So much for getting all excited about having the little truck back. I went to start it Friday morning and as usual it refused to even think about making a sound. Flattened the battery turning the motor over, again as usual. I didn’t tell Tony, it is getting too embarrassing for both of us. It sits in the BJS workshop for a month or more at a time, his mechanic says it’s all go, and it dies within hours. I’m waiting to find out what it is this time. Tiff was in the BJS office this morning and Tony asked her how the truck was going, so she just said it isn’t, it’s died, so it is back into the garage again Monday. I think Tony is having doubts about his mechanics ability. After 9 months of work, it still isn’t going.
It’s another waterless weekend, not that it is unusual, but I got used to having water from the taps last week, it stopped this morning about 6am. Back to buckets of water for everything.
I need to get down to the market tomorrow, and buy more fruit, I’ve been living on rice for the past month, and it is really starting to show on my waistline again, far too much carbohydrate, and not enough protein. Plus not doing a great deal again doesn’t help.
Jason at Hasting Deering said everything is nearly all signed over for us to lease the back section, so that is one good thing. I can actually start to do things instead of coming up with ideas and plans to put into action.
Tiff and I were at MID Provincial offices Friday, we can get into Bellona through one of Tiffs wantok who attended the MID Workshop at Bellona, set them up as the supervisor there, and we run it from Honiara. MID are happy with that, we have a good track record of results and a good financial accountability, which is always a problem here when money is being handed out for Govt work. The money seems to get spent, but the work never gets done.
There are more editorials in the Solomon Star about the Aid Money, and various donor countries just giving money to the MPs, and how the money never gets used for the original purpose. Already people are writing in about sitting MPs handing out cash to the villagers to vote for them in the July-August election, and Parliament hasn’t risen yet. I’ve lost count of how many different factions have been formed to contest for each seat, plus those that are intending to stand as independents, and go with who ever bribes the most. You can’t say it is corrupt, because it is so blatant, and everyone expects it to happen now. Every village expects their MP to just grab as much money as possible, and distribute it around, without any questions about what the money is for, where it could be better spent, or even coming up with projects to install.
The cattle fund from Taiwan is falling apart again, just 2 weeks after Taiwan gave another $10 million dollars towards it. I think the original $8 million that went missing has been written off, all there is to show for it are some flashy 4wd twincabs, a couple of motorbikes, and not very much else. No fencing, farms, land agreements, village training, oh, and no cattle either. I can’t see it working here until someone sets up a proper training centre, there is no history of farming as we know it in the western world, it has always been subsistence garden farming, or hunter/gatherer type existence, which explains the lack of a conservation ethic when it comes to everything. As I said the other day, if I don’t take it, someone else will, is the lifestyle and belief system.
And as far as the cattle go, I have a sort of bet with Tiff that if and when the cattle do arrive, it will be less than a year before they have all been killed and eaten, and then the whole thing will start again. They tried on Temotu a few years back, with 3 cows and a bull. The bull got speared the second week by one of the tribes poaching on another villages land, the 3 cows were all eventually killed in payback or restitution settlements. All in less than a year.
The good news is that Taiwan are definitely going to open a nickel mine on Ysabel, although I had to laugh at the article in the Sol Star, where the reporter asked if Taiwan was going to build a nuclear reactor to provide the power for the mine. They didn’t quite make the AGW connection, but I have no doubt it was going to come up, same reporter that I’m arguing with over AGW, he’s the business reporter for the Sol Star as well.
Gold Ridge Mine is now in production, first actual gold production is expected by the end of the year, once they get through the overburden. It’s all alluvial, but the depth of the work area is over 1,000’ deep with gold in layers through the depth. Phoenix International are close to starting up as well, they have an assay of 50 million ounces on their claim. It may go higher once they begin production. Add in the nickel on Ysabel, the diamonds and gemstones on Malaita, and the copper on Bouganville, with the other provinces not explored yet, and this could be a rich area eventually. There is the land ownership issue to be negotiated first though, all land is owned by the villages, other than Honiara City, so you are dealing with a lot of factions within each tribe, and due to the rash decisions that have been made in the past by some tribes and their leaders, everyone here is now suspicious of letting anyone on their land.
We’ve had a quiet few weeks in Honiara lately, Easter, a lot of frippery for Premier Ma from Taiwan, it has kept the murder rate down for a while, only 2 in the last fortnight. The usual causes, drunken people arguing while holding bushknives. And drinking kwaso. It is always a bad combination.
The Ant Spray men finally arrived this morning too. There’s a lintel over one window that needs to be replaced, the termites have chewed it to tissue paper from inside, and a skirting board inside under the same window. I’m hoping it is only the lintel and skirting board, but there is probably more damage inside once they take the damaged pieces off. And they are coming back Monday to poison the dogs around the area. Which I’m of mixed emotions about. It is probably the best thing for the dogs, they are strays, scrounging for food, and as I’ve said before, they are all walking encyclopedias of canine diseases. I’ve stopped them from sleeping under my house in the daytime, well, mostly, a couple still get onto the steps while I’m at work, and I get the fleas jump to greet me while I’m unlocking the door. Plus the strong dog smell that seems to have penetrated the wooden steps no matter how much bleach and disinfectant I use on them. Same with the water tank outside, the dogs sleep around it on the concrete, and when it is dry as the past few weeks have been, filling the buckets with water means getting the fleas off before I come back inside. I scattered chilli powder under the house a while back, which worked and has kept the dogs from making sleeping pits in the dirt there.
Sunday 11th April
Tiff is away to Brisbane on the 14th if we can get her visa through in time, for a week. I’ve got a few places for her to go to, including Brisbane TAFE Bookshop. I need text books for the Hort 1 & 2 Courses. I’m not going to run them out of my head again like last year.
We just had another little tremor hit the house, the strongest one I’ve felt since I’ve been here. I stood up, and just as promptly fell down. It had a few things in the house moving across the floor for about 15 – 30 secs, it may have been less time, or more, I wasn’t really timing it. I was more trying to work out what to grab on my way out if it didn’t stop very soon. Or should I ride the house down as the support poles buckle, and then just walk casually out the door? Either way, it gives that little bit of added excitement to the life here.
If anyone had a look at the link I posted a while back to Willis Eschenbachs “Thermostat Hypothesis”, today was a good example of it in action. It has been hot, and getting more and more humid the last few days, by 1pm today there were towering thunderheads over Honiara, and the thunder started, then the rain dropped. We must have lost 10*C of heat in less than 10 minutes once the rain hit, it’s 9.30pm now, and it is still cool. I’m inclined to believe Willis’ hypothesis than anything coming from the IPCC. He writes some good articles, based on observation, not computer models, and they make more sense than the garbage the IPCC publish. www.wattsupwiththat.com is the main page for most of it, Climate Audit is good, and The Air Vent as well.
I read James Delingpole a fair bit, more for the laughs from the comments, and poor Geoffery Lean, the “Environmental Spokeperson” for the Telegraph. If he’d stop just copying the IPCC reports and announcements and actually start doing journalism, the comments might not be so bad after each of his columns. He gets savaged unmercifully, not without cause, but even so, to be so wrong continuously and continue writing the same garbage?
I’ve been banned from the Guardian, Monbiots column, but I still read it occasionally to see what tripe he writes each week, and the fawning synchophants that populate the comments.
We’ve a couple of busy days till Wednesday, clearing up stuff before Tiff goes, Governor Generals Residence, Post Office once I can get hold of Kennedy, chase Frank Haiku and get the rest of the Mendana Ave Flower tubs painted. I’m hoping we can get something sorted soon with the lease, the sooner that is done, the sooner I can get an order to Lyndale for plants.
