Aid's real meaning
pp. 7-8 · Read in the full issue
Opinion
Major metropolitan powers are beginning to jind Pacific nations less willing to accept the ‘ that go
economic assistance.
RECENT news stories about the purported ‘theft’ of a United States guided missile warhead in the waters of Kwajalein Atoll highlight an intriguing change in the balance of power in the Pacific. The news stories spoke of a missile test that attempted to hide military secrets from the Soviet Union by recording navigational data on board the missile rather than broadcasting such information.
Apparently, the experiment went wrong when the US Navy vessel detailed to recover tne missile’s nose-cone failed to retrieve the all important flight recorder. Sabre-rattlers in Washington immediately sus pected foul play. A Russian mini-sub, they said, must have stolen the
flight recorder.
Leaving aside such obvious conclusions as a Pentagon attempt to sway public opinion in favour of increased spending on defence, what emerges from the incident is the United States’ decreasing ability to bestride the world with military and economic might. No less experi enced a columnist than the Times' Bernard Levin (a commentator hard ly noted for his pink views) is meeting little argument over his claims that both the US§R and the USA are beginning to lose their ‘empires’.
Domestic financial, agricultural, social and ethnic problems, Levin argues, are turning the Kremlin’s interest inward in what amounts to a repetition of an isolationism that has been seen many times already in Russian history. But Washington faces different problems: increasing indifference to its Cold War philosophies, dissatisfaction with its role as guardian of liberty; and concern over its approach to Third World debts in apparent defiance of other financial centres’ misgivings.
These factors and others are beginning to make their effects felt . in the Pacific. It would be premature and inaccurate to detect any great movement away from alignment with the United States and towara the Eastern bloc: rather, more and more Pacific nations are refusing to ally themselves with any of the so-called Great Powers except when they can derive some direct advantage from the relationship.
The trend can be seen throughout Oceania: in coups in Fiji, where the Melanesian population sought to throw off what it perceived as the shackles of a colonial imbalance in opportunity; in New Zealand, where the Labour Government’s refusal to countenance a nuclear-armed US presence resulted first in the threats of economic isolation and then in the realisation that the country could survive without American assis tance; in New Caledonia, of course, where France has by all appearances realised that its proud possessions may become liabilities after all.
However, such developments must also be examined in the light of reality for many of the smaller, resource-poor Pacific nations. It is no insult to the people of Tuvalu, Tokelau or Kiribati to say that they will always be recipients of aid. They can argue with vigour those more fortunate who spend so much on ‘necessities’ of the most' vapid nature imaginable have a duty to their fellow human beings to help them build the best life possible.
This is perhaps the nut of the matter: that becoming an aid recipient does not, morally should not, render one a client of the person or nation providing that aid. The time is coming fast when the world will be too crowded, its environment too degraded and its resources too valuable, for notions of empire to persist. Just as the smaller nations of Eastern Europe are hurling defiance at their Soviet ‘masters’, so are the thank fully independent nations of the Pacific learning that power is transitory . . . and that even the tiniest atoll is sovereign territory, not to be abused as a plaything or bargaining chip for others. D
DESPITE advances in television and publishing (technology, radio remains the most effective medium tor speedy and widespread transmission of news and information. Radio requires none of tele vision’s costly and unwieldy apparatus, can provide entertainment or a portable, life-saving link in times of emergencv. It has been a unitwing medium throughout the 20th century, bringing to listeners the ’first draft’ of history as it happens: and in times of war and disaster it has been used to send messages of encouragement to survivors and coded instructions to resistance fighters behind enemy lines.
Radio is a medium that bridges great distances eco nomicallv, and with the introduction of satellites its scope is now unlimited. In the Pacific, vast stretches of ocean separate small islands served bv often irregular mail and transport operations barriers that can defeat timely newspaper coverage and make television an expensive, impractical service. But it is for such a place that radio was invented.
One person acutely aware of this is New Zealand's Russell Marshall, the Foreign Affairs Minister (and head of that country’s new External Relations and Trade Ministry) who took responsibility for the for mer Island Affairs portfolio in the wake of the sacking ot Richard Prebble. Last December, Mr Marshall listed as one of his first priorities the upgrading of Radio New Zealand’s shortwave service. He hopes the 1989 budget will allow spending on the service, a hope shared by many thousands of radio listeners throughout the South Pacific.
Most international broadcasters use transmitters generating 100,000 watts or more but Radio New Zealand relies on two 7500 watts transmitters that have been in service since the 19405. Their signals are almost inaudible in the vast Pacific, and program stan dards are generally poor; the shortwave service has no budget ot its own and generally relays one of the domestic radio networks.
This neglect of responsibility cannot continue. As one of the region’s most articulate nations, New Zea land has a duty to provide a quality shortwave service with news, information and entertainment programs.
Small island states cannot afford the cost of equip ment and international coverage and look to their more developed neighbours who can and should foot the bill for such a vital service. The cost to New Zealand will be comparatively small and the benefits substantial. “1 am under no illusion of its importance in foreign affairs,” Marshall said recently.
Radio Australia recognises the importance of the region and improvements to its Pacific service are im minent. A new Pacific service begins on March 6, based on the results of a recent listener survey. Radio Australia already has the biggest audience in the re gion, and its new service will further consolidate that lead and extend Australia’s sphere of influence.
Radio New Zealand must move urgently to redress the imbalance and to ensure a diversity of voices and opinions. The nations of the Pacific have the right to hear the voice of New Zealand on a quality shortwave radio service. □