Communities are shoring up seawalls with old tyres.

I was raised on the beautiful island of Tonga.

When I was a child, my parents and grandparents would come out every morning to look at the horizon. They would look at the clouds and see the patterns to understand what laid before us that day.

Nowadays, things are different.

Children playing and swimming at the beaches see the patterns in the clouds and run back to alert us to a disaster.

This is now becoming a regular occurrence.

After storms, I visit my people and I am always lifted by their resilience and their spirit of helping each other.

But when I delve deeper, they share their real emotions, which are full of pain, heartache and fear.

You see, in the Pacific our people are strong. We are resilient, but even we have our limits. And we have reached our limit.

Nowadays, when I wake up in the morning and look out to sea, I see two clouds. Two dark and looming clouds. One is climate change. This cloud brings rising sea levels, more frequent cyclones and king tides like we have never seen before.

It is joined by another cloud. This one is debt. Increasingly frequent and severe weather means that Pacific Island nations are struggling to rebuild. We feel like we are going backwards.

Vital infrastructure such as homes, bridges, farms and fisheries, take years to rebuild while crops and livestock take a similar period to restore. It is extremely expensive, and it is money we simply don't have.

Last year at the United Nations climate talks, nations agreed on a Loss and Damage fund; a fund created to compensate developing countries impacted by climate change, like my home of Tonga in the Pacific Island nations.

We don't contribute much to climate change. In fact, we contribute less than 0.5 per cent of all global emissions. But we certainly pay for it in our futures, and the futures of our children. We need compensation for this injustice.

The Loss and Damage fund is an important step towards climate justice, but we can't forget that the 2009 pledge to spend $100 billion a year in climate aid has still not been met. In fact, the pledge to spend $100 billion a year is far from achieved.

Right now, the Pacific region needs nearly US $1 billion per year in financing to adapt our infrastructure to climate change. We receive much less than this. Continue reading

• Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi is Bishop of Tonga

Data from credit bureau Centrix shows 11.9 percent of New Zealanders were in arrears in January - a four year high - with 430,000 people behind on repayments, which was an increase of 20,000 from December.

The number of households behind on mortgage repayments has risen to the highest level since April 2020, with about 18,400 mortgage accounts past their due date - up 22 percent from a year ago. Read more

The latest figures show beneficiaries owe $200 million more than the same time last year.

In this year's Budget, the Government gave those over 18 and earning $70,000 or less a $350 cost of living payment to help them with the effects of rising prices, but it refused to extend the payment to beneficiaries and superannuitants. Read more

For them, it's at least as bad as the isolation during the pandemic lockdowns.

The charity surveyed 750 of its clients for its latest study.

Published on Monday to coincide with the start of Mental Health Awareness Week, the survey found many clients struggling with debt were often too worried to answer the door, leave the house or answer the phone.

Statistics

Before coming to CAP for debt advice and support, 60 per cent of respondents said they felt lonely.

Eighteen months ago, 51 percent of clients reported feeling lonely - but then, Covid restrictions were at their height.

About 40 percent of respondents said they had not had a meaningful conversation in the past week - up from 31 per cent 18 months ago.

Two thirds said they had no one to turn to when they had a problem - a six-per-cent increase.

Sixty-eight percent said that they had been scared to answer the phone.

Fifty-five percent were too frightened to answer a knock at the door.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists says over 50 percent of people in debt are struggling with mental health.

CAP's helpline has experienced a significant rise in demand this year: there has been a 36-per-cent increase in calls in the three months from January to March, compared with 2021.

Seeking help works

One client, Jonathan, says he felt like he was the only one in debt until he started engaging with CAP, and saw that wasn't the case. "It definitely gave me hope that there was light at the end of the tunnel," he says,

CAP says while the easing of lockdown restrictions "meant a thankful end to isolation", this wasn't the case for thousands of low-income families struggling in debt and poverty.

"The isolation and loneliness they feel is actually getting worse due to the cost-of-living crisis and mounting debts.

"Right now, we know many people are feeling isolated, scared and forgotten as they struggle alone with their debts, not aware of the free help available.

"Living with the kind of constant anxiety that debt creates often leads to feelings of isolation and loneliness."

Source

• Church Times
• Image: American Psychological Association

Your first home has never been more out of reach, if you want to live in one of the main centres - not that we have much of a choice, because high rates of unemployment and thousands of dollars of student debt mean we go where the jobs are.

Even then, we're faced with increasing costs of living and slow wage growth.

In short, our prospects are bleak, and especially so in comparison to the rosy route enjoyed by members of our parents' generation. And economist Bernard Hickey can't figure out why we're not more angry about it.

We face a political contest between the people who have to pay the bill, and the people who receive the benefits, and that is building into a clash of the generations

He calls us the "baby bust" generation: burdened by debt, held apart from home ownership, the losers of sweeping changes imposed by Roger Douglas' Labour government in the mid-1980s.

The baby boomers, meanwhile, continue to benefit from the free education and cheap property they had access to as young people.

Hickey predicts this gap between the older and younger generations will get bigger in the coming decades, before eventually coming to a head when the last of the boomers retire, and their children are left to foot the bill for their healthcare and superannuation.

"Ten, 20 years from now, the younger generation will realise they face a future of not … being as wealthy as their parents'," he says.

"We face a political contest between the people who have to pay the bill, and the people who receive the benefits, and that is building into a clash of the generations." Continue reading.

Source: The Wireless

Image: Stuff

The report surveys Pacific states for a breakdown of the aid and loans they have received from China. It states that China's aid to Pacific nations over five years totals just over $NZ800 million. The bulk of China's aid is through soft loans for infrastructure projects.

It expresses concern at the level of debt some of the poor Pacific states, especially Tonga, are accumulating. Its debt to China is 32 per cent of its GDP.

The institute noted China was not the only lender in the Pacific. The Asia Development Bank reported a total of public and private loans to the region of $2.8 billion in 2009. "There is anecdotal evidence some island countries are taking on Chinese loans with the expectation that China will forgive the debts after an appropriate time has elapsed and if requested."

The Lowy Institute is an independent international policy think tank based in Sydney. Its objective is to generate new ideas and dialogue on international developments and Australia's role in the world.

Source
Stuff

Photo Credit
blogs.vetteweb.com