Solomon Quarantine decided not to let us have our own PEQ facility, so we have to use the official one. I’m now worried about how many plants will “die” and be miraculously restored to life in someone elses garden. I know I shouldn’t think like that, but given the dishonesty in every other government department, I’m sure the quarantine people help themselves to new plants all the time. I doubt that PVR would be recognised here, so there is no protection for any importer who finds their plants being grown by someone else.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Wednesday 7th April - Thursday 8th April
Tiff is back, with the girls, David managed to successfully miss the plane and is still on Bellona diving and fishing. I’ve ended up with 3 large crayfish for dinner, and a sudden need to visit Bellona.
MID (Ministry of Infrastructure and Development) were on Bellona, running a 2 week workshop to train people to do the roading contract on Bellona, and Tiffany met the main people from MID on Sunday. We’ve been asked to put in a proposal for SEB to manage the roadside clearing and maintenance, and train the people on Bellona. Tiff and I were talking it over yesterday afternoon, as we both agreed, a 2 week workshop isn’t going to work, there is no business set up on Bellona similar to SEB, the only maintenance people on Bellona service the airport, and they are the people whose land was taken for the airport. They live around the perimeter and have a contract to keep the grass etc cut. It is run through the ex-MP for Bellona, and as is normal with anything to do with money and MPs, there is a large discrepancy between money allocated, and services rendered. It is not uncommon for flights to be cancelled due to the length of grass on the landing strip. Each family has about 60’ of grass to keep cut, they get $600 per fortnight for it, the allocation is $1,000 per fortnight each area, no equipment in sight other than the curved bushknives.
Tiff is convinced we can go there, set it up, train enough locals to do the work, and we run the accounts and payments. Initial expenses would be for grass cutters and handtools, and for a couple of us to be there for a month or so setting up and training. After than, about a once per month trip to Bellona for a few days to check on the work being done.
We have till the 14th May to have the proposal in, which gives us time to get it sorted.
I’m striking it lucky with everything I’m ordering from Brisbane, Tropigro, Garden City Plastics, and WetEarth have everything we need, and the prices are a long way below what Island Enterprises and Bowmans were charging us here, even with freight added in. I’ve got all the propagation supplies ordered, planter bags, weedmat, tubes, trays, irrigation fittings and timers. If it all makes the container at the end of April, we’ll have everything needed by May, and hopefully by then the land issue will be sorted and we can make a start.
I’ve run out of motivation for the Governor Generals Residence at the moment, most of the drawings are done, after last years fiasco with Heritage Hotels, unless I know it is going to go ahead I find it hard to spend more of my own time on doing stuff that may not be used. We have a meeting with Nigel at Government House probably Monday, to discuss the budget. At present the Governor General and family are staying in Heritage Park Hotel, while the Residence is renovated, but I have no idea what timeframe the grounds are being upgraded to. Plus we don’t have a lot of plants at the moment for any major work.
Thursday 8th April
I have to say thank you to Telekom, I got more work done today than usual, thanks to the almost nonexistent internet connection. I’d have got more done if I’d been able to send email when I needed to, instead of whenever the connection came on. Oh well, it isn’t as if it is an unexpected thing.
I have to go over the irrigation system again, Wet Earth in Brisbane have everything we need, but their recommendation is to go for higher pressure pipe than I’ve written in, I’m not totally convinced though. It isn’t so much a high pressure system, as more a high volume, low pressure one. I’ll email back tomorrow and send them the original drawings and plan, they might have a better design we can use.
Went and priced a section and garden cleanup job today, long time expat Americans living here. It’s all a bit overgrown, I figure a good day for all the crew, 4 guys with weedeaters, 3 –4 of the ladies weeding and clearing, a lot of palms that need the lower fronds cut, and some that are almost lifting the roofing iron off, 2 trees to be taken right out, and a lot of remedial path making. They are going to put lunch on for the crew as well, rice and Taiyo tuna, and cold drink. It’ll be a hard earned $1600 though, the overgrown bit at the back is about 3’ high with weeds and grass. I can see the weedeaters getting caught with the long grass. Plus a few snakes in there as well no doubt so the guys will be watching where they step.
A friend of the owners is staying for a week, Pat, another American, she was a Peace Corp Volunteer in Sierra Leone for 2 years, so we had fun swapping stories. She lives in Western Province, above Gizo on the hill, and has been trying for 15 years to establish trees and plants along the road up to the house, but the locals cut them all for firewood as soon as she plants them. Or pick the fruit as soon as it looks almost ripe, instead of letting it ripen.
I’m going to have a few words with David when he finally decides to come back from Bellona. He knows full well how I feel about everyone killing the parrot fish on the reef, and all the other coral fish, I found something else to talk about as well. One of the crayfish he sent back was a female with a full egg pouch, so I’ll be onto him about that as well. I know already the argument he’ll use, “If I didn’t take it someone else would”. As I keep telling him, once everyone realises not to keep taking the fish that their reef islands and atolls depend on, they might be able to live there a lot longer, instead of watching everything die. And just sitting around saying “Global Warming” as if that excuses them from any and all responsibility.
David sent back about 12 large parrotfish as well, and Tiff said he knew I’d be waiting for him to come back to have another talk. I really feel a baseball bat would come in handy with some conversations here. There is no conception of the idea of conservation, it is always, “If I don’t take/eat/kill/collect it now, someone else will”, it is a very much live now, tomorrow is too far away to think about society. Coming from NZ, with all the fishing regulations about sizes, quantities that work to conserve resources, and seeing the decimation of everything here and the lack of forward thinking, tends to get me a bit excited about things at times. And of course the Ministry for the Environment has got 5 people working full time on Climate Change, and no one working on actual environment or conservation issues.
Tiff got hold of MID today, about the road restoration work on Bellona, it looks as if we’ll be able to quote for the roadside maintenance and go there and set it all up if we get the contract. It’s only 5km, all the roads on Bellona only total 9km anyway, so this is the first stage, they are talking of the last bit for next year if the first stage goes well. We do 20km of road verge and median strip in Honiara now, from Honiara to King GeorgeVI, so 5km is like a days work for the crew we have, it may be worth while taking a couple of them to Bellona to show the people we employ there how it is done.
I’ve got the little truck back at last, ok, the brakes still grab, but it is mobile, and I’m not going to get too worried about the brakes, at least they stop in a straight line finally. Now it’s due for certification again next week, after 9 months of being off the road for repairs. I don’t know if I’ll laugh or cry if it gets rejected.
The postal address here for anyone thinking of sending stuff, thanks for the offer Zoe and Pete, is c/ VSA NZ, PO Box 1714, Honiara, Solomon Islands. If anything weighs too much, send sea freight, I’m not going anywhere, and like everything here, there’s no rush.
The weather continues, hot, humid, almost raining, then changes its mind and all we get is the thunder, but no rain. Even the 4.30 usual showers have been absent this year, due to the el nino weather system stuck in the Pacific. I know I’m going to freeze whenever I go back to NZ, I’m so used to wearing shorts, t-shirt at work, sarong at home, the thought of temperatures below 30*C isn’t good. And going for a swim doesn’t really cool you down, I got down about 30’ last Sunday at the beach, and the water barely changed temp till the last few feet, and even then only by a small fraction. Sea temp here is about 27*C all year, out further on the wrecks it would be cooler deeper down, but on top of the inshore reef it is always warm.
I’m still having heart attacks with the prices here for stuff, I bought 2 wheelbarrows, and 4 plastic garden rakes for the crew today, don’t ask what happened to the other wheelbarrows. Wheelbarrows, and not the super dooper contractors ones, just your standard wooden framed tin bucket, are $1200 each, garden rakes without a handle are $73, and handles are $25 each. I could have got really good steel framed wheelbarrows, but at $2,080 each, I decided not.
