The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- US’s Kerry Presses Burma Leaders on Human Rights, Reforms
- US Call for South China Sea ‘Freeze’ Gets Cool Response From China
- Rohingya Children in Burma Camps Going Hungry
- The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (August 9, 2014)
- Burmese Child Slave Puts Spotlight on Abuse of Foreign Maids in Thailand
- PNG Woman Leads Relocation of Island Community Hit by Climate Change
| US’s Kerry Presses Burma Leaders on Human Rights, Reforms Posted: 09 Aug 2014 07:15 AM PDT  Secretary of State John Kerry (L) speaks with President Thein Sein during their meeting at the Presidential hall, outside the venue of the 47th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Naypyidaw on Saturday. (Photo: Reuters) NAYPYIDAW — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday pressed Burma’s political leaders on Washington’s human rights concerns and urged its President Thein Sein to step up constitutional reforms to ensure elections next year are fully credible. Kerry, in Burma’s capital for the ASEAN Regional Forum, met Thein Sein and discussed plans for elections in 2015, concerns over the treatment of the minority Muslim Rohingya, as well as the jailing of journalists, a senior State Department official said. He also discussed these issues with Shwe Mann, the speaker of parliament and leader of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). While officials acknowledged there had been significant change in Burma during its political transition since 2011 from military rule, they also said there had been "some resistance and some slowdown" in tackling more difficult issues such as press freedom and constitutional reforms. Kerry will meet with Burma opposition leader and international icon Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon on Sunday. She has campaigned for a change to the constitution that bars her from the presidency and gives substantial political power to unelected military members of parliament. The United States has promised to ease sanctions further if there are more reforms, including the withdrawal of the military from politics. But U.S. officials said the lifting of remaining sanctions was unlikely until the process of reform and respect for human rights advances. "Right now the focus is entirely on bearing down on these more fundamental challenges that they are now coming face to face with," the senior official said. Rohingya in the Spotlight Kerry got into "quite a few details" about the situation in Rakhine state and the minority Muslim Rohingya community, the official said. In particular, he addressed the designation of the term "Bengali" which the Rohingya see as underscoring an assertion they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though many have lived in western Burma for generations. "The name issue should be set aside," the official said. "To force any community to accept a name they consider to be offensive is to invite conflict, and if the goal is to prevent conflict, then it’s better to set that aside." Kerry also raised specific cases involving the arrest of journalists, the official added. The senior State Department official said there was no resistance from Thein to discussing the issues. Ye Htut, Burma’s minister of information, said on Friday the government had moved in the right direction since elections in 2011 but also recognized it needed to do more. "We don’t deny there are some challenges that we are facing," he said, "But we are moving toward the right direction and we’re trying our best to overcome these challenges." "People in Congress should have more understanding of our situation, and instead of blaming us, they try to find a way to help the Burma people to solve all these things," he said. The post US’s Kerry Presses Burma Leaders on Human Rights, Reforms appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| US Call for South China Sea ‘Freeze’ Gets Cool Response From China Posted: 09 Aug 2014 06:59 AM PDT  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a bilateral meeting at the 47th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Naypyidaw on Saturday. (Photo: Reuters) NAYPYIDAW — A U.S. proposal for a freeze on provocative acts in the South China Sea got a cool response from China and some Southeast Asian nations on Saturday, an apparent setback to Washington’s efforts to rein in China’s assertive actions. To China’s annoyance, the United States is using a regional meeting in Burma this weekend to step up its engagement in the maritime tension by calling for a moratorium on actions such as China’s planting of a giant oil rig in Vietnamese waters in May. Its ally the Philippines has also called for a freeze as part of a three-step plan to ease tension in the resource-rich sea, through which passes $5 trillion of trade a year. