Paradise Lost

In Choiseul paradise has been lost.

While people have been talking; the place that captivated me in 2010 has been given up for dead. The caretakers have been too busy naval gazing to see that there isn’t an indefinite time available   in which to save the place that many hold in such high regard, the traditional name Lauru is often used to highlight its uniqueness. These so called caretakers to act to challenge the culture. The burden is on those that are meant to be elders and considered community leaders or chiefs. The burden is on the Lauru Land Conference to actually do something rather than just be a retirement home for former political leaders and identities who once had ideas of relevance. The burden is on those with good educations to leave the false luxury of Honiara and move to the provinces and do something rather than continue endless banter on social media. The burden is on the donors and NGOs to start realising that the most well intentioned efforts are failing as they have no link to address with economic needs of the province of its people. The burden is on people at the village level to stand up, have a voice and critique the mistakes being made, in a culture that does not encourage speaking out. To speak out before it’s too late if it isn’t already.

I keep getting told about culture, but a culture that turns a blind eye to the raping of its resources is a culture that is in trouble both spiritually and economically.  Equally no one can actually tell you what culture is in Choiseul.

People often say that logging is required for development, but you only need to look as far as Poroporo village to see the fallacy of this argument.  It’s a village that looks reasonably impoverished even though there has been a fair amount of money from logging and the income from the sale of land for the new Choiseul Bay township (SBD$10 million).  From what I could see Pororporo village had a high reproduction rate, pathways that turned muddy as soon as the slightest rain falls, houses that are in desperate need of completion or repair, limited water supply and poor sanitation. How can this village not have ‘developed’ with such a large amount of money available? 

So when people use the argument that they need the economic development that logging brings. I will continue to promote sustainable development and ask that they show me the evidence that they have moved ahead equivalent to the degradation that has occurred. Choiseul has many conditions that would suggest sustainable economic development is possible (good soils, adequate rainfall, beautiful standing forests, clean rivers, many strong healthy people to work in the jobs created, a number of people with higher degrees) to be the most sustainable and well-developed area in the pacific. It’s past time for concerned people to stand up to the ignorance and arrogance of people (and a few organisations) who pretend to be competent and effective. The vast majority of so called leaders are achieving only one thing and that’s the systematic tearing apart of this once beautiful and abundant province. 
 
I look at the tee shirts people are still wearing around pororporo  that were made for the Buturuturu Island Emerald Oil fuel depot that was opened in about 2012/2013and which now sits rusting away and returning back to nature as there wasn’t enough money to pay for the fuel to fill the large fuel tanks after the project was completed.  The tee shirt reads “Our people, Our environment, Our energy” Basically saying we choose this project, even though we know it’s not innovative or sustainable, so mind your own business. I think that the tee shirt should have included a fourth line the read “Our lost opportunity” for developing a project on an island that had massive eco-tourism potential.

One contributing factor to the reactionary development that has been occurring Choiseul is that there is absolutely no planning at a community level; no critiquing of development to determine what is suitable for the Province with a relatively small and sensitive land area. One way a solution can attained is through good planning, good planning for the future in which people think in advance of what they want to achieve, how they will get there and what it will require. It all comes down to good planning. I was told by a former colleague who I worked with in the Lauru Land Conference that it’s more important to have money to implement projects, planning is nothing without money to implement. While this is true I would argue that before you even make the decision on what business option of the various options available that is going to be pursued is a planning decision in itself. It’s an example that shows the difficulty of building the most fundamental understanding of planning in Choiseul Province              

Half way through my stay we went out to a logging ship ‘Sea Hero’ to drop off the pilot who would pilot the ship as close as possible to the log point so the ship could fill up from a logging barge. The person that was to pilot the ship in was also a land holder and chief, according to him though he had opposed the logging but it ‘was hard’ to go against others who wanted it, although the question has to be asked if he opposed it so much why was he guiding the ship in, assisting the process of destruction. With Choiseul you often never know can follow the logic why certain decisions are made.

We approached the ship and it was immense, four high cranes, and already a deck half full of logs from other logging sites. Dead sentinels, testimony to a future the ‘leaders’ here are helping to create, in which future adults will probably look back and ask ‘why’?; ‘Why did you leave us with nothing’  
 
I felt a sense of shock, of being overwhelmed. How can any society combat this well resourced mechanised machine of destruction, of certain death. How can the few true leaders who are  educated, smart and interested in what the future may involve, actually fight this onslaught. It was nothing but a cold, calculating machine of death, not just of the trees themselves but death of hope for the future. Death of hope in the human spirit.   
 
