RIDICULOUS PAYRISES, HIGH INFANT MORTALITY AND CHOLERA
BY SCOTT WAIDE It was election year in 2002 when campaign efforts were at their peak. I arrived at a school in the Tekin Valley in remote Oksapin in the Sandaun province after a 6 hour trek though the jungle. The rain had just ended when I began an interview with a local teacher. He was one of the few government representatives in this very isolated part of Papua New Guinea. The only government aid post in his village had closed down a few years ago. The orderly left for the provincial capital of Vanimo and never returned. I wanted to know about infant and maternal mortality rates. At the time the teacher was the only person available who could give me a fair analysis of the situation. Having come from Port Moresby where one relies on easily accessible and “reliable” statistics, I got straight into asking a series of questions trying to establish the number of mothers and children who had died in the last 12 months. “We really don’t know.” He said. “We only k