Dr Ronald J May is an emeritus fellow at the Australian National University.  Earlier in his career he was senior economist with the Reserve Bank of Australia, field director of the ANU’s New Guinea Research Unit, and foundation director of what is now the National Research Institute (NRI) in Papua New Guinea. On retiring in 2005, he served as research adviser to the NRI (under AusAID’s Advisory Support Facility) until 2008 and he continues work on and in Papua New Guinea. He has published extensively on Melanesia and on Southeast Asia (particularly the Philippines and West Papua).