Comments

I love a lot of Wood's writings and other articles but this one I think was whipped together too quickly. Neocolonialism isn't just about subjugation in that first instance. The dictionary definition he refers to even mentions that neocolonialism also concerns power and exploitation. GNI percentages don't even need to register for power and exploitation to occur in aid flows: these dynamics are already in huge potential when a tourist pulls out a $50 bill, whether there is any intention to 'subjugate' or not. "Even in the Americas," tiny amounts of aid money ( we could say both types, "aid" and actual aid) in many communities and many nations sponsored insidious ideas and individuals in ways that have had massive (and often terrible) consequences for the local populace but which served political, economic and other interests or ideas of those from the donor end. Sometimes even with good intention! These were exercises in power, in exploitation, and/or paternalism. Neoliberal ideas are certainly intertwined particularly with the example of the Americas, but it is all still very much neocolonialism.

Thanks Terence, I found this very insightful. Working on a few Australian aid projects in PNG, in the past 2 years, I've seen many aid workers who are both keen to work with locals actors, and hear our insight. This makes me hopeful that at least in some places, the approach to how aid is administered is changing - it's more effective (in my opinion) to adopt a searcher approach, to borrow from Easterly. I was also wondering if the donor power you mention extends to aid being used to influence recipient country votes at the UN?

What are the benefits of hosting APEC to PNG? If any please provide information . (The current benefits?)

Thank you Michelle for this important piece. There is some excellent research by Barry + Bonnie Hewlett from the Ebola epidemic that also emphasises the ways funeral practices can be safely maintained in contexts of extreme epidemiological risk. It would be interesting to see how well their insights and interventions could translate to the covid/PNG context.

Do Indian Lives matter? May be the Vaccine diplomacy could have indirect benefits for India. One has to sacrifice something to gain something.

An excellent and very insightful post! The response to the threat posed by Covid-19 is a formidable challenge to all societies and local cultural norms and practices need to be respected. The expected benefit of measures have to be weighed against 'collateral damage'. There should be no doubt that Covid-19 is dangerous, but there are measures we know work (social distancing, hygiene, vaccines) and others that won't work. But whether and how they are implemented locally requires a good understanding and appreciation of the local context. We can learn from others, but rarely can we copy-and-paste a response plan from one setting to the other. We require local knowledge; local voices that need to be heard and have a say. What is so well described here for Covid-19 and the haus krai is of course true for other public health threats. For example, social gatherings have been the source of local malaria outbreaks in PNG. Also here, the question is how can measures to protect people from mosquito bites be implemented in a manner that is locally acceptable, even desirable, and effective?

Hi Amanda and thanks for the response and information. To me, it seems a shame that a parallel network will be developed at great cost rather than thinking of ways of harmonizing transmission networks as a national asset. Especially if donor funds are involved. It has taken Digicel since 2007 to build just over 1000 towers - I believe at around US$850 million - so the new proposal of 1050 towers is certainly significant. https://postcourier.com.pg/mcpherson-300-towers-subsidised-digicel/ Regulated tower sharing sounds like a positive initiative. It will be interesting to see how that works. Thanks again to you and the team for keeping us updated on trends and developments.

Thank you for the query. A public consultation was held by the regulator in 2019 about tower sharing, but this related only to towers constructed with funds from the universal access scheme. It did not address other towers, such as any tower constructed by an individual telecommunication company. The determination was that UAS-funded towers should be accessible to parties as needed and that "charges imposed on access seekers shall reflect the costs incurred by the access provider in providing the service". See here for more details: https://www.nicta.gov.pg/2019/04/cp-0-5/ This week, communication minister Hon. Timothy Masiu MP said that ATH will be operating by the end of this year. He said that they will construct about 1,100 towers. He also mentioned the possibility of regulated tower sharing in the future. For more, see here: https://postcourier.com.pg/png-to-welcome-third-mobile-network-operator/ Thanks again for your contribution to the discussion, Amanda

Good morning. My question is this; Is our mainstream media informing the public on covid19 adequately or confusing the people? Is the information accurate, fair and objective?

Thank you for the article. Following on from Rod's comment, from a casual observation it would seem the costs in carrying the service from where the cable lands to the end consumer, especially in rural locations, will still be significant and reflected in the pricing. With that in mind I wonder if policy makers are giving any thought to sharing the existing internal infrastructure - namely towers - between telcos. Surely that would make a more efficient and cost effective model rather than each telco building their own expensive network of towers - sometimes with public funds from a local member's DSIP. Perhaps DataCo could assume ownership of towers and lease space on them to all telcos and ISPs - including some of the smaller ones beginning to emerge in provinces. Or alternatively, legislation that requires tower owners to do the same - lease space on their towers - in the national interest. Just a thought.

What about for India? We have 1.4B billion people to vaccinate. Better to consider Indian first like USA did and 90% population will be vaccinated till May there.

As individuals, we can also help relieve hunger. Supporting "Share The Meal" from the World Food Programme is within reach of many.