Honiara I Miss

Ok Sorry …long time no reaction…

I’m actually out of the country…and I am in a fantastic Pacific Island town at the moment. So I will get back to you. Honiara I hope you are okay. I must say that I continue to miss you. Even though I always get these idea of leaving you when I’m there, I now regret that so much. Why  you might ask? Well even though no Solomon Islander want to come from Honiara they all want to live in Honiara. And its cold here during the night that one must wear a jacket. There is no betelnut. Big thing for a chewer. Small thing for some of you. But Honiara the roads here are really smooth and road signs attractive.  Honiara the town here is also so clean. There are also great shops. Resturants are fancy and diverse. Even though Honiara you and this town are common in costs of food and clothes.Expensive. But I will tell you more soon.

I will send you some photos soon. So will see you all soon.

 

getting things done

Its crazy hot in the afternoons at the moment! 

The concrete sidewalks are almost impossible to walk on with old rubber flip flops, because you can still feel that heat steaming up to burn your feet.

Almost everyones grinning to one in particular with squinting eyes and the caps and sunnies are only temporary  remedies after 30 minutes in the sun!

Hot Tumas!!! You hear that and agree… and then you say that your self to others..and so on . But that didn’t stop everyone from having hot fish n chips lunch!

People gathering around each other under shady trees and big buildings with kind extended roof, until securities chase them away. And the cars without airconditions become unbearble, even worse than offices and shop without airconditions.

The mini public buses, except for those rare ones with air conditioning, are cramp prone and one cannot help but wish for the driver to hurry up. Oh well at least the bus conducter is entertaining enough with his stop signs.

Often this is the best time to enter pharmacy shops with their nice cool temperature just to do nothing but to cool off and then leave while eye shopping for nothing in particular. This art requires careful training and is not advisable for everyone though, sorry. But a cold sweet coconut is for eveyone ! I think that Honiara is the only town in the Pacific where you can easily get coconut. I have been to other pacific town and did not see any coconut, especially Suva, not to pop your rocks Suva fans just some comparison, if you disagree please let me know. It is sooo hot here …

I can’t wait for the evening though, obviously becuase it will be cooler, but also thats when the full moon comes out. Its that part of time again.sigh.Yes in this town because there is no such thing as skycrapers the full moon intends to display all its glory once it comes out. Oh everyone will look up to the sky. Most roads and foot paths in urban areas and settlement around town are without streetlights. Lights shining from above is so obvious because it gives those spotty eye spoiler lighter torches a break straining eyes fon dark roads avoiding  rocks and tree roots.

The best part of the evening…..As we all bask in the luminous ray of natures mysterious light, we cannot help but be happy that beauty although is not apparent in human made structures in this town will never replace the joy and feeling of pettiness  watching the full moon. well at least the heat is forgotten for now.

 

 

One Town Down

It seems like I’m waiting forever for something good to happen to this Islands Soccer. The loss of KOSSA club in 5-0 game to Waitekere only prolongs the waiting. To make it worse I think those NZers were pulling our legs when they was here last time. Well so there was a lot of disappointment in Honiara last  Sunday, especially KOSSA fans, watching the match live on television ( a very rare event indeed for the town to get live feeds) you could feel the energy being drained out from the players and infected the supporters too as time ticked on after the first Waitakere goal, then the second. Everybody was praying now for KOSSA -its now or never, get one goal…then nothing. As one friend wrote:

 

Bara,

I have watched the game between Waitakere and KOSSA yesterday.

Firstly, the weather hem barava killim ol boys ia nao.

Secondly, they (seems to) have lost the attitude of winning; even though Totori who is at the other end did not.

Thirdly, they lost possession of the ball too much because they stand at places convenient for the attack by the opposing team.

Fourthly, they wore the wrong boots for the weather ( as a result oketa fall daun olowe nomoa)

Fifthly, on ‘game over’ they still (seems) want to play- putting the passion of the game in sight again. However, the TIME essence of the game counters the passion of playing.

 Looking at the above observations little did I realize that it reflects more on the governmentality of Solomon islands as a nation and people rather than as a game – or “plei” in the SI context.

History shows us that we have in many occasions places ourselves in the ‘dilemna’ rather than in the ‘develop/ing/er’ circumstance. In the government bisnis:

Most of the discussions were done with solomons sitting at the wrong end of the table.

Most international involvements are that solomons is at the lesser end of the view.

Most of the ‘bad’ examples are sought from our viewpoints.

