Word: missioners
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...chinese covet nike's Swoosh. America loves the iPod. Australians are hooked on a TV show called Idol. And Solomon Islanders have the cult of ramsi. An intervention force may seem an unlikely thing to swoon over, but the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands has pop-star appeal across the 992-island archipelago. The freshly minted brand has gained the status of savior and sorcerer with a long-suffering people, who utter the acronym in respectful whispers or with toothy smiles. From the streets of the ragtag capital, Honiara, to remote villages that the modern world has barely touched...
...improvement in security - which has not been achieved without risk or heroism - is looking like the easy part. The next step is into uncharted territory. Now, with the military component reduced to a mere 78 personnel, and a reborn police force under the close watch of foreign advisers, the mission's youthful bureaucrats are taking charge of battered economic and development institutions. The economy has gone steadily backward: per-capita income has fallen 50% since independence in 1978. The ethnic tensions and brutality of 1998-2003 masked a chronic illness in Solomon Islands, for which there...
...help us to start a garden? Or will they just leave us to find our own way home?" In partnership with ramsi, the country's many brave, honest and able citizens have their best - perhaps last - chance to step up. Yet it's far from clear how long the mission will last, how much it will cost - or whether it is even possible to repair damage on this scale...
...administration not only to functionality but to really being effective and efficient is an enormous challenge, and it will take years." It's a hard message to sell to a public that's been let down for so long. Batley and other ramsi officers are wary of the mission being blamed down the track for not delivering what it has never promised. "ramsi is not the answer to every problem in the country," he says. "We are very anxious that the government steps up and is seen to be running its own agenda...
...will announce a series of changes, some involving procedures, organization, senior personnel and areas of focus for our action. I understand that it is easy to be distracted by both the nature and the pace of change. I am confident, however, that you will remain deeply committed to our mission. The American people and the President on their behalf, expect nothing less." --With reporting by Timothy J. Burger, Matthew Cooper, Elaine Shannon and Adam Zagorin/Washington