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E-Discussion
Group on Growth and Development in Small Islands
In
2006 the Small Islands Voice Global Internet Forum was engaged
is discussing a very interesting topic relating to the Viability
of very small islands.
Mr.
Tutii Chilton on Palau Community College wrote into the forum:
'Most of us in Micronesia are using a new 'democratic' government
with a new economic system for only the last 25 years of self
government, before that we were under the U.S. Trusteeship. This
is not a long enough time to see if we can truly be independent,
but it is a long enough period to look at what went wrong and
how can we resolve our own conflict between traditional and contemporary
forms of government and economy. In my observation in Micronesia,
we have a lot of good plans, but done by IMF, World Bank, or other
government agencies from Australia, U.S., Japan, that don't address
the voice of the people. They only address economic and political
development without taking into consideration cultural, traditional
and small island issues that are very different from industrialized
nations. I've yet to find in the Pacific, a private, non-profit
think tank that can help research, plan and work with our governments
to set up a sustainable plan for the growth and development of
our nations'.
Following
this contribution, Mr Chilton was invited to establish an e-mail
discussion group with other contributors to the forum to discuss
in more depth some of the ideas put forward about small island
viability. The group was established in April 2006.
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