Reflections- N to T

N is for- North Tarawa

North Tarawa consists of a string of islets stretching along the norther edge of the lagoon from Buota in the south to Buariki in the north. At high tide you can take a ferry across the channel between North and South Tarawa for 50c but when the tide is low you can simply wade across the 500m gap that separates the two. The coconut covered islets are separated in places by wide channels that can be crossed at low tide and a track winds its way through the villages to Naa at the northern tip of the lagoon.

 North Tarawa is like a different world to the heavily populated South and I’m sure is more like South Tarawa would have been before the population got so large. The population of North Tarawa (2015 census) is about 6500 and so is much less densely populated to the South which is home to more than  56,000 people.

We often walk from Tebon te Keke to Broken Bridge for a swim, a walk of about an hour each way. The track winds past villages and homes, under a canopy of breadfruit, coconut and other trees. Young kids, often naked, wander up for a hi-five and a friendly “mauri i-matung”. The only thing that saddens me is that a occasionally one will put their hand out and ask for $1. 

Few people live in the north and many still live in traditional kia-kias. There are fewer dogs and there is a just a sense of peace and tranquility after the hustle, bustle and noise of the south that somehow recharges your batteries and makes it easier to face another week on South Tarawa. It really is our escape and sanctuary at the weekends.

O is for Opportunities

 According to the Kiribati Economic Outlook 2016, the unemployment rate in the 2010 census was 31% while youth unemployment rate stood at 54%. Few of those in paid work (22%) were in the  private sector while 34% were employed in the public sector. Another 31% were producing goods for sale while 7% were self-employed. Thus there was, and still is, a chronic lack of employment opportunities out here (source: KiribatiEconomic Outlook 2016). 

 I have worked with youth for a number of years back home and I do enjoy working in this field. it dismays me that there are so few job opportunities job opportunities for many of the young people here. At the beginning of the year we had over 400 applicants for 60-70 positions on the seafarers training programme and more than 300 for the 50 places on the Steward's and Hospitality programme. Aoraki polytech (now Ara) where I used to work, would loved to have 6 times the number of applicants for its hospitality programmes than places available when I worked there, we struggled to fill some of them!  

A job as a seafarer, for which we train young men at MTC, is one of the few opportunities available to young men. It's a tough life, thjey are away from their families for up to 10 months at a time but the money they earn money is important to support their families. They are skilled workers and are highly sought after by the German shipping companies. It is a good career but not an easy one for the young men who choose it. Similarly the male trainees on the Stewards and Hospitality course can become stewards on ships or they and the female trainees may get selected to become staff at a couple of Australian holiday resorts. 

Another increasingly popular option is the seasonal worker exchange programmes to New Zealand and Australia. Those young people travel to work as unskilled labour in orchards and just as is the case with the seafarers the money they can earn is important for supporting their families back home.

I would like to see more opportunities for the young people. The country has a very young population and so there will be increasing pressure for jobs for youth and unfortunately, I really can’t see many new opportunities developing out here for them over the next few years. I hope I am wrong though.

 P is for Population growth

The population of Kiribati was 110,110 in 2015 which was an increase of 7,052 people over the previous (2010 census) total of 103,058. This is equivalent to a growth rate of 1.32% per annum but is slightly lower than the 2.2% growth rate in the 2010 census.Kiribati has a young and growing population and most people live on South Tarawa. As is the case in many places in the world there is an urban drift as people leave the outer islands in search of work and better opportunities in South Tarawa. 

South Tarawa has a population of 56,334 in 2015 which was an increase 6142 over the previous census. In North Tarawa the population grew from 6102 in 2010 to 6619 in 2015, a growth rate of 2.31%. The grow rate in South Tarawa is often at the expense of the outer islands.  Butaritari for example saw a population decline from 4346 to 3224, a loss of 1,122 people (-5.97% per annum) over the same period. Trying to encourage people to stay, or return to, the outer islands is one of the many challenges facing the government.

As I said many people travel to South Tarawa for perceived opportunities but the reality is that they are just adding to the crowding problems, especially on Betio. Betio’s population grew from 15755 people to 17356 which may not seem a lot till you see how small an area the island actually is and the density of the population there. It has a land area of less than 3km2 and so is more densely populated per square kilometre than London, Tokyo or Hong Kong!

Population growth is to my mind the most pressing issue facing Kiribati and one that influences and contributes to many of the others problems- housing, sanitation, water quality, waste management etc, etc. Kiribati is seen as being the poster child for climate change but climate change is beyond Kiribati’s immediate ability to solve. What the country could do now, is put more focus on curbing the population growth rate and so help reduce pressure on the limited resources, infrastructure and land of South Tarawa. Kiribati cannot solve climate change, it requires world wide cooperation, but it can and does have the ability to make meaningful change to the population growth rate, but that will require is the political will to do so. Thus I see population growth and not climate change as the most important, and potentially solvable, issue facing the country today. 

Q is for Quotas- random quotas eg potatoes!

One of the most amusing stories of this year was the great potato saga. When I got here potatoes had been banned for few years, apparently to protect the local potato industry- which being at the equator was, and is, non-existence. I have been told by several people that this ban had been bought about by someone in the government unhappy with the quality of the potatoes being imported. This may be true. There are a number of companies importing food, including fresh fruit and vegies into Kiribati from NZ, Aust and Fiji. Often they will buy the cheapest food they can to get the best price. The end result of which it is not unusual to find rotting fruit and vegies sitting on the shelves in the coolers at the various “supermakets”. Having worked for several years in a fruit and vege department at the local supermarket while at uni, I found this extremely surprising but you literally have to go through he very limited selection to try and pick the non-rotten food!

