It's finally raining here. It has been threatening to do so for most of the day. An hour ago the sky darkened and there was rumbling off to the south-west. Now it is drizzling, and cars on the road outside are noisily creating a spray as they pass.

Dad's water tank has been in need of a decent drop. This may be it; we'll have to wait and see. The lawn and garden is dry and dusty - no wonder my mother was a little depressed when she arrived home from Ireland! - and there's now that smell, the real earthy one that rises up when water hits the ground after a bit of a dry spell.

I may have been a little too eager in writing about optimism in the Ugandan peace process. While things may be moving forward positively at a community level, the complex issues at the top level - or "track one", as it is sometimes known - remain unresolved.

Current obstacles to peace talks

The rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been objecting for a while now to the location of the peace talks. This objection has been raised again. Further, they have an issue with the nominated mediator who is seen to be an ally of the government. And this time the LRA is threatening to recommence its war against the government of Uganda if the situation is not remedied.

News reports are also reminding us that the issue of the International Criminal Court (ICC), discussed earlier, is constantly in the background. I interpret this as an LRA wild card - if things don't go their way then they simply close the talks citing the ICC issue and things are back to square one. But perhaps I am being a little too simplistic about it.

Does the LRA have a point?

Blogger Jackfruity has raised a serious and possibly uncomfortable question about this current stand-off. Does the LRA have a point? Are the arrangements for the peace talks in any way neutral or is the LRA right to refuse to cooperate? Have a read of the post and see what you think.

Appeasement or pragmatism in the name of peace?

Let's be frank. The LRA is recognised by many as a terrorist group. Its leaders are accused of committing crimes against humanity.Human rights groups have been documenting these atrocities for years. Therefore we have to ask, is accepting LRA demands akin to "appeasement" of a terrorist group? (Can you hear a voice saying, "we don't talk to terrorists"?)

Here there are echoes of the "peace vs justice" question that arose when the LRA demanded that ICC charges against its leaders be dropped before talks could proceed. One could argue that acceding to this demand was an act of "appeasement", or a granting of impunity for war criminals. As we know, many Ugandans preferred peace over justice, and so, it seems, did the Ugandan government.

What now?

Perhaps then we should conclude that the legitimacy of the peace talks in the eyes of the LRA is of the utmost importance. If they walk away from the talks and pick up their guns once more then much hard work will be undone. Restoring LRA faith in the process may lead to further progress toward a stable settlement.

It is starting to look like peace may be a lot more complex than war. I am not sure whether I am on the right track with these comments, but I sincerely hope that someone out there has the wisdom required to keep Uganda on the path to lasting peace.

Peace-making efforts are continuing in Uganda. Many obstacles remain, but it now seems there are also reasons for optimism.

This excellent dispatch, published by the UN's IRIN news, describes how thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees are starting to return to their homes. Some have spent years living in refugee camps. It seems that the peace talks, in progress for more than six months now, have yielded some positive outcomes so far.

The fact that families are feeling safe enough to return to their homes suggests that the mood is changing in much of Uganda and that people have at least some confidence in the peace process. Men and women are now engaged in road clearing and resettlement programs - in the "food-for-work" style - coordinated by various UN agencies.

Of course, there are risks for those who have decided to return home and resettle. Unexploded ordnance (UXO), reports of violence by and undisciplined military, and damaged infrastructure all pose very real dangers.

The hard work involved demonstrates that the people of Uganda are committed to peace. If that commitment can be emulated by the key players in the peace talks then there are indeed very strong grounds for optimism about longer-term peace-building in Uganda.

Every man and his dog has an opinion on global warming. Scanning the Aussie blogosphere, for example, yields all sorts of views ranging from the reasonable to the extreme. Some of the most irresponsible commentators even acknowledge that their remarks are more about petty point-scoring than science, something that typifies much of what passes for discussion of environmental issues.

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I've developed a renewed interest in darts lately. Not sure why. Before I headed to Nias last year I had a bit of a farewell barbecue and drinks night with some mates and we sort of gathered around the dart board for a few hours, so I am guessing that's it.