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Burma’s capital, Naypyidaw, on Saturday for the ASEAN Regional Forum, joining foreign ministers and other top diplomats from China, Russia, Japan, India, Australia, the European Union and Southeast Asia among others. "The United States and ASEAN have a common responsibility to ensure the maritime security of critical sea, lands and ports," Kerry said in opening comments. "We need to work together to manage tensions in the South China Sea and to manage them peacefully, and also to manage them on the basis of international law." But Le Luong Minh, secretary-general of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said the U.S. proposal was not discussed by ASEAN ministers because there was already a mechanism in place to curtail sensitive action such as land reclamation and building on disputed islands. China Says Situation Stable The top ASEAN diplomat said it was up to ASEAN to work with China to reduce tension by improving compliance with a 2002 agreement, as they also work to conclude a binding Code of Conduct for maritime actions. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also lay claim to parts of the sea. "It is up to ASEAN to encourage China to achieve a serious and effective implementation of this commitment, rather than ASEAN asking whether it should support or not support the [U.S.] proposal," he said. Most claimants have flouted the 2002 guidelines, leading to rising tension in the South China Sea between four ASEAN claimant nations and China, which claims 90 percent of the waters. The rancor has split ASEAN, with several states including some of the claimants reluctant to antagonize Asia’s economic giant. China rejects U.S. involvement in the dispute and has already dismissed the proposal for a freeze. China accuses the United States of emboldening claimants such as the Philippines and Vietnam with its military "pivot" back to Asia. "Currently the situation in the South China Sea is stable on the whole. There has not been any problem regarding navigation in the South China Sea," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters. "Someone has been exaggerating or playing up the so-called tensions in the South China Sea. We don’t agree with such a practice." Philippine Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario also appeared to tone down his proposal for a freeze or moratorium on activities causing tension in the South China Sea, calling instead for a "cessation" in remarks to reporters on Friday. A senior U.S. official said the change in language was not significant. "Maybe they just want to differentiate their proposal from our proposal." ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The post US Call for South China Sea 'Freeze' Gets Cool Response From China appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Rohingya Children in Burma Camps Going Hungry Posted: 08 Aug 2014 06:30 PM PDT  Twin Rohingya babies sleep inside a hut at a refugee camp outside Sittwe, the capital city of Arakan State, on June 9, 2014. (Photo: Reuters / Soe Zeya Tun) OHN TAW GYI CAMP, Arakan State — Born just over a year ago, Dosmeda Bibi has spent her entire short life confined to a camp for one of the world's most persecuted religious minorities. And like a growing number of other Muslim Rohingya children who are going hungry, she's showing the first signs of severe malnutrition. Her stomach is bloated and her skin clings tightly to the bones of her tiny arms and legs. While others her age are sitting or standing, the baby girl cannot flip from her back to her stomach without a gentle nudge from her mom. "I'm scared she won't live much longer," whispers Hameda Begum as she gazes into her daughter's dark, sunken eyes. "We barely have any food. On some days I can only scrape together a few bites of rice for her to eat." Burma's child malnutrition rate was already among the region's highest, but it's an increasingly familiar sight in the country's westernmost state of Arakan, which is home to almost all of the country's 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims. More than 140,000 have been trapped in crowded, dirty camps since extremist Buddhist mobs began chasing them from their homes two years ago, killing up to 280 people. The others are stuck in villages isolated by systematic discrimination, with restrictions on their movement and limited access to food, clean water, education and health care. Even before the violence, the European Community Humanitarian Office reported parts of the country's second-poorest state had acute malnutrition rates hitting 23 percent—far beyond the 15 percent emergency level set by the World Health Organization. With seasonal rains now beating down on the plastic tents and bamboo shacks inside Rohingya camps, the situation has become even more miserable and dangerous for kids like Dosmeda. Naked boys and girls run barefoot on the muddy, narrow pathways, or play in pools of raw sewage, exposing them to potential waterborne diseases that kill. Some have black hair tinged with patches of red or blond, a tell-tale sign of nutrient deficiency commonly seen in places experiencing famine. After a 10-day visit to the area last month, Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, summed up what she saw. "The situation is deplorable," she said.
Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation, only recently emerged from a half-century of repressive military rule and self-imposed isolation. Despite occasional expressions of concern, the United States, Britain and others in the international community have largely stood by as conditions for the Rohingya deteriorated. Some ambassadors and donor countries say privately that coming down too hard on the new, nominally civilian government will undermine efforts to implement sweeping reforms and note there has already been a dramatic backslide. Others don't want to jeopardize much-needed multi-billion dollar development projects in the country. But their hesitancy to act has emboldened Buddhist extremists, now dictating the terms of aid distribution in Arakan State. Last month, even Bertrand Bainvel, country representative for the UN's children's agency Unicef—which says the number of severe malnutrition cases has more than doubled between March and June to reach nearly 1,000 cases—apologized for the use of the word "Rohingya." It was uttered during a presentation about projects for kids in Arakan, rather than the government-insisted term "Bengali." He promised that Unicef would not use the word again, those present at the meeting said, though he sidestepped repeated queries from The Associated Press about the incident. The government claims ethnic Rohingya are illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh and denies them citizenship, even though many of their families arrived generations ago. With their dark South Asian features, they are looked upon with disdain by the vast majority of the nation's 60 million people. Even Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, whether for reasons personal or political, has remained largely silent as members of the religious minority have been chased down by knife-wielding mobs. Conditions in the camps—and elsewhere in Arakan—went from bad to worse in February after the government expelled their main health lifeline, the Nobel-prize winning Doctors Without Borders (MSF). A month later, other humanitarian groups were temporarily evacuated after extremist Buddhists stormed their residences and offices, saying they were giving Muslims preferential treatment. Many have since returned, but their operations have been severely restricted. Doctors Without Borders has remained barred. In a move apparently timed to US Secretary of State John Kerry's arrival in Burma on Friday, the government said the aid group could get back to work, though it remains unclear when that will happen and what conditions will apply. Reshma Adatia, Holland-based Doctors Without Borders operational adviser, said Kerry and other foreign ministers attending a regional meeting in Burma this weekend should pressure the government to allow all aid groups to return immediately without restrictions. "It's important for foreign governments and international actors to really push that access to essential humanitarian assistance is required, and it's required today," she said. "We're talking about hundreds of thousands that are at risk right now." The father of Dosmeda, the malnourished baby, died at sea while working as a fisherman just before she was born. After Buddhist mobs attacked the family's home, her pregnant mother, Hameda Begum, moved into the Ohn Taw Gyi camp outside Sittwe. Unable to work, and without a husband to help, she had a hard time finding enough to eat in the months leading up to her due date. When the baby was born, the 18-year-old mother was unable to produce milk. "I could only give her what adults ate—rice or ground-up fish," Hameda said of her first child. "But the food rations we got were small. Sometimes we didn't get any at all." She knew her baby was sick, but she didn't understand malnutrition was to blame. "She just kept getting skinnier and skinnier," she said. The first two years of a child's life—when the brain and body are developing—are critical for physical and mental development. Without adequate nutrition, little girls like Dosmeda are prone to stunting, a condition that will shape the rest of their lives. As adults, they are weaker, prone to illnesses and have limited cognitive capacity. They are also likely to be less productive on the job, studies show, earning lower wages that keep them stuck in poverty. Dosmeda is now getting help from France-based Action Against Hunger, one of the only foreign aid organizations that has been allowed to continue operating in the camps. But she continues to wither, looking worse by the day. The baby is the only family the young mother has in the camp, and she's desperate to save her. "All I can think about all day is my daughter. How can I help her? How can I make her healthy, give her a longer life?" Hameda said. "If something happens, I don't know what I'll do. I don't think I can live without her." Associated Press writers