truly blessed with rich soil, plentiful rain and a wonderful climate, they suffered a profound weakness. Too many of his people couldn't read or write! Basic math skills and a fundamental understanding of the world escaped them. No matter what his plans were, no matter how much money Cuba's sugarcane brought in to government's coffers still little change would take place if this profound people weakness--illiteracy--continued.

Fifty years ago, then, Castro saw the problem and determined to do something about it. Cuba wasn't a rich nation! It had a very hostile neighbor (USA) camped right on its door step and most of its people clamored for a bigger and stronger army, more government jobs, anything but literacy! But Castro stuck to his plans. No, before anything else he set in motion a national literacy project to tackle this national problem. And he succeeded! At this moment, for instance, Cuba enjoys a higher literacy rate than even the United States, twenty times richer!

In fact Cuba, among only a handful of countries worldwide, boasts of almost 100% literacy. We in the Solomons, for instance, in the very near future, this year in fact, will gain from Cuba's high literacy rate. More than 50 Cuban medical doctors will fly into our country to take up two-year residency to practice their medical skills in our many rural clinics. Next year perhaps another 100 more will be at post as well.

What does all this say about our own country! Our current literacy rate is close to what Cuba had fifty years ago . . . about 40% of our people are literate. Yes, over the years we made progress, from 24% for men to 19% for women, in the early 1990s to the current 4 out of 10 persons reading and writing. Unfortunately, the 1999 national census presented an over rosy picture of our literacy achievement. It's hard to accept that in less than 10 years the nation jumped from an average 25% in 1988 to 70% in 1999. No, our current rate is much lower and only slowly is it climbing to where it should be.

Some might think that the secret of Cuba's literacy success was Fidel Castro: the Strongman, the dictator, he forced his people to learn to read and write or else. Nothing is further from the truth! Yes, the Cuban leader made it clear that literacy was a national goal and everyone--men, women and even small children--were expected to learn this skill and quickly so. But the carrot rather than the stick was his favorite tactic! Not force, nor jail or anything like that. Students, trained in national schools, were expected to repay the government for their schooling by teaching their younger brothers and sisters and even their parents on their own time.

Currently, we in the Solomons miss out on our student population helping out in a national-run literacy campaign. For instance, I know of not a single Solomons school--primary, secondary or tertiary level--which teaches its students how to teach literacy. The next two months, for instance, our 4,000 students who recently sat their entrance exam for secondary school remain in class without taking any special training to help them to teach literacy to their brothers, sisters and parents. We have a huge workforce right under our noses waiting to be used to help the nation get on top of our illiteracy problem and we fail to use them.

This week Solomon Islands publicly recognizes the depth of our literacy problem. The first step in solving any problem is to accept that there is one and a serious one at that. Secondly. much like Cuba's Castro, we have to come up with a workable plan which tackles the problem head on using the resources at hand. It took Cuba less than five decades to turn a country around from illiteracy to full literacy. Our government's Bottom up Approach's first step, then, must be in this same direction.

J. Roughan
10 September 2007
Honiara

A brief history of Solomon Islands!

9 July 2007

We started off well enough, then went down hill. Our first years of independence were filled with promise but during the middle years we got ourselves lost and into trouble. Fortunately we have been given a second chance to start again. However, it's important to be clear where, how and why we failed in the first place.

From my lights, the 1978-1986 years were a period of growth, optimism and determination. The nation's transition from colony to independent state went off smoothly. During those years, we experienced no conflict, no bitterness, no healing of war wounds and overcoming deep seated hatreds. UK's $35 million golden handshake during this period allowed the nation to start off its bank balance in positive territory. Yes, in spite of the down turn in commodity prices--cocoa, copra, fish, etc.--across the world, we were still optimistic.

However, the nation was finding it hard to balance its books; medical, education and other social costs servicing villagers were rising higher by the month. In summary, in comparison to what was to come the nation's first eight years could claim to be Solomons' Golden Era!

Our collective troubles arrived with Cyclone Namu's destructive winds in mid-1986. Not only did this ferocious storm destroy Guale's rice crop, tear down many bridges, leave more than 100 of our people dead, it changed our leaders thinking. It was clear to our leaders that a prosperous and dynamic Solomons was going to take more than a few years of hard work. But the leadership and many of their followers were impatient. A short cut had to be found! Villagers' forest wealth was thought to be that short cut!

Politicians of all stripes--central government, provincial level and village leaders--thought they saw royal road out of poverty and a neat way to prosperity--round tree logging. During the 1986-1997 period, then, the round tree export of people's logs set a pattern. The growing volume of log exports was linked to a dubious development theory: Solomons only weakness was that it lacked sufficient funds. If log exports brought the country millions of dollars, then could development be far away?

Round tree logging exports did bring millions of dollars, not so much for the nation but for individuals, not necessarily those who actually owned the forest wealth. However, during these years the quality of people's daily lives in the rural areas began to serious slide. Basic health, education, transport and communication services weakened. In Guale's Weather Coast, for instance, these services dried up so badly that village life became poorer than what people had experienced during pre-independence years. Is it any wonder that the most bitter of conflicts took place on that coast? This period of Solomon's history is rightly called: The Leaden Era!

Ulufa'alu's 1997-2000 years of governance tried to address these gaps, to emphasize rural investment and bring the nation's political elite and moneyed power-brokers into line. Immediately, he faced three parliamentary motions of no confidence but what was happening outside the walls of that house ultimately proved too much for his government. By mid-1999, it became clear that a fundamental difference lay between those who ruled--the political elite--and those who were the real owners of the nation's resources--the villagers.

Thus began our Toxic Era: five years--1998-2003--of disarray, weakness and drift. Fortunately, had it not been the village sector with its strengths and determination, the nation would have sunk below the waves and would have been destroyed. Government institutions couldn't perform the basics of government--education, health and law and order. Villagers at the time basically fed the nation, kept young, elderly and the sick from disease and were the foundation pillar for peace and order.

In 2003, this unhealthy local scene changed dramatically. RAMSI, over the past four years, stiffened central government's backbone by strengthening its courts and prison services, revamping police personnel and re-ordering the nation's finances. It is clear that the solution to our foundational social and economic problems is best accomplished by enhancing The Basic Life--peace, social services and modest economic life for the majority (villagers) first--and then extending that goal to the urban centres. Not the other way around!

J. Roughan
9 July 2007
Honiara

Happy Birthday - SIDT!

11 June 2007

Twenty-five years ago, 6 May 1982, the Solomon Islands Development Trust began its reachout programs to the people of this nation. This week, 12-14 June 2007, its long term director, its founder and many of its workers will celebrate these 25 years of service. Old Staff members, although some many years retired, will return from their villages and provinces not only to celebrate SIDT's remarkable achievement, not only to renew old acquaintances but to reflect what made this small group of people tick. What was it about this tiny organization that kept it going in hard times as well as in good?