MID (Ministry of Infrastructure and Development) were on Bellona, running a 2 week workshop to train people to do the roading contract on Bellona, and Tiffany met the main people from MID on Sunday. We’ve been asked to put in a proposal for SEB to manage the roadside clearing and maintenance, and train the people on Bellona. Tiff and I were talking it over yesterday afternoon, as we both agreed, a 2 week workshop isn’t going to work, there is no business set up on Bellona similar to SEB, the only maintenance people on Bellona service the airport, and they are the people whose land was taken for the airport. They live around the perimeter and have a contract to keep the grass etc cut. It is run through the ex-MP for Bellona, and as is normal with anything to do with money and MPs, there is a large discrepancy between money allocated, and services rendered. It is not uncommon for flights to be cancelled due to the length of grass on the landing strip. Each family has about 60’ of grass to keep cut, they get $600 per fortnight for it, the allocation is $1,000 per fortnight each area, no equipment in sight other than the curved bushknives.
Tiff is convinced we can go there, set it up, train enough locals to do the work, and we run the accounts and payments. Initial expenses would be for grass cutters and handtools, and for a couple of us to be there for a month or so setting up and training. After than, about a once per month trip to Bellona for a few days to check on the work being done.
We have till the 14th May to have the proposal in, which gives us time to get it sorted.
I’m striking it lucky with everything I’m ordering from Brisbane, Tropigro, Garden City Plastics, and WetEarth have everything we need, and the prices are a long way below what Island Enterprises and Bowmans were charging us here, even with freight added in. I’ve got all the propagation supplies ordered, planter bags, weedmat, tubes, trays, irrigation fittings and timers. If it all makes the container at the end of April, we’ll have everything needed by May, and hopefully by then the land issue will be sorted and we can make a start.
I’ve run out of motivation for the Governor Generals Residence at the moment, most of the drawings are done, after last years fiasco with Heritage Hotels, unless I know it is going to go ahead I find it hard to spend more of my own time on doing stuff that may not be used. We have a meeting with Nigel at Government House probably Monday, to discuss the budget. At present the Governor General and family are staying in Heritage Park Hotel, while the Residence is renovated, but I have no idea what timeframe the grounds are being upgraded to. Plus we don’t have a lot of plants at the moment for any major work.
Thursday 8th April
I have to say thank you to Telekom, I got more work done today than usual, thanks to the almost nonexistent internet connection. I’d have got more done if I’d been able to send email when I needed to, instead of whenever the connection came on. Oh well, it isn’t as if it is an unexpected thing.
I have to go over the irrigation system again, Wet Earth in Brisbane have everything we need, but their recommendation is to go for higher pressure pipe than I’ve written in, I’m not totally convinced though. It isn’t so much a high pressure system, as more a high volume, low pressure one. I’ll email back tomorrow and send them the original drawings and plan, they might have a better design we can use.
Went and priced a section and garden cleanup job today, long time expat Americans living here. It’s all a bit overgrown, I figure a good day for all the crew, 4 guys with weedeaters, 3 –4 of the ladies weeding and clearing, a lot of palms that need the lower fronds cut, and some that are almost lifting the roofing iron off, 2 trees to be taken right out, and a lot of remedial path making. They are going to put lunch on for the crew as well, rice and Taiyo tuna, and cold drink. It’ll be a hard earned $1600 though, the overgrown bit at the back is about 3’ high with weeds and grass. I can see the weedeaters getting caught with the long grass. Plus a few snakes in there as well no doubt so the guys will be watching where they step.
A friend of the owners is staying for a week, Pat, another American, she was a Peace Corp Volunteer in Sierra Leone for 2 years, so we had fun swapping stories. She lives in Western Province, above Gizo on the hill, and has been trying for 15 years to establish trees and plants along the road up to the house, but the locals cut them all for firewood as soon as she plants them. Or pick the fruit as soon as it looks almost ripe, instead of letting it ripen.
I’m going to have a few words with David when he finally decides to come back from Bellona. He knows full well how I feel about everyone killing the parrot fish on the reef, and all the other coral fish, I found something else to talk about as well. One of the crayfish he sent back was a female with a full egg pouch, so I’ll be onto him about that as well. I know already the argument he’ll use, “If I didn’t take it someone else would”. As I keep telling him, once everyone realises not to keep taking the fish that their reef islands and atolls depend on, they might be able to live there a lot longer, instead of watching everything die. And just sitting around saying “Global Warming” as if that excuses them from any and all responsibility.
David sent back about 12 large parrotfish as well, and Tiff said he knew I’d be waiting for him to come back to have another talk. I really feel a baseball bat would come in handy with some conversations here. There is no conception of the idea of conservation, it is always, “If I don’t take/eat/kill/collect it now, someone else will”, it is a very much live now, tomorrow is too far away to think about society. Coming from NZ, with all the fishing regulations about sizes, quantities that work to conserve resources, and seeing the decimation of everything here and the lack of forward thinking, tends to get me a bit excited about things at times. And of course the Ministry for the Environment has got 5 people working full time on Climate Change, and no one working on actual environment or conservation issues.
Tiff got hold of MID today, about the road restoration work on Bellona, it looks as if we’ll be able to quote for the roadside maintenance and go there and set it all up if we get the contract. It’s only 5km, all the roads on Bellona only total 9km anyway, so this is the first stage, they are talking of the last bit for next year if the first stage goes well. We do 20km of road verge and median strip in Honiara now, from Honiara to King GeorgeVI, so 5km is like a days work for the crew we have, it may be worth while taking a couple of them to Bellona to show the people we employ there how it is done.
I’ve got the little truck back at last, ok, the brakes still grab, but it is mobile, and I’m not going to get too worried about the brakes, at least they stop in a straight line finally. Now it’s due for certification again next week, after 9 months of being off the road for repairs. I don’t know if I’ll laugh or cry if it gets rejected.
The postal address here for anyone thinking of sending stuff, thanks for the offer Zoe and Pete, is c/ VSA NZ, PO Box 1714, Honiara, Solomon Islands. If anything weighs too much, send sea freight, I’m not going anywhere, and like everything here, there’s no rush.
The weather continues, hot, humid, almost raining, then changes its mind and all we get is the thunder, but no rain. Even the 4.30 usual showers have been absent this year, due to the el nino weather system stuck in the Pacific. I know I’m going to freeze whenever I go back to NZ, I’m so used to wearing shorts, t-shirt at work, sarong at home, the thought of temperatures below 30*C isn’t good. And going for a swim doesn’t really cool you down, I got down about 30’ last Sunday at the beach, and the water barely changed temp till the last few feet, and even then only by a small fraction. Sea temp here is about 27*C all year, out further on the wrecks it would be cooler deeper down, but on top of the inshore reef it is always warm.
I’m still having heart attacks with the prices here for stuff, I bought 2 wheelbarrows, and 4 plastic garden rakes for the crew today, don’t ask what happened to the other wheelbarrows. Wheelbarrows, and not the super dooper contractors ones, just your standard wooden framed tin bucket, are $1200 each, garden rakes without a handle are $73, and handles are $25 each. I could have got really good steel framed wheelbarrows, but at $2,080 each, I decided not.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Monday 5th April
Anything I’ve said about Telekom in the past, and I know I have said some nasty things about them, does not come close to how I feel about them at the moment. A week ago they had a sporadic mobile service running over the weekend while they upgraded to 3G, then during the week they replaced all the Breeze topup cards with their own Telekom Cash cards, and a new number to call to enter the credit. The only thing they missed out on doing was to connect the number, which leaves me with $100 worth of topup card, and “The number you have dialled is not in service” message when I try to credit my phone.
A good national motto for the Solomons would be “It’s not quite right”
I had to go back to the market on Sunday, I stocked up on Friday with fruit and veg, but then had a huge splurge Friday night and Saturday with fresh fruit, green stuff, broccoli, spring onions, chillis and stir fry, so by Sunday the fridge was looking a bit bare. I could have walked down this week, my knee has come right from slipping over the other weekend, but having the truck makes it so much easier. The freezer is full of spring rolls, I’ve got a container of fruit salad (banana, pawpaw, pineapple and lime juice) for breakfast, and still some bananas and a pawpaw left.