Robin McDowell and Margie Mason contributed to this report. The post Rohingya Children in Burma Camps Going Hungry appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (August 9, 2014) Posted: 08 Aug 2014 06:00 PM PDT Inflation Forecast to Hover Around 9% if Market Reforms Continue Burma's rate of inflation will stabilize at about 9 percent "in the medium term," a financial assessment of the country has forecast. Although food price pressures will ease with the secondary harvest, inflation will continue speeding up throughout this year, said Mantis, a Netherlands-based economic forecasting company specializing in frontier markets. Inflation will be driven by consumer price increases and depreciation of the kyat, said Mantis. Investment inflows worth about 9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2014 "came just in time to help finance the country's highest merchandise deficit ever, which reached 7.3 percent of GDP" in the quarter. "While imports remained elevated, exports dropped to 12.5 percent of GDP in 2014Q1, down from their peak of 21 percent in the previous quarter and somewhat below their five-year average of 15.5 percent. We expect the drop in exports to be of a temporary nature and thus the merchandise deficit to moderate soon," Mantis said. "Myanmar's complex socio-economic transition process entails large uncertainties. If the reform momentum accelerates, investment inflows may strengthen, leading to appreciation of the currency," the assessment said. "On the other hand, if financial markets are not liberalized or the government resorts to borrowing from the central bank, there will be faster depreciation of the kyat." India, Burma Plan a Large Power Plant to Aid Cross-Border Trade India and Burma are negotiating to jointly build a 400-megawatt power plant in Sagaing Division close to the border between the two countries, Indian media reports said. Financial support and equipment would be supplied by India's Manipur State, said The Times of India, reporting on a meeting between the two sides at Tamu this week. A site for the plant, which would be fueled by natural gas or electricity, has still to be decided, said the paper. One of the aims of the plant would be to provide electricity to improve cross-border trade via Tamu and Moreh. "The power situation in Sagaing Division is reportedly bad and Tamu town, which plays a major role in the Indo-Myanmar border trade through Moreh, is currently lit by [diesel] generators," said Calcutta's Economic Times. "The Indian team assured its Myanmar counterpart that once the site was selected India was ready to provide the necessary equipment. The power generated by this proposed plant will light up, among others, Tamu town." Labor Campaigner Wins Support From 20 Countries Leaders of Thailand's fruit canning industry have been urged by almost 100 labor and rights organizations in 20 countries to stop the criminal libel case against a British campaigner who has spotlighted the plight of Burmese workers. The Thai Pineapple Industry Association (TPIA) has been sent a letter signed by the groups calling for the case against Andy Hall by the Natural Fruit Company to be dropped. The letter's signatories include the International Trade Union Confederation, European Coalition for Corporate Justice and Human Rights Watch, said Finnwatch, the NGO that commissioned Hall to investigate the conditions of Burmese migrant labor in Thai factories. Hall's report for Finnwatch alleged that Natural Fruit illegally used child labor, violated Thailand's minimum wage standards, confiscated Burmese workers' travel and work documents, and the failed to provide legally mandated paid sick days and holidays. Frances O'Grady, General Secretary of the British Trades Union Congress, representing 6 million workers in Andy Hall's home country, said: "Vulnerable workers need people like Andy Hall—working with trade unions in Thailand and internationally—to stand up against exploitation and abuse." Burma Faces Tourism Bottleneck as Airport Development Remains Stalled A travel industry newspaper has warned that Burma is facing a potential logistics crisis as it rushes to increase annual tourist arrivals in the country without any firm timetable for a new international airport. The country's biggest airport, Rangoon, is nearing its capacity while the proposed new airport at Hanthawaddy is "nowhere in sight," said Bangkok based TTR Weekly. "The Ministry of Hotels and Tourism is targeting [to attract] more than 3 million foreign tourists this year, up from about 1.05 million in 2012, and 2.04 million last year," said the industry paper. Hanthawaddy is meant to have an annual capacity of 12 million, but failure by the Naypyidaw government to appoint developers means an opening date has slipped from 2016 to 2020, it said. South Korea's Incheon Airport Consortium was originally named the preferred bidder