From the very beginning, SIDT was blessed by the presence of a strong Board of Directors, men and women, all Solomon Islanders, who were determined to make this newly founded NGO work and work well. Board members were not selected by name but the organization they worked for--NPF, SICA, Government, etc--sent their best representatives for monthly meetings. Reuben Moli, Malaita's recent Premier, for instance, was SIDT's first Board Chairman and held that position for many years.

A second most important strengthening pillar was the Board's determination that all donor funding would be carefully noted and spent exactly what it had been sent for. Yearly, then, SIDT's Board of Governors religiously ordered that an Annual Audit, done by an outside firm, would be conducted on the newly created organization. And so it was! For the following 24 years, each year, an external audit of SIDT's financial records was kept. To this day, each and every audit that has been accomplished remain part of this NGOs record base.

But as important as these two pillars are for any organization to grow and prosper, more, much more is needed. The coming together of two different personalities--Abraham Baeanisia, first director and John Roughan, advisor--brought a unique chemistry to the newly born. It's hard to over emphasize this special relationship since both individuals complemented the other in so many ways. Where Abraham was truly a village person, a born and bred Langa Langa, John's New York City urban roots was unmistakable as well. Abraham know everyone, in and out of government while John's connection with the Church, overseas groups and international connections proved to be a perfect match.

Even these strengths--dynamic Board members, yearly financial audits and a serious professional working admin team--would have never been enough to pull SIDT through 25 years of development work. What other things helped make this NGO tick for so many years?

Of course any NGO, whether from overseas or locally based, needs constantly to learn from its own workers but especially the people for whom it says it is working for. For instance, in the early 1980s SIDT's basic work pattern was to reach out to village people. What it saw there was the need for villagers to understand more deeply, be aware of and reply to the shifting meaning of development. Early on most villagers thought that all that was needed was money, lots of it, to accomplish their development goals. SIDT's approach emphasized the absolute need for community strength, organization skills and dynamic leadership to make any money received work well for the whole village and not just for the few.

But that development approach is not everyone's cup of tea! Simply visiting village groups and sharing this 'story' wasn't enough. During the late 1980s the organization began publishing a quarterly magazine, LINK; then it branched out into drama, having a men's touring theatre group soon followed by a women's theatre group. Still even with these added new ways of getting the development word out--village level workshops, LINK magazine, touring theatre teams--more was needed. It targeted governments of the day. Since 1989 it has conducted 7 separate Report Cards in which the people of the nation marked different governments how well or poorly it was doing in servicing their own people.

In the early 1990s, then, SIDT changed its tactics. Villagers themselves during this time taught SIDT as well. People's deeply seated feelings that, although they agreed that organizational understanding, awareness of local strong leadership and community empowerment was needed, they also made it quite clear that modest amounts of money were also vital to their progress. That is when SIDT pulled its touring teams off village visits and asked its workers to remain in their own districts demonstrating the four vital areas of The Good Life: sleeping under treated mosquito nets nightly, building a family toilet, planting a supsup garden and upgrading the family kitchen.

Looking back over the past twenty-five years history of SIDT is instructive. No matter what experts say, keeping alive a complex, multi-layered and dynamic institution is never a case of one or two things. Of course outside help in the form of dedicated people is essential. Then a proper chemistry among its workers is critical. Couple these elements with a vision/dream to make things better for the least of our people becomes achievable. And that is what SIDT has tried to do: "strengthen the quality of village living". These past years, then, have become the first chapter of a long history to come.

J. Roughan
11 June 2007
Honiara

Death, the profound mystery!

29 May 2007

Three of our Big Men--Joses Sanga, Bart Ulufa'alu and now, Lloyd Mapeza Gina--all have left us over the past month. Their passing away brings home, in no uncertain way, to each of us that the road they traveled will be ours as well. Some in the near future. For others, the passage of years must flow under the bridge called time but there's no doubt we too will travel the very same road. All are destined to die!

Some call death absurd! But absurd means that which has no meaning and cannot have meaning. Our God can and did not create an absurd world. For most of us, however, death is a mystery . . . something that has more meaning than we have understanding.

Pain and suffering are close relatives to their ugly 'Big Brother', death. But make no mistake about it, these three--pain, suffering and death--are firmly of the same family. All three lie at the heart of the mystery of life. To fully explain one of them would be to make all three clear at the same moment. But since Adam and Eve walked this earth no one, including Christ himself, fully explained death and its two sisters, pain and suffering. They lie, however, at the heart of why God created this kind of world and made all three parts of the normal pattern of living.

On 2 April Solomon Islands was forced to learn the very same painful lesson. The Western and Choiseul provinces' tsunami wiped away in a flash the lives of more than 50 of our people--the very old, the very young and those in the prime of their lives. Our Prime Minister publicly questioned the meaning of such an event. Why had the tsunami happened? Why did it hit us? He found no easy answers!

Some attempt to link the bottomless mystery of suffering and death with there being no God. How can a merciful and all loving God allow such suffering . . . the tiny infant thrown into a fire by a drunken rebel soldier, the mass gas attack by Sadan, Hiroshima, etc? Few of us think this way, however. Others link suffering, pain and especially death to God's punishment . These and similar questions Christ never answers. Instead of answering, Christ acts. Do we want answers to the death, pain and suffering mystery, then we find it at the foot of the Cross!

The Lord works and watches over his creation, which he loves, perhaps not with human love but with, in Dante's words "the love that moves the sun, the other stars."

Death's mystery was so close to us at the Bart Ulufa'alu's burial service at Holy Cross Cathedral on Sunday last. The country's elite--political, business, church leaders--confronted the ultimate in there lives. Death looked us all in the eye and boasted that everyone in that church would be traveling the road some time soon. For death, ten days, ten months or ten years are all the same.

The essential factor that Jesus introduces into the death mystery, however, is the absolute faith in the omnipotence of love. Jesus is a free man, the only truly free man, the only man who has loved and believed with sufficient daring both to free himself from fear, from money, from habit, from the law, and from death, and to free others from the same things. During his life the sick were freed of their infirmities, the greedy were liberated from their love for money, the lustful from needs of the flesh, sinners regained their innocence and even the dead were restored to life--Jairus' daughter, Lazarus, Jesus himself.

The reality of death over the past month has struck the nation like a lightning bolt. We are not only rational creatures but believing ones as well. Death leaves us gasping for understanding, for insight. God owes us nothing yet we are his children! These are the two ends of a chain which we hold in our hands but is tangled up at our feet. Both ends are real even if we can't explain how they are.

J. Roughan
29 May 2007
Honiara.

Cyclone Namu to the Tsunami!

23 April 2007

Cyclone Namu--June 1986--triggered off a ten year national downward spiral which ultimately lead to our Social Unrest years of 1998-2003. Could our recent Tsunami disaster be the first step to building up the nation for the 21st Century?

