Commentary

Poverty in the Pacific may need to be re-defined. Most definitions do not take into consideration the attitude of people about themselves, their needs, and the solutions to meeting those needs. We must work on a development approach that calls for responsibility and ownership of the problems and the solutions.

If trust funds are inadequate as predicted, the FSM and RMI will face economic chaos in 2024. A variety of outside advisors have urged the islands to bolster the trust funds with additional investments from funds that could be saved through reform.

Scientists have warned for several years that tuna is being overfished at its maximum level of sustainable exploitation. The message is clear: fewer boats and cutbacks in tonnage caught must be implemented. But can the region’s Tuna Commission reach a united agreement?

The so-called pathways to the future are no longer straight lines, but are more like cycles of repeated history. But let us do some reflection on our most recent past, and see how our present situation compares. This reflection will have to focus on leadership, for it is in leadership ‘that things rise or fall.’

Unless the Marshall Islands takes up the challenge to gain U.S. Congress support for expanded compensation and medical programs with an organized and systematic campaign of action, there is little hope that the U.S. Congress will ever on its own resolve the U.S. government’s nuclear test legacy.

PiPP takes a look at the main points from prime minister Bainimarama's recent budget speech. A huge emphasis is placed on education, basic services including water and electricity and economic growth. A lot has been committed - but how will it all be funded?