Matthew Lambourne, Mullumbimby
It is said that you can choose your friends but not your family. The small island states in the Pacific have just found that their family includes a bully who is prepared to trash their hopes for the future for his own perceived benefit.
Not all is lost though; their people can still benefit from picking the bully’s fruit, and maybe work in his sugar industry (that could be called Blackbirding 2.0), although what they are supposed to do when their own country has been drowned is not clear – perhaps they could all be sent to Manus.
Alternatively, they might, in the current terminology, ‘have a go’, and invite a friend to build them some new islands (China is quite good at that). Of course, China would want some return on their investment – maybe an island of their own on which they could station enough missiles to intercept shipping between Australia and the west coast of America. I wonder if the clowns in Canberra have thought of that?
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
