High Tide - Tide Of The Times

When MHs main store in Suva burnt down in 1998, it inflamed an outpouring of memories for the city's residents about what it meant to them, as a meeting point and the focus of first visits to the "big city." MHs still operates as a series of smaller stores scattered throughout downtown Suva and is rebuilding-but it doesn't excite the imagination in the same way.

Stores throughout the region exert a similar pull on their communities. Even in Hawaii, Longs Drugs, despite being a California-based company, has a powerful place in the local community, as memorably captured by Lee Cataluna in her stories and play, "Folks You Meet In Longs."

The sale of RRE is far from being just a blow for nostalgia, however.

Indeed some would suggest it is part of the inevitable tide of globalization, the same tide that insists we open our island markets to goods from the world via trade agreements and treaties.

In all of this, some have succumbed to the temptation to demonize the Chinese as a group and to a lesser extent other (legal) immigrants to island nations in response to this tide. But most come simply looking for a better life, in the same way thousands of Pacific Islanders move to the U.S. or Australia or New Zealand. Fijian Neville Wilson in our feature on "New Zealand and the Pacific" this month calls it "getting ahead rather than getting by."

So what's to be done?

Many countries, such as Australia, have run "Buy Local" and by extension, "support local retailers" public campaigns. This may have resonance in affluent societies, but in the islands where many people are living on the edge, the cheapest bargain is always going to win out.

Our governments need to collect withholding and revenue taxes and take those businesses to court that are not paying, if that so-far mythical "level playing field" is ever to see a ball game. They need to ensure provident fund contributions are actually being paid in the applicable jurisdictions. Yes it will take time, resources, commitment, but how can local businesses compete if even this is not implemented?

Our governments need to tighten up immigration controls, so that the passport sales or scams of the Marshall Islands and Tonga-to name just two-never happen again. (Indeed, the point should be made that in the Marshalls, the current "problems" are of their own making.)

Some governments have attempted policy responses. Papua New Guinea has a policy of restricting certain businesses exclusively for Papua New Guineans.

It's the International Year of Microcredit. In the language of the United Nations, the year "calls for building inclusive financial sectors and strengthening the powerful, but often untapped, entrepreneurial spirit existing in communities around the world." The UN's Web site to mark the year includes a "Microenterprise Marketplace" where you can buy baskets from Rwanda, pendants from Colombia and pajama pants from Bangladesh-nothing from the Pacific though.

Early this month at the UN Headquarters an International Forum on Building Inclusive Financial Sectors will be held. More than 80 countries-including some from the Pacific-will deliberate on how to increase access to microfinance around the world.

It's not just a job for our governments though and it's not about governments "doing business." Development agencies and donors would do well to devote more energy and dollars to this sector.

Microfinance credit schemes won't solve the huge challenges faced by the Reimers and their counterparts in our world. But it can provide options for many of the people pouring out of our schools each year without prospects, or women clocking off from garment factories for the last time as factories close down and relocate……to China.