VIEW: 𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗩𝗘𝗟 & 𝗔𝗟𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗡𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗙𝗨𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘𝗦

Sponsored Advertisement

𝘉𝘺 𝘛𝘶𝘲𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘲𝘢 𝘓𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘰𝘥𝘦

In the early 90s, a group of Solomon Islands students at USP in Suva, Fiji, were discussing about the development trajectories and issues facing their country. They were young people reflecting on their futures. In midst of the discussion, one of them interjected saying, “𝘓𝘰 𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘭𝘰 𝘮𝘪 𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘢 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘶𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘢 𝘵𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘢𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘬𝘢. 𝘮𝘪 𝘴𝘢𝘫𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘶𝘮𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘮 𝘏𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘢, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘸𝘢𝘯 𝘨𝘰 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘭𝘰 𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘫 𝘣𝘭𝘰 𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘢, 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘮 𝘬𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘳𝘵, 𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘷 𝘰𝘭𝘴𝘦𝘮 𝘣𝘪𝘧𝘰. 𝘋𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘶𝘮𝘪 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘮 𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘬𝘢𝘮 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘬𝘢𝘷𝘢 𝘪𝘶𝘮𝘪 𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘶𝘮𝘪 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘮𝘰𝘢.” They laughed off his comment as silly. However, this morning as I read Solomon Islanders’ complain about the lack of medicine and other supplies at the National Referral Hospital and health centers throughout the country, the ailing economy, the unaffordable cost of living, the poor state of infrastructure and social services, etc. I thought about that student’s comment. Of course it’s impossible and perhaps undesirable to physically go back to the 16th century when Alvaro de Mendana and his mob came to our islands in 1568. Unless of course we can time travel. (𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘌𝘭𝘰𝘯 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘬 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦-𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴, 𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘮 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘰𝘶𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺). What we can do is time travel intellectually: travel back in time and learn about what institutions, development models, land tenure systems, legal systems, education systems, etc. worked or didn’t work. We can time travel, not only into our pasts, but other people’s pasts as well and learn from them. (𝐼 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑐ℎ𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚 𝑖𝑠 “ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦”). We must of course reflect on how those situations adapt to our current contexts and future scenarios. That will enable us to travel not only into the past, but also to the future and to create alternative futures. One of the tragedies of our current situation is that we never dare to time travel. Maybe it is because most people are too preoccupied with daily survival they do not have the time and energy to time travel. I can’t blame them. There are however some who, not only have the time and space, but are also paid to time travel – to learn from the past, assess the present, and map out future trajectories. But they don’t do it either because they are too lazy or simply incompetent. Their ineptitude could cost this country its future. There’s another bunch who benefit from the current situation and therefore have no interest in time traveling, or in changing the state of affairs. Many of them are in parliament. They therefore flood the masses with handouts that create dependencies causing many in our societies to become economically unproductive. (𝘜𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘹𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘮, 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦). Central to dependency is the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and development model and the political culture it has engendered. One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that despite billions of dollars spent on CDFs since its inception in the 1980s, it has no positive impact on the country’s economy or on the livelihoods of most of our people. This was enumerated in the 2019 census household survey, which concludes the “CDF has no positive impact on people’s livelihood.” Furthermore, the CDF has had a corrosive impact on the country’s political cultures, including election processes and outcomes. It benefits those who control the CDF and are therefore inclined to keep the country in its present quagmire.

This morning as I read people’s complains, it baffled me that they could dire complain after having elected into power the same government, with the same policies, the same development approaches, and mostly the same people. How could they expect things to change? And then it dawned on me that we need to time travel to the past to learn and build to alternative futures. We must dire to time travel beyond science fiction.

Sponsored Advertisement