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Today I finally got to the beach for a few hours, the bridge is still out, as you can see by the photo, and will be for a few months yet I think. Everyone cuts through the river now, which is fine so long as it isn’t flooding. Got to the beach about 10, paddled around for a while, read a book, went for another paddle, read, swim, then came back about 2pm. Slightly sunburnt, but more brownish than red finally. There’s not a lot to see on the reef, it’s been fairly well fished out over the years, mostly small fish under a few inches, and some small parrot fish. A lot of Nemos cousins, and a lot of dead coral.
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We’re going back out tonight watering, hopefully Emory and Vincent will be there, otherwise I won’t get too excited and hope for rain instead.
Later. We got rain instead which is better, so we aren’t driving around Honiara half the night.
The Bulk Shop has moved, from the tiny little corner shop they had, across the road to the old ITA Hardware store. A lot bigger and a better layout. And they had flour, gluten, brown sugar, spices, and real olive oil, not olive flavoured vegetable/canola oil. Ok, it was $60 a 750ml bottle, but I had an attack of the “want its” and had it in the basket before my brain kicked in and tried to say no. They stock New Zealand Mainland Cheese as well, $35 for a 500gm block, Tasty, Mild and Edam. I’ll wait for that, although I find that dairy food gives me sinus now, even milk, butter etc. So even though I would love a cheese toasted with everything I’ll give it a miss.
I spent Saturday afternoon bread baking, and making eggroll pastry for spring rolls. Then had the ultimate in decadence, a Basil and garlic loaf, sliced thickly, with tomato slices, lettuce leaves, olive oil, sea salt and crushed black pepper sandwiches. Well, for here, it is utterly decadent, how my life has changed.
It’s all relative I guess, if you have never left the Solomons, you wouldn’t know about any other food, there aren’t any books to show any different, very few locals have a television, let alone power to run one, everything they know comes from family, or what they read in the newspapers.
I’m having an email exchange at the moment with the Solomon Star Environment Report, Moffat Mamu. I wrote in last week about an article he had in on Monday, we haven’t come to blows yet, he is actually reading the links I send him, and coming back with questions, so hopefully he may get off the IPCC propaganda, and actually start writing environment articles, instead if blaming everything on AGW/CG. So long as AGW/CG is the scapegoat, no one will do anything, preferring to sit and wait for the billions of dollars to come in aid, which I seriously doubt is going to happen. We can start cleaning up here once people realise they are the problem, not the solution, co-existence with the land and sea is what we have to strive for, not continue to pollute both, and expect money to fix it.
A bit of an aside to all that, Moffat apparently won the Pacifica Environment Award for an article he wrote last year, about how AGW and CO2 were destroying his homeland. So I’m going to have an uphill struggle trying to get him to look a bit further than just accepting the garbage the IPCC put out.
A good national motto for the Solomons would be “It’s not quite right”
I had to go back to the market on Sunday, I stocked up on Friday with fruit and veg, but then had a huge splurge Friday night and Saturday with fresh fruit, green stuff, broccoli, spring onions, chillis and stir fry, so by Sunday the fridge was looking a bit bare. I could have walked down this week, my knee has come right from slipping over the other weekend, but having the truck makes it so much easier. The freezer is full of spring rolls, I’ve got a container of fruit salad (banana, pawpaw, pineapple and lime juice) for breakfast, and still some bananas and a pawpaw left.
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Today I finally got to the beach for a few hours, the bridge is still out, as you can see by the photo, and will be for a few months yet I think. Everyone cuts through the river now, which is fine so long as it isn’t flooding. Got to the beach about 10, paddled around for a while, read a book, went for another paddle, read, swim, then came back about 2pm. Slightly sunburnt, but more brownish than red finally. There’s not a lot to see on the reef, it’s been fairly well fished out over the years, mostly small fish under a few inches, and some small parrot fish. A lot of Nemos cousins, and a lot of dead coral.
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We’re going back out tonight watering, hopefully Emory and Vincent will be there, otherwise I won’t get too excited and hope for rain instead.
Later. We got rain instead which is better, so we aren’t driving around Honiara half the night.
The Bulk Shop has moved, from the tiny little corner shop they had, across the road to the old ITA Hardware store. A lot bigger and a better layout. And they had flour, gluten, brown sugar, spices, and real olive oil, not olive flavoured vegetable/canola oil. Ok, it was $60 a 750ml bottle, but I had an attack of the “want its” and had it in the basket before my brain kicked in and tried to say no. They stock New Zealand Mainland Cheese as well, $35 for a 500gm block, Tasty, Mild and Edam. I’ll wait for that, although I find that dairy food gives me sinus now, even milk, butter etc. So even though I would love a cheese toasted with everything I’ll give it a miss.
I spent Saturday afternoon bread baking, and making eggroll pastry for spring rolls. Then had the ultimate in decadence, a Basil and garlic loaf, sliced thickly, with tomato slices, lettuce leaves, olive oil, sea salt and crushed black pepper sandwiches. Well, for here, it is utterly decadent, how my life has changed.
It’s all relative I guess, if you have never left the Solomons, you wouldn’t know about any other food, there aren’t any books to show any different, very few locals have a television, let alone power to run one, everything they know comes from family, or what they read in the newspapers.
I’m having an email exchange at the moment with the Solomon Star Environment Report, Moffat Mamu. I wrote in last week about an article he had in on Monday, we haven’t come to blows yet, he is actually reading the links I send him, and coming back with questions, so hopefully he may get off the IPCC propaganda, and actually start writing environment articles, instead if blaming everything on AGW/CG. So long as AGW/CG is the scapegoat, no one will do anything, preferring to sit and wait for the billions of dollars to come in aid, which I seriously doubt is going to happen. We can start cleaning up here once people realise they are the problem, not the solution, co-existence with the land and sea is what we have to strive for, not continue to pollute both, and expect money to fix it.
A bit of an aside to all that, Moffat apparently won the Pacifica Environment Award for an article he wrote last year, about how AGW and CO2 were destroying his homeland. So I’m going to have an uphill struggle trying to get him to look a bit further than just accepting the garbage the IPCC put out.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Wednesday 31st March
Oh well, it will be another week till the little truck is maybe repaired. The brake master cylinder is being sent to Brisbane to be reconditioned, with Easter it will be the second week in April till it is back. Back to walking everywhere , or more, still walking everywhere. With the temperatures this week, walking becomes rather interesting.
I walked back from town tonight, about 4pm, I’m acclimatised to it now, in that I didn’t break out in the drenching sweat I used to a year ago, but it was still hot. When you can drink 2 litre bottles of coke and still feel thirsty, and it doesn’t make it through your system either, it’s time to take a break and find somewhere shady to sit. I’m back to the 3 – 4 litres of cold coffee a day again, like this time last year, I don’t seem to be sweating it out, but it’s not making it through the system.
Picked up my necklace tonight, I’m a bit annoyed, Julie was going to make my design with the frigate bird pattern, then for some reason stayed traditional and put crosses in it instead, ok, she took a few hundred off the price, and gave me another necklace and bracelet as well with it. At the rate I’m collecting shell money, I’ll be able to afford an ugly pig soon. If anyone is interested in knowing, well, I’ll tell anyway, bride price is worked out on the age of the girl, then other stuff gets added in. Can she wash, cook, garden, how much would it cost her parents to replace her and pay someone to do the same work etc. Basic bride price seems to start around $20,000, with about $10,000 in shell money, and up to $30,000 in red money ($100 notes) for the wantok. Some of the other provinces have different systems, Malaita is the main one for shell money, Temotu has red feather money, long woven lengths of bird feathers. Rennell Bellona are more Polynesian, it was more of a barter system, or general sharing of resources, from what Tiffany and David have said. There are a lot of “Bush Marriages”, where the couple just move in together, it can lead to some trouble with the wantok, but if you’re one of the many with no land, no employment, it’s the only alternative.