So I had decided that I would get a dart board for our home on Miga Hill. Actually, one of the local lads that Vasco works with - the Nias fella I mentioned here - suggested that I should start up a Miga Hill Social Club.

The social club idea seems like a good one. I've met a few people already - neighbours, Vasco's work mates, people who I see walking around everyday - and it would be a good way to get to know them better and learn more about the place.

So I reckon that dinner, cold Bintang tinnies, and darts every couple of weekends would be a winner. I've been checking out some dart boards at the shops and trying to determine the best way to get one home.

Anyway, after I knocked over a few hours of study yesterday I was practicing sinking three darts into the twenty. I was doing alright. When the old man came home from work he joined me on the back deck and challenged me to a match of "cricket". Then he thrashed me by about four hundred points!

Let's see how good he is after I've had twelve months practicing with the Miga Hill Social Club!

Quote of the day from the Alertnet newsletter:

"I can't live in Baghdad any more. It's turned into a city for dead people and I'm not ready to have my children grow up as orphans."

- Asam Rifaat, a criminal lawyer who has decided to take his family out of Iraq.

There was a bit of a stink earlier this week when Thailand announced that it was going to repatriate Hmong refugees who had crossed the border from Laos into Thailand. There were fears that the refugees would be returned to face state violence.

But it looks like a bit of diplomatic pressure has changed Bangkok's tune, although Vientiane doesn't sound all that happy. Thailand has been given assurances by the US and other nations, including Australia it seems, that the refugees will be resettled in a third country.

Vientiane seems to be the only loser in this: the decision more or less indicates that the international community (well, those paying attention) consider the Hmong to be genuine refugees. But it's good news for Bangkok, good news for the US,* and good news for the refugees.**

* Good news, that is, for those who feel that the US owes something to Laos' Hmong after abandoning them when the "secret war" ended.
** Especially if they are resettled in a friendly Australian town such as Tamworth. I know, I know, it's just a few bad eggs. We Aussies don't all think like that, do we?

I'm not sure where things are up to with the effort to try the Ugandan rebel leaders. By all accounts, peace talks are in a bit of trouble again, due in part to the involvement of the International Criminal Court (ICC). I mentioned this issue earlier and will return to it, I hope.

Meanwhile, the ICC has decided to push ahead with charges against Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) militia leader, Thomas Lubanga. Lubanga is to be charged with crimes related to child soldiers. Some human rights groups would like to see the charges expanded and for other parties to the conflict, including government, to be charged as well. The ICC has been considering these charges since November 2006. Here's a little background from the Beeb:

The prosecution says children were snatched as they walked to school and forced to fight for Mr Lubanga's ethnic Hema militia against their Lendu rivals.

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The BBC's Mark Doyle says the conflict in Ituri [province] manifests itself as an ethnic war, but its root cause is the criminal mining of the region's gold and other minerals.

According to a UNICEF news note, "[a]s many as 30,000 Congolese children are thought to have been fighting or living with armed forces or militia" during the course of the conflict in DRC, a war that has claimed millions of lives since 1998.

It is hoped that bringing key actors like Lubanga to court for their role in this conflict will serve a dual function of enhancing the credibility of the ICC and furthering justice in DRC.

Here's an interesting little snippet from a recent piece by John Pilger piece in the Guardian.

During the recent Ashes series, Ian Chappell, one of Australia's most admired cricket captains, walked out of the commentary box when Howard walked in. After seeing for himself conditions in a refugee prison, Chappell said: "These are human beings and you can't just treat them like that ... in cricketing parlance it was like cheating. They were being cheated out of a fair go."

Today my brother is putting on a big barbie and booze-up as a joint birthday party for he and his partner. He's gone to a lot of trouble to ensure that there's some veggie tucker for our younger brother and myself, but I am going to take along some tofu skewers and some veggies for char-grilling as well. I'm also thinking about making this tasty little salad.