When we approached the logging camp, I was blown away with the area that had been cleared for the siting of the camp. It was large and will remain a scar for a long long time. The amount of dust and disturbance that has been created will no doubt become sediment in that smothers the reef. How many animals that may have been nesting or living in the logs that have been felled is unknown, but it would have been significant habitat. The bordering coastal vegetation that has been removed would have been diverse as well and now there is only an exposed eroding shoreline. I hadn’t felt this despondent about the future of the planet for a long time.   

The only solution may come in the form of sustainable development. This development needs to be far more co-ordinated and far more aggressively pushed, so that there is a sure fire way of saying to people that there are alternatives. These options need to consist of eco-tourism, eco-timber and sustainable agriculture that produces high value products such as Cocoa and sold to directly to chocolate manufacturers for the highest returns.     

But another is committing my own time, energy, skills directly to the frontline. This would mean living in Choiseul and providing working examples that show sustainable solutions to the dominant global direction towards imminent natural capital degradation. This holiday has been an experience.  It may just have changed my direction for 2015 and the path I now need to follow. Maybe I need to be here, the fight is never over until the white flag has gone up and declaration of submission has been given. I am still some way from that. Stupidity and greed need to be fought, even if there is possible personal risk. It could be that the leaf house currently being built on Mamaleana becomes the basis for a new challenge and a new chapter.                 

       

                       

                                  

Thoughts on Dad

Saturday the 18^th of October was a significant day although in practice it was much like any other day in Honiara. A year ago to the day Dad passed away from a brain tumour that took him away from us in a way I can only describe as cruel. I will remember that day forever, when we all said a last final word to dad in order, mum, me and mark. It was our final send off to a guy that had no plans to depart and we had no expectation that of all of us he would be the first to go. The effects of that day have put everything into perspective although sometimes the changes that you believe the death of a loved one will have seem hardly noticeable as we rush about in our day-to-day lives.

What it changes is everything and what it changes is nothing. It changes everything in that I approach every day with Dad in mind. When it comes to dealing with inter personal dynamics I think to myself what would dad do in this situation, how would he deal with it? One of the many things he taught me was that you should treat everyone as an individual and with empathy. The Dalai Lama may say compassion rather than empathy, but the point is the same. Everyone has a personal worth and the smartest thing we can do for the human spirit is to notice it. Occasionally while talking to people they may show disinterest in a conversation in any of a number of ways. It makes me think, what of the small cost we incur for giving our time to others, but what of the significant benefits?

Dad would probably scratch his head in wonderment and would move on with a funny sideways comment. His course always seemed heading forward, looking out for those that need support and those who shined with life, letting those drift away who were destined to orbit in their own universes.

Three memories come to mind when I think about Dads impact on people.

One situation was with a guy named Bill who was slightly impaired mentally. Dad worked with Bill at the Market, a part time job he had outside the fire service. Bill was a long time employee who assisted Dad washing the crates that fruit and vegies came in before they were sent out again. While working at this organisation he supported Bill with guidance and empathy. After Dad finished working at the Market he visiting Bill at his house in Linwood and would often ring him. On a number of occasions he would supply him with clothes and they would also go out for short trips. I distinctly remember the regret that Dad expressed that he had spent more time and supported him more after Bill was pronounced dead, apparently in the bath of a heart attack.

Dad also got involved with teaching fire safety to recent refugees to New Zealand. One thing I remember about this is how it made him think about the differences between us being much less than the similarities binding us together. Its work he enjoyed and I think its work that he would have done a lot more of in time. It was also one of the catalysts that made him read and read about the world around us. The recent development in world media about the Muslim world or another ethnic minority (refugees in Australia) being the root of all evil ones something Dad didn’t buy into. I think he accepted more than anyone that for our current unsustainable economic system to survive, there need to be winners and losers.  There needs to someone always trying to steal our prosperity or who was less than us so we can exploit resources they may have.  He understood this better than most and he understood it to the point that he started to realise that we needed better government around the world and I think his personal contribution to this was voting, which in the end was for both Labour and the Green Party. 

Thirdly was Dads biggest act of compassion and it may have been what eventually lead to his demise. On the 22 February 2011, Dad arrived at the CTV building site after it had collapsed in the earthquakes that hit Christchurch that day. I remember him saying that they arrived and were at the site for one and a half hours before received any support by other fire crews. When he retold the story what was clear was how deeply this event had influenced him. I think more than anything he couldn’t accept that at the end of the day there didn’t appear much support to those who went through those events. He couldn’t understand how he could perform at his best and be questioned about his performance at a coronial enquiry. Every day he had gone to work as a firefighter he had given his all and questions were being asked about his personal integrity, “how could these people think that I had given anything less than my best”? He must have continually asked himself that question.  One day when I went to pick him up from the fire station he exited out the back door looking tired and haggard, the tumour must have already started growing and was taking its toll, but there was another element of self-doubt there as well.