More than half our present population wasn't born when Namu's winds, the Solomons most destructive natural disaster in history, killed more than a hundred of our people, pulled down thousands of village homes, dozens of school buildings and literally washed away major bridges, road systems and wharfs. But in a more profound sense, Namu's physical destruction was less powerful than its psychological effect. Namu's cyclone winds were the first step that lead the Solomons to its toxic years of Social Unrest.

It's hard to believe people's great enthusiasm, hope even joy that they greeted Independence Day, 7 July 1978. At long last--85 years of colonial rule, 1893-1978--was ending. Our own 'boys' would now run the country, the national wealth of a vibrant population, significant natural resources of timber, food, fish, copra would fund our independent years and especially our people's dream and vision for a better life for all could now come about.

1978 through 1986, then, were the nation's Golden Years. Not that village life was easy but people had great hope. Unfortunately, the price of copra, fish, timber and palm oil weakened worldwide. What cost one bag of copra to buy in the 1970s, took 3 bags of copra by 1983. But for the people of that time, it didn't really matter! If we worked hard, pulled together, then great things could still happen. However, it became clear to certain leaders of that time that real development--reaching down to the village level--would take time, really years. They couldn't wait!

Newer leaders sang another song. Development happens best, they promised, if villagers sold their timber wealth. Cyclone Namu's destructive winds encouraged this kind of thinking. Round tree logging exports, these leaders said, was the royal road out of poverty. Log exports alone lead to national prosperity. Development planning and hard work were too slow. For 10 years--1987-1997-- then, the resource owners followed this poor advise and unfortunately, some parts of the Solomons still does.

When the Ulufa'alu government came to power in mid-1997, it tried to reverse this destructive trend but was opposed in and outside of Parliament by groups of leaders who had become quite rich and influential through the export of round logs. They were determined not to allow any kind of reversal even if it meant weakening the national fabric. This ten year period of time--1987-1997--, I call our Leaden Years!

But worse was to come. From 1998-2003. our Toxic Years, the organs of the state--police force, judicial and prison systems, central government's ministries of finance, medical and education, etc.--weakened considerably. The state failed its people in its most basic work of protecting them. The only bright spot in Solomons during this whole period was the villager's ability to keep the nation fed, secure, protected and hopeful. In fact the village sector was the major factor that jump started the economy from below zero in 2002 to a robust 5.8% in 2003, months before RAMSI landed on our shores.

This toxic period saw the Family Charity Fund sucking tens of thousands of dollars from the poorest of the poor. Taiwanese business houses promised millions of dollars if it could dump tons of toxic waste on unsuspecting villagers along Makira's Weather Coast. Conman, Noah Masingku, promised the Cabinet billions. National leaders claimed thousands of dollars by lodging fraudulent compensation claims. Other crooks were more direct! They brandished high powered weapons in the Ministry of Finance to demand thousands of dollars for dubious rights and claims. Government's response to this day light robbery was curious. It constructed an iron fence around the ministry. Government had no appetite to actually go out, search for the robbers and bring them to justice. These criminal acts and total disregard of the people dominated the national scene during these 5 years!

Thank goodness RAMSI came in and for the next four years--2003-2007--, brought us breathing space. Over the past few years, then, loyal officers and public servants re-vamped the police, re-vitalized the judiciary, prisons and public service and helped to bring back part of the dream and vision that sparked our earliest independence years. This four year period is our Restoration Era!

Now, am I too bold to assert that our recent Tsunami waves echo another new beginning? Do people sense a period of real recovery from a time of severe destruction and chaos? Are the dreams and visions of our first years of independence returning after our terrible Leaden and Toxic years have begun to disappear? Please share with us your thoughts along this line!

J. Roughan
23 April 2007
Honiara

Once bitten, twice shy!

16 April 2007

Solomons' citizens in Western and Choiseul provinces now know first hand the terrors of a major earthquake followed quickly on by tsunami waves. It's not an experience they want to live through a second time. Once and once alone is more than enough! Yet, these people can not simply pull up a few tent pegs, move down to their original seaside village site and be expected to start life all over anew. Some thousands of them have been badly 'bitten' and who blames them if they remain scared.

It wasn't merely a matter of a single major shake--8.1 on the Richter Scale--but the constant and continuous after-shocks, many registering over 5 and 6, which so traumatized them. In the two days following the main earthquake on 2 April, scientists world wide counted thirty other major rumbles in the same area. Each time the earth moved under their feet, Western and Choiseul people expected another massive wave crashing in and they were sent into bouts of fear and panic once again.

Couple their first hand experience of a heaving earth followed quickly by a massive sea water flood, and it wasn't surprising that the local rumor mill churned out false stories that with every newly felt shake a brand new disaster was on its way. Some times these rumor-stories would add a bit of color that a ship captain had witnessed sets of gigantic waves out at sea heading for Gizo which already had been pounded by the first big wave. People's reaction would be immediate: flee back to the safety of the foot hills and higher ground.

All their lives have been lived near and, in some cases, right over the sea. For as many years as olos of villages could recall, the sea had been a trusted friend. Didn't it provide abundant food--fish, shell fish, seaweed, etc.--all rich in protein. Wasn't it the only sure way of traveling from island to island to visit family and friends? How else could business be carried out in this watery world of ocean, sea and surf and islands unless by sea? Now?

How would sea resources be harvested again if the sea which had been so friendly to people for so long now seemingly had turned and become an enemy. Many think, 'Can we ever travel its waters again safely?' In the Indian Ocean's Great Tsunami, 26 December 2004, peoples of Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, etc. were also devastated by the sea much the same way that villagers in Western and Choiseul province were . The fishermen and people of Southeast Asia too suffered the same fears that now grip our own people. Now more than 3 years after their tsunami ordeal, still some of these people have yet to overcome their fear of the sea.

Hence, Government's post-tsunami rehabilitation plans, especially that of rebuilding home dwellings, is bound to run into the whole land issue. In the Solomons there is no such thing as 'un-owned land'. Although there may be pockets of contested land among village groups, and only a few islands have been completely surveyed, still 'free' land just doesn't exist. The State, in fact, owns precious little of that resource, less than 5% of the total 28,000 sq. km. which makes up Solomon Islands. Also, Government is not really at liberty to confiscate land from people and in the present case would simply compound an already serious problem.

But the present case of a people desperately in need of housing and given a situation that many victims are refusing to return to their original sea side dwelling, perhaps this is the time for an in depth review of land, its meanings, its uses.

Immediately after Cyclone Namu in mid-1986, a Washington-based organization--INTERTEC--sent a team of experts to assess Namu's destruction. Although it's been more than 20 years since this cyclone hit us, still our older people who experienced its force, do not forget at all its serious destruction, when more than 100 of our people died. INTERTEC's guiding principle is that the best time to introduce serious social change is immediately after a major disaster.