Burmese Salad (Thoke)

100g (4oz) white cabbage, finely shredded
100g (4oz) carrots, finely shredded
100g (4oz) cucumber, finely shredded
60g (2oz) beansprouts
2 tablespoons oil
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
6 small red shallots, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lime juice

1. Arrange all the vegetables in a bowl and set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan and fry the garlic until crisp and golden-brown. Remove, drain well, and add to the bowl.
3. Fry the shallots in the same way and add to the bowl.
4. Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix well. Turn out onto a platter and serve.

This should serve two on its own or four or more if served with other dishes. The recipe's from Vatcharin Bhumichitr's Healthy Salads from Southeast Asia.

Stop the press: On second thoughts, I reckon I'll knock up a Wallaby Lasagne...

Okay, so this one is actually a little sarcastic. What a twit.

Mr Howard’s reception at his Canberra residence for the Australian of the Year candidates was not an entirely gaffe-free affair. At one stage, Mr Howard was heard asking one candidate, mathematician Terence Tao, “When did you come to Australia?”

“I was born in Adelaide,” replied Professor Tao, who last year won the Fields Medal, the highest scientific award for mathematicians.

More political argy-bargy in the Pacific, this time in the Solomons. Graeme Dobell is right - must be a bloody hard place to work if you are an Aussie diplomat. Still, the mention of Taiwan here is a reminder of the "values-neutral" approach that our evil enemies in the region are taking.

My sister gave me a beautiful little recipe book for my birthday. As well as recipes, it includes short anecdotes about places and dishes. Here's one I'd like to share:

"...What could have been an out-and-out hamburger culture has actually preserved much of its own ways beneath a surface veneer of total surrender to Uncle Sam. All over the city you see branches of Jollibee, a fast-food restaurant that, at a distance, could be McDonald's, with kids in baseball caps selling hamburgers. Closer to, however, one realizes that these self-service cafes manage to retain the superficial pizzazz of an American fast-food outlet while continuing to offer reasonably authentic local cuisine. It's a very Filipino compromise and one which, in an imperfect world, is not to be despised."

- Vatcharin Bhumichitr in Healthy Salads from Southeast Asia, 2001.

There are other snippets like that dotted throughout the book, along with a vivid introductory section which talks about Thailand. Each chapter is dedicated to one of the countries of Southeast Asia. I reckon I'll share a few more tidbits later if you mob (all one of you) are interested.

I've just submitted all of my visa documents at the Indonesian consulate in Maroubra. Pretty painless exercise, which was a relief. Now I'm just pinging off a reservation for my stopover accommodation and all is in order for the next adventure.

It was funny. At the consulate I kinda expected to see a bunch of Indonesians, milling about and conducting important business. Or maybe a few Aussies lining up for visas before they hit the surf or visit the orangutans. But I saw neither.

Indeed, the place was quiet and empty except for a couple of staff and a handful of men nattering away at the reception area. They were Australian Iraqis, chatting with the consular staff about the best way to obtain travel docs of some sort.

After they left, the consular bloke explained that many of the visitors to the consulate these days are Afghanis and Iraqis who live in Australia. When those two countries were invaded, some refugees made it as far as Indonesia and are now seeking to be reunited with other family members who made it to Australia.

Interesting.

I've been knocking over a bit of reading the last day or two for one of my Peace and Conflict units. This morning I came across this beaut little summation of the "CNN effect" by Ernie Regehr: "Problems not in the headlines should be ignored, but once they have the attention of CNN they should have been addressed yesterday."

As true now as it was ten years ago.

Last week I read a Backyard Aquaponics, a very handy and inspiring little manual written by a Western Australian fella named Joel Malcolm. It talks about the principles of aquaponic systems and Joel's personal experiences - including many lessons learned - in establishing a system of his own. I hope to undertake something similar back in Nias.

The book is a self-published effort, I think, and that's part of its charm in my view. And I loved the photos and the personal anecdotes. I laughed out loud last week while having a read in the front bar of the Oaks Hotel. When talking about gravel to be used in the system's grow beds (where the veggies go), Joel included a photo which showed a cigarette lighter for scale. How Aussie, I thought. A few pages later in his section on fish and crayfish, his black marron was photographed next to an empty Tooheys Old stubbie. What a beauty!

