Counterpoint
Sunday, March 1st, 2009Picture Kalori, a young man of rank and potential in the 1970s, watching his fathers become isolated and shifted out of power, while young, foreign-educated firebrands radioed political speeches from hiding places in the bush only a few kilometres from his nasara.
The young lawyer who preached, Castro-like, over the bush radio is now President of Vanuatu. Chief Kalori remains in his village, very much the injured lion. He is quick to reprove the country’s founders, men he - not entirely without reason - considered under-educated and ill-prepared for the demands of ruling a newborn nation.
While Kalori is alive, there will be another view of Independence: not undesirable, but in the 1980s untimely and rash. He feels that everything that has transpired since then, the venality, pettiness, lack of political coherence or cohesion… all of this can be laid at the feet of some brash young men who lacked the education and the wisdom to take a more patient tack.
Drowning in the Bathtub
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009The last election was a setback for the Right. One of America’s enduring virtues is its ability to find great people in moments of great distress. It’s hard to imagine anyone more able to combat the present economic crisis that Barack Obama. But that doesn’t change the fact that, whether he succeeds or not, he’s facing a dire outcome. Even if he manages to wring concessions out of the more timid Republicans, even if he helps moderate Democrats grow a backbone, even if the stimulus succeeds, he - and the nation - are still in deep water.
The Change We Seek
Thursday, November 6th, 2008Every ni-Vanuatu knows what it means to be discriminated against in one’s own country. They know the trials, the travails and above all the tedium of building that more perfect union. Barack Obama’s election is not just a victory for people of colour, it is a victory of human ideals.
A Flower in the Dust
Saturday, October 11th, 2008Timor-Leste is saving its own life, with little insight or assistance from the outside world. But like a bright flower in an arid land, this sudden outburst of life is an arresting sight. Or would be, if the world would stop to look.
Voting for the Man
Sunday, August 31st, 2008To the casual outsider, it beggars imagination that most of the people responsible for the ungodly political mess of the 1990s still enjoy broad voter support. To many ni-Vanuatu, though, the question doesn’t even bear asking.