Archive for February, 2009
Melanesian Socialism
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
[Originally published in the Vanuatu Daily Post’s Weekender Edition.]
Ten years ago last week, Father Walter Hadye Lini succumbed to illness. His passing was a milestone marking the end of the first ascent of Vanuatu politics.
Walter Lini was the first – though not the only – Vanuatu politician to elaborate the unique political philosophy of Melanesian Socialism. The term, loaded as it was with unwelcome overtones for capitalist nations, was nonetheless an apt description of the conjunction of traditional Vanuatu values with progressive western politics.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography clarifies:
“There is little evidence… that he used socialism in the common sense of its meaning; rather, he was attracted by its emphasis on communal action and social responsibility, which seemed much more in tune with traditional Melanesian values.”
There isn’t a politician alive today who doesn’t pay tribute to kastom. Many of them take the role of the traditional chief to heart, integrating it into everything they do. One political observer once remarked to me that Ham Lini Vanuaroroa was the very epitome of the Pentecost chief, and though some outside commentators were quick to criticise his quiet, unassuming approach to governing, his own people wouldn’t have it any other way.
Vanuatu’s political leaders may espouse all that is best in traditional Vanuatu values, and without a doubt many of them are committed to a course of reconciliation between formal western models of governance and the un-codified body of kastom philosophy and practice. But few have managed to express a vision as simple and as clear as Melanesian Socialism.
I think it’s high time that Vanuatu took another look at Walter Lini’s vision.
Originally published at the Scriptorum. You can comment here or there.
Transport
Friday, February 27th, 2009
Life imitates bash.org
Friday, February 27th, 2009
Heh, I just chased a hunting spider off my screen with my mouse cursor. I belong on IRC!
La “Rentrée” célébrée à la Résidence de France)
Friday, February 27th, 2009
A l’occasion de la présentation des Voeux à la communauté française par l’Ambassadrice de France, Mme F. Maylié, le 19 février, soirée de “rentrée” pour tenir compte du calendrier austral, des personnalités ni-vanuatu du monde culturel ont été conviées.)
Visitor
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
Clothesline
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Keeping the feet dry
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
Don’t Plan On It
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
[Originally published in the Vanuatu Daily Post’s Weekender Edition.]
Recently, I’ve come across references to a phenomenon some expats have wryly termed the ‘V’ factor. Apparently there is some magic variable Vanuatu inserts into every equation that reduces our ability to calculate a sensible output to zero.
As emblematic phrases go, the ‘V’ factor ranks somewhere between Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 and those inane office posters warning you that ‘you don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps.’
Joseph Heller penned his famous novel in an attempt to characterise the crushing, often deadly banality of bureaucratic systems. His initially humourous tone peels away layer by layer until death, disappearance and the destruction of innocence leave the surviving characters with few illusions about humanity’s true nature.
Compared to this tour de force of gallows humour, a silly-looking poster tacked onto a corkboard seems innocuous, to say the least, little more than an ineffectual, protesting squeak from a mouse in a maze.
The ‘V’ factor isn’t so harmless. Rather than explain (Catch 22-style) Vanuatu’s unique environment, it substitutes dismissive hand-waving (often accompanied by another beer) for any serious desire to adapt to the reality of the situation. In essence, it’s a quick and easy way of exculpating oneself, of refusing to be implicated in the petty, small-world inefficiencies that define Vanuatu.
The ‘V’ factor is the final excuse of someone who wants into the show, but doesn’t want to pay for the ticket.
Originally published at the Scriptorum. You can comment here or there.
