Early in the week the Prime Minister addressed both resident (stationed in Kingston) and non-resident Ambassadors. The Prime Minister outlined the key challenges for her government, which remain economic (a high debt to GDP ratio) and social (youth unemployment and crime). There are few countries in the world right now that are not touched by economic challenges and Jamaica’s are significant. The Prime Minister noted that upcoming negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were a key preoccupation for her administration, the difficulty being how to put the fiscal situation on a more sustainable footing while not tipping more people into poverty or raising unemployment.

With every Minister I spoke to it was clear that whatever their portfolio, the economic agenda was front and centre; without economic momentum the wider social challenges become all the more intractable. New Zealand is broadly similar in population to Jamaica (we are 4.4 million compared to their 2.8) and our economic profile, as a developed country, is similar in many respects to Jamaica. Tourism and primary production are key drivers of both of our economies. It was our management in New Zealand of those two drivers which most interested the Ministers with whom I met. The price of energy is also a major impost on growth in Jamaica as oil is the main source of generation. While New Zealand is less reliant on fossil fuels, we share similar hurdles on delivery systems in a small market. There is scope for collaborative work in some of these areas and I will be following up.

An area where New Zealand and Jamaica already work together is in the multilateral arena, especially at the United Nations. In his address to the diplomatic corps, Foreign Minister AJ Nicholson highlighted the importance of multilateral institutions to smaller countries. That part of his address could have been a facsimile of something from his New Zealand counterpart. I was able to follow up this theme with the Minister when we met one-on-one later in the week. Climate Change was a significant part of our conversation, a shared concern, but one where our respective regions of the South Pacific and the Caribbean share a common vulnerability. And it is in areas such as this where globally brokered solutions, with engagement from all nations, highlight the importance of the United Nations.

No conversation in Jamaica is complete without mention of sport. The New Zealand Cricket Team, the Black Caps, will be touring the Caribbean later this year (starting 28 June) and will be playing a test at Sabina Park in Kingston. For such sports loving nations, our cricketers and netballers are often our countries’ greatest Ambassadors. I am happy to concede the men’s 100 metre event at the London Olympics (Usain Bolt’s speciality event) as long as we get a decent run in the cricket.

What on earth is that, you may ask?

For those of you, who, like me, aren’t scientists, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is the name for what will be, once built, the largest radio telescope ever devised.

Thousands of individual high-tech receivers (15 metre dishes) will be linked together across a continent, giving the SKA a discovery potential 10,000 times greater than the best instruments today. By capturing the faintest possible signals from distant objects in space, the SKA will help us to see further into the cosmos – and further back in time – than ever before, enabling us to explore questions such as whether there is life elsewhere in the universe, what happened after the big bang, and whether Einstein’s theory of general relativity is the last word on gravity? In short, “life, the universe and everything” (is the answer really “42” as Douglas Adams would have us believe?!)

Development of the SKA has been the product of international collaboration between institutions from 20 countries, including Australia and New Zealand and countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas – Canada has been represented by the NRC and the University of Calgary. This collaboration culminated in the creation of the SKA Organisation in November 2011.

Australia – New Zealand is one of two sites the international astronomy community has identified as a suitable location for the SKA.  The Australia – New Zealand site has many advantages, including a naturally radio‑quiet core site in the Australian Outback, protected by a 520 km diameter radio-quiet zone. Nowhere else in the world is such a vast area regulated for radio‑quietness. By linking the core site to additional receivers in New Zealand, the long baseline crucial to the SKA design can be extended to over 5000km – well above basic specifications. You can find out more about the SKA and the Australia – New Zealand bid online at www.ska.gov.au. A decision by the SKA Organisation Founding Board on the site is expected in the first half of 2012.

Artist’s impression of dishes that will make up the Square Kilometre Array. Credit: Swinburne Astronomy Productions/SKA Program Development Office.

Our meeting with the NRC got me thinking about “Big Science” – that is projects of global significance that require the efforts (and funds) of more than one or two countries to bring into being. In times of fiscal constraint, when governments around the world are focussed on balancing the books each budget cycle, the case for projects like the SKA needs to be made in a way that speaks to those concerns. The SKA is an ambitious, once in a generation project, with profound implications for humanity, but it will also help drive innovation in various disciplines, including green energy, data processing, communications and systems engineering. Designing the telescope itself will require technological developments in computing, communications and radio frequency devices, all of which are likely to have innovative potential outside the SKA.