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I finished the article for the Solomon Star, if it is published in tomorrows paper I’ll post the link in here.
Tiffany and David haven’t left yet. The boat was meant to sail Tuesday afternoon, that got postponed till Wednesday, now it’s meant to go Thursday afternoon. At this rate they will be lucky to get any time away at Bellona. They are due back next Wednesday, then Tiff goes to Brisbane for a week to do some shopping for the Nursery equipment, well, more to say hello to the people I’ve got everything ordered through. Hopefully she’ll have a week with one day or so with Nursery stuff to do, the rest of the time she can catch up with her wantok that are there.
With the elections still a few months away, all the expat community, including the RAMSI people with partners here are being advised to either take a month away where-ever, or move to a central secure area during the election. Being at the bottom of the social order as a volunteer, I get a whistle, and the promise that if anything happens, I’ll be cremated and the ashes sent back to New Zealand. If it does start to look a bit dangerous, I’ll probably move up to Steves and camp out there for a week or so behind the fence with all his wantok.
I don’t think it will be like 2006, but it can be a very volatile place, there is a lot of frustration with the lack of progress despite all the aid money coming in. It comes in, but never seems to get used for whatever it is meant for. Or else diverted to other uses.
The school holidays start next week, which means next terms school fees are due. If you are a palangi and anyone comes up and starts talking to you in the street now, you can guarantee that the conversation will eventually turn into “Can you give me $700 for my sons/daughters school fees?” Or, “Would you like to buy carvings/shell money/paintings so I can pay school fees?” My usual answer is “Mifala lookem like RAMSI? Mifala Aid advaesa, not RAMSI, sore, no seleni nomoa fo givem away” Eventually they realise I’m not going to help and they give up, but some are more persistent. I haven’t had any come to the house at night lately, the security guys are keeping them out of the Ba’hai area for now.
Steve got hassled the other morning near Chinatown. He walks in the mornings, to get his blood pressure and weight down, and he has lost a lot of weight too. Anyway, he was near the bridge, and a group of teenagers, all dreadlocks and attitude surrounded him with the usual “Give us money whitefala” stuff. Steve was bought up in Palau, and speaks pijin better than most islanders do, so he had all the replies and stuff, and eventually got away without any major trouble. There was a police truck came past, they stopped, asked Steve if there had been any trouble, and should they go and give the kids the bash to sort them out? About 6 large Policemen, a couple of Australian, Papua, and local guys. Steve said not to bother, he has to walk through there every day, so why get too well known.
Other than the couple of times I’ve been in Central Market, I’ve not been hassled, the scruffy long haired appearance may help with that, I don’t look remotely like a RAMSI person, and a bit of pijin toktok helps.
Have a Happy Easter, take care, Hi to Pete and Katja, send pics of the new bus please Pete, Gytha, Rhonda, Mum, Rose, Damian Jesse, Kahu, Tarsha, Hayden and Leigh, John and Sylvia, Lou and Scott and Zambezi, Kelly Alex, Atia Dascha, Jerome, Fionn, Libby, Al, Dave, Chip, Chris, Mike, Joe Pastry,and everyone else .
I walked back from town tonight, about 4pm, I’m acclimatised to it now, in that I didn’t break out in the drenching sweat I used to a year ago, but it was still hot. When you can drink 2 litre bottles of coke and still feel thirsty, and it doesn’t make it through your system either, it’s time to take a break and find somewhere shady to sit. I’m back to the 3 – 4 litres of cold coffee a day again, like this time last year, I don’t seem to be sweating it out, but it’s not making it through the system.
Picked up my necklace tonight, I’m a bit annoyed, Julie was going to make my design with the frigate bird pattern, then for some reason stayed traditional and put crosses in it instead, ok, she took a few hundred off the price, and gave me another necklace and bracelet as well with it. At the rate I’m collecting shell money, I’ll be able to afford an ugly pig soon. If anyone is interested in knowing, well, I’ll tell anyway, bride price is worked out on the age of the girl, then other stuff gets added in. Can she wash, cook, garden, how much would it cost her parents to replace her and pay someone to do the same work etc. Basic bride price seems to start around $20,000, with about $10,000 in shell money, and up to $30,000 in red money ($100 notes) for the wantok. Some of the other provinces have different systems, Malaita is the main one for shell money, Temotu has red feather money, long woven lengths of bird feathers. Rennell Bellona are more Polynesian, it was more of a barter system, or general sharing of resources, from what Tiffany and David have said. There are a lot of “Bush Marriages”, where the couple just move in together, it can lead to some trouble with the wantok, but if you’re one of the many with no land, no employment, it’s the only alternative.
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I finished the article for the Solomon Star, if it is published in tomorrows paper I’ll post the link in here.
Tiffany and David haven’t left yet. The boat was meant to sail Tuesday afternoon, that got postponed till Wednesday, now it’s meant to go Thursday afternoon. At this rate they will be lucky to get any time away at Bellona. They are due back next Wednesday, then Tiff goes to Brisbane for a week to do some shopping for the Nursery equipment, well, more to say hello to the people I’ve got everything ordered through. Hopefully she’ll have a week with one day or so with Nursery stuff to do, the rest of the time she can catch up with her wantok that are there.
With the elections still a few months away, all the expat community, including the RAMSI people with partners here are being advised to either take a month away where-ever, or move to a central secure area during the election. Being at the bottom of the social order as a volunteer, I get a whistle, and the promise that if anything happens, I’ll be cremated and the ashes sent back to New Zealand. If it does start to look a bit dangerous, I’ll probably move up to Steves and camp out there for a week or so behind the fence with all his wantok.
I don’t think it will be like 2006, but it can be a very volatile place, there is a lot of frustration with the lack of progress despite all the aid money coming in. It comes in, but never seems to get used for whatever it is meant for. Or else diverted to other uses.
The school holidays start next week, which means next terms school fees are due. If you are a palangi and anyone comes up and starts talking to you in the street now, you can guarantee that the conversation will eventually turn into “Can you give me $700 for my sons/daughters school fees?” Or, “Would you like to buy carvings/shell money/paintings so I can pay school fees?” My usual answer is “Mifala lookem like RAMSI? Mifala Aid advaesa, not RAMSI, sore, no seleni nomoa fo givem away” Eventually they realise I’m not going to help and they give up, but some are more persistent. I haven’t had any come to the house at night lately, the security guys are keeping them out of the Ba’hai area for now.
Steve got hassled the other morning near Chinatown. He walks in the mornings, to get his blood pressure and weight down, and he has lost a lot of weight too. Anyway, he was near the bridge, and a group of teenagers, all dreadlocks and attitude surrounded him with the usual “Give us money whitefala” stuff. Steve was bought up in Palau, and speaks pijin better than most islanders do, so he had all the replies and stuff, and eventually got away without any major trouble. There was a police truck came past, they stopped, asked Steve if there had been any trouble, and should they go and give the kids the bash to sort them out? About 6 large Policemen, a couple of Australian, Papua, and local guys. Steve said not to bother, he has to walk through there every day, so why get too well known.
Other than the couple of times I’ve been in Central Market, I’ve not been hassled, the scruffy long haired appearance may help with that, I don’t look remotely like a RAMSI person, and a bit of pijin toktok helps.
Have a Happy Easter, take care, Hi to Pete and Katja, send pics of the new bus please Pete, Gytha, Rhonda, Mum, Rose, Damian Jesse, Kahu, Tarsha, Hayden and Leigh, John and Sylvia, Lou and Scott and Zambezi, Kelly Alex, Atia Dascha, Jerome, Fionn, Libby, Al, Dave, Chip, Chris, Mike, Joe Pastry,and everyone else .