Anyway, I digress. So someone in the government unhappy with the quality of the potatoes put a ban in place and this has only recently been lifted, much to the relief of the i-Matung population, and New Zealand grown potatoes can now frequently been found in the shops. The Australian varieties are still banned however and fair enough too 😊

R is for Remittances & Rents

Remittances, that is money sent from people working overseas to family back home has long been an important part of the economies of countries throughout the Pacific. I recall studying the role of remittances in the Pacific as part of my geography degree back in the early 90s and today, as back then, remittances play an important part in the local economies of Pacific countries,  including Kiribati.

Here in Kiribati the seafarers have long been one of the most important sources of remittances but the value of their contribution to the local economy has been declining over the last decade or so. It is said that each seafarer working on an overseas vessel supports on average 10 family and extended family members back home so they do play a vital role in the economy of Kiribati and this has been reinforced to me throughout my stay here. With there being about 1000 seafarers and fishers employed around the world that means about 10% of the population relies on remittances! It is a pretty important part of the economy as is the training undertaken by MTC. 

Remittances play a vital role in the economy. In 2017 for instance more than $18.4 million was sent back here which accounted for 9.18% of GDP so we are talking a fairly substantial contribution to the economy as well as to every day families finances.

It is interesting to note that while the value of remittances has increased the percent of remittances from seafarers has been declining since the early 2000s. The global financial crisis, changes in vessel technology and increasing competition from other nations has led to this decline so the value of seafarer remittances has declined from a peak of over $12.5 million in 2012 to about $5.6 million in 2014. However, it is still an important source of remittances here and no doubt will remain so in future.

Rents

One thing that surprised me out here is how expensive places are to rent. We are living in the poorest country in the Pacific. i live in a pretty basic, western style, house. I have electricity, running cold water and an indoor toilet- bloody luxuries compared to the conditions my neighbours put up with. They draw water from a ground well and cook on open fires or small portable gas hobs and their homes are shacks made from whatever materials is at hand.

Anyhow a house like mine, a pretty basic bach my NZ standards rents for about $1000 Aust per month! Holy crap. My workmates, working t one of the more prestigious places in South Tarawa, are probably on no more than $200 per week at most, and most people earn a lot less than that. 

So why the disparity? Simple really. The international aid industry. The country is awash with high paid consultants flying in from Aust, NZ, the UN, Wold Bank, etc, etc, etc weekly. Many of the large multinational organisations have large budgets and so will pay whatever it takes to get their staff accommodation so its created an artificial rental market where the rents are completely ridiculous. However, it also makes it hard to place volunteers or staff from the smaller, less financially well of organisations that operate out here too, and a shortage of suitable rental accommodation now runs the risk of limiting the number of volunteers from NZ and Aust that will be able to come out here in future.

I don't blames the locals for charging all they can in rent. Hell, I would if I was in their shoes but it does mean, along with the shortage of available western housing, that locals can't afford to live in the better built houses and so you have the situation where locals like in poorly built, or home built, huts and shacks and us westerners live a life of comparative luxury in the equivalent of 5 star accommodation. Is it right? Not really but it is the way things have developed in the past few years unfortunately. 

S is for Surfing.

Probably the highlight of my time out here and my sanity check. A chance to get out at the end of the day and catch some waves, or help the local kids to do so, was a real highlight. The local kids are as keen as mustard and love getting out on the beat up old soft-tops we have that they can use and they would love the opportunity to surf more.  The sad fact is though most won’t get the opportunity. The nearest surf shop is several thousand kilometres away in Fiji and unless other surfers come through and stay in “Kiwi Alley” their options will be very limited in future. Sad really but I’m glad they have had the chance to get out and give it a go, some have shown real promise but the thing that struck me most, apart from their love of the water, was their willingness to share and happily take turns without hogging the boards. 

Once again something that many young people take for granted in NZ is a real luxury out here. It isn't unusual to see kids boogie boarding on the only thing they have to use, old chilly bin lids! 

T is for Tsunami & Typhoons

Neither have been an issue or us here (touch wood- we are too far north for typhoons or cyclones) but tsunami awareness, or tsunami-phobia (a fear of a possible tsunami) is to strong amongst the expat community. With only a metre or so  above the high tide mark we could be in a bit of trouble should one hit. Like food what would you do in a tsunami is one of those topics that frequently gets discussed out here.

My philosophy though is that tsunami such as the one created by the 2011 Japan earthquake have been travelling backwards and forwards across the Pacific for millennia yet these islands and their people are still here. My theory is, and it is just a theory- I didn’t really study tsunami as part of my geography degree- is that the coral atolls don’t act as a barrier to the flow of water in the same way that actual landmass does so don’t create tidal-surges to the same degree. My theory is that just like in the open ocean the water may rise slightly but not have the same level of displacement as when it hits proper land- in much the way a ship at sea is usually safe from the waves- it is those close to shore and land that wear the worst of it. Still it is just a theory and not one I’d like to put into practice.

The other interesting climate related aspect of life here are typhoons and cyclones. In some ways they are Kiribati’s most famous export! The central Pacific is the incubating ground for typhoons and cyclones and as the seas warm these events are becoming more intense for the countries affected by them. So whether or not we can do anything out here to stop sea level rise another unforeseen consequence of warming seas and climate change which is affecting the countries elsewhere in the Pacific is that the intensity of cyclones and typhoons is increasing. Maybe that might spur countries in to doing something to reduce global warming. 

 Craig