POWER PLAY KILLING PAPUA NEW GUINEANS


Papua New Guineans will today buy their newspapers to catch up on the news on the political developments in the Government. This is not surprising for politics affecting businesses, public services and, most importantly the lives of the ordinary people.

There are about six million people in this country, they live on top of high mountains, on rich fertile valleys, on the coast and on beautiful islands, scattered around this country. They speak over 800 languages, have different customs and traditions and they all live as one people since 16th September 1975.
It was on this day that young Michael Thomas Somare led a band of good Papua New Guineans to proclaim independence for this country and today – 35 years on, we have to ask how we have fared as a country.

Today. Cholera is ravaging Western Province, taking lives and send many to hospital while HIV/AIDS is spreading like a bush fire throughout the country. Tuberculosis is another major killer, sending up to 4000 to their graves every year while Malaria remains another major concern. These and other diseases threaten our people every day in a country, that is failing to provide the basic health care in the rural areas, where the bulk of our people live. In the hospitals throughout the country, there are many mothers in the cancer wards, waiting for death to descend on them because the hospitals they are in does not have any equipment for them to get treatment or they are too poor to fly to the Angau Memorial Hospital.

Just last week, a very bright young girl was brutally murdered in a village in the Western Highlands Province. She had just graduated from her Primary School and had picked up the dux in her grade but the promise of a bright future was cut short by a young man, who was under the influence of drug.

Young girls are becoming victims of violence in their own homes and at the hands of people whom they trust and the problem is not going away. Two days ago, right in front of the Post Courier head office, a young man was belting his wife, who was obviously in pain and no one lifted a hand to stop the man. Violence against our mothers and women remains a very serious concern in this country and despite efforts by various agencies; the men still think they are superior to their other half.

At this time of the year, the schools are closing for the Christmas break and students are going home for the holidays. While many will return to their schools next year to continue their education, there will be a good number that will remain in their homes, too young and with too little an education to do anything useful with their lives with what they have learnt.

And many of the young men, like the young man who under the influence of drugs, murdered the bright young girl in Western Highlands, will turn to drugs and alcohol because they are disillusioned with life. The cultivation and consumption of marijuana is growing at an alarming rate that the problems, according to the National Narcotics Bureau, is no longer a private matter but a development and economic issue.

These are just some of the many issues confronting our people today and these issues, relate to our rights as human beings. Today, as Papua New Guinea focus its attention on the politics being played in Waigani, the world celebrates International Human Rights Day.

From today through to Sunday, at the Port Moresby Arts Theater, the PNG Human Rights Film Festival kicks off and over the next three days, films on human rights issues will be shown to highlight the serious human rights abuse in this country.
It is expected that the film festival will draw hundreds of people in Port Moresby to the theater. It should be interesting to see if any of our political leaders will go there to keep abreast of what is happening in the real world.

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