Finally, the SKA will open up opportunities for international collaboration in science, technology, engineering and learning. On this last note, I’m looking forward to the visit of our Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, to Canada next month as the inaugural Canadian Prime Minister’s Fellow.  Sir Peter is one of New Zealand’s best known medical scientists and the author of over 500 scientific papers. He is also a strong advocate for science and innovation as a pathway to economic prosperity.  New Zealand and Canada share many views in this area and face similar challenges; I think we have a lot to offer each other.

coastal walkway

Coastal walkway (footbridge in distance)

Coastal walkway footbridge

 After a while away from the area in which I grew up, it is with refreshed eyes that I view what the locals, while appreciating their good fortune, probably take a little for granted.  As I headed up hill away from my Mum’s place it was the intense green of the pasture, which is largely aseasonal, that stood out; fifty cows in one paddock, apparently luxuriating in what was growing up underneath them, almost as fast as they could eat it.  A couple of kilometres further, my pulse now rising with the incline, a herd was heading back out from morning milking. 

Cows in pasture

Cows heading back out after morning milking

The top of my journey reached I started to cut across heartland dairy country.  Its been that way for over a hundred years.  The dairy industry though is a classic example of a combination of both continuity and change.   The continuity is the interface between the fundamental environmental attributes that makes my home province such a wonderful place to produce milk: sun, rain, soil, warmth; and the animal husbandry of the farming community.  The family farm continues to be the core basis of dairying in Taranaki.  Farms have grown larger, taking advantage of scale, and a practical accomodation of the reality that not every son or daughter of a dairy farmer wants to follow in the family footseps. 

The most striking element of change for me is less the farm amalgamation, rather the downstream processing and exporting of what leaves the farm gate as milk and ends up all over the world in many many different forms.   The small towns that ring the mountain 10-20 kilometres apart grew as service centres in the late 19th and early 20th century; each one had a dairy factory, they processed milk for local consumption and were the starting point for production and export of butter and cheese.  That is where change has been greatest.  The science of milk has grown phenomenally over the past 30-40 years.  The New Zealand dairy industry still exports butter and cheese, but that scientific advance has meant that milk powder, baby formula, protein products, and component products going into an ever increasing range of foods require scale and capital investment.  Those small dairy factories are no longer running and have been collectively replaced by a major processing plant in Hawera (about 50 miles from New Plymouth). 

Frankley Road Cooperative Dairy Co Ltd

It is that variety of produce, combined with the growing demand for quality proteins across the globe, especially in Asia, that is driving high commodity prices, happy farmers in Taranaki, and a wider community that derives much of its livelihood from servicing the industry. 

All that said, there is one thing I have to do when I hit the 3 kilometres-to-go mark of my ride.  The New Zealand equivalent of a corner store or 7/11 is, appropriately enough, called a dairy.  The Iona dairy is legendary for its ice creams, both with regard to size and variety of flavours.  My daily constitutional any time I am in Taranaki is a double scoop boysenberry ripple.  100 per cent full cream milk. 

Iona dairy

I had heard good things about the previous two, and that, along with fora like the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore and the Berlin Security Conference, Halifax was becoming one of those “must attend” events for those wanting to immerse themselves for a couple of days in the key security challenges of our time.

Given the heavyweights on the speaking list, which included US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta; Senators John McCain and Mark Udall; Canada’s Defence Minister Peter Mackay, and Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak, the Forum itself was a relatively intimate affair in that delegate numbers topped out at about 250. This meant that with very skilled moderators, the predominantly panel format was able to get the best out of those on stage while drawing the delegates into a genuine discussion.

What was glaringly obvious was that when the conference was held last year no-one had heard of or was even close to prophesying the “Arab Spring”.  That such a room of experts, across the fields of politics, diplomacy, academia, NGOs and military had so comprehensively missed this potential, it was not surprising that there was little appetite for speculation as to either what would happen next (at the time of the conference most focus was on Syria and increasing pressure on the regime by the Arab League) or how the various changes in the likes of Tunisia, Libya and Egypt would bed down.

The word “complexity” was the one I heard more than any other. For me complexity tends to mean that something might be hard to understand but ultimately there is some sort of pattern, rhythm or underlying logic to what you see happening. There were many Middle East experts in the room (me not being one of them) but I didn’t discern much clarity as they tried to identify such patterns.

