PRE-TRIP PREPARATIONS

So, before you come to Samoa, you had better go over and introduce yourself to one of those 'coconuts', just say "Hi Bro, I'm going to Samoa" and watch him laugh his head off.

He'll give you 50 reasons why not to come because he's seeking out the cold, the nightlife, the drag racing, the rugby contracts, the music festivals, the money, the schooling, etc.

Anyway, if you two are still talking and laughing, ask all you like about the faaSamoa (remembering that it was most likely too tough for him to stomach and that's why he left Samoa - I mean, serving all these old dudes in the village for the rest of your life, really).

Having accomplished this much before you leave, try this one.

Help us write an Operations Manual for Sustainable Living in Falealupo Village, or any Pacific Island village for that matter. We need all international travellers to start buying Samoan Made Products, preferably organically certified.

However, don't buy our rainforest timbers - this is a no-no. In fact, our Samoan Government stopped the export of whole logs back in 1990 just as the last unprotected forest was felled. Where was our Operations Manual when we needed it most.

And if you want to get well, buy our organic nonu (Morinda citrifolia), it will cure exam tensions, speeds-up your homework and even makes you enjoy school a lot more. And it's even considered a love-potion - that helps you understand those Samoans in Otara a little better!! Only joking Bro.

And should Samoa, even Falealupo, ever dream of getting into commercial palm oil production, make sure you boycott this product as well, irrespective of where it is grown (palm oil is responsible for extensive rainforest destruction across Asia, leading to furthering the impacts of global climate change, as well as causing the loss of 50 orangutans a week in Sumatra alone). Please.

We want Samoa to be a carbon-neutral holiday destination, so you'll be expected to include agro-forestry into your Operations Manual as well, and you'll be planting one tree a day whilst in Samoa as well. I like it already.

And surely your teachers know a few more tricks that they can teach us Chiefs.

We now want to get into micro-financing as well in Falealupo, so well be attracting $500-5000 loans, unsecured, from South Pacific Business Development, and trying our best to boost our rural economies. And this community tourism, beach tourism, ecotourism, educational tourism venture is just one more such micro-enterprise that we want to develop - but we need your support, your booking and your on-going advice.

Fossil fuels are now too expensive, so we are looking at hydro-power rather than diesel generated electricity in Samoa. Problem is, the neighbouring village won't let us use their river for hydro'. Little do they know that more carbon emissions from the nearby diesel generators will produce more climate change impacts and less rain and their river will possibly dry-up one day. So why don't these Chiefs act responsibly today? May be you Kids will have to teach them a thing or two?

We also need to all get this Operations Manual written, translated, and delivered to the neighbouring villages before it is too late. We had better set-up a Kids Parliament and approve it ourselves, to be read with Parental Guidance ONLY!!

Finally, for this exercise at least, you need to make sure your Blue Pacific plane is full to the brim so that your emissions are reduced to the minimum/head. Better still, bring 10kg baggage instead of 22kg. Got it?

Got you there, didn't I?

Better still, don't come at all. Sure, this makes sense as well, but we're realists, willing to off-set your jet emissions by planting trees in our village to help soak-up all that Virgin carbon. So, no complaints when we all go planting trees in the sun!!

We're happy to draft this Operations Manual, even putting some more exercises in there just to test your mettle, and publish it on http://VillageDevelopmentOperationsManual.blogspot.com for all school groups to study (and edit/contribute) well before their arrival.

Wait for it. Now there's an idea.

What about a school course, held in Samoa, about sustainable living. Tell your folks that you are not going on a holiday, you're going back to school in Samoa, doing courses in environmental management, wildlife conservation, alternate technologies, socio-economic development, anthropology, epistemology (study of traditional knowledge), speleology (caving, if that's what you are into), ethnobotany (to discover more treatments for AIDs, arthritis, diabetes, old age, etc. - by the way, we just found the cure for bulimnia and anorexia nervosa - you guessed it, living in Samoa and religiously observing the faaSamoa - sounds too simple and it is), etc. What about this, a cure for acne! Try our nonu soap, walter@meti.ws, and Dr. Vermeullin will tell you exactly how the Matuaileoo Environment Trust Inc. (METI) stumbled across this discovery in Samoa. Nonu is now Samoa's largest agricultural export crop and it's a native rainforest plant - just as well we didn't chop it all down!

If we are clever the way we write this Operations Manual, it could be used as a text book for schools and Village Councils of Chiefs, formally and informally taught. However, most of know what is right and wrong, but we just don't have the more sustainable options in front of us. So please guys, can you help us?

Enough said.

Last thought, did your teachers ever tell you anything about Education for Sustainable Development or ESD? Chances are they didn't. Well, there is now a formal ESD Framework and ESD Action Plan, so make sure you get a copy or I'll post it on this blog (if I have it in a Word format).

Anyway, this is enough to think about as you prepare for your trip to Samoa. Share all these ideas with your classmates, teachers, parents and local Samoan friends. And even if you can't visit us this year, study hard, complete your degrees and come back soon and help save the planet before these adults get around to ruining it entirely.