Anyway, it looks like any aquaponic effort I get off the ground in Nias will not be the first in Indonesia. Word is that an Aussie company has established two aquaponics systems in Aceh. Fair dinkum. Maybe I should get in touch and have a bit of a yack with them about it.

Last Thursday I went along to the Lowy Institute for International Policy to hear what Graeme Dobell had to say about the Pacific. Dobell was introducing a new Policy Brief that he has written for the Lowy Institute, 'China and Taiwan in the South Pacific: Diplomatic Chess versus Pacific Political Rugby' (right-click to download the paper in pdf, 289kb). I have a few pages of notes but that might be a little (more) tedious (than my usual posts). Instead, here is a brief recap of some of the key points, in particular one that ties in with an issue I was discussing a week or so ago.

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I want to do a couple of things in this post, so it might be a long one. First, I want to plug my favouritist bloggers. Second I want to tease out some of the issues that are emerging as an African nation struggles with a peace process.* You'll see how these things are connected. I hope.

Two Peas, No Pod

I've been a regular blurker at Two Peas, No Pod for a year or so now. Paul's rants about politics and development issues are always right up my alley, and Cristy's views are provocative and insightful. Best of all, they've recently earned the dislike of a spattering of rightist Aussie bloggers after Cristy's piece about motherhood and identity was named one of the best blog entries of 2006.

Oh, and there's veggie food blogging! Mmm... lentil-rice balls... What more could a blurking lefty-veggie want?

Anyway, Cristy posted some thoughts last week that were prompted by unfolding events in Uganda.** Basically, there's a peace process, but it's a faltering one. The rebel army will only talk if the Ugandan government asks the International Criminal Court (ICC) to drop the charges it is pursuing against the rebel leader. If the charges stand then the peace process will likely collapse and more will die. If the charges are dropped, then the ICC suffers a blow to its credibility and the Ugandan people lose the opportunity for justice, an important part of national healing.

It's a credit to the pair of Peas that they have spent some time thinking and writing about the situation in Uganda. These are big issues indeed, unsuited to the quick-linking and glib one-line solutions that are too prevalent around the blogging traps. So, now to Uganda.

Uganda and peace making

Clearly the issues surrounding the ICC are a major hurdle for the peace process in Uganda. In replying to Cristy's post a few days ago I quoted some Ugandan people's views on the situation which I gleaned from this valuable article.

1. From a 58 year old woman. "More than anything we want our children back. They have suffered so much. This war has been so terrible that we do not want it to go on for another day. We can forgive those men for their crimes against us if it ends the war. They will face judgment another day."

2. A Catholic priest: "There is also a moral dilemma about the rebels. People say they hate the rebels but then they say our sons are rebels because they were abducted. The real view is anything that stops the war. It's been going on for 20 years. People have gone through social torture. They want an end to this nightmare."

So it seems to me that if Cristy were to pose her "Peace or justice?" question to Ugandans, the answer may well be "peace". Will the international community, including the ICC, accept that? And what will it mean for the chances of true national healing and reconciliation should the peace process actually proceed productively?

( Lessons to learn and further complications )

I'll be doing my best to stay abreast of happenings in Uganda. The success or otherwise of the peace initiative will have broad impacts in Uganda and its region. The scuffle over the ICC may mean that these impacts are even broader. Meantime, I would welcome your views on the issues I have briefly mentioned here.

* For those who don't know, I am currently studying Peace and Conflict, hence my interest in this issue.
** If you would like some background on the Ugandan conflict and its human impact then this might be a good place to start.

A news story that has been building up in Australia over the past month or so had escaped my notice for a bit. Maybe I was too busy keeping an eye on the Lao soccer team.

Anyway, there has been a bit of a kerfuffle brewing in Tamworth, a regional centre in New South Wales. As part of the federal gumint's refugee program some Sudanese families had been resettled in Tamworth but local attitudes had turned against them. Things reached a peak last week - some unsavoury comments from a local politician and a meeting to vote on the town's future participation in the program. In the end, things were resolved and Tamworth will accept a few more refugee families.

