PNG's corruption reflects 1604 Englands InJustice.

Measure for Measure is one of Shakespeare’s dramas that were written during the time; the royals were interpreting the law from a literal sense and troubling the lives of the people (1604). Royal was forcing people to live the law yet the authority itself was linked with the criminal world. England during that time went into fragmentation of the society (class system). Aristocracy was isolated from the ordinary citizens:  Young Novice Isabella in the drama represents the people of England who were forced into doing things involuntarily.  The authority never realized that the people had dignity too and they deserved respect from the government.

The drama “measure for measure” depicted corruption in the government in the form of fornication and sex. The underlying theme of the drama is the issue of injustice.

The paragraph which I would like to analyze and compare to Papua New Guinea’s situation today, economically, socially and politically reads and I quote

“Of the government the properties to unfold

Would seem in me t’ affect speech and discourse,

Since I am put to know that your own science

Exceeds, in that, the list of all advice

My strength can give you

Economically, the government of the day is saying that we are doing mining and all the economical developments for the people to reap the benefits in full.  But is it true that the people are reaping the benefits?  Ramu Nickel Mining in Madang province was created by the government of PNG with the Chinese government and has never benefited the people of Ramu. Rather it is costing the heath of the indigenous people by the gromium which is dumped out in quantity by the company (http://ramumine.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/mcc-spillover-at-ramu-mine-site/).  PNG cannot create wealth without strategizing on how the wealth will be distributed fairly. Already Papua New Guinea has fallen into using the Rostow Linear Model whereby the poor resource owners will have to supply the resources they have to the rich at a very cheap price. The rich will than sell it to the poor at the high price hardly afforded by the poor. If the economy of the country is okay, then upon what grounds is PNG continuously borrowing money for the foreigners?  At the ended of the day the gap between the rich and the poor is widening.  Capitalism boldly demonstrated in the drama is present in PNG to. The government leaders are the ones who have a lot of money compare to the ordinary citizens. Most of the benefits of the mining are paid to the bureaucrats; not the people.

Papua New Guinea is constitutionally an independent state. It was declared independent on the 16^th of September 1975. Now the question to ask is “Isn’t PNG over doing the political aspect of its government when suppressing its citizens?”  Politically the interpretation of the law is not done in a way to discipline the leaders or the situation, rather to protect the white collar criminals. They are the government leaders of course. Laws of the country should not be interpreted from a literal sense rather in a way to address the situational challenge. Politically Papua New Guinea is independent, yet we have the politicians who have got terrible attitude problems thus that is making us rely on foreigners for political advice.  They give a lot of advices but their actions hardly reconciles with what they preach to the people. Politics according to Papua New Guineans is something that is regionalized. The reason as to why that political practice is strong will be explained in detailed in the social aspect of the write-up.

Socially, Papua New Guinea is a country that has people with over 870 languages.  Language is a very important part of culture.  As Pearson (1986) positioned

“our perception of the world is closely linked to our language and language serves to shape the way we perceive reality”

In the cause of Shakespeare’s drama he mentions about the suppression of people of urban society of England who speak the same language I suppose. If you look carefully into the context of Papua New Guinea, That is not the case. I am confident that suppression by the people to its citizens is even worse; because Nepotism is very strong in PNG. How can a Prime Minister from a different region treat the people of another region with respect if social negligence is said to be an issue in England during Elizabethan era?

Obviously, social exclusion is an issue in our country and even in the families too.

References: 

·         Alexander .P (1951) Shakespeare play: measure for measure , William Collins Sons and Company limited: England

·         Matbob. L (2007) The Negative form of Socialization , Divine Word University: Madang

·          http://ramumine.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/mcc-spillover-at-ramu-mine-site/ (Retrieved: 9.28am Date 22/07/2013) 

Panguna Peace Building Strategy


It is interesting to see that out of nowhere Bougainville government, the Panguna landowners and the ausaid (no sure if its really you?) came about with the strategy to build unity, make peace and reconciliation in Bougainville. This is only a thought that made me wanted to write this article to ask anybody to help me find answer to my question.

