Vulnerability, trade, financial flows and state failure in small island developing states

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are very different to other developing countries. Relative to GDP they have the highest levels of foreign trade and aid receipts of all developing countries. Remittances from abroad are a far more important source of income for SIDS, and some depend very heavily on export revenues. The quality of governance varies tremendously among SIDS, they are over-represented among countries classified as fragile states and many are prone to state failure. These and other factors combine to make SIDS highly vulnerable to external economic shocks. Achieving development in SIDS is as a consequence an especially complex task that requires an understanding of the roles played by aid, trade, remittances and governance in these countries. This paper looks at these issues, along with providing various stylised facts about SIDS. In so doing it serves as a background and broad contextual setting for the papers that follow in this Special Issue on 'Fragility and Development in Small Island Developing States'.

Last interglacial climates of south-eastern Australia : plant and beetle-based reconstructions from Yarra Creek, King Island, Tasmania

This paper explores the palaeoclimatic significance of a fossil plant and insect record from Yarra Creek, on King Island, between Tasmania and the Australian mainland. The record dates, based upon a thermoluminescence chronology and other evidence, to Marine Isotope Stage 5 (MIS 5); the exact timing is impossible to ascertain given the resolution of the thermoluminescence results and the presence of an unconformity in the dated section. The presence of a cool-temperate rainforest flora, outside its modern range, and other independent evidence, suggest the sequence may represent the last interglacial (MIS 5e) rather than a later MIS 5 substage. Using coexistence methods that compare modern climatic ranges of the taxa in the assemblage we reconstruct independent beetle and plant based annual and seasonal temperate and precipitation parameters. The results imply the assemblage was deposited under a wetter summer climate and suggest conditions of enhanced temperature seasonality. It is probable that enhanced temperature seasonality is a methodological artefact reflecting the rarity of extremely equable climates (like King Island) in modern climate space. This would indicate a limitation of most methods of palaeoclimatic reconstruction that rely on modern datasets – it is only possible to reconstruct past climates as being within the range of values in that currently exist in modern climate space.

Mid-Holocene vertebrate bone Concentration-Lagerstätte on oceanic island Mauritius provides a window into the ecosystem of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus)

Although the recent history of human colonisation and impact on Mauritius is well documented, virtually no records of the pre-human native ecosystem exist, making it difficult to assess the magnitude of the changes brought about by human settlement. Here, we describe a 4000-year-old fossil bed at Mare aux Songes (MAS) in south-eastern Mauritius that contains both macrofossils (vertebrate fauna, gastropods, insects and flora) and microfossils (diatoms, pollen, spores and phytoliths). With >250 bone fragments/m2 and comprising 50% of all known extinct and extant vertebrate species (ns = 44) of Mauritius, MAS may constitute the first Holocene vertebrate bone Concentration-Lagerstätte identified on an oceanic volcanic island. Fossil remains are dominated by extinct giant tortoises Cylindraspis spp. (63%), passerines (10%), small bats (7.8%) and dodo Raphus cucullatus (7.1%). Twelve radiocarbon ages [four of them duplicates] from bones and other material suggest that accumulation of fossils took place within several centuries. An exceptional combination of abiotic conditions led to preservation of bones, bone collagen, plant tissue and microfossils. Although bone collagen is well preserved, DNA from dodo and other Mauritian vertebrates has proved difficult. Our analysis suggests that from ca 4000 years ago (4 ka), rising sea levels created a freshwater lake at MAS, generating an oasis in an otherwise dry environment which attracted a diverse vertebrate fauna. Subsequent aridification in the south-west Indian Ocean region may have increased carcass accumulation during droughts, contributing to the exceptionally high fossil concentration. The abundance of floral and faunal remains in this Lagerstätte offers a unique opportunity to reconstruct a pre-human ecosystem on an oceanic island, providing a key foundation for assessing the vulnerability of island ecosystems to human impact.