The community responses to the Sudanese families were reportedly pretty crude. For example, a local woman spoke openly about how she had to work hard to keep a roof over her head while the refugee families got everything for free. A rumour went around that Tamworth could expect 16,000 refugees. (I'm guessing someone plucked that number off the interwebs, because it refers to the Australian annual intake of refugees from all around the world, not the handful of Sudanese families being resettled in Tamworth.) The comments made by the local politician were widely thought to be suggesting that the refugees were violent criminals.

For me, the most infuriating and tragic element of this little episode is the willful ignorance of those who opposed the plan to resettle refugees in their town. By this I mean that individuals have either not cared enough to bother understanding the situation in which the refugees find themselves or have done some research only to ignore the facts that they don't like. Otherwise, how could any Australian be critical of a program that provides housing and employment assistance to a family that has fled violent conflict? We have libraries in every town, a world of information on the internet, and still some of us choose not to see.

Fear, no doubt, is a major player here. Indeed, I had a heated discussion a few days ago where someone I have an enormous amount of respect for who was absolutely convinced that Australia is soon to be over run by Muslims who want to destroy our society. Facts didn't matter. Fear helped decide which truths were to be accepted and which were to be discarded. And only last night, my mate and I had to take issue with a couple of blokes mouthing off about how Australia needed a Ku Klux Klan to take care of Muslims.

But I am also beginning to think that this fear itself can be exacerbated by something else: wealth. I don't mean wealth in the sense that people are filthy rich, but in the sense that they have material comfort and a number of luxuries that they have come to consider their entitlement. And so people who, by any objective global measure, are very well-off and have a high standard of living, start thinking that the things they have are under threat. Someone less-deserving wants what you have.

Perhaps this is a paradox of wealth. The more comfortable you become the less safe you feel. Not in all cases, of course, but in many that I have seen. So, I am now asking, does boundless opportunity and material wealth lead to selfish behaviour? To irrational efforts to "protect" what we have rather than share it with others? Could this be a localised form of the "greed vs grievance" dilemma that we come across when looking at the causes of violent conflict? Clearly some of us are able to resist this regressive turn to covetous and xenophobic behaviour, so what is the secret?

It is a sign of the strength of Australian civil society and democratic practice that issues surrounding refugees have been discussed openly and resolved through non-violent means. Yet the fact that uninformed or willfully ignorant views could be brought to the table suggests that something about our society is not working properly. There is still some way to go, it seems, before this nation of wealth, mateship, and egalitarianism is strong enough to realise its full potential as global citizen. Perhaps if we can understand how it is that a comfortable lifestyle can lead us to fear and hate then we can find a way to take the next step.

This wasn't going to be a sermon. I got carried away. Anyway, I have notes from the Dobell forum on Thursday and will post them soon for those with an interest in the Pacific.

And that soccer match I mentioned earlier...

Poor old Laos copped another thumping. Vietnam defeated them 9-0. And this report from Viet Nam News shows them little mercy either. It describes the Lao effort as "pathetic". Hmm.

Well, as chanphenglew suggested, bring on the 2007 ASEAN Pétanque Championships!

I first discovered the joys of reverse culture shock back in April last year when I returned from Indochina. Now, back in Strayer for a month after eight weeks in Indonesia, I have fallen into an even deeper kind of shock than I experienced previously.

I think it may be because I am heading back there soon, so everything here seems kind of temporary. My "old life" is packed in cardboard cartons and stashed away or has been given to the Salvation Army. I literally live out of a back pack now - with a pile of books on the floor and a computer plugged in nearby.

It may also be because I have a sharper understanding of the differences between life in Pulau Nias and Western Sydney, especially given that I have had a bit of a crash course in the realities of aid work in the developing world. [Note: Not through working myself - not yet - but through insights provided by Vasco and her workmates.]

So I am finding that I am impatient to return. The feeling that Australia is a little too nice, a little too convenient, and way too rich - that feeling is growing stronger. I am not as comfortable here as I once was. And as I have explained to my brother and a couple of friends, I think that this feeling will be with me for a long time. I thought it might go away with time - become dull - but if anything it is growing sharper.