For example, Cyclone Namu highlighted how its high gusting winds destroyed many a village house because local building techniques--poor strapping of posts to joists, over use of nails (which had a tendency to rust in the near-sea conditions) rather than cane straps, etc.--had crept into villagers' house construction. INTERTEC's visit to the Solomons immediately after the cyclone alerted the government of the day to remind villagers to return to the stronger building codes of before which could better weather cyclone winds.

Post-tsunami days when rehabilitation will begin in earnest would be an excellent time to reshape village house construction, re-site new villages and in general review living too close to the sea. Already Climate Change is upon us! Not far in the future Climate Change will show its power in the form of higher sea levels, more severe storm patterns and perhaps our recent brush with a major earthquake and tsunami could act as a wake up call for the whole nation.

J. Roughan

16 April 2007

Honiara

Responding to a disaster!

10 April 2007

Immediately after our recent earthquake/tsunami disaster, it was a straight forward thing to count up our dead, missing and injured. Finding out how many homes. houses, buildings and personal possessions the tsunami wave destroyed, although more difficult to work out, is being addressed as these lines are read. The hardest thing to figure out, however, is how best to
respond to victims personal losses, deep psychological hurts and their feelings of total devastation.

Of course the trauma-effected villagers' immediate physical needs--food, shelter, water, clothing, medicine--are continually being rushed to the affected sites by ship, launch, aircraft and helicopter. Now exactly a week after the disaster struck on 2 April at 7:40 in the morning, many of the above mentioned goods, services and personnel--overseas and local--are reaching out and touching the majority of the 6,000+ victims.

But deep traumatic scars villagers, especially children, experienced are only now slowly surfacing. Almost a week after our Big Shake--an 8.1 earthquake immediately followed by major tsunamis--Solomon Islands National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) continues to process the many reports flooding into its Honiara office lying east more than 200 miles from the
quake centre.

The earthquake by Richter Scale standards was really a severe shake and because the under ocean epicenter was so close to the surface--about 10 miles deep beneath the earth--large roller waves were almost immediately felt in the vicinity. No early warning signal of impending wave action could have been sent. In fact, Australia's eastern coast facing the Solomons, more
than 900 miles from us, felt the very same wave action less than 3 minutes after the first major tremor hit us. Imagine Solomons' villagers sitting less than 20 miles from the quake's epicenter!

Our death toll currently stands about 40 but, unfortunately, is on the rise. Missing people who were thought to have escaped to the hills behind the typical village are now too often being found under the debris of their collapsed homes and buildings. Our death toll would have been far higher, however, had not two factors played their part in keeping many of our village people from perishing.

Unlike the great Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 Dec. 2004, ours rushed ashore only minutes after the big shake at 7:40 when the vast majority of people were already out of their homes, getting ready for garden work, going about business and living the typical village life pattern. It was literally a life saving experience for them to actually see and feel the strange goings on of the ocean fronting their villages. Reefs, never before seen, now lay exposed. Erratic wave action--up and down the beach in rapid succession--put fear into people's hearts.

The second saving factor that proved helpful was the very word tsunami. This strange expression was no longer a foreign sounding word but one that carried deep meaning. Many had seen TV footage or at least had heard about the terrible events in the Indian Ocean only a few years back. It didn't take people more than a few seconds to put two and two together to what was happening as they stood mutely in front of a seething ocean. Mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, older siblings, etc. snatched up the smallest of children, ran for their lives to higher ground without turning back to homes for extra clothing, food or anything else. Their most precious possessions, their kids, came first. All else was secondary.

The NDMO is also looking beyond the tsunami victims most pressing immediate needs--food, shelter, clothing, water, medicine, etc.--to the deep scars generated by the earthquake and devastating waves. As in the Indian Ocean tsunami victims, fishermen who had made their lives from the sea now feared it so much as to refuse to return to the sea, to go out fishing. What had
been their friend for many years, now, in a twinkling of an eye, had became a distrustful enemy.

Tsunami affected children are even more at risk. They do not have the words, the vocabulary, to describe their feelings, their hurts from this upsetting incidence. Specially trained trauma counselors will have to come in and be part of any emergency response team. At this moment, the NDMO is actively searching for just such persons. The serious wave action of last week may
have returned to the sea but its movement still swills around Western and Choiseul people's minds and hearts to this day.

J. Roughan
10 April 2007
Honiara

Failing the Farmer!

2 April 2007

Worldwide there is a concerted effort to push small farmers off their land! This type of action is taking place in spite of the fact that more than half of the world' 6 billion people keep body and soul together through their own efforts to produce the food necessary to feed the whole world. Yet, strong forces are hard at work to force the small farmer, the peasant, the tiller of the soil to abandon their lands.

The reasoning behind such moves is not hard to find. Large, industrialized and urban populations think that the best way to produce food is through the corporate farm structure. Obviously, these huge, agricultural industries produce vast amounts of food, vegetables, fruit, grain, etc. but at serious, expensive and climate-changing costs. Their production methods include absorbing tremendous amounts of water, using serious amounts of chemicals and they have an insatiable thirst for ever scarce fossil fuels. To insure that these serious and mounting investment costs are repaid and repaid at great profit, people across the globe must be forced to buy, certainly not
produce, their own food. Having small farmers who currently feed the majority of people across the world doesn't fit well in with the need for corporate profit.

Our own small farmers on the other hand can not be faulted in the overuse of precious fresh water. The rains alone are the only water they use. Because chemicals and fertilizers are so costly our gardeners hardly make use of them in their food production techniques. Our women gardeners rarely, if ever, depend upon fossil fuel consumption--petrol, kerosene, diesel--to
produce a healthy harvest of organic food.

Our nation's 'Bottom Up' approach--raising the quality of village living--directly fights this modern-day movement. The present government's accent on rural development is not simply an add on to everything else that a government does but the village focus lies at the very core of what it intends to follow for the next three years. Fortunately, our efforts to travel this direction are attracting other like-minded nations. Some of these lie on the other side of the globe and sincerely applaud what they see is going on here in Solomon Islands.

India, for instance, with its 1/2 a million (yes, half a million) villages--as many villages as we have people--is naturally attracted to other nations wedded to the idea of strengthening the lives of village people. When the newly appointed India's High Commissioner, Mr. Satya Mann,
presented his credentials to our Governor General and Prime Minister last week, he went out of his way to promise India's help to our small farmers.

During his formal talks with the PM, Mr. Mann was already promising to send specialists in rural farming to visit our people. He also asked for dedicated teams from our own country to officially visit his country to study how India responded to the needs of the back bone of Indian food
production, its village people. He was particularly outspoken in assuring us that our 'Bottom Up' approach was the wave of the 21st Century.

That is why India's promises to assist our food producers to become more efficient, more connected with the market and more self-reliant is welcome news to government's efforts to reach out to our village population.

But in this very same arena of international assistance, Taiwan, Cuba, Venezuela and Iceland are also singing from the same page as the Solomons. Recently, for instance, Taiwanese food experts traveled to the Solomons to show our farmers the worth of value added products to raise their income levels.