 Notes from a large continent

 I was lucky enough to begin my posting in Canada with a three month exchange assignment at Canadian Foreign Affairs. Far from being the culture shock you might expect from working in a different country at a different organisation, it in fact showed just how similar we are.

Like Kiwis, Canadians are warm, friendly and welcoming, with a certain tendency towards being unnecessarily apologetic about and overly interested in our larger neighbours. We have a similar outlook on life, with a love of the outdoors featuring highly in the psyches of both countries. In parts of Canada you can even replace the Kiwi “eh” at the end of a sentence with “hey”. We may choose different sports, but Canadian hockey fans are every bit as fervent as their New Zealand rugby counterparts.

I admit I am only slowly being won over to the “double-double” (for the uninitiated, this is a filter coffee with two sugars and two creams preferably ordered at Canada’s iconic coffee and doughnut chain Tim Horton’s) but hey, it’s cultural, and let’s be honest, pavlova isn’t for everyone either…unless it’s made by a true expert like my Nana.

In foreign and trade policy, many of the same issues occupy our thoughts. These range from how we can improve our market access in Asia to how to diversify our economies and move up the value chain, to what our position should be on international issues of importance, such as the future direction of the Commonwealth, or Palestine’s application for membership of the United Nations.This is just to name a few that were current during my assignment.

 But there are differences. The two to make the biggest impression on me in my first few months here are Canada’s size and relative wealth. (Ask me in a few months and it might be the weather!)

 Canada is vast with a capital “V”. New Zealand’s land area is just a quarter of the size of Canada’s most-populous (though only fourth-largest) province, Ontario. While there are clearly many benefits to size, it does add complications. Responsibility for policy areas of international relevance is often split between the federal and provincial governments, making even small changes challenging at times. Canada’s size and diversity also magnify the potential for conflicts between the different interests that all governments must manage.

 While it’s easy to overlook in these times of fiscal constraint, Canada is one of the world’s wealthiest countries. According to recent IMF figures, its GDP per capita is one and a half times New Zealand’s. And, like Australia, the “lucky” country across the ditch, Canada has extensive mineral resources that other countries continue to need.

New Zealand has its own advantages, particularly in the agricultural and tourism sectors. We need to continue harnessing these foundations of our economy while further developing our innovative side. As for Canada, science, technology and innovation will play a key role in our future prosperity. These are some of the issues I will be working on while I’m here.

 We’re not doing too badly. Earlier this year, New Zealand was ranked No. 2 in the Forbes’ list of best places to do business, second only to Canada. Not a bad result?

Andrew Needs (centre left) with CFRA members Warren Erhart (Chairman), Garth Whyte (President) and Mark von Schellwitz (VP Western Canada)

There has been some lively debate in the media in Canada over the last couple of weeks, the result of the “Free Your Milk” campaign by the Canadian Restaurant and Food Association (http://freeyourmilk.ca , www.facebook.com/FreeYourMilk ). The campaign has brought to public attention their concerns over the Canadian system of supply management, which, among other things, regulates the production, supply and price of dairy produce in Canada. The supply management system, and more particularly the tariff barriers erected to maintain its integrity, restrict imports of many competitively priced New Zealand dairy products into Canada.

The CRFA has a membership of 30,000 across Canada, including restaurants, bars, cafeterias, coffee shops and caterers. Together the Canadian foodservices industry generates $60 billion in annual sales and accounts for 6.4% of total employment. The membership as a whole is a huge consumer of dairy products, right down to the cheese on the millions of pizzas consumed every year in Canada. As food industry businesses, the membership of the CRFA has a strong interest in delivering quality produce at competitive prices. Fail in that and your business will struggle. From their perspective, a food business’s ability to source quality ingredients from a variety of potential suppliers, be they local, national or international, is fundamental to their success.

Andrew Needs (centre left) with CFRA members Warren Erhart (Chairman), Garth Whyte (President) and Mark von Schellwitz (VP Western Canada)

This weekend’s version was good for New Zealand.  Globe wine writer Beppi Crossariol has run a number of New Zealand wine related pieces in recent months.  This one, however, managed to incorporate wine, food and culture.  I am providing the link so you can check it out for yourselves.  I was particularly pleased to see how much of a fan Beppi has become of our reds.  He clearly considers that our winemakers’ technical abilities, combined with the terroir (French term to denote the special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of a particular locale bestow on a variety of grape), make both red and white wines from New Zealand truly world class. 

