Ann: Isabel Nickel Project - licencing update, page-219

Okay... but can you tell a tribal Pacific Island village dweller that?  Can you make him (or her, in a matrimonial society) UNDERSTAND what you're talking about?

Many Pacific Island villagers still KNOW that all white men have access to unlimited funds (I was told that in as many words myself, while I was up there), so the cost of the plant doesn't mean anything.  It can be solved with a few magic squiggles on a piece of paper.  Therefore, if Axiom won't go along with it for any reason, it MUST be for some devious personal benefit presumably known only to RM.  So, if he won't turn on the money tap he has access to, the savvy thing to do is to find someone else who will (white or yellow - it doesn't matter, because cargo comes in many forms and colours these days).  It's that fundamental, underlying belief that has been giving rise to various forms of cargo cult throughout the Pacific for more than ninety years. 

I personally think it would be a very desirable gesture of good faith to us if RM were to volunteer a personal pay cut of about 60% - at least until the mine is producing income - but don't underestimate the complexity of the quagmire he's operating in!  IF the issue really is only about installing, or not installing, a $100 million machine that they then won't have the electricity to run, don't expect the issue to be resolved without a LOT of talk-talk, involving a lot of people, which will have to cover a lot of subject matter that you or I might think completely irrelevant.  Not until community consensus is reached that NOBODY knows how to induce the cargo bird to fly in with the magic machine, can things start to move forward again.

Ganiga Joe Leahy's doomed coffee project in the PNG Highlands is an interesting case study in what I'm talking about here.