However, strikingly, most effective Solomon Islands point of view are used strategically by the ‘others’; Totori is no exception.

 Our placing in the regional and international arena, tells a lot for the type of bisnis that the outside world will and can offer discussion with us. Taiwan with all its capabilities can only talk rice with Solomon islands because that is what we are like to them!  We have lost possession – and most difficult of all is the capacity for the possible re- positioning of our country.

I think timelines and time frames must be re-looked at from our cultural point of views in provisions of the cooperate culture we are in today. Some ’bisnises’ Must be done on TIME!

 Karamui W. Bugotu

Well  he probably mentally wrote this view right after the raw minutes of the humilating defeat. But often when something as expected as a KOSSA win did not materialised the cosmos and stars that balance this fragile universe fall out of place for a second and then came back with some rationalisation that this countrys soccier game is a reflection of the whole pscyhology of political and economical struggle that plagued this country after the constitutional independence from the Britain in 1978.  I dully blamed it on the weather. For if I give it other approaches there is the tendency to loose all hope in the nations favorite sport. Bilkiki beach soccer team is going to France for the Beach soccer world cup…i just hope its warmer there.

Honiara Image

I must admit that Honiara is not the most impressive town in the Pacific. You always hear the common dirty and dusty town complaints from visitors and even people living there themselves. Whoever is responsible for making it clean and undusty is very much relaxing. But I won’t go into that. Instead I will show you some of the things that Honiara have and other towns and cities lack.

First of all Honiara is relatively a very young city maybe about 60 years old ( I’m measuring this with my grandfathers story who are some of the first ones to work and reside in the town- during the time when it was still safe to fish and eat from the towns front sea). History likes to say, however, Honiara is established after WWII and officially became capital city of  Solomon Islands in 1952. Ok history lesson over, lets look at some pictures that made Honiara…well Honiara.Well there are still some reaming old WWII building right in the heart of the town, as shown by the pictures here of their somewhat semi water aluminum tank look. I think people are still using them. Ok this sentence is just to acknowledge the photographer so check his site for more fotos and information. I accidently discovered them while looking for photos exactly of those. There is also the Matakniko bridge, still not short of WWII antiques , I think for those of you just discovering Honiara it is now clear that this town is not your modern metropolitian city. Try to copy it but cant so I’ll just give you the link of the Mataniko bridge here. Hey rememeber the old central market?

I think I have to get myself a digital camera so much to show from the town and very little or too many touristty pictures of Honiara in the internet, while thats good its a bit shallow.

 

Ex- Fisherman Honiara

Amen Brada! Amen !

 

GreenPeace In Honiara

This story might be some weeks old, but I’ve just discovered some pictures and weblogs that I can back this story up with. So here goes:

Greenpeace. hmmm. Nothing screams environmental campaign, international news and controversy with these guys. Friends to some, despised by others, one thing for sure you cannot break these bunch.  While I fully support their causes and tactics, I probably have less stomach for their activists campaigns. So I take my hat off to all of you, and wish all of you the best and thank you for visiting Honiara. Back to the story-

The MV Esperanza visited Honiara quite unexpectantly on April 2008. Maybe unexpected for me, but there was a crowd waiting to welcome them. Probably I was the last to know. So what are they doing in Honiara? To make a long story short and their inspiring journey known, here is a summary of what happened.

There’s a weblog of when they arrived in Honiara and their expectations. I think its written by some one on board the ship.

They launched a report containing recommendation and warning that Pacific Island Governments must step up in proper harvesting and management of tuna ( fish) in the Pacific.

Then they left Honiara after 6 days. I think they even miss Honiara.

Oh well, these are busy boys and girls, and theirs are not ordinary Job. Unlike some of us these guys are going to battles fish pirates. Yep, harrrrr Pirates! On Pacific International Water that is.

There are some pictures on how they battled and what they captured from the pirates here.

Kind of hard not to like these guys. It is a very serious issue they are tackling about the illegal, overfishing and unsustainable harvesting of already depleting tuna in the Pacific Water by Overseas Fishing Boats. The story is same old. Poor Pacific nation incapable of Monitoring and Domestically harvesting their own fish. Too Poor. Too many political Interferences. Sob. But do these guys have time to sob. Nope. They go face to face with the very boats that are doing these appalling activities. Inspiring indeed. I hope that they can further influence and provide complements to fishing and environment policy to the Pacific region. So For Nao..God Bless…Ba Lukim Ufala moa!