We are all aware of how many pineapples, mangoes and bananas land in our market during the November-February months each year. December, as we know, is our pineapple and mango period. Honiara's Main Market at that time is overloaded with these fruits. We truly have a glut of a good thing. Taiwan's experts, however, demonstrated how the typical farmer, especially the youth of a village, could begin to line their pockets with impressive amounts of money by preserving these fruits, making jams and jellies and drying these delicious fruits for package sales in stores around the country.

But government efforts don't stop there. It currently makes available $10 million in soft loans for farmers to begin small income generating projects focusing on adding value to the crops that the farmers already produce.

Isabel currently markets coffee, Western Province cans tuna, some provinces are eyeing vanilla production and still others are testing out the making of fruit jams and jellies. The Government's $10 million dollar soft loan offer is only a warm up. If local production takes off, then serious amounts of money will be made available. Our Melanesian Spearhead Group, also would
more than welcome these value-added products. These are different ways of helping our farmers, not failing them!

J. Roughan
2 April 2007
Honiara

You've come a long way!

26 March 2007

It seems so long ago but in fact it was only 'yesterday' when one thinks in terms of Solomons' history! Today's story begins in 1958. It was my first experience with gathering children for our small school in Tarapaina, Small Malaita. I had only come recently landed in country sailing from Australiaand I was completely raw to Solomon Islands life.

Traveling along Malaita's East Coast by small launch I was tasked to pick up school children for our small school located at the northern end of Small Malaita. When I would arrive at a coastal village I was suppose to convince parents, especially the father of a child, that it would be great thing for him and his whole family if one of their young offspring would return withme to our small school.

It proved to be a hard selling job! Convincing parents of those days to allow their little ones to travel to a distant school more than three hours away by hard rowing was not something they easily accepted. However, when I thought a father of a child was beginning to come around to my way of thinking, I resorted to a bit of bribery. Producing two sticks of tobacco--a strong currency of that time--out of my hand bag, I was able to convince most fathers that it was a good idea to have at least one of their childrengo to school.

So there it was! School fees during the late 1950s was two sticks of tobacco that I gave the father of the school child. When I tune in these days and listen to SIBC's nightly Surface Messages sent by different schools across the country, I'm speechless. Today's schools now demand hundreds, even thousands of dollars, which parents somehow find and pay it out, year afteryear.

Within in a few years, however,--the 1960s and 1970s--many schoolmasters were actually asking for and getting school fees. Modest amounts, for sure, by today's 'big money' standards but a whole lot more than what I wasreceiving only ten or so years before.

In less than 50 years, then, how far this nation has traveled. In the late 1950s I was forced to bribe a parent to send a child to school. Now, parents actually line up in front of the school, hand over hundreds and in some cases, thousands of dollars to secure class room places for their childrenin schools across the nation.

Back in the late 1950s, as said above, it was hard work convincing a parent to allow his child to attend school, doubly hard if the child was a girl. Yet, slowly, very slowly, people's view of education began to shift. Families experienced the difference that an education could do for their
children. The educated child, at that time basically Standard 7 for the majority, won the job, the overseas university place, the government position, etc.

In other words, it didn't take Solomon Islanders centuries to recognize now valuable education was even if it demanded an investment of 'big bucks' paid up front. The villagers' Education Love Affair has journeyed far. They had originally thought that schooling, education, training being 'a while man's thing' to a worthwhile investment for Solomon Islanders. Society, in less than 50 years, had turned a corner! What had been seen as a strange, foreign idea has now became main stream and has become a major influencethat defines present day Solomons life.

These personal memories are shared with those workers who currently labor in the nation's development trenches, those working to have more women in the halls of power, youth seeking employment, etc. My villager experience has been an eye opener. These people are not dumb, not completely welded to the past and certainly not simply locked into old ways of doing things just because they have always been done that way. Yes, my story of the 'two sticks of tobacco' turning into 'thousands of dollars' took a few decadesbut it shows that it can be done.

J. Roughan
26 March 2007
Honiara

Barbeque smoke says it all!

5 March 2007

The smell of barbequed smoke in the wind announces to one and all that some good things are on the way. The sweet-smelling smoke sends a welcome signal to an anxious and hungry people that sausages, chicken wings, tuna steaks, etc are about ready. This is one way of describing where the Grand Coalitionfor Change Government finds itself at present.

People across the nation have been smelling the political barbequed meat--strengthening the quality of village life, rural development and the 'bottom up approach' for the past nine months and they hungrily await theirturn to finally taste this meal.

In reality, however, villagers have been promised this barbequed meal since 1978. It took 20 years of frustrated waiting but in 1998, they had had enough. After all wasn't this their country! Didn't they own more than 95% of its land, trees, rivers, reefs and fishing areas? More than 84% of them made up the overwhelming majority of the population! And still they hadn't once tasted the barbeque meal in almost thirty years! Their patience snapped and the nation witnessed five years of Social Unrest.

But I think this time things have really changed. Solomon Islanders now smell the odor of the barbeque meat, it's become stronger and stronger since May last year when the new government took charge of the cooking. In past years governments of the day always told villagers to wait. The meat wasn't cooked well enough! Even the GCC government was forced to delay its work until Parliament recently gave the green light to the 2007 Budget. Now,
finally, the budget has been passed.

Fortunately, the government has not been quietly sitting by waiting for the meal to be properly cooked. Last week, for instance, its servants--Cabinet Ministers and their Permanent Secretaries--have been learning how to be better servants, to carefully cook the barbeque, to prepare a meal well, etc. The Commonwealth Foundation working out of its London office sent a
team of top chefs to the Solomons to conduct a three-day servants workshop to strengthen our own local servants and to teach them to cook better.

The workshop was more about the quality of Parliamentarians' and Permanent Secretaries' work ethic and much less about marketing and packaging. It stressed programs, services and products than advertising and public relations. In other words even if the government can boast of an attractive logo or catchy tagline--Bottom Up Approach--the target audience, the village
and the villager, must not be allowed to once again experience all sizzle and no steak. If this happens, it won't take long for our people to see only smoke and realize there's no meat on the grill!

But the exercise of touching the basic lives of village people in practical ways is the responsibility of all Solomon Islanders. Of course the Chief Cooks (MPs) and their senior waiters (PSs) are only the first in a long lineof other workers, not all on the government payroll.

That's why the GCC Government recognizes Church groups with their unequalled village-based structures, the NGO sector with its outreach commitment and villagers themselves as not only necessary but important lines of workers bringing the barbequed meal to those sitting furthest fromthe kitchen.

For too long village people have had to suffer the pain of sitting at the head table and then watching others wolf down the barbeque meal that had really been cooked for them. At long last, we now have a chance to change this event and get the owners of the nation sitting down at the head tableand enjoying the barbeque at long last..