As a demonstration of this, at the prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards in London, New Zealand wines recently won two international trophies, 15 gold medals and 88 silver medals. 

Canada is already an excellent market for New Zealand wine, with regular year on year growth.  Over the next two to three years, I am expecting to see considerably increased interest in New Zealand reds (currently less than 10 percent of total New Zealand sales into Canada).   This will be achieved through a combination of factors. These include word of mouth as  Canadians, including those 50,000 who visit New Zealand each year, discover the quality of our wines;  the due diligence of Canadian wine wholesalers, with their knowledgeable buyers who match up quality and price; the promotion efforts of the New Zealand Wine Growers; and ongoing media coverage.

Where I have, until now, been stymied, is in my desire to have some representation of the New Zealand dairy industry during functions. The challenge is that there is very little New Zealand dairy produce in Canadian shops. In order to protect the Canadian domestic dairy industry, tariffs placed on New Zealand products are very high, as much as 300 percent in some cases. While New Zealand dairy farmers are incredibly efficient, even they are hard pressed to find profitability when the levels of protection are so high.

 I was fortunate last week, however, to lay my hands on some good old New Zealand Cheddar courtesy of a friendly supplier, who was able to courier me some as a “sample”. That sample turned out to be something that left the traditional Kiwi one kilo block of cheddar well and truly in the dust (see photo below). My next task will be to work out how to ensure good enough storage conditions so this generous sized block can continue catering for official events well into 2012 and beyond.

The Big Cheese with Andrew Needs

Rugby in Canada remains very much a niche or boutique sport compared to hockey and even baseball and Canadian football.  Don’t tell that to Team Canada as they prepare for their final pool match against the New Zealand All Blacks this weekend (1 October). 

After having beaten Tonga, lost to France and drawn 23-23 with Japan, Canada, I think, still has a mathematical possibility of making the quarter finals.  That requires other games to go a certain way and Canada to beat New Zealand.  That last ask is a very big one, but I certainly wish Canada well.  Given the 10:30 pm (Eastern Time) I plan to head into down town Ottawa to take in the game at one of the rugby supporting pubs.  I have both an All Blacks and Rugby Canada jersey  so will go with a shirt for each half.

Andrew Needs meets with the Red Cross in St Vincent and the Grenadines following NZ funding for a "Safer Roofs" Project.

With web access to so much material these days, you can prep up pretty well before arriving in a new country.  But the reality is that Wikipedia doesn’t give you the humidity count, the traffic noise, the afternoon downpour and thunderstorm or the ride into town from the airport that can often be so illuminating. These islands are the three southern-most of the sub-regional grouping known as the OECS, the Organisation for Eastern Caribbean States.  I spent a day in each of these small island states last week.  While these are the genuinely small states of the Caribbean (they are generally less than a tenth the size of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and even smaller compared to Haiti or Cuba), they are in many ways ready reference points when comparing the Caribbean and the Pacific.  St Lucia’s population is around 160,000; Grenada’s 110,000 and St Vincent and the Grenadines’ 104,000.   With the exception of Papua New Guinea, a relative mega state at around 7 million, most Pacific islands are of a comparable scale to the OECS members I visited (eg Tonga 100,000; Vanuatu 224,000; Western Samoa 180,000; Kiribati 100,000).
 
The conversations I had during my visits around the challenges of small island developing states also resonated strongly with me and my personal experiences of two previous assignments in the Pacific.  While those assignments (Cook Island 1991-93 and Fiji 1995-97) are getting on for a generation ago now, the reality is that many of the key developmental challenges don’t change that quickly.  On the domestic policy front, education, youth unemployment and job creation were central in conversations I had with Ministers and senior officials.  This issue then flowed into how agriculture, tourism and resource extraction could play a role in addressing those key social challenges.   On global issues, I wasn’t surprised to find that climate change was the dominant concern.  All of this felt very familiar when compared to the Pacific, including climate change concerns.  Although the primary impacts are not identical.  While both regions are facing the threats of changing and more severe weather patterns, it is the small and low-lying states of the Pacific where sea level rise poses the most devastating and existential threat.
 
It is around these challenges and the common cause in addressing these where the Caribbean and Pacific can do more together, both with regard to policy and practical measures but also collective engagement in the multilateral sphere, including the Commonwealth, and in the United Nations, where much of the global response to, for example, climate change, is being brokered.