In Dr Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who there is a moment when all the little Whos shout to be heard by the big animals who don’t believe they exist and don’t care if they do.

It comes from a recent study tour I was part of under the Emerging Pacific Leaders’ Dialogue 2010, a programme run by the Commonwealth Scholarship Foundation that brings 120 young-ish people together from nearly every country in the Pacific, including a few outside of the Commonwealth, such as Guam, Palau and the Mariana Islands.

The result is a forum of extraordinary diversity and intensity.  Three days in an opening plenary and then smaller groups of 12 split off to complete individual study tours in 10 different Pacific countries.

I was part of the Kiribati study tour sent to understand the key developmental issues faced by that country. We visited and interviewed industry sites, foreign aid organisations and local and foreign government officials, and the local people of Kiribati.

About Kiribati: Kiribati is a low lying group of 33 small coral island atolls, spread across 3.3million sq kms of ocean, and straddling the equator.  Home to nearly 100,000 i-Kiribati, this is a proud 3000 year old culture. Through history they have navigated thousands of miles in canoes to trade among their atolls.  Today, they are struggling to navigate a future.

Kiribati is now one of the poorest countries in the world and is being directly affected by the combination of climate change and human impact.  It is suffering rising sea levels, low rainfall, and infertile soil, as well as diminishing natural resources (New Zealand farms directly benefited from the phosphate mining that has rendered parts of it uninhabitable), unsustainable population growth, high unemployment and associated health and social issues.  It is a list to compete with anything in Africa.

About the people: On the main Island of Tarawa, most of the population lives in poverty and nearly 40 per cent are estimated to earn below US$1 per day. They have little access to basic needs (fresh water, sanitation, adequate housing) with the resulting impact on the health and social state of the population. The population of Kiribati has a life expectancy at birth of 60 years. The Tarawa lagoon is significantly polluted with waste and is struggling to sustain a healthy ecosystem on which local people can rely.

Kiribati also has the dubious record of having the highest prevalence of Tuberculosis in the Pacific, the highest domestic violence rates (85% of households), and the highest infant mortality rate (51 deaths in 1000, New Zealand’s is about 5 for every 1000). 

The soil is contaminated by the rising sea - and attempts to actually produce fertile soil (thanks to a Taiwanese aid project) are just washed away with every spring tide, which literally covers Tarawa, which has a highest point of 2 metres. 

Because the soil is infertile, food has to be imported – mainly through one company  - and it uses its monopoly position well. The water should be deemed undrinkable and cholera outbreaks are not uncommon.

The country’s income comes from selling fishing licences and from aid. Remittances are also a major source of income (about AUD$10 million each year), and yet the young men who service the Japanese and Taiwanese shipping fleets are coming back with STIs and some with HIV/ AIDS. Alcohol abuse and prostitution are growing. We spoke to NGOs who were picking up “working girls” as young as 12 years old from the fishing fleets that operate Kiribati’s huge economic zone. 

Currently 50 per cent of the population in Kiribati is aged 20 years and under, with 57 per cent of the unemployed aged under 25 years.  The Government has tried to create more opportunities by lowering the retirement age to 50 years but there are still only about 700 jobs a year for the 2500 school leavers looking for work.  The resulting idle and directionless groups of young men are forming into street gangs, with the potential regional security issue that entails. 

Kiribati's misery: We were told by one senior Government official that Kiribati’s misery had become marketable. It was a poignant observation. From the steady stream of consultants who come to produce reports that gather dust on Government shelves, to the ex-Australian policemen who are selling arms to the Kiribati police as “riot control”, to the proposed “floating island” being put forward by a Japanese company for the small sum of AUD$5 billion. 

The Kiribati Government has been active on the world stage – using climate change to raise awareness of its issues and looking to ensure its young people get the training they need to be marketable in world labour markets – migration with dignity is what their dynamic President calls it.  The New Zealand and Australian Governments Aid projects are excellent in supporting this vision but everything is on such a small scale and heavily dependent on a “well” population. The white elephant of what happens to the growing numbers of i-Kiribati with HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases when Tarawa becomes completely uninhabitable is being left unanswered.

New Zealand, as part of the Pacific, has an unavoidable part to play in Kiribati. Whether we want it or not, their reality will become our problem.  The Whos are shouting.