But I have made my lists of to-do items and lined up visits to the consulate, the bank, the post office, and a dozen other places. I have plenty of reading and writing to do. I will keep myself busy.

After saying all that, I do realise that I should make the most of my time here. And I do love being able to jump on the bus to the massive new Borders bookshop that opened up the road a bit, to share dinner with friends and family each night, to play darts and sip a couple of tinnies with dad out on the deck. It is not wrong to enjoy these things, and soon they will be gone - indefinitely.

I just need some patience, I reckon. And perspective. And above all, I need a beer.

Tomorrow I am off to the Lowy Institute to hear Graeme Dobell speak on the topic of 'China and Taiwan in the South Pacific: Diplomatic Chess versus Pacific Political Rugby'. In light of our Prime Minister's recent comments about the evil influence of these countries in our region, I am looking forward to learning more about this battle of ideas to our north. I'll post a review on Friday.

Every couple of days I do a news metasearch for the latest from Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia. Of the four, news is most scarce for Laos. But over the past week or two I have been getting much larger search results for Laos. The reason? The Asean Football (Soccer) Championship is on.

And poor old Laos seems to be getting a hiding. Last night they were thrashed by Singapore, 11-0. The next match is against Vietnam, who can secure a finals spot if they win by three goals. The Lao team say they are playing for pride. Well, I always love an underdog, so this is one soccer match I may take a genuine interest in.

A couple of months ago, I was reading about the treatment of Hmong refugees from Laos who had been detained in camps in Thailand and reportedly subjected to some pretty harsh treatment. The article I was reading, from the english language Bangkok paper The Nation, also mentioned a massacre of Hmong villagers in Laos earlier last year.

I was shocked that I hadn't heard about this before. When I followed a link to this Amnesty International statement I learned that the massacre had taken place in early April 2006 not far from Vang Vieng.

I had been in Vang Vieng the week before the massacre is said to have occurred, chatting in rough Lao with the bartenders and sipping cold beer. The town was packed full of sun-tanned backpackers and pancake stalls. Most of the tourists spent their days splashing in the river or drinking beer and watching 'Friends' videos in the many restaurants.

It's difficult to reconcile my memories of that picturesque town with these horrific pictures of the massacre that occurred nearby. I was not blind to the reality of Hmong persecution in Laos, but I had not seen anything at all to suggest that violent conflict was taking place. Even the notorious stretches of road I had been warned of were now safe to travel on.

I would often sit and laugh at the ridiculous claims made by the Lao government in the Vientiane Times - you know, like "anti-poverty programs have been so successful that there is now only one poor family in this province" and stuff like that. It was funny, and unbelievable. As a result - and partly because I had chatted and joked with armed soldiers on Vientiane street corners during the Communist Party Congress - I had begun to see the Lao government as a feeble bunch of old men, and mostly harmless.

That perception has now been shattered.

I've scoured news sites and as far as I can tell the Lao government is yet to conduct a thorough investigation of the Vang Vieng incident. The US, the UNHCR, and a number of NGOs have called on it to do so, but their soft power seems to be getting us nowhere at present. So Hmong continue to be persecuted and continue to risk their lives fleeing Laos seeking refuge. I wonder if anyone will mention this during the Asian summit in Cebu City this week. I doubt it.

ANU blog New Mandala has become essential reading for me since I first discovered it a couple of months ago. Tonight I have read a very moving and insightful piece entitled, 'The rich don't go to prison, and the poor don't go to hospital'. Contributor Holly High takes us on a personal trip into a poor Lao community where it becomes clear that access to social services, particularly health, is a critical issue for the poor of Laos.

Ms High visited a rural community in the north of Laos. The village had been "resettled" under a government program so that people would have greater access to services and so that the villagers could become involved in rice production or other cash cropping. Here we are exposed to poverty that prevents people from accessing what health care is available. Notably, the villagers are not necessarily disadvantaged because of the resettlement program. As Ms High writes:

They were not opposed to resettlement, but they were opposed to their unequal access to income, land and services once resettled. It is possible that resource distribution, not resettlement, is the real issue of concern. This is most strikingly apparent in health care.