in a competitive tender to build the new airport, but talks broke down over funding for the project with an estimated cost in excess of US$1 billion. Incheon is still in the running to build the airport, alongside Singapore's Changi Airport Planners and Engineers (Cape) and two other firms, under new terms that may involve the Burmese government guaranteeing development loans for half of the project's cost. Major Foreign Firms Show Interest in Ministry of Energy Advisory Role Ten foreign legal and engineering companies have expressed interest in obtaining a consultancy contract to advise Burma's Ministry of Energy on oil and gas exploration and pipeline construction. The firms showing interest include two British legal consultancies, Jones Day and Berwin Leighton Paisner, plus Germany's engineering business Fichtner GmbH and Schlumberger Business Consulting, the world's biggest oilfield services company based in Texas, said Eleven Media quoting the ministry. The bid to appoint international advisers comes as Burmese government agencies continue to negotiate with a number of big international oil companies over the terms of contracts on 20 offshore development blocks. The contracts were provisionally awarded last March. The post The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (August 9, 2014) appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| Burmese Child Slave Puts Spotlight on Abuse of Foreign Maids in Thailand Posted: 08 Aug 2014 05:30 PM PDT  A Burmese labor official hands 25,000 baht ($840) to a Karen girl who escaped from a Thai couple accused of inflicting severe abuse on her for five years. (Photo: Facebook / President's Office) KAMPHAENG PHET, Thailand — "Air," the daughter of migrant workers from Burma, was abducted on her seventh birthday, and for the next five years forced to work as a housemaid without pay, suffering daily beatings and torture. Air, whose real name has been withheld to protect her identity, managed to escape last year, and last month, a Thai court awarded her US$143,000 in compensation, but her kidnappers disappeared soon after posting bail in February 2013, so getting the payment could be a long, drawn-out process. Activists say the story of Air's brutal enslavement is not uncommon in Thailand, where domestic workers, mostly from impoverished neighboring countries, are exploited, abused and even killed. "There is very serious abuse going on, whether be it trafficking, forced labor or child labor. This is just the tip of the iceberg," said Andy Hall, a rights activist who has worked extensively with Burmese laborers in Thailand. It is estimated that up to 90 percent of the more than 250,000 domestic workers in Thailand are from Burma, Laos and Cambodia, and experts say they are extremely vulnerable because they work in homes, hidden from public view, and have limited opportunity to reach out for help. While statistics on underage domestic workers are hard to find, anecdotal evidence suggests they make up a significant portion. Domestic workers have few rights in Thailand. A 2012 regulation offers them some protection, but fails to cap working hours or require overtime pay and social security protections. Thailand also has yet to ratify the International Labor Organization's (ILO) new Domestic Workers Convention and was heavily criticized in June when it voted against an ILO treaty to end forced labor—a decision it later reversed. When Air's case came to light after her escape in January 2013, her young age and the severe scars on her body and the entire length of her left arm shocked Thailand, but rights groups say her case is only one of many such abuses. The Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF), a Thai organization that helped bring the civil lawsuit against the couple who enslaved Air, described two young teenage domestic workers who were sexually abused by their employer, the son of a local politician in southern Thailand; an underage Lao worker who was forced to eat her own feces and had bathroom cleaner poured over her; and a Burmese 18-year-old who died after her employer doused her in gasoline and set her ablaze. Scar-Marked Body In the late afternoon of May 20, 2008, a Thai couple that Air's family knew abducted her from her home in Kamphaeng Phet province in central Thailand. "I started crying and kept asking them to send me back to my mum. But they said 'no' repeatedly and I became afraid," Air told Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview. Her family searched for her and asked the village head and police for help, but did not receive any assistance, Air's father said. Over the next five years, the couple enslaved and tortured the girl. The first time she managed to escape went awry after police sent her back to the couple—a claim that Lieutenant Colonel Naret Poolnai of the Kamphaeng Phet police denies. Her eventual escape last year was a