The Volunteer Service Abroad scheme, which was originally designed to assist under-developed countries in the Pacific and South East-Asia, may have outlived its usefulness. The concept of Volunteer Service Abroad is becoming more a publicity stunt for some, while for others it is a cheap way of getting a trip overseas and a good holiday somewhere in the Pacific or South-East-Asia. It is similar to the Army where the prospect of a trip to Malayia and South-East Asia caused so many young people in the past to volunteer for service without first asking themselves whether the presence of New Zealand forces in Asia and Indo-China is or was justified.

In the Pacific, particularly in Western Samoa the V.S.A.'s, like their American counter parts are not welcomed with open arms anymore. After talking to numerous volunteers and locals in Samoa, one can only conclude that too many swollen headed volunteers are included in the quota N.Z. exports to these islands every year. With great ideals and full of enthusiasm with the concept of "us helping them; teaching them; freeing them from the bonds of their primitive cultures," many have little appreciation for the great part the culture plays in the Samoan's everyday life. And it is not unusual to find that many criticisms of the Samoan culture by volunteers stem mainly from the fact that the local culture does not conform to their New Zealand oriented way of thinking.

But of course members of the Volunteer Service Abroad Organisation will argue that the volunteers who go to Western Samoa do so as a result of requests by the Western Samoan Government. But there is a vast difference in being requested by the Government and being wanted by the people whom the volunteers will have to work with. Volunteers are not automatically accepted by the people simply because they are accepted by the Government.

No longer do the Samoans and many other Pacific Islanders view the scheme as a way of helping them. In the last few years, it has become quite apparent to the Samoans that the attitude prevailing amongst many volunteers is typical of that common to some of the early missionaries and other Europeans. Their mission was that of "Peace and assistance". The missionaries in their attempt to christianise the Samoans have left revealing scars in the culture and customs of the people. Similarly the forceful tactics employed by the European policy makers to have their policies — their so-called assistance — acceptable to the Samoans resulted in some unnecessary butchering. The prime example of this was the shooting of a greatly respected Samoan Leader and several other Samoan dignatories by the N.Z. navy on the 28th December, 1929 at Apia, while the former were staging a peaceful, unarmed demonstration, which has left an unhealed wound in many Samoan hearts.

Now the continual arrival of VSA's (and American Peace Corps, who have an even worse missionary attitude) and the lack of cultural consideration shown by many is slowly causing these wounds to bleed again.

What has VSA Done in Western Samoa

Most of the praise for the scheme has come from either the returned volunteers or people directly involved with promoting the scheme. Criticisms by the recipients of the scheme have been totally ignored or dismissed as emotional and detrimental to the aims of the Volunteer Service Abroad organisation.

While I am not claiming that the scheme has been totally useless in all parts of the Pacific, a lot of damage done and unnecessary costs have been incurred by the Samoan people. For example various projects have been abandoned or left incomplete by departing volunteers whose one or two year terms had expired. The incoming replacements did not agree with these projects and therefore did not continue them.

The Volunteer Service Abroad organisation should have realised by now that by continually trying to provide short-term solutions to long-term problems in countries like Samoa, is delaying any effort by the Samoan government to implement long-term solutions.

Wouldn't it be better for V.S.A. to collaborate with the Samoan government in assessing the need for qualified people, and then sponsor young Samoans to train in New Zealand in the professions and trades that are most needed? Such a scheme would be similar to the Colombo Plan. As there is a number of young unemployed Samoans with Form 6 education, whose only hope of employment is to immigrate to New Zealand, there would be no shortage of applicants.

However such a suggestion would be very difficult for V.S.A. to accept. Sponsoring Samoans to New Zealand for specialised training would be contrary to V.S.A.'s apparent philosophy, that "we have to go over there otherwise our assistance could not be publicly and internationally recognised". One only has to flick through some V.S.A. publications to notice the great importance placed on the increased number of volunteers leaving New Zealand year after year. And wouldn't it also be interesting to know how many of the numerous commercial firms listed as sponsors would have volunteered as such had the scheme not involved selling V.S.A. overseas?

School Leavers Picnic?

A fair number of volunteers leaving New Zealand every year are school leavers. These kids, having lived with their parents all their lives, and with no qualifications or experience (apart from U.E. and fluency in English) are expected to go out to the islands to teach. History has proven that for a long time the Samoans like other Polynesians have been the "problem", the target for study by European students. And now sending these school kids to Samoa as teachers implies that members of V.S.A. view the Samoan way of life as inferior and its standards as incorrect and in need of adjustment.

Furthermore, as stated earlier, there are already enough Samoans with good secondary education who are finding it difficult to get jobs. The continual arrival of these school-leaver volunteers to teach Form II & III General Science, Geography and Social Studies means the continual denial of jobs to the capable Samoans.

The volunteers have argued that the scheme is regarded as a type of ambassadorial system. Volunteers not only offer some of their knowledge to the Samoans but learn from them certain values which could be brought back to New Zealand. The irony of the argument is that there are already more than 20,000 Samoans living in N.Z. and it could hardly be said that there is a rising interest in Samoan values among New Zealanders.

Cheap Aid?

It is said that the V.S.A. scheme is voluntary and independent of the Government's foreign and educational aid. This sounds great. However the recipients of the scheme accept it as New Zealand aid, implying that it is government sponsored, and as such view it with disappointment as it is certainty a very cheap form of aid for any country to offer. Consequently the V.S.A. (and the Peace Corps especially) are now commonly referred to as "Ai Afu" — a term which generally means "parasites". This indicates the unpopular and tarnished image V.S.A. has in the Pacific Islands at present.

The arrogance of many volunteers does not end when their term expires. Back in New Zealand, the many Pacific Island people now residing here are finding it increasingly disturbing to discover that some of these volunteers have unofficially declared themselves authorities on Samoa, Fiji, Tonga etc, while others have assumed the right to speak for various island groups. Furthermore they even see fit to make strong and biased criticisms of the Government and the people of the islands who had shown so much tolerance for the attitude displayed by the volunteers.

A prime example of this was what happened in 1970. A research officer of the organisation Peter Gapes went to Samoa for a week and on his return wrote an article on Samoa in the 'Listener'. The article was not only filled with a lot of factual errors but just about every Samoan word therein was misspelt.

The Volunteer Service Abroad Organisation must understand that the volunteers they send out are only providing a short term solution to long term needs. The best way of helping to eradicate these long term problems would be to follow the same sort of scheme the Government is carrying out i.e. bring them out here and give them the necessary training.