Is it a ‘Crisis’? Well, that depends on how you view and understand the vitality of institutions. Institutions Matter! I’ve already discussed this point at length in an article back in 2019.

I was trying to write a column about relative risk on Tuesday afternoon, which I’ve been thinking a lot about, because you can’t help but think about relative risk if you’re constantly thinking about the pandemic.

Times have changed dramatically. Mass international tourism – our ‘old normal’ economic lifeblood – is gone. It will take several or many more years before we see mass tourism fully rebound, if it ever does. Two other problematic and unsustainable schemes – the Seasonal Worker Program (SWP) …

Welcome to a new series of articles all about business growth. Over the last year or so we have all been focused on COVID-19 and the challenges to be faced over the years ahead. It has not been a particularity happy time for many. While some businesses have had to close or reduce staff, many…

Access to investment and finance has defined how island states are able to progress towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and plan their post-pandemic economic recovery. With the pressure of the last twelve months weighing hard on island economies, all eye…

Don’t dig your own grave with your teeth. I got a bit disturbed by an old preacher when I first heard this figurative phrase to emphasise the importance of health.

INSIDE VIEWPOINT

This year, 2021, marks ten years since I started teaching at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG).

Getting up early in the morning to go to work or school and stopping a bus to get there is something the majority of Port Vila residents do on a daily basis.

Nature always teaches us something. The lessons are vast, far-reaching, deep, tremendous and endless. No wonder the Creator once said, “Look to the birds of the sky, for they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into storehouses, and your heavenly Father nourishes them; are you not much better t…

Name: Roselyne Ben

At around 2:20 a.m. on the cold and freezing morning of 15th April 1912, the following message came blistering across the airwaves, “We have struck iceberg … sinking fast … come to our assistance.” The ‘unsinkable’ Titanic was doomed ‘as it slowly sank into its watery grave’, according to au…

I had heard about him as one of the brightest young stars my dad had taught at primary school. He was by now a budding young employee in a company in Port Vila having successfully completed his education at the BSS (now Malapoa College). Uncle LV met me in Santo near the old Post Office on a…

Over the next few weeks, I will be exploring a number of habits which can help us be the best we can be. Today my focus is on the need to begin any journey with the end in mind – knowing where you are going.

Legacies are not stuff you can hide. They are normally what people perceive of you along life’s journey and more so after you’re gone. ‘Gone’ meaning left office, ended a contract, or in the most extreme case, passed away.

The big gathering is on, and there is much excitement in the air. Hope is high as we present, review and redesign the roadmap for our common future. Roadmaps and plans all depend on good leadership.

I had just joined the Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce (as it used to be called in the early-mid-1990s) when I heard my then Director scold a particular colleague with a very weird phrase – ‘You are Turtle Slow’. Initially I did not really understand what that meant. We had only on…

First up, Happy New Year, 2021!

As COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and international travel restrictions, border closures and lockdowns ensued, large numbers of expatriate aid workers returned to their home countries. This significant change in the demography of the aid industry in many countries has led to a shift in rol…

Port Vila has witnessed three massive socio-religious festivals over the past month: Unity Week, Christmas in the Park and Zion Fest Christmas 2020 which ended last Sunday night. Not to mention the other musical competitors.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs recently released a notice of proposed changes that would vastly expand the list of reserved occupations.

The Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations Plus – or PACER Plus – entered into force on 13 December, marking the start of a new journey in which parties will determine and co-deliver their own priorities for increasing trade across the Pacific.