fluke. "On 31 January 2013, I was feeding the cat and the cat ran away. I was scared the couple would hit me so I followed the cat by climbing through the fence and realized I was outside the house," she said. A neighbor and teacher helped her, and she was sent to a government shelter in Phitsanulok province. When her parents finally found her at the shelter, they were shocked. Her badly scalded left arm was no longer mobile, stuck to her tiny scar-marked frame. "We were very happy to see she was still alive but also devastated," Air's father, who has been working in Thailand for 20 years, said outside their small home at the edge of a sugarcane field where they work as daily laborers. "She was unblemished when she disappeared. When we saw her again, she was full of injuries," he said, tears welling up in his eyes. Despite Thailand's reliance on migrant workers, rights groups say many officials are reluctant to protect them, extort money from them, and are simply insensitive. After Air escaped, police were criticized for presenting her half-naked to a room full of largely male journalists and photographers to show the extent of her injuries. To prevent cases like Air's, police now work closely with the One Stop Crisis Center—which was set up six years ago by the government to help victims of domestic abuse and whose staff ultimately rescued Air, said Naret of the Kamphaeng Phet police. The court victory and compensation have set up more hurdles for Air's family, who would have to find out what assets the fugitive couple own so the government can seize and sell them, said Orawan Wimonrangkharat, the lawyer who represented Air. It has been a year and a half since Air escaped her captors, and she remains stuck in the shelter because, staff say, she needs medical treatment and her parents would not be able to look after her because they are poor. Her parents—who never left the sugarcane farm in hope that Air would one day make her way home—are biding their time in Thailand for her. "We're still here only because we're waiting for Air to come back to us," said Air's mother. "The day Air comes back home is the day we go back to Myanmar, no matter happens with the money," her father added. The post Burmese Child Slave Puts Spotlight on Abuse of Foreign Maids in Thailand appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
| PNG Woman Leads Relocation of Island Community Hit by Climate Change Posted: 08 Aug 2014 05:00 PM PDT  Inhabitants of the islet of Han sit along its shores. (Photo: Caterests.info) BALI — Ursula Rakova was born in a tropical paradise. The tiny, low-lying islet of Han is part of the Carteret Atoll in the southwest Pacific, with clear blue waters lapping at its palm-fringed shores. Fish was plentiful and so was taro, the staple food. The atoll community is matrilineal, and Rakova's mother passed ownership of Han islet to her – but the island paradise is disappearing, one of the first places to fulfil scientists' predictions that climate change will submerge many coastal communities. The rising sea level split Han islet in two while Rakova was in high school. The atoll, made up of six islets, then suffered saltwater intrusion, contaminating freshwater wells and making it impossible for the islanders to farm taro. Shorelines were eroded. King tides – unusually high tides – which used to come every five or 10 years, started appearing every year. Low tides are retreating further, leading to bleaching of the offshore coral. Today, the gap between the two parts of what used to be Han islet is big enough for canoes to pass through and is growing wider, Rakova said. "The sea that we love to swim in is now turning against us," she told participants in the first "Summit on Women and Climate" in Bali, Indonesia this week. "Our shorelines are eroding so fast. The food that we normally eat has disappeared. Year in, year out, every day, it is a struggle for my people," she said. "It's frightening. It gives you a feeling of anxiety – what's going to happen next?" Fish and other seafood is getting harder to find. The islanders now have to rely on the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government for food, but they are given rice, which is not their staple food, Rakova said. The Carterets' Council of Elders, tired of waiting for the government to act and aware of the need for change, asked Rakova in 2006 to help plan their future. Rakova, a 50-year-old social studies graduate born and bred on the atoll, had worked on human rights and environmental issues with numerous organizations including Oxfam New Zealand. Her first move was to set up an action plan dubbed Tulele Peisa, meaning "sailing in the wind on our own" in the local language. It is an apt description of the program, which has made tremendous progress under her leadership despite continuous challenges. Her struggles also highlight the obstacles facing many