"Why did the government came up with this initiative to reconcile Bougainville alongside the talk on the re-opening of the mine? "

First of all the government did not prioritized reconciliation in Bougainville. Although people were talking about it but it was not that strong. It was only the church who tried it best to carry out reconcilation in Bougainville, not even the current Bougainville government president was interested although he is said to be a Bougainvillean. Now with the strategy which came about as a fairy tale (unbelievable indeed) the contracted team are earning K200 per day just to go into the villages trying to mediate between the divided faction. There are church based organizations established already who can be engaged by the government. Empowering already established organizations is better than anything because it is less costly.

It is very much interesting to see money been pumped in Bougainville like no-body's business.I am very much interested to know if that money is really coming from the tax payers of Australia or there is someone  playing games from the back with motives no-human would know.

Reconciliation in Bougainville will take over 50 years (Pat Howly). The reason is because a post traumatic region like Bougainville went through a lot of dreadful experiences. Thus, it does not need a fast tracked strategy because dealing with a single human person is the most difficult thing to do. Over 25 000 people died in the Bougainville issue and imagine how many were left traumatized? The government cannot push for reconciliation and unity after all using money as the peace making tool. Coming from a victim's point of view i can say that only an idiot will fall for money and deny the blood of his or her own flesh that was laid in the war in the name of justice. And it is justice that i want to see prevailing in Bougainville, not the second conflict. By the way Bougainville is going the future is not known.

The constitution of course is not inclusive, let you be reminded. The constitution is a denial for the victims and a victory to the warlords. So many loopholes there are in the constitution. Yet the Bougainville issue is said to be a Bougainville peoples' issue. In reality it is not, s in Bougainville where do we the victims belong? I would be very much thankful if somebody can answer this question for me..

Capitalist Developmental Model.

                                                 Rostow Linear Stages Model

Rostow Model is a developmental model that serves to achieve modernity on the stance that all nations should pass through the same process. This review will first define the model itself, then it will discuss the pros and cons of the developmental model, critic the model depending on the advantages and disadvantages of the model and lastly I will do recommendations on the model taking into consideration the context of Papua New Guinea. Development according to Rostow comes from the outside and not from within as taught by philosophy, where it says in order to develop you have to know yourself first.

Firstly , according to the geographical encyclopedia the Rostow model refers to the process of modernity which reflects the human growth which means it is one way through. The development is classified according to three sectors, namely primary which is comprised of agricultural activity, secondary which refers to the processing stage and tertiary which reflects the industrialized countries. The motivation to division or categorizing a country as first world, second world and third world emerged as a result of these developmental model. And it has the following stages; the traditional societies, pre-condition to take off and the high consumption stage.

The pros of this model if you look critically at it, it does have any relevance to PNG. That is if you look at it from a PNG citizen’s point of view. Otherwise its cons are as follows;  it is a capitalist oriented model, intended to create market for the first world countries in the third world countries like PNG, it widens the gap between the rich and the poor, supports the independent thinkers way of life and not PNG which is a communal society. Further research i made have shown not a single pro of this model in use by us in PNG.

Now, the critical questions to ask ourselves now is, “Is this economic model practiced in PNG? How helpful is it in our country? And where is this model leading Papua New Guinea towards?

Papua New Guinea is practicing this model of development. We export our raw materials outside of the country thinking that we will earn a lot from exports. Thus the peripheral nations we are supplying the core or the developed nations with the resources to make them become even more powerful. We do not even think of bringing downstream processing into the country to help us develop ourselves. Papua New Guineans we are resource rich yet we rely on exporting resources out of the country. Personally I can say that PNG is heading towards the wrong direction that will make us become a poor nation. Mining seems to be mushrooming everywhere. The reason I believe is because PNG doesn't have law protecting the resources we have.

Rustow Linear Stages model is a capitalist model. In other words the model is not applicable in our country because it does not help to build us, rather it empties us. We then turn to them again for aid, without realizing that the money they aid the developing countries comes from us. We create the wealth for the developed countries and then we depend on them again. We are also trained to think and act like capitalists that’s why we create dependency syndrome for ourselves. Well i believe that if the elites now can realize our education system is designed in a way to make us think and act as capitalists. That is the whole reason why when degree holders graduate they apply for jobs rather than creating jobs for the others.

This reviews take home message is, the currently developed countries developed by colonizing the resource rich territories that are primitive according to the westerners economic scale. So what undiscovered territory will PNG depend on to develop itself, if this model is about following one way process and applicable to us?