Different messengers but same message!

J. Roughan
5 March 2010
Honiara  
 
In 2009, Solomon Islanders were greatly helped in understanding the state of their nation by the findings of two general surveys  The more comprehensive one,--People's Survey 2009, the third in a series, the first one dating back to 2007, focused on local living conditions, RAMSI's presence, social infrastructure, etc.--was conducted by a group from Canberra. An earlier survey also in 2009, SIDT's 8th Report Card, the first Report Card in the series starting back in 1989, 20 years ago, was also conducted during the Sikua Government's tenure in power. 
 
Both surveys, although conducted by two completely different and independent organizations--one hailing from Australia National University in Canberra and the second from Solomon Islands Development Trust--came up with much the same message. The two surveys although using different methodologies and different ways of searching for the deep feelings and thoughts of typical Solomon Islanders had their conclusions reinforce each other's findings. 
 
For instance, the Canberra survey found that 40% of the people asked thought that the National Government's track record on improving basic services and the economy was not good. SIDT's findings, on the other hand, gave the government a slightly higher but still failing mark when it came to  asking villagers and town folk about the nation's basic social infrastructure base of education opportunities, health services and the availability of money.
 
SIDT's surveys have been tracking people's understanding of the national economy in its Availability of Money category in its eight Report Cards over a twenty year period. Over this time--1989-2009--citizens consistently scored the governments of the day with a low 44%, on average, for the Availability of Money. This one section in SIDT's Report Card of making a bit of money for normal living has always attracted low marks. During the Sikua Government's years, for instance--2007-2009--people scored the Report Card's section on Availability of Money  with a low of 45%.
 
The RAMSI's sponsored People's Survey 2009 findings were not much different. It found that 47% of those asked thought that youth's chances   for work were weaker than before, 72% had "no access to any agriculture program" and a serious number of those who had tried to start a business had experienced problems.  
 
But the purpose of this essay is not to show that these two separate, independent surveys were sending the same thing. This writing was not a way to prove that the local survey instrument was just as valid as the one conducted by overseas experts. The main reason for comparing both surveys is to ask the question when will Solomons governments accept the findings of these kinds of surveys and more importantly, when will  they start doing something about these findings.
 
By the middle of this year the nation holds its 8th general election and a brand new government will be formed before the end of June, 2010. It would be great if the newly formed government whoever runs it, would seriously study the findings of these two surveys and work on ways to respond to the shortcomings surfaced by the surveys. In past years perhaps parliamentarians had thought SIDT's 8 Report Cards were not accurate enough or the survey was poorly done and government didn't feel the need of listening to a home grown survey.
 
After all, as one MP said to me, 'a bunch of villagers had conducted these surveys and they couldn't possibly come up with a valid and worthwhile survey!' Now, it turns out that a professional and respected survey conducted by overseas experts has come up with many of the same responses as that of SIDT's Report Card. A national politician simply dismissing the findings of these Report Cards because they were conducted by village people doesn't hold water.
 
These surveys are telling our politicians and the political class that the bulk of Solomon Islanders are sending a clear message to government members. People are fed up with 'business as usual' approach to governance and want something new to happen in the newest sitting of parliament to take place later this year. It's too late for the present members to respond well and creatively to these surveys but the new parliament would not hurt itself if it accepted the findings of these surveys. After all, two different messengers, coming from different parts of the world sent the same message. Isn't it time to listen to our people?

Student Loan Scheme

J. Roughan

11 February 2010

Honiara 

Solomon Islands government is one of a handful of nations worldwide that pays big bucks for its students to attend university classes. For the past 40,years now--during colonial days as well--governments of the day dished out money for air fares tickets, accommodation costs, tuition fees, pocket money and other costly items to insure that its students study in overseas institutions.

 

Few countries, including the richest ones like Australia, New Zealand, USA, etc.underwrite the costs of their citizens attending universities. Students, for the most part, pay for their higher education costs out of their own pocket. Of course they must repay the loan once schooling is finished and they have entered the labour market. 

 

Rich and poor countries alike, however, have set up Student Loan Schemes which allow qualified students a chance to attend university courses and college level training. In other words qualified graduates from secondary school take out loans to cover the high costs of attending universities.

