Another month draws to a close. The potholes along Mendana Avenue are multiplying again. All the old favourite ones are back, and where they dug up the tar seal to make a patch all the edges are corroding away so as well as the original hole, the edges are creating new ones. We’re all back to the weaving and dodging driving style. The standard joke around town now is about how the police figure out the drunk drivers. They’re the only ones driving in a straight line down Mendana.
The man didn’t arrive at the Gardens with the crocodiles before I left yesterday, although I did leave early due to the power going off at 1pm. No warning in the paper, just there one minute, gone the next. I despair about getting any manufacturing business or any business which depends on electricity here.
Telekom is having its monopoly broken finally, but still going to get $68 million for loss of revenue. It was given a 15 year sole contract during the troubles, when no other company wanted to come here with the fighting, and it has hung on tooth and claw to it since. And being a monopoly it didn’t need to offer any service, as you may have read my comments on the service or lack thereof. Unfortunately, it is going to keep ownership of the communications portal, so I’m not expecting internet access to improve without a huge increase in bandwidth available.
Hopefully someone will pick it up, and stop the speed restriction so we can use skype voip, as well as be able to open youtube, and any web based applications. I can’t open most of the apps on facebook, it times out for anything in there, and loading pictures is turning into a farce. If I go into work early Sunday morning I can sometimes load a dozen pics into webshots, or my 419 album in photobucket, but even that can take a couple of hours, with frequent time outs. It works one pic at a time, which is really frustrating waiting 20 minutes for each picture, and if I try to open any other programme it freezes the picture loading.
Still, all things considered I’m lucky to have any internet access at all. It just shows how wide spread communications have got over the past 20 years. Even the VSA people in Temotu have access, and that is as far off the map as you could possibly get here. Finally found out how far it is to Temotu from here, 800 km, 500 miles, and all by ferry, there is a small airstrip on one of the islands, but its not always open. Bruce and Gwen on Makira have internet, but it is dependent on having petrol on the island to run their generator for a couple of hours in the evening, or daytime.
We’re going to try a different approach with the kids in the gardens on Fridays. I haven’t minded them coming in, it does get a bit noisy, but if that’s all it gets I’m reasonably happy about it. David would like to just shut the gates and keep them out.
I was in at work this morning sorting out the paperwork for the course and David called in, so we had a bit of a toktok about it. My view is that if we throw them out and lock the gates, they’ll end up in town, drunk, and in trouble, if we let them into the Gardens it keeps them off the streets, and all together. It took David a little while to see the advantages, if any, (I think there are advantages) as against locking the place up, but we’re going to try a few things with them this Friday. They all congregate in similar groups, so we’re going to be going to all of them with 3 rules that have to be followed. No fighting, no tagging, and pick up their rubbish afterwards. We’ll supply the garbage bags, any or all rules broken, the gates get locked. I might add excessive drunkedness to that list as well.
If there was any other place for them to go it might be different, but there are no teenage hangout centres in town, no skateboards or places for them anyway, and no fun type parlours or movie theatres.
I had to laugh at Misi when I went in today. He was sitting out in front of the office block with his mop handle, just watching the few kids around the place. I asked him if he had his bayonet as well, and he ducked into the lunchroom and came back out with an aluminium baseball bat, and said he didn’t need the bayonet, the bat was better. The amount of what can only be called casual violence here would have all the bleeding heart do good nanny knows best people in fits. Kids get whipped with a stick, or a good clout to the ear if they do anything wrong, in school they still use a cane on the back of the legs, boys and girls. I’m not going to get drawn into the rights and wrongs of it, but I will say that compared to New Zealand there is very little teenage trouble or insolence, all the teenagers I’ve dealt with in the last 6 months have been overwhelmingly polite, courteous, and helpful without any trace of antagonism. It may be the small scale of life here, where everyone knows everyone else, and their wantok are everywhere watching. A bit like Ireland in the areas outside the cities.
I’ve got up to 17 with Tantrix, 15, 16, and 17 took 15 minutes each, I know I can’t keep that speed up once it gets to 20 and up, if I remember correctly, 26 took me nearly an hour, or possibly more, I kept walking away from it for coffee breaks. It gets interesting at 15 with an extra colour added, although you don’t use it till 18 or 19, it cuts down on a lot of position choices.
I was looking in the Herald online at the photos of the lightning storm over Auckland last weekend, I’ll really have to get out and get some of the lightning here next time. Although that means getting out in the rain as well to get any good photos of it.
If anyone thinks the recession/depression is about to ease off, I have serious doubts. China is starting to off load its US $ holdings and investing all over the world using US $’s, the FED in the US is printing more money to cover shortfalls and debt, best estimates are for a 9 trillion deficit in 4 years time. That’s $9,000,000,000,000 in monopoly money, which is all the US $ will be if that happens.
Only way out of it all is to stop spending and start saving, throwing money at the problem and propping up defunct business and bad management isn’t going to work. That’s a bit of a simplistic view, but a close summation of how to fix it. Stop borrowing, stop spending, start manufacturing and get everyone employed again. Buying out GM isn’t going to make the cars any better, or affordable.
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