That final heroic gesture was what eventually led to his demise; I believe it was the trigger that set off a chain of events that resulted in his death. He had accumulated toxins through his work that only needed a trigger of stress that ignited a cancerous glioblastoma tumour eventually leading to this magnificent man’s death. What lessons more could have been learnt from him I will never know. But what I have learnt is invaluable and what I can teach to others will be Dads legacy.                                                      

                            

                

            

         

Three Weeks Left

It’s as though endings are never meant to be a neat cut off. Due to the end of the contract being close to Christmas it means by nature it’s going to be a rushed and chaotic finish, many people are away on workshops and trainings, other will be heading off for holidays before or at the time I end. It would be nice to say that everyone who has been part of the experience will be there at the finish, but I suspect the final bash will be a mix of those stragglers who still haven't headed home and those that need to be on Taro for work reasons. It has that end of year feel to things right now; I can almost see the last two years roll out before me when I stop to think about it, it’s a mix of satisfaction at the scale of the experience and sadness at it finishing.    

Three weeks out I am still in the dark as to what I will do next year there has been talk about various things; a position we developed to support the Provincial Government has been sent out to many NGO’s and agencies, oddly one group has come back offering to support a senior planner and another a town planner, both of which were never requested and I guess it also shows how much these groups are really paying attention to the needs of the Provincial Government. We are still wondering if the position will get eventually get supported....we will see. Another agency has mentioned coming back for a few weeks work as a consultant in January and early February to help with some planning work in Choiseul, It would be as a consultant and it would look good on the CV, but still needs to be confirmed. Thirdly, there is masters degree option. This may be a good option as it would assist me in working overseas and I have developed quite an interest in strengthening community planning as a way to improve environmental management. 

So for the next three weeks until I fly away it’s going to be busy old time. I have a number of reports my volunteer agency wants me to complete and I have a few small jobs to finish as part of my assignment, including some reporting templates so that the technical Planning Unit can better monitor implementation of the Medium Term Development Plan. I’m at a stage where I know I need to get really organised and get things done, for some reason I’m not in that headspace yet and I needed to be at least a couple of weeks ago.

      

        

         

The Countdown

Opening a diary that I bought earlier in the year with an advertisement in it with the heading Hello or Goodbye, has some resonance with where I find myself at the moment. I’m in some sort of transition limbo asking myself will it be goodbye to the Solomon’s for ever or will I be back. I don’t currently have the answer either way and the meter is running. Today is the 6^th of November and I am due to fly from Choiseul (possibly my last flight out for a while, possibly ever) to Honiara on the 10^th of December.

Walking around in the bush last week in south Choiseul got me thinking that there is still so much that I could do here and want to do here. Rolling through my mind was a quote that David Suzuki the Canadian environmentalist refers to in a documentary about his life, the person he quotes once said the two most powerful words a person can say are “I’m staying”, meaning once you decide to stay in a place it means that you have committed to that community and the people in it.

There are Internet forums which where people discuss the issues faced by the Province (to the point of being pretty repetitive), but corresponding action by people involved in these discussions moving with any real urgency out get out to the Province and their hands dirty seems to be somewhat non-existent. Somewhat oddly there are a number of trained lawyers and doctors from Choiseul, none of which appear to have any interest in working in Choiseul, yet there is a dire need for both of these. It appears these people are working in Honiara or overseas where I guess they consider the grass is greener. It’s a situation that’s pretty similar to what kiwis know of with continual migration of skilled people from New Zealand to Australia and other places overseas, in Choiseul though it’s substantially worse.

I guess this is where I feel that I have something more to offer, I want to stay, to help out and do what I can and yet there is no clear option to make the that decision myself. Staying or at least having the opportunity to return to Choiseul and the Solomon’s is what I would like to be able to do, but with NGO’s and donors moving glacially slow to provide any clear support for a proposed position put to them to support the Provincial Government and also no obvious leads on other jobs; knowing that I will be finishing as a volunteer at the end of this year is about the only certainty I have right now.

                     

On the Home Straight

April came went and it was all a bit of a blur really. There were trips to Simbo Island in Western Province as well as Gorabara and Sepa, both in South Choiseul.