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Tuesday 30th March
I’ve not been able to phone out since Friday, Telekom have been upgrading the mobile equipment, or something, and mobile phones are a hit or miss thing at the moment. Rose emailed this morning, Mum is into the last stages and is barely able to swallow liquids now. I’m hoping she can last another week, all the flights out of Honiara till after Easter are fully booked and the waiting list is longer than the available planes anyway. Tiff is back next Tuesday, once shes back I’ll get a flight back to NZ, hopefully in time to say goodbye.
It’s been a couple of sweltering days this week. Since the cyclone passed over a week ago, we have had no rain, clear blue skies and high temperatures. The cyclone off Darwin is drawing northerly winds across the Solomons, but without any rain with them. It’s been interesting watching the clouds build up each afternoon, since reading Willis Eschenbachs article in www.Wattsupwiththat.com The Thermostat Hypothesis. Well written, and once you see it happening, it makes for an interesting day of cloud watching.
There was an article in the Solomon Star on Monday, “Our Disappearing Beaches” in the Private View point page. http://wwwsolomonstarnews.com/viewpoint/privateview/4328
which annoyed me immensely. Well not annoyed, maybe had me muttering away for a day or so. I’ve got a reply going into the Star tomorrow, hopefully published Thursday. As you may have guessed, it’s about AGW killing the coral reefs, loss of all the fish, salt water seeping into the fresh water, hot sunshine etc. Nothing about all the extra people now living there, over fishing, selling all the beche de mer to Korea, dumping raw sewage onto the reef, drawing more water from the source than can be replaced.
At times I miss GreenPeace, the original version that is, not the AGW Doom laden hypocrites they have become now.
Anyway, I finally got a few pages written up to send in to the Star. After a few rewrites to tone the language down.
I’ve got used to living here I think. A few years ago I’d have been getting all upset over things like the little truck never being finished, it is annoying, but there’s nothing I can do to hurry the process along, so put it away and wait. The best I have now on it is that it “should” be finished by Thursday. I’ve never heard “should” used here before, so it will be interesting to find out where it fits with “now” soon” “maybe” “today” “tomorrow”. I’m picking it is just an amplifying verb attached to “soon” or “maybe”. As, “it should be finished soon” or “We should be finished maybe tomorrow”.
I don’t know what is going on with Coca-Cola Amitol here. Their bottling plant in Papua New Guinea seems to be on a determined course to reduce the amount of CO2, and I got caught again with 2 bottles of Sprite Lemonade that are decidedly flat, limp, vapid, and only just barely above tapwater in taste. Hidden in the small print on the label are the dreaded words “ Minuman Berperisa” so they have a bare minimum of Bi-Carbonate in them, bare being an untraceable amount, as it doesn’t figure at all on the calorie label. If I hadn’t been so thirsty I’d have walked back down the hill to the shop and changed them, but they were cold, it was hot, and it was liquid. I’ll check more carefully next time. The Coca-Cola from last year is still being sold, I don’t know why anyone would drink it, it would have to be the most disgusting taste for any Coca-Cola product, and that includes “New Coke”, another great marketing disaster. Just leave things alone you idiots!
Brief update tonight, I’ve spent most of the evening trying to write the Solomon Star article, will update again Thursday before the Easter break.
It’s been a couple of sweltering days this week. Since the cyclone passed over a week ago, we have had no rain, clear blue skies and high temperatures. The cyclone off Darwin is drawing northerly winds across the Solomons, but without any rain with them. It’s been interesting watching the clouds build up each afternoon, since reading Willis Eschenbachs article in www.Wattsupwiththat.com The Thermostat Hypothesis. Well written, and once you see it happening, it makes for an interesting day of cloud watching.
There was an article in the Solomon Star on Monday, “Our Disappearing Beaches” in the Private View point page. http://wwwsolomonstarnews.com/viewpoint/privateview/4328
which annoyed me immensely. Well not annoyed, maybe had me muttering away for a day or so. I’ve got a reply going into the Star tomorrow, hopefully published Thursday. As you may have guessed, it’s about AGW killing the coral reefs, loss of all the fish, salt water seeping into the fresh water, hot sunshine etc. Nothing about all the extra people now living there, over fishing, selling all the beche de mer to Korea, dumping raw sewage onto the reef, drawing more water from the source than can be replaced.
At times I miss GreenPeace, the original version that is, not the AGW Doom laden hypocrites they have become now.
Anyway, I finally got a few pages written up to send in to the Star. After a few rewrites to tone the language down.
I’ve got used to living here I think. A few years ago I’d have been getting all upset over things like the little truck never being finished, it is annoying, but there’s nothing I can do to hurry the process along, so put it away and wait. The best I have now on it is that it “should” be finished by Thursday. I’ve never heard “should” used here before, so it will be interesting to find out where it fits with “now” soon” “maybe” “today” “tomorrow”. I’m picking it is just an amplifying verb attached to “soon” or “maybe”. As, “it should be finished soon” or “We should be finished maybe tomorrow”.
I don’t know what is going on with Coca-Cola Amitol here. Their bottling plant in Papua New Guinea seems to be on a determined course to reduce the amount of CO2, and I got caught again with 2 bottles of Sprite Lemonade that are decidedly flat, limp, vapid, and only just barely above tapwater in taste. Hidden in the small print on the label are the dreaded words “ Minuman Berperisa” so they have a bare minimum of Bi-Carbonate in them, bare being an untraceable amount, as it doesn’t figure at all on the calorie label. If I hadn’t been so thirsty I’d have walked back down the hill to the shop and changed them, but they were cold, it was hot, and it was liquid. I’ll check more carefully next time. The Coca-Cola from last year is still being sold, I don’t know why anyone would drink it, it would have to be the most disgusting taste for any Coca-Cola product, and that includes “New Coke”, another great marketing disaster. Just leave things alone you idiots!
Brief update tonight, I’ve spent most of the evening trying to write the Solomon Star article, will update again Thursday before the Easter break.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Weekend 27th –28th March
We cleaned up the rubbish tip that City Centre becomes on Friday. It had got to the stage where the City Centre Management finally realised Council weren’t going to do anything, and we now have another contract agreed to maintain the area. We had the entire crew in there Friday, 4 truck loads of rubbish so far, and about 3 loads of tree prunings to be collected Monday.
It had a bit of street theatre involved. When we arrived it had all the usual people sitting around there, betel nut sellers, people just passing the time of day, and David started putting up the road cones and telling everyone to move away because we were going to be cutting tree branches etc. One lady took great umbrage at this and started arguing back, so David started one of his never ending monologues about all uifala kam here dis place makem throwem rabish every place likem pigpig. Iufala live in village like pigpig ia? Stop kam dis place live like pigpig, go live in bush likem pigpig, nomoa kam here mifala village and makem rabish everywhere distaem ia?
And so on for about 30 minutes. He had quite a crowd gathered by the time he’d finished. I’m not sure how much impact he had, we’ll find out Monday no doubt when we go back to prune the trees, and see how much more rubbish has been dropped there this weekend.
It probably cost us more than the $1500 per month City Centre are paying for it, but hopefully once we get it all cleaned up, and have someone in there a few times a week it may start to come more presentable. This is right beside Mendana Ave, beside City Centre, which has shops, the NZ High Commission, a few other Government Depts and is right at the centre of the Honiara Business area in Point Cruz. I’m sure there are recent pics in Google Earth, once we get the internet working properly at Ranadi I’ll upload a lot more into G-Earth.
We’ve had Premier Ma from Taiwan here, as I mentioned earlier. The editorial in the Solomon Star on Monday has drawn a lot of flak from various MP’s, all desperately giving examples of what they have spent the RCDF or Cattle Fund on. It all sounds good, until you look at the figures involved. I’m not convinced that paying the salaries of 5 Health Centre staff would use up $200,000 per year, given that the salaries are only in the $15,000 per year bracket, it seems to my figures there is a lot of money left over. As for the Cattle Fund, from letters and reports in the Solomon Star, there are a lot of new 4wd, motorbikes, solar panels, being noticed around the provinces, but no fences, yards, fields, paddocks. Oh, and no cattle either. Never mind, it was only $18 million. Only pocket change here for the politicians. Barely $360,000 for each MP.
