From Pacific Way to Pacific Solution: Sovereignty and Dependence in Oceanic Literature

By 1977, when the Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic Development in Asia finally included Oceania, many individual states had 'become even more dependent on Western funds, Western technology and Western priorities for the region' (Haas 8). [...]from the mid-1970s to 1989 the Pacific was...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Australian humanities review 2015-05 (58), p.N_A
Main Author: Watson, Jini Kim
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Borrowing
Christianity
Colonialism
Human rights
International relations
Japanese language
Law
Ontology
Pacific Rim studies
Pidgins
Postcolonialism
Refugees
Religious missions
Short stories
Sovereignty
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:By 1977, when the Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic Development in Asia finally included Oceania, many individual states had 'become even more dependent on Western funds, Western technology and Western priorities for the region' (Haas 8). [...]from the mid-1970s to 1989 the Pacific was treated as a Cold War security region; following the U.S.'s lead in other parts of the world, Australia quadrupled its aid to the region 'as a the key to keeping the Soviet influence out of the region and creating a pro-Western order' (Fry, 'Our Patch' 82). (21) The story follows the misfortunes of one 'frightened, small-time, part-time fisherman', Ika Levu, who is pressured into taking a fishing loan by Sharky's pidgin paraphrase of developmental logic: 'Now is duty belong you to help Tiko come up rich fela country' (22). Since Sharky represents the Japanese and Australian fishing companies, his loans of thousands of boats, nets, motors and equipment actually means that-following 'boomerang aid' logic-'in helping the development of Tiko, Sharky had helped the development of himself and his companies most generously' (23). [...]the awkward phrase, 'especially as locations to house transferees temporarily should the capacity of communities require development', makes it sound as if the detainees are simply there in order to wait for the community to be better developed. [...]these texts remind us that the 'Pacific Solution' requires analysis not only in relation to human rights, international law, or Australia's attitude toward a region of the world it has referred to as 'our patch'.14 We must also recognise that detention agreements figured in terms of 'development cooperation' are a continuation-and not a departure from-the region's historical distribution of sovereignty, with the result that the relentless flow of securitised aid now finds its material bearers in the vulnerable bodies of refugees.
ISSN:1325-8338
1325-8338