There also seems to be a bit of a pattern happening to my visits to villages in Choiseul  I have started to notice. It’s based around a three day cycle and goes like this; Day 1 travel early from Taro, arrive and spend time with the people that are hosting you in village and then go fishing.  Day 2 is usually a full day of the activity that you actually came down for either a workshop/training event or walkabout in the bush and then in the evening its fishing some more. Day 3 is either finishing up with a workshop/training or just chatting with people who want your input on something, then it’s time to head back; more often  than not it’s with a whole lot of extra people as well as bundled up sago palm, cassava, taro or sweet potato, green coconuts for drinking and maybe the odd chicken. Once we have dropped off all the passengers with their various cargoes, I like to do a nice detour out into the ocean chasing schools of fish by following were the seabirds are going.

Cruising up and down Choiseul in an open boat is a privilege that few ex-pats have and I still even now just in awe of how beautiful this place is. There is nothing like coming up from the villages from along the coast of South or North Choiseul and approaching Taro as the sun is setting over the Shortland Islands and Bougainville, those sunsets are well and truly etched into my brain.      

Getting out into the communities and away from Taro (often referred to as Taro Station) is to experience the real Choiseul. The issues that come up in communities are generally universal for most communities around Choiseul; its sanitation, water supply issues, sea level rise, population growth, finding sustainable opportunities for using natural resources, infrastructure etc etc, but there is always a local twist on how these issues are related or prioritised.

After what feels like so long here you start to see very clear patterns in all things, especially with the work that I have been doing which is essentially trying to help out organisations strengthen their internal structure. You start to see why some organisations are clearly failing, while other NGO’s who are doing similar work are succeeding. You start to see where the aid industry and donors are creating dependency and where they are creating innovation. As I approach the end of my tenure here I feel that it’s important to communicate what I have witnessed in the hope that someone or some organisation will use it to improve things for the better of the people here. I think it’s reasonable enough to say that there are issues around people not directly confronting organisations and individuals head on that need to be held accountable if change is too occur within a short timeframe (I would argue that with Climate Change, time is short) . As time goes on and I come nearer to the end of my contract I feel it’s more and more appropriate to communicate these things. There is a quote from a book that covers stories of three UN volunteers working through various countries in the 90s that I keep coming back from the book Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures;

“Who has the authority to resolve the dilemma, to place it on the moral spectrum? Who makes the conscious decision to bear witness, to tell the story? We need a volunteer”

Although this comment was in relation to UN volunteers in vastly more dangerous situations than I find myself in here, I think the principle is the same for any volunteer.

I often wonder that with all the big statements from organisations and governments about helping those who need help such as the Solomon Islands, I think about what is really being committed to this province and realise that in many ways I’m it as far as help on the ground is concerned, when I make this connection, I’m blown away. Millions get pumped into supporting the Solomon’s and most goes through government agencies or NGO’s, a great deal of resources probably never make it out of Honiara, actual people helping out on the ground from other countries, basically me, priceless. 

      

      

                         

2012 - A Time for Change

The movie hypothesis of  ‘2012-time for change’ is that 2012 is when a 5000 year Mayan calendar cycle comes to an end and as a result global change will occur, while I don’t necessarily agree with what are often considered apocalyptic predictions.  I think that the concept of 2012 as a time for change or reflection as suggested in the movie is at least a good point for discussion, this trip to Australia has re-affirmed that there needs to be a consciousness change and that society can’t just continue to just immerse itself in consumerism in the hope that the problems with the state of the world will go away. 

This trip to Australia for Christmas holidays has shown me that change is already being forced upon people and there is little possibility that a continuation of existing ways of living and thinking can continue. It’s been surprising the level of financial pressure and job insecurity in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The shear pressure of urban living at this time in Australia appears to be increasingly untenable, exorbitant rents in Sydney and increasingly unaffordable house prices were a frequent of discussion. Friends told me how they would have to sacrifice an entire salary for mortgage repayments and live of the other spouses salary meaning this couple would both need to work full time which would require putting their young son into day care. While I am aware this is not at all new, it’s the first time that I have really connected with just how the world that we have created for ourselves is not at all sympathetic towards young families trying to survive and create some sort of quality of life for themselves.  

In other situations people were either out of work or struggling to find new work, quality jobs look far more difficult to obtain now than they would have been say four or five years ago when I first arrived in Australia looking for work myself. Being out of work or and unable to find means a number of people are trying to reassess their personal identity post-employment. 

Food prices also seem to be pretty high from what I remember and there looks to be a lot of poor quality food available and quite a lot of food wastage.  

What is pushed by mainstream commercial magazines and also mainstream Australian TV is still encouraging people to buy a certain product or look a certain way once you purchase a certain product or look a certain way as a fast track to happiness. It’s a message that seems to be avoiding the real issues of this particular time in history, but it’s so pervasive and widespread here with nothing much to counter or challenge it.      