women grassroots leaders looking after their communities and their environment. Rakova's plan was far-reaching: she is leading the permanent resettlement of some 2,000 climate refugees from the atoll to mainland Bougainville, a three-hour ride on a wooden boat on a good day. She is also making sure the islanders will be self-reliant in their new homeland. On Their Own "The islands are isolated so the culture has been intact. We also more or less know everyone and it's very peaceful," Rakova said in an interview with Thomson Reuters Foundation. "We are a very loving people and the island provided everything we needed." The atoll is becoming increasingly uninhabitable, but resettling some 2,000 people – the total population is around 2,700 but the elderly do not want to move to the mainland – requires more than just dumping them in a strange place. "We had to look at the education of the younger people, health facilities, economic opportunities for the islanders, and trauma counselling for the families that we're moving as well as the host community," she said. All of this requires money, which was not forthcoming, from the government or anywhere else. The big donors wanted them to be registered, have their books audited, see the cash flow—when they didn't even have a few thousand dollars to their name, Rakova said. The local administration, far from helping, was creating more obstacles. Funding "has been a very very hard struggle and to some extent, a lone struggle," Rakova said, her friendly, generous face looking sad for once. Small amounts of seed money from the New Zealand High Commission in PNG and the Global Green Grants Fund helped them work out an 18-step process which included community profiling and community assessment, and resulted in the islanders owning land, a home and a sustainable way of living in their new location. Continuous Struggle Thankfully, the local community on Bougainville hails from the same clan as the islanders and was welcoming – largely thanks to the exchange of chiefs and elders of the two groups that Rakova's organization set up before any relocation started. This gave the mainlanders an understanding of the islanders' situation. The Catholic Church, which owns vast swathes of land in Bougainville, provided the islanders with four parcels of land. The first group of families – 86 people in total – have moved into their new homes and started farming again. Rakova remains concerned about the impact on the islanders of Bougainville's social problems, including that posed by marijuana, which is grown on the mainland but not on the island. "It's not a case of 'living happily ever after,' it's a continuous struggle," she added. Building the first set of homes brought more funding problems. Donors wanted cheaper houses and Rakova told them to keep their money, arguing that cheaper buildings would not last. The bureaucracy was frustrating, that of both international donors and her own government, which has tens of thousands of dollars earmarked for the climate adaptation of islands and atolls but says funds could not be used for house building. So Rakova set up Bougainville Cocoa Net Limited – to enable the settlers to grow and export organic cocoa. The cash earned from this will help to accelerate the relocation. The settlers are already starting to export to Hamburg in north Germany, after receiving funding from a German organisation. The next step is to obtain fair trade certification and grow the market, she said. Drive for Sustainability Though carrying the burden of the community's future, Rakova is a gentle, loving soul who is always ready for a joke and has an uproarious laugh. Despite winning the 2008 Pride of PNG award for her contribution to the environment and the 2014 Equator Prize, she remains humble and helpful. She was amused by how long it took her to get to Bali from her islet – five days, involving a boat trip, a car ride, and two flight changes. She missed one connection and had to stay inside Sydney airport for 24 hours as she had no Australian visa. Her sense of humor remains intact, which she attributes to being a woman and an islander. "We want the world to know that we also want to make a living. We want to move to this new location so we are growing our own cash crops to sustain our own family income but we need support," she said. "We want to have markets in the United States. This will sustain our program so that we won't have to beg for relocation funds all the time," she added. "We've had enough of chasing donors and funders. We want to do it ourselves." The one thing the islanders can't do is hold back the sea. "The sea has to play its part. It's displacing us," Rakova said stoically. The post PNG Woman Leads Relocation of Island Community Hit by Climate Change appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine. |
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