Masters in our own House?
Sunday, September 14th, 2008Economic hardship is expressed in the simplest terms in Vanuatu. The price of rice, of diesel and cooking gas, the selling price of copra and kava – all of these hit closest to home. The most pressing question facing our new government is how best to insulate Vanuatu from the worst of the economic turmoil affecting the world’s economies.
The question for all ni-Vanuatu is how to hold the new government to account.
PACNOG Talk
Monday, June 30th, 2008One of the items in yesterday’s brain dump was a talk I presented to the Pacific Network Operators Group (PACNOG) at the Sebel Hotel. It’s titled ‘Network Effects: Social Significance of Mobile Communications in Vanuatu‘. It explains Network Effects and how they manifest themselves in village life, then looks at some obvious and not-so-obvious implications [...]
The Pacific Economic Survey
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008Earlier this week, Australia unveiled the Pacific Economic Survey here in Port Vila. Present for the event was a delegation from all around the Pacific Region, including Melanesia and Polynesia as well as senior politicians from Australia. AUSAid’s chief economist was also there to present the findings.
The report is the first of a series of [...]
Let the Left Hand Know
Thursday, March 6th, 2008We got some good news the other day. A Kenyan friend’s younger brother passed his university qualification exams with high marks, enough to allow him some freedom of choice of his future education. We were all happy for him, of course, but one detail of the story struck me as particularly interesting….