J. Roughan
5 March 2007
Honiara

Village Life Still Counts!

19 February 2007

A village person's world view is fundamentally different from the urban person's understanding of how the world works. And the villager's world view has been created in large part by actually living on top of one's resource base. We in town, on the other hand, for the most part try to live on top of another resource base--money. That's why our most important 'garden' is either Westpac, ANZ or NBSI. For it is from this 'garden' that we draw our daily sustenance of food, shelter, power, drink, etc. The ATM, for instance, is our favorite 'garden tool' and in some ways our only tool.

Villagers, on the other hand, draw their daily food sustenance, water, shelter, recreation, etc. from a resource base which they actually own and for the most part, control. They live their lives atop of their own resource base. We in Honiara need to feed the ATM with our bi-weekly cheques from our work patterns before we are able to withdraw money out of the system. Villagers--making up more than 84% of Solomons people--radically differ from their urban cousin in their view of how the world works and is the basic reason why much rural development over the past 30 years hasn't worked as well as it should have.

Much rural development has been driven by urban people, many from overseas but not a few of our own leaders, whose agenda, consciously or unconsciously, is to convert the villager to become pale imitations of themselves. Would this fact be at the bottom of villagers fierce reluctance and unwillingness to part with their most precious resource, their land?

Last Saturday's very public signing in Auki of the Aluta Basin landowners giving permission for land surveys to begin for an oil palm plantation will be watched with great interest by Malaita people and the rest of the islanders as well. I am convinced that the present work--identifying the real landowners, seeking their permission for the survey process to begin and bringing them on board in such a public way, as important as it is, will be the easy part. Without a constant, continuous and consistent awareness and education reachout to the villagers of that area, then the project is apt to flounder. As said above, the village person's world view on the meaning of land is quite different from the modern world's understanding of it.

Yes, village and urban lives have been growing closer over the years. But not as quickly as had been predicted by the experts for years now. When I first came ashore in Honiara in 1958, the town boasted 2,300 people, about the same number of those who currently sell vegetables, fruit, fish, etc. on a busy Saturday morning at Central Market. Over the past fifty years, then, even though Honiara and the provincial towns have seen dramatic increases in population, the percentage of people opting for the urban life has been modest.

The 1976 Census, for instance, showed the Solomons with a 12% urban population. Now more than 30 years later, the urban population still remains modestly low, no more than 16%. In other words, the Solomons urban population has no doubt grown but at a much lower rate than had been predicted in the mid 1970s. Many thought that Solomons people would be abandoning village life and heading for the lights and delights of urban life. Honiara alone would be attracting many more thousands than it actually has. Why hasn't this urban drift prediction--true for many developing countries worldwide--come to pass in our own country?

Few will argue that village life is the easier one compared to town dwelling. Most Honiara citizens know quite well that village living is physically demanding and time consuming for life's simplest of tasks. A cup of instant coffee, for example, can easily take 25 minutes or longer to collect fire wood, bring in water, cook and finally serve. Yet, each December Honiara noticeably thins out when so many of us head for our home village knowing full well that most have no running water, few boast of toilet or shower facilities and the typical meal is bland.

Yet, as ship owners delightfully tell you, their ships departing Honiara in the early weeks of December are filled to overflowing. Police are at full alert monitoring these ships from actually sinking at the wharfs with so many passengers in full flight from town returning to village life.

What is it then that continues to attract so many of us back to village life even if only for a few short weeks? It certainly can't be the ease of travel! Spending 12, 18 and 24 hours or more on a crowded slow ship with few amenities puts off the bravest of travelers. The ticket cost to travel on these 'cattle barges' goes up yearly, yet still they leave town and head for their village.

Some say that returning to village life, even for a short period, is a way of recharging their internal batteries for the rest of the year of town living. I would go a step further! Returning to village life is a re-confirmation of the Melanesian world view: they do not own the land but the land owns them!

J. Roughan
19 February 2007
Honiara

Track 1 AND Track 2!

5 February 2007

Let's call Track 1, the government sponsored. It's the one that grabs all the attention, gets newspaper front page coverage and everyone talks about it. Massive amounts of money--almost a billion dollars this time--thousands of workers (called Public Servants) and tons on plans are focused on making Track 1 work.

This week, in fact, Track 1 remains high on the nation's agenda. Parliament currently sits to debate the 2007 Budget. Literally millions of dollars are at stake. Ministries of Education, Health and the other 18 ministries will get Parliament's official OK to spend millions and millions of dollars to accomplish their work of educating our kids, keeping our smallest, oldest and ordinary citizens well and healthy and keep the rest of the nation ticking over by working the justice system, etc. etc.

But Track 1 tells only 1/2 our national story. As important to the well being of country, there is a Track 2 at work taking on more and more national life and is coming on strong. Track 2 work is about what happens outside of government, outsides of political life and mostly outside the flow of government finance. Some call Track 2 the private sector!

Often Track 2 takes place in broad daylight, gets on with its dreams and makes big differences to peoples lives but quietly with little fanfare and fuss. Take the example of the Boy Scouts who recently rented AMY's fast food outlet located near Westpac Bank. The place is alive with customers from before 8:00 in the morning to well after 7:00 in the evening. At least 30 young people, boy and girl youths, wearing bright yellow T-shirts, smiling all the time, serve you your favorite fast food.

Here's a Track 2 enterprise getting on with it, making a difference in the city's life with hardly an adult in sight. But this is but one example which is beginning to root all over the place. Sophia Chottu, over the past two years, has organized more than 50 workers to take up fruit picking jobs in New Zealand. She's back at it again this year with more than a 100 Solomon Islanders making serious plans to show how villagers can take on the world and make good money doing it overseas.

Track 2 people are found all over the place. They see an opening and before anyone realizes it they have plans to make a profitable go at a new work. No waiting around for a government grant or political directives but simply these entrepreneurs put on their thinking caps and get on with making money for themselves and for others. For instance, some Solomon Islanders are supplying leading fast food places with tasty and nutrious backed goods, cakes and pastries. Others make the sale of flowers, floral arrangements and garden shrubs their favorite income generating method.

The bulk of our people, obviously, are not sitting down bemoaning their fate. Women, especially our garden wealth makers, bring the Honiara Market alive six days a week. First time visitors to these isles are introduced to the Honiara Market and come away from a brief visit with true appreciation of how much and the variety of food Solomons women produce. Just the daily selection of banana types, cabbage varieties and fruits--pineapple, mango, pawpaw, lemons, etc.--on a constant and continuous basis is an indication of women's wealth production techniques. All of these wealth producers are Track 2 people getting on with life drawing from their own substance with hardly a nod from the Track 1 people.

Of course both Track 1 and Track 2 are bound up with each other. Both are needed by the other to make the Solomons hum as before. Track 1 is about foundations. Getting and keeping peace is foundational. Without a solid justice system--policing, courts and prisons--all other levels go up in smoke. But quality education, well stocked health sites, reliable transport and improved communication links are the serious business of Track 1's work. No one else--business houses, churches, non state actors--rarely want to take on Track 1's work.

