Posted on: Tuesday, June 22, 2004

EDITORIAL
Pacific disaster summit an important gathering

To many, images of the South Pacific focus on idyllic scenes of palm trees, murmuring surf and happy residents sipping from coconuts as they relax in beachside hammocks.

And, frankly, there is some of that to be found.

But residents of the scattered nations of the Pacific know better than most that they are also part of the larger world, with its drumbeat of peril from natural disasters and the growing threat of international terrorism.

It is that second, troublesome scenario that drew delegates from 17 Pacific nations to an important summit on Sustainable Disaster Risk Management last week at the East-West Center.

Participants in the conference, co-sponsored by the University of Hawai'i's school of medicine, various federal offices and the University of Texas School of Public Health, gave participants a real-world look at threats and potential solutions for their nations.

The results of the summit will not simply end up on a shelf. A report summarizing the needs and threats to individual island nations will be completed and forwarded to an international United Nations disaster conference in Japan next year.

The conclusions reached by the Hawai'i conference must be taken seriously by the larger global community. For too long, the islands of the Pacific have been treated as paradises where trouble rarely happens.

That's unfair. The way to avoid trouble is to anticipate it.

And that's what the East-West Center conference was all about.