Comments

Hi Angela, Thank you for your comment. I hope we are clear we don't think this is a Pacific problem. There's an empirical pattern, but our key finding points to an underlying issue that does not have anything to do with the people of the Pacific. I like your suggestion of more engagement with Pacific people. To give donors due credit, they already do a lot of this, in ways ranging from government to government partnership, to community driven development projects. Nevertheless, more conversations would add much more, particularly conversations that empower people at the grassroots to have their say, and particularly conversations that carefully negotiate power dynamics within countries and communities. Thank you also for letting me know about the social media discussion. Other than one comment on twitter, I was unaware of it. People are very welcome to tag me on twitter @terencewoodnz. I'm very happy to discuss more with people via email or Zoom or the like too. Thanks again for taking the time to engage. Terence

FROM Peter Dwyer & Monica Minnegal Gabriel Thank you for your article. We agree that it is important to present information to people in culturally appropriate ways. It is not easy, however, to know either what information is culturally appropriate or what ways of presenting information are culturally appropriate. In an earlier COVID-19 Devpolicy Blog, Aletia Dundas wrote of Christian leaders who are providing ‘messages that support government directives and medical advice, and they are offering biblical references to back up their words’ [May 12, 2020]. By contrast you have directed attention to messages that may cause ‘fear and panic’ and have ‘significant implications in relation to core social and cultural values’. You note that some of these messages come from ‘religious fanatics and so-called street preachers’. Getting the balance right is both important and difficult. We have been monitoring some social media sites and, in general, consider that many people are able to uphold close adherence to their own cultural values while adopting an objective and critical stance with respect to available information. The key site we watch is not overwhelmed by interpretations based in conspiracy, fake news or selected Biblical verses. Many people probably lean to the understanding expressed by Prime Minister James Marape at the time the State of Emergency was lifted. He wrote that he ‘saw the hand of God’ in the survival of the eight known cases of COVID-19 and he thanked ‘all church faithfuls, who fasted and prayed for PNG not to be ravaged by the devastation coronavirus can cause as it is causing in many established countries globally’. We suspect more Papua New Guineans will be thanking God for their survival than arguing that the pandemic was punishment for their sins. At this time, we think that it may be government messages rather than quasi-religious messages that must be presented with care. In the past few days, a ninth positive case of coronavirus has been detected in PNG. Many early responses on social media are suspicious. Is this fake news? Is this a ploy to raise funds? The ‘culture’ at stake here is not of the past; it is very much of the present and it is focused more on the secular than the sacred.

Thank you for compiling such as this highlights

The authors call for donors to 'learn from their own work' and for 'more data and different methods' (i.e. presumably more research in the same field), but perhaps it would be more enlightening to look outside the aid industry and to engage across different fields of experience, theory and practice, including most importantly with Pacific people themselves and with the field of Pacific Studies. It would also be useful to start the discussion by framing this not as a Pacific problem, but as an aid problem. In fact, there has been a lot of discussion about this blog post in the Pacific studies community on social media. It would be so great to see some engagement across different forums and some sharing of the different perspectives.

I help my partner in Vanuatu who is an agent doing the recruitment, vetting and briefing mentioned in your excellent post. We are baffled by the lack of communication and planning that the situation warrants as we can see from both sides - the Approved Employers really need to plan their labour supplies and be equipped for all contingencies - and we know the workers are hanging on every word, every chance that they may be required in an instant to be work ready and leave. Vanuatu is one of the few countries in the world to be declared Covid-19 free and this could be a great positive for the farmers and the workers wanting to travel to Australia under the SWP. Especially as the SWP is under the umbrella of Australia's aid to the Pacific and this particular country had relied on tourism, which is now of course completely in tatters due to border closures. The SWP is the perfect win-win for Vanuatu people and the Approved Employers who need this planning done now. I would hope maybe talks government to government may be the first step? Perhaps the planes going to collect the repatriating workers in the next couple of months can also deliver fresh workers at the same time....

Thank you. That is great for your work through the Seeds of Life program in Aileu. Hope our new government puts more effort on improving all the key sectors across the country.

This helped me in my legal studies assignment.. Thankyou..

Fredrick, I hope your article is widely read and reaches decision makers too. As long as the majority of PNG people continue to live subsistence livelihoods, access to TV, radio, newspapers will be limited: radio remains king. The arrival of the COVID pandemic and the need for a trusted voice with reach to the masses serves to remind what was lost when the Australian ABC short wave broadcast was canned back in 2017. Thank you for your article and shining a light on the ongoing relevance of radio to PNG.

The well documented attempts to use job seekers or youths in detention will not work. You are saddling farmers with mainly unwilling workers.

Thanks for this timely post Richard. All of us will pay a price in terms of increased cost of fruits and vegetables if farmers are unable to bring their produce to market. Of many great things about Australia is the steady supply of fresh produce - thanks to our farmers, retailers, and their workers. If the labour shortages on farms is not addressed soon then we will be paying higher prices for our green groceries; not just this year, but also next year.

Dear Team The COVID 19 impact on fresh food production has lost of 4.5 million for 3 month 23 March - June 2, Tambul/Nebilyer farmers have badly affected in socio economic household income. On behalf I would like to ask the GoPNG and Economic Stimulus Package to assist my Tambul Nebilyer 216 household to recover and revive their household economic. Thank

MANY OF THE POPULATION WHO ARE LIVING IN RURAL AREAS HAVE NOT YET REGISTERED WITH THE NID. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO DEAL WITH SUCH ISSUES?