Yet without this sort of foundation work rooting and growing, Track 2 work just wont make it. I haven't mentioned bigger enterprises--John Volrath's biodiesel out at Ranadi, Colin Dyer's Virgin Oil production in 18 village groups, etc.--which are also in Track 2. With these and Solomon Islanders entrepreneurs working together, then Track 1 has a solid future as well.

J. Roughan
5 February 2007
Honiara

A new era begins?

29 January

On Tuesday, 30 January, Solomon Islands and Australian relations take a major step towards the normality that were their hallmark of recent by gone years. Our newly appointed High Commissioner, Victor Ngele, former MP for southern Guadalcanal, presents his credentials to his host in Canberra. On the very same day, probably at the very same hour, Australia's newly appointed High Commissioner, Mr Peter Hooton, will do the same here in Honiara.

However, in a step out of the ordinary, the whole of Solomons' Cabinet will be present when Mr. Hooton presents his papers to the Prime Minister. This unprecedented step, small in its own way, sends a distinct message that the Solomons is looking for a more normal and productive relationship with our close neighbor to once again root, one far different from the strained one that dominated both countries over the past few months.

But as important as this fence mending exercise is for both countries, it may well pale into insignificance to the milestone that should occur at the end of the same week. The whole of Parliament will have its first peek at the Government's 2007 budget. This long-awaited village/villager accented budget of the Grand Coalition for Change Government (GCCG) kicks into high gear once Parliament sets its seal of approval and gives its permission to begin the national rural revolution.

So many of last year's distractions--the motion of no confidence, the Moti Affair, the departures of Patrick Cole and Shane Castles, etc.--which ate up so much time, energy and resources should be put behind us. The next three years, 2007-2009, belong to our rural people, their lives and their dreams. It is hoped that these and other distractions will be worked through, creative solutions found and a genuine partnership be re-awakened on all sides.

The newly minted budget puts 'diesel' into the Ship Of State's engine. Rural people's dreams, visions and aspirations must now become the goal, objective and end of government work. Ministries and state agencies can no longer claim that they don't have the proper authority or that funds are not available to make things happen for village people. That's why the Budget process is so important. In black and white, clear for all to see, the budget allows government to move ahead.

Some changes, however, may not seem like much to an average villager. A bridge there, a newly repaired road over here or an up graded water supply for some village deep in the bush may not, in their eyes, seem like a big deal. But from the GCCG's point of view, it is these basic investments in ordinary people's lives that are the first step for the majority of our people to be able to leave The Poor Life and enter into The Basic Life. It will take more than three years, however, for the bulk of our people to dream of living The Good Life!

Of course the first three years--2007-2009--is about fundamentals. After all the Solomons since 1893, over a 113 years of colonial and local misrule, have concentrated government efforts either in Tulagi (pre-war period) or in Honiara and centered economic life basically in the nation's one city. The fundamental building block in creating the current new direction, however, is less about money, plans and personnel but more about a strengthening partnership with the village and the villager.

Around the development table, then, the villager brings a formidable presence. Not only do they have the numbers--84% of the population--, not only do they literally, through their clans, lines and tribes, own the country--92% of the trees, ground, rivers, reefs, etc--but it is they who proved themselves the indispensable glue that kept this nation ticking over during its five years--1998-2003--of Social Unrest. Government officers, donor groups and professional planners are naked in comparison. That's why a creative partnership of the rural majority, government officer, RAMSI personnel and overseas donor is essential for the national future.

Good and strong relations with our southern neighbor remain essential. A budget focused on the well being of the majority of our people is critical. RAMSI's continued work in major areas of concern is needed. But all these elements are only conditions where 'miracles' could happen. In a sense, if these elements come about, then that's the easy part. Villager hard work, official dedication, RAMSI sensitivity and a mighty dose of God's blessing on our whole enterprise is now the order of the day to bring about the new era.

J. Roughan
29 January 2007
Honiara

Short term fix for long term problems!

22 January 2007

The long term issue of a solid and growing-in-strength relationship between Solomon Islands and Australia is in the best interest of both nations. Forever both nations physically float together in the same ocean next to each other . . . neither will ever drift away from the other! Their hundreds of years of close interaction through the world of commerce, education, governance stands, inter-personal actions have grown uniquely over the years. Both countries are currently trying their best to strengthen these mutual ties.

However, the recent 3 1/2 years of extremely close, almost emotional, ties, have turned out to be the hardest, multi-level and unique joining of two different countries, compared to anything in their past 200 years history. Both countries currently climb steep learning curves! Rather than a curve, however, it looks more like a line straight up wards.

Unfortunately, neither nation has a ready made blueprint to follow in order to put each other's actions/reactions into some kind of perspective. The recent dust up about police training with firearms is currently a typical point of disagreement.

Let's be quite clear on the issue. The SIG/RAMSI disagreement is not about Solomons embarking on flooding the nation with the importation of thousands of small arms. It is not about bringing in new weapons but solely about training police staff in the proper use of weapons once they do enter the nation. A recent RAMSI plan was to have police training in gun practice but that was to be sometime in the future. The former Police Commissioner had even specified exactly which firearms, their exact cost and best place to access them would be best for the police force to import.

RAMSI police, then, already had plans drawn up to introduce this very training. SIG had repeatedly, over months, requested from police authorities for this training to be focused on the Close Personal Protection Unit. This is the special police unit which is geared up to provide protection--special driving skills, self defense methods and firearm instruction--to protect the PM, VIPs and other dignitaries. Since RAMSI was unwilling to introduce this skills set to the PM's Personal Protection Unit at an early date, the government asked Taiwan to help secure this necessary training.

Unfortunately, RAMSI in its wisdom scuttled the government's initiative. How a third nation--Australia--can reinterpret Solomon Islands' government's request for firearm training from another nation seems strange to say the least. The question must be asked: "Who in the world is really in charge of the country. RAMSI or SIG?"

No one in government is talking about introducing or importing fresh firearms into the Solomons. Never that I am aware of has the present government made any plans to re-introduce new firearms. It's about national leadership perceiving a serious gap in its required protection of its citizens. Government initially asked RAMSI to provide this service, already at hand in its police presence, but received a negative answer. The Solomons, then, decided to seek help from a third country. When it did so, it was over ruled and told that this was not the proper time for firearm training. Such training would be more appropriate at a later date!

Canberra threw its weight around internationally and convinced Taiwanese authorities that the Solomon's police now in Taipei would not be trained in firearm use. But further questions are now on the table! During the up coming June/July period when the Intervention Legislation is to be reviewed, it's doubtful that this kind overbearing presence will be easily forgotten. Was dialogue--taking into account Solomons and Australian views on the need and the timing of training for safe use of fire arms--ever part of discussion?