 

Most of the time, however, this loan money comes through commercial banks which loan out the necessary money to cover most of the costs of students attending university level education. Normally, banks shy away from lending out money for such worthy causes because it's the rare student who has enough security to back such a loan. However, if a commercial bank could secure a government guarantee to back such a loan, many banks would leap to get into this market.

 

Unfortunately, here in the Solomons I doubt if any of the three commercial banks now operating in Honiara would touch such a student loan scheme if it were simply backed by a Solomon Islands Government promise. No, any student loan scheme would have to be backed by an overseas government commitment before a local bank would seriously think about getting into the business of lending money to students for higher education.

 

As it stands at present, a qualified student has only two options to fund higher education: self funding which is hardly an option for the vast majority of Solomons families or secondly, to qualify for government sponsorship. As we have witnessed these past few weeks and in fact every year about this time, only a limited number of students win government sponsorship while the others have no other option.

 

Slowly, over the next 5 to 6 years, basic education--adult learning, pre-school, primary and early secondary--must become more and more  government's focus. Upper secondary, post secondary and especially university level classes' costs, however, must some how be funded by the very students attending higher education classes. 

 

From before independence, the most expensive education costs--those connected to university level education--have been borne by the nation while the vital education years--adult, pre-school, primary--have fallen to the nation's poorest, villagers and the urban poor. That trend which is slowly being reversed--government now pays for primary school fees--and a new era of students themselves paying for higher education must be introduced. In other words, basic education costs are government's work while higher education costs are to fall to those who will gain most  from their diplomas and degrees.

 

But there are few if any ways for a budding student hoping to gain an overseas degree to secure sufficient money to cover high education costs. A Student Loan Scheme administered by a local commercial bank, with a guarantee from one of the nations donors--Australia, New Zealand, EU, Taiwan, etc.--is a viable option.

 

The nation can not continue its present course of funding the vast majority of overseas training even when much of this funding comes from other countries There is a great need for the Solomons to have its own university . . . USP and UPNG already recognize the Solomons great academic potential and have already set up their own universities right here in Honiara. The least our nation can do is convince one of its donors to guarantee local banks to make funds available for worthy students to cover the heavy expenses of higher education.  

Get rich quickly! Build Roads!

J. Roughan

2 February 2010

Honiara 

 

The Chinese Government knows a bit about the art of making money and has practiced this art form for more than 5,000 years now. During the most recent world wide economic downturn last year, for instance, the Chinese economy hurt the least. Right now it currently grows at a faster clip, more than 10% a year, than any other nation. It is way ahead of America, most of Europe and Japan.

 

A favorite Chinese sayings is "If a country wants to get rich quickly, then build roads!" Of course their newest road in Tibet's mountain country serves military interests as well. China is currently experiencing some trouble in Tibet and to make sure it can get the necessary military muscle into this small mountainous country, the most efficient way is to have a good road system at the ready.

 

But stressing military muscle doesn't mean that roads aren't good for generating wealth as well. Our own people already know this. Back in 1997, when Bart Ulufa'alu was PM, he commissioned SIDT to conduct a nation wide survey: National Survey on Government  Investing in People's Lives. More than 12,600 Solomon Islanders across the nation responded with their assessment of the best place to invest money.  People's first investment demand was the creation of many more markets but not far behind, in second place in fact, was the need of good  transport.

 

Few of our people have ever taken university courses! Certainly even fewer had any training in planning national economies but there was no doubt in their minds when asked by the survey where should the investment dollar go: make many more markets and link solid transport to them. Wealth creation is closely connected to both. Link them one to another and watch things spark. That fact remains true today as it was in 1997.

 

Last week villagers west of Honiara were beyond joy that the bridges and the road system ripped apart by severe flooding only days before were fixed in record time. They could hardly believe their eyes! One day villagers were staring at destroyed bridges and ruined roads. They knew that their chances of getting their garden food to market was near impossible.

 

Then, miraculously, within a very short period of time these same roads and bridges were mended. People had worried about sinking deeper into poverty because they couldn't get a few dollars by selling market goods. Now, in record time, road links had been restored and they could carry on.

