PhD Pilot Study – Buka, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea

Day 4 – Saturday, 23 October 2010

After being taken to the airport by World Vision's PNG security chief, I find my check-in queue and wait for an hour while the line inches forward at a snail's pace. Moreover, people are constantly cutting in which stalls what little momentum there is... When I finally reach the check-in counter I'm informed that due to numerous people having done "pre check-ins" (what the heck is a pre check-in?) the flight is full, meaning that I should fly to Buka on the next flight tomorrow. After a lot of fussing around with other agitated travellers, supervisors, and airport officials I eventually get my boarding pass -- and fly to Buka via Rabaul. To my pleasant surprise I meet David Hapoto on the plane, a man from Buka who I had worked with in 2008 when we surveyed a number of islands together. The Air Niugini in-flight announcements make me smile: "A friendly reminder that government regulations prohibit smoking or chewing beetle nut on board this air plane."

After meeting World Vision's Boniface and discussing plans over lunch at Hani's we drive to meet Paul Tobasi, the Bougainville Executive Manager of the Atoll District. I remember Mr. Tobasi from my last trip in 2008, he was very friendly, humble and helpful! He takes care of the resettlement effort for the Autonomous Bougainville Goverment (ABG) and only travels to his Carteret Island home about once every quarter. He asserts that he can really tell the difference both in the islands and islanders whenever he goes home. In his view the islands are shrinking, as are the islanders who are increasingly starving due to rising food scarcity. He says he first became aware of the changes in his islands after returning home after nine years in 1994 which clearly brought out the changes. That's when he first noticed that the land was fast eroding away and that the outlook was dire.

The interview opens my eyes for numerous realities, including his resistance to the word "refugee" which he associates with negative and discriminating images and associations. I learn a lot today from this humble and helpful man, I can see that he really cares deeply for his people and has many good ideas about how to resettle them in "Karoola Plantation" in the days ahead. Secretly I hope that he will be able to come with us to the Carterets on Monday, he indicates this as a possibility...

At night I meet Ashley, an interesting man who came over from New Zealand a few days ago to lay the power cable through the channel to "empower" the south side. Having written about how electricity can "empower" the development of people in my book Opportunities for Global Poverty Reduction in the 21st Century we have a lot of interesting talks around sustainability and development issues.