Posted by tealady on November 23, 2006, at 17:54:01
visited Vanuatu in April 2004.
I wrote some of my thoughts on my blog. http://jantea.blog.co.uk/2006/11/23/vanuatu_the_tradegy_of_our_help~1359537
I am unsure if I got the "right end of the stick", but it seemed to me that this division of land was "advised" by foreign govts(or UN?) as a foreign aid strategy to raise the living standards as measured by GNP etc of the locals in Vanuatu.
I could have this wrong, it could have been the property developers approaching the Vanuatu govt or PM ..with the aim or making some massive gains!This "leasing" of land upset me at the time, I could see the story unfolding. Solomons only different.
If it IS true about the land being divided up to give "money" and therefore "on paper" increase the wealth of the people of Vanuatu, I would be interetsed to hear it! I am interested after what I heard (or thought I did) and it really does mean , if true, that we need to have a serious rethink in our foreign aid. Although this was pointed out before in your show.Why was the communal village land divided into individual title deeds? What was the benefit of this in the longer term?
here's the direct video link
http://www20.sbs.com.au/video/?channel=This+Weekclick on vanuatu
also a transcript
I agree with a comment by Colin in their guestbook
""Great piece too on Vanuatu, where the locals are being turfed off their land (Palestine in the Pacific!) by "battler" investors (defined as having a few hundred thousand!)from Australia led by...Paul Keating. The inevitable resistance will no doubt be branded by Howard as terrorism and require yet another Australian intervention. You couldn't make this stuff up. "
poster:tealady
thread:706515
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20061123/msgs/706515.html