Mãori Social Entrepreneurialism as a Model for Australia's Development Assistance in the Southwest Pacific
2009; Volume: 28; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1836-6600
Autores Tópico(s)Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration
ResumoThis article evaluates the problems associated with Australian aid policy and practice to various Pacific nations and proposes an alternative model based on new Zealand Maori kin-based distribution of resources as offering culturally-appropriate benefits. Introduction Australia has dramatically increased its aid and attention towards its Pacific Island neighbours since 2000 as mounting internal problems in the region led to fears that they would soon become failed states. A predominantly Australian regional force intervened militarily to restore order in Solomon Islands in 2003 at the invitation of the Solomon Island Government. A smaller regional operation helped to restore order in Tonga after rioting destroyed much of the commercial centre of the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa in 2006. While peace was soon restored in both cases, the solution for rectifying the factors underlying the tensions is now perceived by Australian authorities to be an extensive period of intensified development assistance. In 2002, the year before the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), Australia's aid commitment to Solomon Islands was $33 million. In 2003-2004, aid to Solomon Islands jumped to $140 million, then $180 million in 2004-2005, $234 million in 2005-2006, and $223 million in 2006-2007 (Dobell 2007: 11). The election victory of an Australian Labor Government in late 2007 raised expectations that the new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, would implement the principles outlined in his Port Moresby Declaration of March 2008, jointly with PNG Prime Minister Michael Somare, which announced that this increased commitment of aid to the Pacific would also be accompanied by a new era of greater cooperation and dialogue between Australia and its neighbours in the southwest Pacific. The independent states of the southwest Pacific have inherited somewhat arbitrary bases for nationhood that bear little resemblance to their inhabitants' usual spheres of interaction during millennia of occupation of this region. The Pacific Island states to Australia's immediate north and northeast vary considerably in size from just over 215,000 in Vanuatu to approximately 6.1 million in Papua New Guinea. A variety of languages is spoken within each nation state and the kin-based identity is the dominant affiliation of most citizens. Most inherited limited infrastructure from their colonial rulers and since independence have been unable to provide the transport, educational, health and economic facilities needed to make their citizens willing and able to operate as citizens of a modern state. Most people still practice essentially highly localised traditional economies (previously known as subsistence lifestyles) occasionally supplemented by cash crops. Despite poor communications and at times tense relations between social groups, a sizable minority of the population now travels beyond their kin group area to work in the modern economy, especially in national capitals or large multinational undertakings such as oil palm plantations and mine sites. These sites are sources of both identity formation and tension. While a new class-based urban identity has begun to take place in cities such as Noumea, Port Vila, Honiara, Port Moresby and Suva, many if not most migrants to cities rely upon wantoks - networks who speak the same language and share cultural origins. There is still much debate within Australia about how to best assist Pacific Island states overcome their problems, and about nurturing the capacity of Pacific Island states to rectify their own problems. Many scholars still publish gloomy prognoses about the ability of states within the so-called 'Arc of Instability' to Australia's immediate north to make significant economic advances and secure political stability without external assistance. This group includes commentators such as Susan Windybank from the Centre for Independent Studies and Ben Reilly from the Australian National University. …
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