My Say
Avoiding Regime Change
Poverty and Small Size Can Be A Boon
How often have commentators on the Pacific Islands condition waxed glumly on the great difficulties that isolation, small size and a slenderness of natural resources pose for the region’s states in trying to make their way in the modern world.
Actually, perhaps these supposed crippling handicaps are in fact a great boon. It is a fact that, overall, dollar per head of their populations, the Pacific Islands are recipients of more aid than most other developing countries, some being the greatest recipients.
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While pulling at aid strings, isn’t it a great help to exploit one’s terrible isolation, pathetically small size, and extreme poverty? Small may be beautiful, also a handicap, but it certainly can be useful in wringing goodwill from the large, powerful and wealthy.
Being an insignificant specks in a corner of the world that great powers have now very little use for, save as a source of tuna, has other advantages that Pacific Islanders have cause for gratitude. That is, that no great powers take very much, if any, notice of them save, of course, as a source of tuna for sandwiches and sashimi.
There’s no more need now for nuclear tests, which is a great relief to the region, and hardly any important airlines fly to it, which means less risk of hijack annoyances.
For people whose business and fulltime occupation it is to organize endless rounds of regional workshops and conferences, it’s useful for them to have an excuse for convening them: The risk that organized and white collar crime poses to small, weak, gullible and innocent island states.
The mafia or yakuza are posed to pounce on them. Fancy that. Tuvalu, Niue or Nauru—the entire personal domain of a super crook.
This hasn’t happened yet, but the promoters of the conferences can but hope.
As they read months-old newspapers delivered to them by floating bottles, Pacific Islanders can hear of horrible events in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas and thank their lucky stars that they are far, far away from it all.
They have no huge oil reserves for foreign powers to fight over, they are of no great strategic value, save for America’s Kwajalein missile test playground. Not everything in Pacific Island gardens is lovely, but set beside the world’s great ills, the Pacific condition is, well, rather fine, thanks very much.
But listen carefully. Can, far, far away, the clamor of warning bells be detected? Is it that there George Bush and that there Tony Blair dwelling on the benefits of regime change?
Now that the pair have settled the hash of Saddam Hussein, mention is being made of the desirability of changing other regimes. If the imposition of democracy is the genuine excuse for change, then they have a lot of countries to work through; just about all of Araby, most of Africa, bits of the Caribbean and South America and a few tough nuts, beginning with China.
This should occupy them happily for years and years. And then, the Pacific Islands whose, er, isolation, small size and lack of funds should make them easy meat, since no one else takes very much notice of them, except for a bit of fish.