 

Nick Warner, RAMSI's first director in 2003, asked me what one thing should be done first to get the nation back together and humming once  again. Without hesitation I begged: "Build a labour intensive road from Kuma to Marau as the first and best solution to the Weather Coast's isolation and poverty." To this day, not a single cent has been invested in such a road! Weather Coast villagers are no better served now in their transport needs than they were in 1998 when the Social Unrest took root. Yet, still the nation expects peace, harmony and tranquility to  flourish when we have done nothing of worth to turn things around.

 

Bringing Keke's gang to justice, flying helicopters around in a show of force and stationing dozens of police boots on the ground does little directly for a villager's well being. These people want to be part of the Solomons commercial world, to gain modest amounts of money and to invest their profits to bring about a better life for themselves.

 

We at least should learn a few lessons from the Chinese civilization that is more than 5,000 years old. They also follow their own advice and are busy building roads around their country. Of course roads are expensive but what is more expensive? Isolate people and drive them to despair is much more expensive when we are forced to bring in military, police and other nations to help us return peace to ourselves.

Right message, wrong audience!

J. Roughan

19 February 2010

Honiara  

 

Back in 1962 I was running a small school in Rohinari in West Are'are. On the side, as it were,  I was also trying my hand at raising pigs. My first attempts at caring for a half dozen pigs went well.  In fact, my pigs were doing a lot better than many village ones because of one thing--I was raising pigs on cement and not allowing them to roam all about to be infected with kidney worm which was basically killing local pigs. Villagers' pigs looked more like 4x2's while mine were getting fatter by the day.

 

One day, I invited twenty or so local villagers, 19 men and a single woman. After showing them my pigs, how fat and sleek they were, I let the villagers in on my little secret: raise your pigs on cement, don't let them wallow in mud and by doing so reduce kidney worm infections to almost zero. Without doubt, my small audience got the message and were happy to have the new information.

 

Feeling a bit proud of myself about the great turn out of villagers at my pig-raising meeting, I mentioned to Br. John who was living at the same mission station. He was a man from Iowa in the States and had been at Rohinari for many years. I told him about the great meeting I had with local Big Men and showed them how to raise pigs properly. Br. John asked me one question: "How many women attended the meeting?" When I replied that only a single woman had shown up for the meeting, he just wagged his head and said: "In Are'are, it's the women who feed, water and care for pigs! If only one woman attended  your meeting, then, although you sent out the right message, the wrong audience was listening. You should have had 19 women at the meeting and perhaps a single man!"

 

This early experience in raising livestock at the village level came flooding back to me when I read about government's launch of a new National Agricultural and Livestock Sector Policy paper last week. The Star's newspaper's picture and story which covered the launching of the document said it all: 4 smiling men--the Agriculture Minister, PS of Agriculture, and two other officials but not a single woman in sight! History was repeating itself: Right Message! Wrong Audience!

 

Almost everything printed in this the newest agriculture document is spot on: poverty alleviation thorough food security, sustainable management of natural resources, investment in agri research, etc. etc. Yet, when villagers themselves, more than 13,000 of them, highly recommended that there be a major increase in markets for women's garden produce and cheap, reliable transport to these markets, then Solomon Islands decision makers turn out to be deaf, dumb and blind. It was one of Bart Ulufa'alu's first decisions as PM, asking SIDT to conduct a national survey on investment monies. More than 13,000 citizens, as a first order of priority, called for more markets and transport to get garden goods to market.

 

Yet, to this day, now 14 years after the survey, food markets remain basically the same in number and rural transport has more or less stayed stagnant as well. Of course food security must be a top priority for any future government. But simply publishing new documents without really listening to villagers pleas for more markets, better transport, clear pricing arrangements for food products, wholesale purchase of mangoes, bananas, citrus fruit, watermelon, etc. when in abundance leaves the woman gardener at the mercy of market forces.

 

Our most vulnerable food producer, the woman gardener, needs more than mere words to convince her that surplus food production must have a vibrant and growing market ready and willing to take her surplus food at a reasonable price. Our weakest link, then, in the food security arena is not that government policy is weak and unclear but that women who actually produce the surplus product are not at all convinced that extra garden efforts will be rewarded with modest amounts of income.