Another thing that I have observed and maybe I have only noticed this because I have lived in a place where people are pretty laid back is that there is an underlying tension and irritability in a large number of people in the places I have visited, I’m not sure if this is more a perception coming from one way of living and interacting to another that’s vastly more stressful and complex, but it doesn’t seem healthy or balanced and ultimately socially sustainable.        

           

So the systems broken but people haven’t got time to fix the system as they are too busy caught in it trying to survive.

Maybe 2012 will start to see an awaking or consciousness that the system needs to change and that people have the ability to create that change. Maybe we will start to see a transition away from employment that doesn’t allow for time to strengthen community and family to employment that allows for flexibility, maybe people will be supported to address the increasing rises of living costs through urban agriculture and more comprehensive public transport, maybe the economy also needs a complete revamp to be more sympathetic to nature and community in a time of drastic change.             

Big Happenings - It's the annual Premiers Conference

It’s been over two months since I last wrote anything and it’s about time I put something down as life is moving along here.

The work here and I guess my purpose for being here has been given a new lease of life through the redefining of my assignment and directing most of my efforts towards the Provincial Government, this actually suits me well as most of my conservation and environmental work has been directed through roles in local governance of some sort, so it’s good to be in a similar role although how local governance works here is reasonably different to either Australia or New Zealand due to the political and cultural context it operates in.

The organisation is fantastic with many great staff,  these staff face a daily David and Goliath struggle to represent the people of Choiseul /Lauru in the face of overwhelming issues related to climate change, logging, mining, social, health, communication, information accessibility and storage, asset renewal and maintenance, centralised governance and the list goes on. From what I can tell so far ensuring good staff come out here and are happy enough to stay for a long time is going to be one of the biggest issues for the future of the Province and ensuring that they can tackle the big issues.           

The Premiers Conference that took place in late October was probably the biggest party Taro has seen in a long while. The Premiers Conference is basically a meeting of all the Premiers representing all the Provinces of the Solomon Islands and is held on annual basis with the location being a different Province every year. While listening in on the presentations given, it became very clear that the concern about the condition of the environment is shared by many of the Premiers. There were also concerns raised about financial resource allocation and the smaller Provinces expressed concern about how remoteness is a real hindrance to development that the other more centralised Provinces experience. In hindsight it’s that same remoteness that has probably contributed to Choiseul/Lauru being less environmentally degraded than it could be as most of the more accessible Provinces look to have lost most of their Primary Rainforest cover already.           

I had a brief but informative discussion (well I’m hoping it was for him) with the Premier of Makira Province and told him about the importance of Makira for the 12 or so endemic bird species that the Island is home too, if anything he was only mildly interested in learning this, as you would expect a non-birder to be but at least now he knows. 

The event itself represented a great free feed at both lunch and dinner time, which was great as it saved me cooking and being a volunteer you are forced to be fiscally conservative. Now technically it could be argued that I wasn’t actually part of the Conference as I was not officially a Provincial representative or ancillary staff, but through my partly self-proclaimed role as Provincial Government photographer and real role as a planning advisor, I considered myself eligible.

The food was unbelievable and it really went to show the quality of the food available from the natural environment; Mangrove crab, Taro, Crayfish, Fin fish of all kinds, shellfish and one or two green things thrown in for good measure. Mistakenly I even ended up eating Turtle as I mistook it for chicken, don't worry it won’t happen again as I’m not inclined to consume endangered species.     

Just before the Premiers Conference began an event to select the theme song for the Premiers Conference was held. It was a chance for the five groups to present their original songs to a public audience, the performances were all vocal performances performed to pre-recorded tracks and it would have been great to see and hear people play instruments live, even so it was just really good to see people have the opportunity to perform and show there community what they’ve got. The entertainment that was part of the Premiers Conference itself included live performances from a number of groups, the one that I was impressed with was the group that used plastic pipes as a percussion instrument that they hit with slippers (SI), Jandals (NZ), thong s(Aus).  The only down side was that these pipes were originally supplied for the purposes of water supply projects and then converted into these instruments, bugger!          

The entire Premiers Conference had such a positive upbeat feel that made most for those few days feel upbeat. It’s really the only occasion where I have seen a really good party atmosphere and people really let loose in public and just get up and dance. Maybe this is another reason why Kiwis and Solomon Islanders get along so well as we share a similar level of public reservation.        

The one blight on the landscape for this event was the shortage of flights to and from Taro and access to banking facilities. I let both companies know what I thought of their service provision for this period, but it seems that in this instance both companies took advantage of peoples reluctance to complain openly and also used the remoteness and difficulties in communication to their advantage, here we are ‘out of sight and out of mind’ to many in Honiara.