Tuvalu – Catching Up With The NZ Air Force

I arrived in Funafuti on Thursday to negotiate our proposed grant for upgrading the Funafuti runway. The timing was perfect as Tuvalu had declared an emergency due to no rain for 10 months and the New Zealand Air Force had been flying in desalination plants and other emergency supplies. I was interested to see what had happened to the runway, and the news was not good.

Back to Kiribati

Just under a year ago I came to Kiribati to identify an aviation investment project. I flew in with our lawyer Marta and administrative assistant Daniel to finish the process by negotiating the terms of the $US 23 million grant we would be providing.

Since Marta was with me I arranged for a VIP reception and while she waited in the lounge I went out to have a look at the runway which is deteriorating very quickly. The photo to the left shows the high quality of the middle of the runway. I paced off some 350 square metres which we need to get fixed very soon.

Life in Kiribati: An Interview with Rob Kaiwai–New Zealand High Commissioner

Rob Kaiwai is a really neat fellow. Not only because he stores my bike and trainer in the Tarawa High Commission’s garage. A former multi-sport athlete, he has great personal energy and enthusiasm.

It’s not easy working in Kiribati, and to spend several years there managing a major development program is quite an achievement. On September 12, 2011 Rob was interviewed on Radio New Zealand and this interview really captures Kiribati’s challenges. As Radio New Zealand notes:

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully has described the job of High Commissioner to Kiribati as the toughest assignment in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Rob Kaiwai talks about the challenges of representing NZ in one of the most remote and geographically dispersed countries in the world, and the challenges Kiribati faces from climate change and population growth.

I love is way of describing Tarawa: imaging standing in the middle of a motorway with nothing but ocean on either side. Brilliant. And very accurate. Listen here and learn.

http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20110912-1014-feature_guest_-_rob_kaiwai-048.mp3

Climate Change: The Death of Scientific Debate

I’ve been deeply troubled for some time by the way in which the scientific community has been addressing the issue of climate change.  As someone who did his PhD in computer simulation, and has a very deep understanding of the capabilities and limitations of models and their ability (or lack thereof) to correctly predict the future, I’ve been horrified at the way in which models have been misused in the climate change debate. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that we should do all that we can to minimize our impact on the environment, but there has been a trend to dismiss those with any reservations as fringe lunatics, or worse.

Environmental Issues in China: ‘When a Billion Chinese Jump’

As regular readers of my blog know, I had the pleasure of working in China for about five years. It was impossible not to be impressed by the rapid progress being made as the country modernized at breakneck speed. Every six months I would see huge changes in terms of new infrastructure, more traffic, and other signs of progress. Of course it was also impossible not to notice the negative impacts, particularly with regard to the environment. I worked in places such as Taiyuan where ‘blue sky days’ were an extremely rare event: all you had were smog laden skies.

Negotiating the Kiribati Road Rehabilitation Project

When preparing a new project for the World Bank, the final stage is its presentation to the Bank’s Board wherein they (hopefully) approve the project’s design and provide the funds for implementation. The last major hurdle to reach the Board is to undertake ‘Negotiations’. This is where the activities of the project are agreed with the government, the terms of finance (grant, credit, loan) are confirmed, and the final details are resolved. When dealing with multi-million dollar projects, it can be appreciated that negotiations are critical to all parties. Last night around 8 p.m. we finished the negotiations for the Kiribati Road Rehabilitation Project (KRRP). As he was leaving my lawyer Raj commented that after all his years in the Bank that was definitely a first … and not to be repeated. I had to agree. It culminated a nightmare of a week.

Learning About Airports

The World Bank contains a variety of specialists in different disciplines, often with abstract and hard to understand titles. Not me. When people ask what I do for the Bank I say “I build roads”. This often brings laughs from other Bank staff, but it’s true. Unfortunately, I now have to expand it to say “roads and airports” since I’m now on a steep learning curve as I begin preparation of two proposed projects in Tonga and Kiribati to improve the aviation infrastructure.

Building Climate Resilience into Timor Leste’s Roads

The only thing worse than taking 5 hours to drive 106 km along  winding and often damaged mountainous roads, is the realization that having reached your destination you have to turn around and repeat the trip to get home. That was in the forefront of my mind as I sat in the very quiet town of Ainaro, south of the capital in Dili. The second thing I thought about was that we had to do a lot of work to help Timor Leste make their roads more resilient to the effects of climate: or more particular, water.

Using SMS Messages to Improve Project Effectiveness

The SMS message was “Drainage is not being done properly in the village Achajur. Please fix.” While it was disturbing to hear that there were problems in one of the projects I was responsible for, at the same time I was very encouraged since this proved the value of an SMS-based system we developed to facilitate local residents advising on social, environmental or engineering issues on our project.

Mission Food Blues

We were sitting at the “Sugar Blue’s Cafe” swishing the flies away from our dhal-rice lunches, trying to decide where to eat dinner. In the thriving megalopolis of South Tarawa, Kiribati (population some 40,000 spread over a long atoll) we were spoiled for choice. At the east end of the island was the government run Otentaai Hotel where we had suffered through a meal the night before with service that was even more forgettable than the food. This left us to choose from the Chineese Restaurant (and yes, that is how they spelled it), Sugar Blue’s Cafe, the Fair Value Restaurant, Mary’s Hotel, Aboy’s Chinese restaurant and the Japanese Curry house.  After almost two weeks of missions, with only seven restaurants to choose from, things were wearing a bit thin … and that was without considering what was on offer at these restaurants.

 

Enjoying White Rice As A Starter