 

So rather than take the chance that her surplus food could be wasted or attract a miserably small price, the woman gardener tailors her labour efforts to what she can produce for immediate family needs. There's no doubt that village women could produce much more food if given proper incentives. How many marriage and other feasts when prepared for by the whole village, have more than enough food for all participants!     

 

Many of the nation's newest political parties and even the government of the day are riding hard and shouting from the roof tops that the rural areas will be given special place if and when they get into power. Yet, so many of these promises remain merely promises because it's the men who make them, not the women who have to activate them. May I make a suggestion? Any official agricultural promise must have more women on the organizing body making the promise than men! Let's stop repeating our past mistakes: Right message but informing the wrong audience!

Are we slow learners?

J. Roughan

27 January 2010

Honiara

A few years ago, a famous boxer lost a fight he had every reason to believe he should have won. His trainer, an Irishman of many years  experience, knew his friend should have never lost the fight. Why didn't his boxer see the left hook that knocked him out for the count of 10? Each night the trainer would review the video of the fight and each night the trainer was disappointed. No matter how many times the trainer reviewed the video, the boxer never saw the left hook that floored him.

 

One day, some one asked the trainer why he kept on viewing the same video, night after night. No matter how many times he saw the video, it always showed the boxer taking the left hook to the chin and crumpling him to the boxing ring's floor. The trainer's response was simple: "I'm hoping some night my guy will see the left hook coming and duck the punch!"

 

There's a bit of madness going on here! A fair definition of madness is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and hope for a different outcome. The boxer's trainer will never see a different outcome of the fight but will be forced to see the same thing happen time and time again on the video. Something new has to be done!

 

Yet, aren't we doing much the same in our own country? In June this year, for instance, we hold our 8th national election. In each and every election since 1980 we promised ourselves to elect better, more dedicated and people-accented members to sit in Parliament. Yet each election year we rule out half our citizens, refuse to look at women's worth and vote in only men. Why is it that worthwhile and gifted women still remain outside the political process and the nation continues to vote in only men?

 

At each national election we vote in leaders whom we hope will take our nation to new heights, make ordinary citizens' lives prosperous and insure that country has the peace it richly deserves. Over more than 30 years of national politics and in eight separate elections--which have been conducted peacefully, orderly and fair,-- we have elected more than 300 men but only a single woman to this high office. Aren't we acting a little bit like the Irishman mentioned before? We expect to bring the country to a strong, economic and prosperous future yet refuse to allow half the nation to make it into parliament.

 

Only 8 nations out of the 190+ currently sitting in the UN assembly in New York do not have women in their national parliaments. Solomon Islands, unfortunately, must be counted as one of those 8! Our nation already boasts of women medical doctors, academics with doctorates, top notch administrators, etc. Local women hold down high positions in business, finance, administration and the arts yet we as a nation find it hard to put them in politics' top positions.

 

No matter how many times we march to the polling booths, no matter how many times we vote in our favorite male candidate and no matter how many times these men sit in Parliament, the outcome for the nation has remained the same. It's asking a healthy bird with two good wings to fly but use only one wing. It can never fly but will be condemned to flop around on the ground waiting to be picked off by a hungry cat or two.

 

Take a peek at the male track record in its 30 years of ruling. In 1978, our currency was as strong as America's. Now, three decades later, it takes more than 8 Solomons dollars to buy a single American greenback. At independence day we weren't the richest Pacific island nation but we weren't the poorest either. Now, as rich as we are in natural resources, we now claim a dubious distinction: the poorest Pacific island  nation.  All of this misery happened under the 'watchful' eye of our men, when they were in charge!

 

No other Pacific country has had to call in other nations' soldiers, police and civil servants as we did in 2003. And they are still here today after almost 7 years. Fortunately our men had enough sense to bring in this bunch of foreigners to prop up our tottering government, to fix up our police force and to keep the economy from tanking. In other words, outsiders fixed up the very things our men had set in motion over three decades. Our nation wasn't attacked from the outside! We did it to ourselves! Our men failed us big time and we are yet to get over it.

