Happy Isles In Crisis: The Historical Causes for a failing State in Solomon Islands, 1998-2004

Abstract

'Happy Isles' or 'Hapi Isles' (the Pijjn English version) is the tourism industry's tag for the Solomon Islands. After almost thirty years of association with the Solomon Islands, I have enough faith in the basic good sense of the people to believe that the title is still correct and that the crisis that beset the islands during 1998-2D03 will pass.Writing this book has not been easy, not least because the action it describes is still unfolding. Although I am conscious that words can do damage to the delicate process of rehabilitation that is taking place, so too can lack of information. This chronological account is intended to be part of the healing process. While Solomon Islanders lived through events day-by-day, leaders and policy planners need to be able to put events into the perspective of the quarter-century since Independence in 1978. My connection to the Solomon Islands goes back to 1974 when I began research in the Australian Solomon Islands community. My first visit to the Solomon Islands was in 1976, and since then I have visited many times, and spent more than a year of my life there, adopted into a prominent Malaitan family. I have always followed contemporary events in the islands, even through my academic interests have usually been much more historical.

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