Temporal variation in reproductive characteristics of an introduced and abundant island population of koalas

Reproductive characteristics of a wildlife population are typically sensitive to changes in environmental conditions and intrinsic factors. Knowledge of these relationships is critical for understanding population dynamics and effective long-term management of a population. We examined temporal variation in reproductive parameters of an abundant, genetically compromised, and high-density population of koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, over 3 breeding seasons spanning 9 years: November–May of 1997–1998, 2005–2006, and 2006–2007. Timing of the breeding season was consistent between years, but fecundity, sex ratio of young, and the percentage of independent females (those not accompanying a lactating female) , 6 kg varied. Fecundity was lower than in other island populations, suggesting that the quality and distribution of food resources or inbreeding may be impacting the Kangaroo Island population. We did not test for Chlamydophila (synonym =Chlamydia), and clinical signs of this disease were not reported for any of the koalas in this study. However, historical evidence of Chlamydophila-infected koalas on Kangaroo Island exists, and the potential impact of this disease on fecundity warrants further investigation.

Are shocks to real output permanent or transitory? Evidence from a panel of Pacific Island countries

Panel unit root and stationarity tests without structural breaks suggest that for eight Pacific island economies real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita contains a unit root. The panel stationarity test that accommodates structural change in the trend function, however, finds evidence in favour of regimewise trend stationarity. This result points to the importance of taking structural breaks into account. The finding implies that, for the period considered, the permanent secular component of output is dominated by transitory fluctuations accompanied by infrequent changes in the trend function. The only exceptions are Fiji and Kiribati, for which individual stationarity tests with multiple structural breaks suggest that real GDP per capita contains a unit root.

Is economic development in the Pacific island countries export led or import led?

This article examines the export-led growth and import-led growth hypotheses for a panel of Pacific island countries—namely, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu—for the period 1982–2004. The modelling is performed using a panel unit root, panel co-integration and panel Granger causality approach. We find bi-directional Granger causality for the panel of Pacific island countries between exports and economic growth, imports and economic growth, and exports and imports. The results suggest that the poor growth performance of many Pacific island countries reflects their poor export performance; however, if the supply-side constraints on exports are removed, there could be a virtuous cycle between economic growth and exports.

Surface-Enhanced Infrared Spectra of Manganese (III) Tetraphenylporphine Chloride Physisorbed on Gold Island Films

Surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectra of manganese (III) tetraphenylporphine chloride (Mn(TPP)Cl) on metal island films were measured in transmission mode. Dependences of the enhancement factor of SEIRA on both the sample quantity and the type of evaporated metal were investigated by subsequently increasing the amount of Mn(TPP)Cl on gold and silver substrates. The enhancement increases nonlinearly with the amount of sample and varies slightly with the thickness of metal islands. In particular, the SEIRA transmission method presents an anomalous spectral enhancement by a factor of 579, with substantial spectral shifts, observed only for the physisorbed Mn(TPP)Cl that remained on a 3-nm-thick gold film after immersion of the substrates into acetone. A charge-transfer (CT) interaction between the porphyrinic Mn and gold islands is therefore proposed as an additional factor in the SEIRA mechanism of the porphyrin system. The number of remaining porphyrin molecules was estimated by calibration-based fluorescence spectroscopy to be 2.36×1013 molecules (i.e., ~2.910-11 mol/cm2) for a 3-nm-thick gold film, suggesting that the physisorbed molecules distributed very loosely on the metal island surface as a result of the weak van der Waals interactions. Fluorescence microscopy revealed the formation of microcrystalline porphyrin aggregates during the consecutive increase in sample solution. However, the immersion likely redistributed the porphyrin to be directly attached on the gold surface, as evidenced by an absence of porphyrinic microcrystals and the observed SEIRA enhancement. The distinctive red shift in the UV-visible spectra and the SEIRA-enhanced peaks indicate the presence of a preferred orientation in the form of the porphyrin ring inclined with respect to the gold surface.