 

Voting in 8 to 10 women to parliament this year won't change our fortunes over night but it will get us out of our self made trap of thinking this nation can fly with one wing. The cry that women should stay in the kitchen, take care of the kids and let the men folk mess up the nation royally as they have been doing for more than 30 years must now stop. Isn't this the time to trust our women and take a long, hard look at our men's proven inability.

There but for the grace of God go I!

J. Roughan

20 January 2010

Honiara      

 

The pictures, stories and suffering coming out of Haiti this week are grim. 40,000 people already buried with another 50,000 on the way and  experts predict a doubling of that number in the next week or so. Your heart would have to be made of stone not to be moved by all the pain, suffering and death that's happening on this small Caribbean island. How fortunate Solomon Islands has been over the years that a similar earthquake hasn't hit us. What grace has worked on our behalf to have been spared such a fate?

 

No two countries are exactly alike but some nations do come off being quite similar. Haiti, although on the other side of the world from us, sits on its own 'ring of fire'--earthquake zone--as we do, both are islands nations of almost the same land mass dimensions: Haiti has 10,700 sq. miles while Solomons is 11,100 sq. miles. Haiti's land, however, is basically a single land mass while our country is broken up into major and minor island groupings.

 

The similarity of social indicators for both countries, however, is striking. Both have huge numbers of youth under 15 years of age--Haiti, 38%, Solomons, 41%; life expectancy for both is low--Haiti, 57, Solomons, 62; there's little difference in Gross Domestic Product numbers: Haiti, $1,300, Solomons, $1,900; and both have Human Development Index (a way of measuring economic and social well-being) scores that are almost the same: Haiti, .521, Solomons, .591. The biggest difference between Haiti and the Solomons is the population base. The Caribbean nation has 20 times our number (almost 10 million) while we have only recently hit the 500,000 mark.

 

But Haiti's recent devastating earthquake physically shook the entire nation to bits and it has some similarity to our own national 1998-2003 trauma. Haiti's physical destruction and Solomons social destruction literally tore both nations apart. Their earthquake lasted but seconds while our social earthquake rumbled on for more than 5 years. The social destruction, however, was similar for both poverty racked nations. 

 

Each lost its police force but in different ways. Many of theirs died being trapped in the fallen rubble of houses and offices. Our police force became useless either by throwing in its lot with one side of the conflict or the other or completely disappearing when most needed. Haiti's economy is currently in utter shambles while ours during our Social Unrest years dipped well below zero.  

 

Haiti is searching for much needed leadership from their own politicans. Fortunately for this stricken country, other nations--UK, EU, USA, China, Canada, etc. etc.--have stepped into the gap to deliver tons and tons of food, water, medical supplies, housing material, etc. etc. However, their own political leaders seem to have disappeared from sight. Just when most needed, they are no where to be found.

 

Doesn't the current Haiti scene remind one of what happened during our own social earthquake days of 1998-2003? More than 20,000 oil palm workers were forced out of their homes and lost livelihoods in 1999. To this day, for instance, we still don't have a clear picture of how many   people were murdered, raped and abused during that same period. Many overseas people working in Honiara at the time evacuated by ship and air  because the nation's social fabric--constant looting in town, stealing of vehicles, lawlessness, etc.--became intolerable.

 

But here the sameness of the Haiti situation and what actually happened in the Solomons in the early 2000s stops. People's reaction to these two events produced quite different results. Solomons people who lost all police protection and political direction relied on themselves to guard the most vulnerable--olos, children, women--by feeding, protecting and guarding them for more than five years. Solomons people also lost political leadership who became quite invisible and basically inept--except to mount a civilian coup--during the same period.

 

What was particularly instructive, however, was our people's ability of jump start the national economy from below zero in 2002 to 5.8% BEFORE RAMSI landed in July 2003. As Rick Hou of Central Bank observed in his review of the 2002 national finances, both the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank had never seen such a recovery any where else in the world.

