CBE Frank Short
Who is CBE Frank Short?
NO TIME TO LOSE IN TACKLING YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
The seemingly intractable problems associated with youth unemployment in Honiara and the resulting evidence of increased substance abuse, including the growing and use of marijuana, the consumption of...
THE YEAR's END AND WHERE TO IN 2014
The Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Melanesia, David Vunagi, told the congregation at Saint Barnabas Cathedral when delivering his Christmas sermon "Solomon Islands is no longer a safe place to live...
Investigation and Prosecution of Corruption Allegations
Your online publication recently highlighted two articles relating to alleged corruption in the Solomon Islands and particularly, it was claimed, in the government ministries.
Transparency Solomon Islands...
Reflections on the Colonial System of Administration in Pre- Independence Solomon Islands and Some Commentary
As I write this piece its 60 years to the day of Her Majesty the Queen’s accession to the Throne.
I recall that on that occasion she wrote to express to all members of the Colonial Service her warm...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part: 50 My Conclusions and a Look to the Future.
Extract from my memoirs.
Needless to say – a great deal of ‘conclusions’ ended up in both the RAMSI segment and the one that followed it– not intended, but that is how it happened.
Damned if I did...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part 49: Planning for RAMSI's Withdrawal : A Personal Viewpoint.
Extract from my memoirs.
Introduction.
The intervention of the Regional Assistance Mission (RAMSI) to the Solomon Islands, brought about at the request of the Solomon Islands Government in 2003,...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part 48: RAMSI - Taking Stock.
Extract from my memoirs.
In the last decade a much younger age group along with modern communications has steadily emerged moving onwards and upwards from the old traditions.
It has produced a different...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part 47: RSIPF - Policy and Orders - Clear and Understandable.
Extract from my memoirs.
Within the first week of my appointment as the Commissioner of Police in July 1997, it became obvious that our Policy and Orders doctrine needed updating in the light of...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part 45: UXO's - Our Ongoing Sleeper Factor.
Extract from my memoirs.
The discovery of an old World War II six inch live shell placed in the machinery in the mill at the Solomon Islands Plantations Ltd (SIPL) in 1999 brought home the reality of...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part 44 : "Unexpected Words. Thank you Gentlemen."
Extract from my memoirs.
Having had to endure an almost daily barrage of racist slurs and downright lies as I neared the end of my two year term in office, one found some solace in the words of two...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part 43: Giving Peace a Chance - My Decision Alone.
Extract from my memoirs.
Since early 1999 successive attempts were made by the SIAC government to bring to an end the crisis on Guadalcanal by looking into the underlying issues and to deal with the...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part 42: Police Problems. Our own dirty linen surfaces.
Extract from my memoirs.
One understands that after commenting on the media and the Deputy Speaker of Parliament who was destined to become a Governor General, one should not forget one’s own backyard...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part 40: Our Own - Solomon Islands - Media.
Extract from my memoirs.
In the Solomon Islands the local media representatives with the odd exception, reported fairly and reasonably accurately on the so called "ethnic conflict."
One also has...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part 39: The Ongoing Media Saga.
Extract from my memoirs.
What makes a journalist or reporter tick? Wait – let me re phrase…
What makes much of their reporting so often negative, error filled, and shallow?
Do they and their...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part 37: June 1999 - The Solomon Islands declared a State of Emergency.
Extract from my memoirs.
Following the savage murder of an old man and a two year old child in a village near the Solomon Islands Plantations (SIPL) the government issued a statement promising ‘effective...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part 36: Commonwealth Assistance and Sitiveni Rabuka - an ex- Fiji Prime Minister.
Extract from my memoirs.
The first briefing that was given to the Cabinet following ‘Monarch’s’ intelligence assessment caused genuine concern. One member asked, “What do we do now?”
I had pre-empted...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part 35: Operation 'Monarch'
Extract from my memoirs.
Intelligence capabilities with reasonable accurate forecasting of internal activities are an essential part of Special Branch (SB) operations.
In fact intelligence was always...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part 34 : A Police Officer as a Murderer? The Bungana Incident.
Extract from my memoirs.
It was during the early hours of December 10th 1998; actually while I was overseas in New Zealand participating in mutual aid meetings with the New Zealand Defence Force, when...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part 33 : Guadalcanal - the start of the "Ethnic Violence" in 1998
Extract from my memoirs.
Towards the end of September 1998, an armed militant group, the Guadalcanal Revolutionary Army (GRA) – the forerunner of the Isatambu Freedom Movement (IMF) – began a violent...
Policing a Clash of Cultures Part 32 : When the Solomon's Pot Boiled Over - The Internal Conflict of 1998-99
Extract from my memoirs.
In the intervening years since resigning and leaving the Solomons in July 1999 after having completed my two-year contract, many notable academics and writers have contributed...