Health care in Laos, it seems, is being priced out of reach of many, even those who are not poor. Strangely enough, the current state of health care actually represents a decline in standards since the early years of the revolution. We then read of decaying hospitals from years gone by, remembered as a time when there was "one doctor for every two patients".

This denial of access to health care may be characterised as a form of structural violence, or subtle violence in addition to other overt forms of violence utilised by the state or other powerful actors. This kind of violence impacts on those who are already excluded or disadvantaged, in this case poor Hmong villagers.

The title of the post - 'The rich don't go to prison, and the poor don't go to hospital' - is a Lao saying. It tells us much about how the poor perceive their situation: the poor are characterised by their lack of access to health care (even those who are otherwise able to sustain a reasonable livelihood) while the rich are not subjected to the violence of the state, represented by prison. This piece is essential reading for any of you with an interest in Laos and its future.

I've just read a little good news from Nias. You see, almost two years after the earthquake, many families in Nias are still living in temporary shelters while they await new homes. Some schools are "tented-classes, with no close sanitary infrastructure available". Vasco and I have seen these "camps" first hand; indeed, each morning we walk past a small tent settlement on the outskirts of Gunung Sitoli.

Through the combined work of UNICEF, Caritas, and the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED), new schools and latrine blocks are under construction and a hygiene education program is happening this month. Other agencies are undertaking similar programs, too.

What's significant about this is that ACTED is translating the educational documents. The press release says, "This will allow for the hygiene educational sessions to have a maximum impact in a region where Indonesian is not necessarily the daily spoken language", so presumably this means that the materials will be translated into Li Niha.

Notably, too, the intention is that the educational materials will be available to other agencies who wish to undertake similar work in the future. This kind of active cooperation between agencies is critical to the long-term success of rekonstruksi in Nias. If Nias is indeed going to become "a model of development" in Indonesia and the region, then actions like this are a very good step in that direction.

There's been a bit of discussion in the letters page of The Australian lately about the fact that Phillip Ruddock is still wearing his Amnesty International badge. A few people reckon that he should have his membership cancelled. This letter from Scott Poynting takes the cake.

Perhaps a compromise is possible on the vexed issue of Philip Ruddock’s Amnesty International membership. He could remove the candle from the badge and quite appropriately continue to wear the barbed wire.

Scott Poynting, Newtown, NSW

I've just been browsing the BBC's Have Your Say pages where I came across this comment from an Iraqi about the so-called "augmentation" (that is, escalation) of the war in Iraq.

Of course, we would be happy if there's better security, whether that's achieved through the Americans or the Iraqis. We want security to flourish in Baghdad.

But I think sending more troops is aimed more at solving the Americans' problems in Iraq - the quagmire they've fallen into here - rather than helping the Iraqi people.

- Abbas Khafaji

Some thoughtful comments on that page, including a suggestion that the success of the troop deployment will depend not on the number of troops sent but on where and how they are utilised.

I'm staying at a mate's place and drinking his grog and ripping his CDs. As you do. A few years back we had virtually identical music collections, loved all the same bands, and went to all the same gigs. This means that any CDs I have lost over the years are now at my fingertips. And moreso, a couple of rare ones that I never got my hands on are begging to be rocked out to* over a lazy beer or ten.

Last night I came across You Am I's 'Mr Milk' single. I remember buying it for my mate, maybe on his birthday or something, about ten years ago. It had already become a rarity, so I hunted it down at a second hand place in Sydney. The CD case still has a little note stuck to it, written by me, wishing him "have a good one, and here's to ya".

Another ripper is a 3-track CD by Loggerhead. We first saw them play at the old Sando in Newtown and were stoked when we learnt that the guitarist, Clay Handley, was the brother of Pollyanna's Matt. That night I bought a copy of their single, which they had only produced on cassette. I think I have it in a box somewhere still. And here it is, in CD format, sitting on the shelf.

What a gem. This CD collection is like a time capsule.

* This used to mean something different and rockier. Now it means nodding knowingly.