 

Yet to this day, the debt that the nation owes to the backbone of the country, the villager, has never been recognized and certainly not thanked. SIDT's many Report Cards before and after the Social Unrest period reminds our political leaders what dismal failures they have been. Of course it wasn't simply people acting on their own that produced such a stunning result. They are the first to admit: there but for the grace of  God goes the Solomons!

Winning over minds and hearts!

J. Roughan

12 January 2010

Honiara

 

Our Social Unrest years--1998-2003--seem a long time ago in the minds of some people. So much of what happened, they say, happened in the last century. We now live in a new century, in fact, a week ago we finished the first decade of this new century. Let's focus our minds on the future, they caution. Basically, forget about the past, the years to come need our insights, work and attention! Let's move on!

 

Although such thinking does have some merit, many of those hurt, traumatized and pained of that time are of another mind. They are the ones who currently drive the Ministry of National Unity, Reconciliation and Peace to address the pain, suffering and disappointment they experienced during those awful years.

 

Not only do a crippled and hurt people of that period thirst for justice, they seek to have their pain and suffering acknowledged. Losing a loved one suddenly through sickness or accident is always hard to take. But when such a disastrous event happens right in front of one's eyes, the guilty one is known--a friend, an acquaintance, even a relative--and government authority doesn't seem to care, this makes it more than likely  these serious painful incidents will be repeated once again.

 

Of course many people who currently walk today's villages and town streets have their own explanation why parts of the Solomons went so badly off the social rails during that 5 year period of murder, rape, arson, beatings, humiliation, etc. Growing levels of poverty, poor development patterns, terrible leadership, corruption and not the least, the land issue go a long way in explaining why we suffered the social unrest period. Once the Ministry of National Unity begins to publicly listen to people's testimony, however, many of these very same reasons will certainly rise and help explain to the people of this nation why, after 20 years of relative peace, our beloved country exploded into chaos.

 

But if we cast your minds back to our earliest days, the period immediately after independence, 1978-1986, another more profound reason begins to emerge. Our first eight years of local government were ones of great hope and promise. Finally after 85 years of colonial government, our own people now held the reigns of power. Solomon Islanders to a person headed up government as Prime Minister, ministers of the crown and each and every ministry was directed by Solomon Islanders all.

 

At long last the nation had accomplished a rare feat, complete inclusion! Each island group, men, women, youth, all ranks of people were now actively included in the political life of the country. The nation was experiencing, it seemed, a country where there were no such thing as an outside group except those who were indeed born outside the nation. Of course most people easily allowed that certain groups in society because of education, training and skill were there to lead but no one was actively excluded.  

 

Then things began to slowly change in the 1987-1998 period when round tree logging became the rage. During our first eight years of national history, as difficult and as expensive as it was, there was an active desire to bring education chances, medical attention and infrastructure building to the bulk of people. It was a slow business! Our leaders and not a few of our village chiefs thought they could speed up the whole  development process by selling off their tree wealth to wealthy logging firms, pocket all this easy money and voila, the nation would achieve development. On the national scene, however, it became clear that only those groups--those with accessible timber areas--were more important than those where timber was much difficult to harvest. It soon became clear, for instance, that Guale's Weather Coast which had always been a hard place to get to was becoming much more off the map of government's political concern.  

 

Of course things didn't go that way! Rather the easy, fast money not only turned the forest lands of good, abundant, clean water and rich soil to a shadow of themselves. But the social breakdown in logging areas came on fast and furious: brother against brother, son against father and family fighting family was too often experienced.

 

Certain areas of the Solomons were being actively excluded in government's concern. Take for instance what SIDT's many Report Cards dating back to 1989 was measuring. Social reachout in the form of education, health attention and living standards were not strengthening but seriously  weakening for most people. The typical villager was slowly but surely being excluded from the Good Life. What had started the nation off on a strong footing of total inclusion was failing and descending into more and more exclusion. The further a villager was from an urban centre, for instance, the weaker was government's reachout to their ordinary way of life. Our Social Unrest years--1998-2003--became an extension of the elite's understanding of politics.

 

Our new parliament's main job then come June 2010 is Winning over minds and hearts! Money alone won't do it. A new type of political leadership is needed which will include the whole of the Solomons, leaving out no one!