From John Roughans column in the Star, the average change of MPs every election is 44%, so nearly half of the sitting MPs are not returned. As he writes, it is as though they just want to get into Parliament for a term to get the money, and the RCDF (Rural Constituency Development Fund) is like a never ending flow of money. It is meant to be used for Constituency development, and I have to admit, there have been a few MPs who do use it to improve their constituencies, but the majority use it to buy votes at the next election, and to keep their wantok happy.
When you consider that nearly of each Parliament is not returned, and you have 25 new MPs each election, it is a wonder that anything gets done, or perhaps it is more understandable why the Solomons is in such a shambles. I’m not meant to have political comments in here, it’s hard to live here and see the totally dysfunctional Government and Council Departments and not have some “views” about it all. I get, as is evident from some of my previous posts, frustrated trying to deal with people who have personal agendas that take precedence over actually getting something done. If they can score a point, they will obstruct, deny, or just flatly ignore a proposal that would benefit everyone.
I was overly optimistic about getting the little truck finished for the weekend. It turned into a brilliant clear sky, hot sweltering couple of days, and with Telekom upgrading the mobile service, from almost non-existent, to intermittent service, I haven’t been able to contact David to find out what is happening with it. Adrian had mentioned on Thursday about going to Bonegi for a days diving, but with no way of contacting him, it became a matter of waiting to see if he turned up, which he didn’t. It gave me another excuse to wash the house out again, I had to be at home Saturday morning to see if the Ant Spray people were coming, again, which never happened either.
It’s now been a month since I had water through the lines, apart from a couple of occasions where it came on for a couple of hours. I took the meter reading yesterday, since 26/02 to 28/03, it hasn’t changed. I have to keep reminding myself I live in the capitol city of the Solomons, and not in a rural village, after the trip Steve and I did to Komonimboko last year, I’d prefer living there to the endless frustration living in Honiara causes. Well almost, if there was internet available. PFNet are gradually getting out to all the provinces, with their email connection, I’m not sure how it works, they advertise it as an email connection only, so it may be something to do with bandwidth and it isn’t enough for someone like me that browses everywhere. I’d be happy with that though.
Tiffany borrowed my Zen and the Art of Making a Living book last week. After 8 years of working with SEB she’s decided this year is going to be make or break, and she just needs that little nudge to get her out of the comfort zone and into doing something else again. I feel pretty much the same, despite everything coming together finally, I know it’s going to be a constant argument over everything we want to do. And at the end, the ideal of being an independent organisation will not happen without a lot of arguments and “words”.
Tiff has 21 weeks holiday pay owing, she’s not had a holiday since she started with SEB, and since Cyclone Ului passed over Bellona she’s anxious to get home and see her family. The argument is now over the $50 difference between her flying there and coming back on the ferry, instead of taking the ferry each way. As she’s only going for a week, and the ferry runs once a month at present, I’m having trouble understanding why there is an argument. I got her to email back and mention the outstanding holiday entitlement, if it comes to push and shove, I’ll get her to take all 21 weeks owing. And not come back.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Wednesday 24th March
Warning, this was written after a long frustrating day, and coming home to find the water is still shut off didn't help my mood.
Another hot dry sweltering day. HKL Logistics, the people that service the RAMSI encampment, are sponsoring the Childrens playground at Rove, and are sending a crew of welders, carpenters in to fix everything there. It’s actually a shambles of a place, the kids love playing there in the daytime, but at night the Boat turns into a Working Girls place of business, or a public toilet, a drinking spot, or a doss house for anyone who needs somewhere to sleep.
I’ve mentioned before about hating to get the ladies in the work crew in there to clean it out, in all honesty working at a sewage works would be preferable. Thankfully we don’t have a drug needle problem here yet, it’s mainly kwaso, or marihuana, or for the more conservative ones beer. HKL are going to seal the openings off, so no one can climb inside, or drop rubbish through.
The Taiwanese Premier is in town, one of the ROC Midshipman training ships is anchored in the harbour, and all the pomp and garbage is going on in town tonight. I didn’t get an invite.
Tiffany asked me what he was here for, from the Solomon Star article, he is going to give the Govt another $10million towards the cattle fund, or the RCDF fund. Tiffany asked where all the cattle were from the first $8million that went missing, and I pointed out the truck to the hills behind Honiara and said they were all behind those hills, or maybe behind the distant hills, or perhaps on the islands out there. Where ever they are it won’t be accessible. It is turning into a farce here with all the different funding that is being poured in, and so far only the Japanese, AusAid, and NZ Aid are taking steps to control where and what the money goes for. Everything else just goes to the politicians, who disburse it to their wantok, or keep it for election bribes. The Japanese, Australian and New Zealand agencies keep the money, and pay it out on invoice, they don’t let the politicians touch it, and the invoices have to tally with the original proposal and request. If only a few more would do the same we might stand a chance that some of the aid would actually get to where it is needed.
I mentioned I think about Peter from VSA Wellington calling in the other day, he is the Regional Director for South Asia and Pacific for VSA, really nice person, been a volunteer in several countries, programme officer, now director, and still keen to get in the field as much as possible. I’d be doing the same in that position, if the choice was paperwork in an office, or going for field trips to remote locations, I’ll be at the airport waiting.
Anyway, we were having one of our usual rambling talks, and he almost accused me of being right wing, and having definite non-socialist views, which I’ve never thought of, but in some ways he may have been right. Although what I’m doing working for nothing in a place like Honiara, or the Solomons doesn’t actually tie in with being a right wing hard line up against the wall type conservative. I know I was sick of reading about Nanny Helen Clark by the time she finally got voted out, Labour are responsible for the largest dumbing down of the education system I’ve ever seen in New Zealand. As for putting quotas in place for University/employment, how bloody stupid can you get. Then making the entrance exams easier because the “target” groups are under represented. Sorry, you make the entrance exams harder, to make sure only the best get through, and if that group isn’t representative of the population mix, tough, you don’t dumb the system down. Go back to the start of it and find out why the bottom 30% are failures, don’t make it easier for them to just drift through. And if it means all the left wing touchy feely psychobabble looney everyone is a winner even little Johnny who is a certifiable psychopath gets a medal for tying his shoelaces vegetarian don’t play on those swings in case you fall and break an arm sorry graduates from teachers college get put up against the wall, or get fired for being nanny looney left wing nutcases, well good.
But I’m not really all that right wing reactionary. Just getting tired of being the ambulance at the bottom of the hill, while successive Governments keep taking the safety barriers down at the top.
I had people on TOPS courses in NZ, teenagers, young men, women, 20 somethings, that couldn’t read or write, but had all sorts of glowing certificates from school. Best Finger Painter in Year 8, Student with the Best Attendance Record 48%, Most Happy Person in Class, all extremely relevant to learning and finding employment I am sure.
One of the few times I’ve ever felt like giving out those sort of Certificates was at a school camp I was on with my daughter at Kawau Island, and we had David, who was mentally handicapped, but wanted to do everything the others were doing despite a fear of heights, water, and a long list of other phobias. Somehow I got him across a 3 rope bridge, swimming, and generally joining in. If any kid deserved a medal for making progress, from all the ones that were there, he did. And walking backwards on a 3 rope bridge while talking and guiding a visibly frightened 11 year old isn’t as easy as it looks.