Rates of common communicable illnesses in non-anaemic 12-24 month old South Island, New Zealand children

Aims : To describe the incidence of parentally reported illness in otherwise healthy South Island toddlers; characterise the predictors of illness; and determine whether there was a relationship between teething and illness in this population.

Methods : A 20-week randomised controlled trial was conducted on 1-year-old children (n=225) from Otago and Southland between February 2004 and December 2005. Information on symptoms of morbidity, occurrence of teething, and childcare attendance were recorded daily throughout the intervention period. Morbidity symptoms were categorised into respiratory illness (RI), gastrointestinal illness (GII), ear infection, and total illness, and the number and duration of events were determined.

Results : The mean (SD) number of total illnesses was 3.4 (2.3) per 20 weeks, with an average duration of 4.5 days. Episodes of RI were most common (50% of total illness events), and tended to be the longest in duration (mean of 3.7 days). Having siblings aged less than 5 years (23% increase, 95%CI 6%–42%, p=0.007) and attending childcare (72% increase, 95%CI 38%–113%, p<0.001)), were positively associated with the number of total illness events but not duration. In addition, teething was positively associated with total events (OR 1.94, 95%CI 1.45–2.60, p<0.001), RI events (OR 2.03, 95%CI 1.41–2.93, p<0.001) and GII events (OR 1.90, 95%CI 1.36–2.67, p<0.001).

Conclusion : This study has shown that illness (particularly RI) is common in the second year of life. It has also confirmed that attending childcare and having siblings aged under 5 years increases the number of illness events. An association between teething and the occurrence of illness was also seen but the exact nature of this relationship requires verification.

En-gendering the nation : gender-bending and nationalism in Miles Franklin's 'My brilliant career' and Emily Lawless's 'Grania: The story of an Island'

Writing in the lee of first-wave feminism and in an era of nation-invention, the Irish Ascendancy novelist, Emily Lawless, and the aggressively Australian Miles Franklin (of Irish, English and German extraction and coming from families who were pastoralists) wrote novels of adolescence, respectively, 'Grania: the Story of an Island' (1892) and 'My Brilliant Career' (1901). Similar and different in many ways, they both wrote as women and self-consciously inserted themselves into nation-inscribing projects with an eye to overseas readerships, and they played fast and loose with class. Curiously, both contributed to the process of transforming 'nowhere-places' into iconic nationalist places: Franklin put the Monaro on the map (a region that was a nationalist icon before the 'Red Centre' usurped its place); and Lawless wrote in ethnographic ways about the Aran Islands more than a decade before J.M. Synge tramped westward in search of the 'Peasant Quality', so beloved of the Abbey Theatre playwrights and audiences. Most compellingly, they wrote of the near-pathologies of masculinities within nationalist agendas, and of marriage and sexuality. This article examines the novels comparatively and contrastively and asks uncomfortable questions about why and how their interventions were untimely.

En-Gendering the Nation: Gender-bending and Nationalism in Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career and Emily Lawless’ Grania: the Story of an Island

Writing in the lee of first-wave feminism and in an era of nation-invention, the Irish ascendancy novelist, Emily Lawless, and the aggressively Australian Miles Franklin (of Irish, English and German extraction and coming from families who were pastoralists) wrote novels of adolescence, Grania: The Story of an Island (1892) and My Brilliant Career (1901) respectively. Similar and different in many ways, they both write as women, and self-consciously insert themselves into nation-inscribing projects with an eye to overseas readerships, and they play fast and loose with class. Curiously, both contributed to the process of transforming ‘nowhere-places’ into iconic nationalist places: Franklin put the Monaro on the map (a region that was a nationalist icon before the ‘Red Centre’ usurped its place); and Lawless wrote in ethnographic ways about the Aran Islanders more than a decade before Synge tramped westward in search of the ‘Peasant Quality’ so beloved of the Abbey playwrights and audiences. Most compellingly, they write of the near-pathologies of masculinities within nationalist agendas, and of marriage and sexuality. This paper examines the novels comparatively and contrastively and asks uncomfortable questions about why and how their interventions were untimely.