It would be best for both parties, then, to deepen dialogue on a range of issues before they become unmanageable. One thing for sure, however, Solomon Islands' understanding of its people, its institutions and its future remain first and foremost in the hands of its own elected officials. Invited friends and guests no matter how well versed they think they are on the state of the nation and where the nation should be heading must learn deeply who is in charge.

J. Roughan
22 January 2007
Honiara

The Basic Life reduces The Poor Life!

8 January 2007

Fundamental to Solomon Islands people's 21st century reality is that most are living The Poor Life. While many a leader may crow about how the Wontok System keeps food on the table, a roof over the head and security for all, the reality is something else again! Wontokism--a few 'visitors' sponge off a poor urban family for food, lodging, entertainment, transport, etc.--is literally tearing the typical Honiara family to shreds. Fortunately on the village level, it's much less so, but even there this system weakens families as much as it is suppose to help them. In today's cash society, Wontokism drains more than helps!

Over the next 3 to 4 years, then, government's work is becoming clear. It must demonstrate by its attitude, priority setting and public servant commitment that it can bring about a massive change for most islanders living The Poor Life. The Solomons majority must start to live The Basic Life. What then is The Basic Life?

The most important component in The Basic Life is peace, peace and still more peace. Without this reality operating on all levels of society, then, overseas aid, trained personnel, inspired plans and truly hard work, the majority of people living in poverty will not shift much.

But peace means a whole lot more than no fighting, no guns or armed conflict. Villagers, for instance, must be certain in the depth of their hearts that the "workers of chaos' in and around their areas will be quickly caught, even more quickly jailed after they have faced the workings of the court system spread throughout the nation. Each step in the Law & Order process, however, calls for a robust and well trained police force, vibrant court processes and both supported by a well managed prison system. And RAMSI's presence on all these levels--police, courts and prisons--is vital and essential. At present peace has only begun to creep back to its rightful position.

As the peace process deepens, villagers (I speak of more than 84% of the total population) must experience first hand Quality Education, the primary high road out of poverty. (Another primary reducing poverty road is the world of work, jobs and self employment.) Quality Education starts in Kindy classes runs right though to primary, secondary and university studies. No single sector, e.g. university, is more important than the other. University studies, for example, should never receive the lion's share of government funding. Loan schemes for university students, administered by commercial banks and guaranteed by overseas donors should be part of any Quality Education system.

Closely allied to Quality Education is a network of village aid posts, ward clinics, provincial hospitals right through to the National Referral Hospital. Each of these medical establishments lie at the heart of a health system which must span the nation. Picture a bicycle tyre! The rubber wheel touches the road but is supported by a steel rim frame (ward clinics) attached to thin, steel spokes (provincial hospitals) all leading to the centre hub (National Referral Hospital) which binds the whole health system working as a unit.

But a growing Quality Education system working with a strong medical establishment takes us only half way for a typical Solomon Islander to enjoy The Basic Life. An island nation's life blood is found in her transport services. A major reason why Guale's Weather Coast people got unglued during the Social Unrest years (1998-2003) was due its many years of severe isolation. Weather Coast's murders, rapes and destruction would have hardly taken place had there been adequate shipping and transport available over the previous 20 years to pick up people's cocoa, copra and crops.

Closely connected to the need of reliable and affordable transport is the absolute need for communication linkages. That a nation of 65 languages has only managed two community radios is profoundly embarrassing. In spite of a worldwide messaging capability offered by computer, internet, TV, cell phone miracles, etc. we struggle still to voice contact 84% of our people on a regular, sustained and consistent basis.

It's no wonder, then, that in spite of being so rich a nation--food abundance, housing material, fresh water sources, fish surplus, etc.--we still are locked into poverty. Investment in transport and communication links remain firmly in the early 20th century.

Government's work for the next three years--quality education, working health system, transportation and communication links--is to move our people from The Poor Life to that of The Basic Life.

J. Roughan
8 January 2007
Honiara

SIG/RAMSI Sing Together!

2 January 2007

Both Solomons Government and RAMSI are actively working together for a strong, more dynamic, productive and peaceful Solomon Islands. Both institutions know that only a vibrant population, engaged people and honest, efficient and effective government can bring this goal about.

What they disagree on, however, is how best to accomplish this re-invigorated Solomons. Islanders already have a first hand experience that the colonial model--over centralized government structures, a Honiara-focused economy and both so easily captured by society's elite--is definitely not the way forward.

Major components of this standard model started back in 1893 and significantly strengthened after the nation's 1978 independence. Great Britain's 85 years of stewardship of these islands (1893-1978) followed the prevailing wisdom of the day. Colonial officers declared that the only way a scattered, far-flung group of villages could enter the modern world was to create a nation-state. Centralize the whole enterprise was the cry of the day!

But in 1978 there were already murmurs of dissent about this plan. The Western Province, for instance, was not terribly impressed by the over centralization of the government of the day. To show its deep displeasure, it refused to join the independence movement until a year later in 1979! Unfortunately, over the ensuing 28 years,1978-2006, this same failing model rooted all the more deeply.

During that period, we duped ourselves into believing that the best way of fashioning a nation was to simply strengthen state trappings--own currency, a national anthem, create ministries, hold free and fair elections, etc.--took the place of a people working together to build a nation.

In this whole exercise, however, the foundational reality of the Solomons--the village and the villager--was more and more marginalized. They who even in today's calculations make up more than 84% of the nation's population, control the nation's tree wealth, productive soil, fish the reefs and oceans were systematically and systemically placed at the fringe of society's decision making processes. And the process continues to this very day. In fact, since 2003, central government's dominance on all levels grew at a faster rate than at any time since independence.

The second pillar of modernization, a strong and vibrant market economy, remains over centralized in Honiara. Historically these two pillars of modern state building--centralization of the power with the elite and focused economic structures in one area--rooted in Tulagi before World War II, migrated to Honiara in 1945 and has remained embedded there ever since.

The Grand Coalition for Change Government means to reverse this 113 years--1893-2006--of over centralization of both governance and the national economy. Its 'bottom up approach', rural development accent (I prefer calling it 'strengthening the quality of village living') begins in earnest this year, 2007. Once its new budget has been passed at the end of January, there must not be any delay in beginning to reverse 113 years which reduced the heart of the nation, villagers, to be mere spectators in the creation of their own future.

Make no mistake about it. Once the GCC Government's views take hold it's not about a few more rural development projects, a bit more RCDF funding but the beginning of a profound shift. The shift will mean a lot less of Honiara in the picture but more the province but especially the village and the villager.

What could this reality look like? How will the nation know its happening? Tune in next week when I share my vision of what a village-led Solomons could look like. In particular, how villagers' Poor Life must give way to The Basic Life! Ultimately The Good Life must be the lot of most village people and a lot less of The High Life for many of the 'high flyers'.

J; Roughan
2 January 2007
Honiara