Still, that was play, I get annoyed at the continual dumbness being foisted on kids in school. The “no one is smarter, better, faster, stronger” than anyone else attitude. No wonder kids just drift through with no sense of having to strive or work for anything. Mind though, that was all I did at school, turned off, drifted through with just enough work done to satisfy the teachers, and spent most of my time reading books that were meant to be above my level. I think getting expelled was the high point of my scholastic achievements. The school had had enough of me, and I was certainly over going there. Hi Damian!
I admit I read a lot of Fred Reeds columns, http://www.fredoneverything.net/
and he certainly isn’t one of your politically correct writers. Which I think is needed more often, all the pc crap in the world isn’t going to fix a problem that is there, all it does is paper over the cracks, while everyone calls it non-cognitive learning disorder, or socially maladjusted behavioural syndrome, or gives certificates for collecting the most rubbish.
Hmmm, I might have a coffee and calm down about now. I know, I’ll mention the water situation. It is now 7.45pm Wednesday night, and once again, still, there is no water. And hasn’t been at all today. I’m going to get hold of Steve tomorrow and get permission to write to the Solomon Star just to vent a bit of steam off. I’ll have to send it though him first I think, I may get carried away. I’m getting very used to Japanese style washes, having 2 x 10 litre buckets helps, one for getting all soaped up from, the other for washing it all off with clean water. It still isn’t as good as standing under a shower though.
The Football (Rugby) Stadium is nearing completion, the fence came down today, and all the outside is now plastered, so you can’t see the mis-match of different concrete and blockwork. I keep wondering how much of a water supply/sewage system/electricity supply the money poured into the stadium would have bought. But silly me, those things don’t have the photo opportunities that a big bright new Rugby Stadium in a country where less than 1% of the people play rugby can give. Not to mention the 68 new shops, the Restaurant, the business offices.
I’m really on a roll tonight with this, at least the things Tiffany and I are working towards are an improvement, and we are trying to get things done to make the place look and feel better.
Another hot dry sweltering day. HKL Logistics, the people that service the RAMSI encampment, are sponsoring the Childrens playground at Rove, and are sending a crew of welders, carpenters in to fix everything there. It’s actually a shambles of a place, the kids love playing there in the daytime, but at night the Boat turns into a Working Girls place of business, or a public toilet, a drinking spot, or a doss house for anyone who needs somewhere to sleep.
I’ve mentioned before about hating to get the ladies in the work crew in there to clean it out, in all honesty working at a sewage works would be preferable. Thankfully we don’t have a drug needle problem here yet, it’s mainly kwaso, or marihuana, or for the more conservative ones beer. HKL are going to seal the openings off, so no one can climb inside, or drop rubbish through.
The Taiwanese Premier is in town, one of the ROC Midshipman training ships is anchored in the harbour, and all the pomp and garbage is going on in town tonight. I didn’t get an invite.
Tiffany asked me what he was here for, from the Solomon Star article, he is going to give the Govt another $10million towards the cattle fund, or the RCDF fund. Tiffany asked where all the cattle were from the first $8million that went missing, and I pointed out the truck to the hills behind Honiara and said they were all behind those hills, or maybe behind the distant hills, or perhaps on the islands out there. Where ever they are it won’t be accessible. It is turning into a farce here with all the different funding that is being poured in, and so far only the Japanese, AusAid, and NZ Aid are taking steps to control where and what the money goes for. Everything else just goes to the politicians, who disburse it to their wantok, or keep it for election bribes. The Japanese, Australian and New Zealand agencies keep the money, and pay it out on invoice, they don’t let the politicians touch it, and the invoices have to tally with the original proposal and request. If only a few more would do the same we might stand a chance that some of the aid would actually get to where it is needed.
I mentioned I think about Peter from VSA Wellington calling in the other day, he is the Regional Director for South Asia and Pacific for VSA, really nice person, been a volunteer in several countries, programme officer, now director, and still keen to get in the field as much as possible. I’d be doing the same in that position, if the choice was paperwork in an office, or going for field trips to remote locations, I’ll be at the airport waiting.
Anyway, we were having one of our usual rambling talks, and he almost accused me of being right wing, and having definite non-socialist views, which I’ve never thought of, but in some ways he may have been right. Although what I’m doing working for nothing in a place like Honiara, or the Solomons doesn’t actually tie in with being a right wing hard line up against the wall type conservative. I know I was sick of reading about Nanny Helen Clark by the time she finally got voted out, Labour are responsible for the largest dumbing down of the education system I’ve ever seen in New Zealand. As for putting quotas in place for University/employment, how bloody stupid can you get. Then making the entrance exams easier because the “target” groups are under represented. Sorry, you make the entrance exams harder, to make sure only the best get through, and if that group isn’t representative of the population mix, tough, you don’t dumb the system down. Go back to the start of it and find out why the bottom 30% are failures, don’t make it easier for them to just drift through. And if it means all the left wing touchy feely psychobabble looney everyone is a winner even little Johnny who is a certifiable psychopath gets a medal for tying his shoelaces vegetarian don’t play on those swings in case you fall and break an arm sorry graduates from teachers college get put up against the wall, or get fired for being nanny looney left wing nutcases, well good.
But I’m not really all that right wing reactionary. Just getting tired of being the ambulance at the bottom of the hill, while successive Governments keep taking the safety barriers down at the top.
I had people on TOPS courses in NZ, teenagers, young men, women, 20 somethings, that couldn’t read or write, but had all sorts of glowing certificates from school. Best Finger Painter in Year 8, Student with the Best Attendance Record 48%, Most Happy Person in Class, all extremely relevant to learning and finding employment I am sure.
One of the few times I’ve ever felt like giving out those sort of Certificates was at a school camp I was on with my daughter at Kawau Island, and we had David, who was mentally handicapped, but wanted to do everything the others were doing despite a fear of heights, water, and a long list of other phobias. Somehow I got him across a 3 rope bridge, swimming, and generally joining in. If any kid deserved a medal for making progress, from all the ones that were there, he did. And walking backwards on a 3 rope bridge while talking and guiding a visibly frightened 11 year old isn’t as easy as it looks.
Still, that was play, I get annoyed at the continual dumbness being foisted on kids in school. The “no one is smarter, better, faster, stronger” than anyone else attitude. No wonder kids just drift through with no sense of having to strive or work for anything. Mind though, that was all I did at school, turned off, drifted through with just enough work done to satisfy the teachers, and spent most of my time reading books that were meant to be above my level. I think getting expelled was the high point of my scholastic achievements. The school had had enough of me, and I was certainly over going there. Hi Damian!
I admit I read a lot of Fred Reeds columns, http://www.fredoneverything.net/
and he certainly isn’t one of your politically correct writers. Which I think is needed more often, all the pc crap in the world isn’t going to fix a problem that is there, all it does is paper over the cracks, while everyone calls it non-cognitive learning disorder, or socially maladjusted behavioural syndrome, or gives certificates for collecting the most rubbish.
Hmmm, I might have a coffee and calm down about now. I know, I’ll mention the water situation. It is now 7.45pm Wednesday night, and once again, still, there is no water. And hasn’t been at all today. I’m going to get hold of Steve tomorrow and get permission to write to the Solomon Star just to vent a bit of steam off. I’ll have to send it though him first I think, I may get carried away. I’m getting very used to Japanese style washes, having 2 x 10 litre buckets helps, one for getting all soaped up from, the other for washing it all off with clean water. It still isn’t as good as standing under a shower though.
The Football (Rugby) Stadium is nearing completion, the fence came down today, and all the outside is now plastered, so you can’t see the mis-match of different concrete and blockwork. I keep wondering how much of a water supply/sewage system/electricity supply the money poured into the stadium would have bought. But silly me, those things don’t have the photo opportunities that a big bright new Rugby Stadium in a country where less than 1% of the people play rugby can give. Not to mention the 68 new shops, the Restaurant, the business offices.
I’m really on a roll tonight with this, at least the things Tiffany and I are working towards are an improvement, and we are trying to get things done to make the place look and feel better.
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