G'day,
Apologies for the lack of updates. Here's a quick run down:
- two new VSA volunteers have arrived in Buka and are working at the local high school
- I have no flatmates
- I've been sick for five weeks but am finally getting better
- the infection on my finger is finally healing
- there is mould all over my house and it is taking a lot of time to get rid of it
- the health summit was delayed and I hope to meet with the Division of Health this week to find out why
- planning a trip to the Carteret Islands at the end of the month to hold a public forum
- hope to get agreement on process for reviewing Bougainville's development priorities this week (finally)
- big reconciliation meeting this weekend with the controversial Sir Julias Chan
7 months ago
3 comments:
I'm always interested to hear about development priorities/projects on Bougainville.
I'm an anthropologist and worked in the BANA area (Nagovis) some time ago, on land use/cash cropping/subsistence. I was also in Nagovis briefly in 2001.
If you're interested in a perspective that's dated but I think still relevant, you can find a paper I wrote at this site
www.wiasi.net
and there should be copies of my book (Land and Agriculture in Nagovisi, IASER Monograph 3, 1976) floating around.
I don't know whether current priorities are flowing top-down or bottom-up. Based on my experience, the latter would be better.
If everyone either doesn't turn up to the reconciliation meeting, or refuses to reconciliate - will someone force them to?
There is an effort to ensure that priorities are arrived out through consultation at the grass roots level. However, there are practical difficulties in pursuing such an approach. To help address this issue I have been conducting public forums on restoration and development across Bougainville. The expressed opinions will be used as a reference point for public opinion as we prepare advice for the Bougainville Executive Council. So far the messages are pretty consistent across the regions.
Thank you DM for your note, I will try and find that article. There was a regional PNG islands forum this week which discussed at length the issues you are interested in. This was useful as we are currently preparing an Economic Development Strategy. Now is a very interesting time to be in Bougainville.
And with regard to reconciliation, things aren't so bad that people would respond that way. It also helps that reconciliation ceremonies are a big part of culture here (to the extent that they get a bit commercialised!).
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