The number is increasing. A high proportion are the educated generation and hold key employment posts where they can change policies and guidelines and influence a change in mindsets in their work place or community.
Papua New Guineans while abroad miraculously conform to the behavior expectations of the countries they are exposed to so well and adjust commonsensically. The discipline and behavior control while away from the motherland will leave many envious.
Such has been the exposure many modern generation Papua New Guineans have had. Some have even lived and worked or studied abroad for several years. However, upon returning to their motherland, they chose to absorb back into the careless and unregulated discriminative complaining quarrelling and gossiping life behavior at home. The normal selfish behavior patterns that exist across the nation lodges back in place. The simple courtesies such as dropping a rubbish bag correctly in the bin, allowing women or mothers and children onto public buses, or standing up to give up seats for the elderly is forgotten. Why do the exposed and know generation continue to allow the ill and undisciplined citizens ruin the international reputation of our motherland.
The population of Papua New Guineans that have had some international exposure have been steadily increasing. The exposed Papua New Guineans are also occupying job positions that empower them to make character and habitual changes for the better, but yet, they choose to remain silent and wait for someone else to do it. They just simple absorb back into the bad taste and way of living in PNG.
A family of four, couple and a boy about the age of 7 years and girl about the age of 9 were observed on the Cairns Esplanade on the 30th of December cooking a barbeque on the hot plate. The arrangement was perfect and disciplined. The kids went playing after their meal at the children play park while the parents rested after a thorough cleanup of the public cooking bay they used. After they left, a curious observation noted that the cleanup was thorough. After the food was cooked, it was all placed on the picnic table provided and the family sat on the picnic table and ate their meal. After the meal, all the rubbish were placed in the bin provided, and the family sat around leisurely, while the children went for a short play at the children play park on the esplanade. Before packing and leaving, they left the bench and picnic spot clean and ready for the next user.
Papua New Guineans are visual learners by nature. They have to live it to know it and appreciate it. Such is the case that, at Cairns airport on 04th December, where there was a long queue waiting to check into Air Niugini flight PX 93 for the journey to Port Moresby, a middle age family of 4, without appreciating a queue, waked straight onto the front and pushed their ticket in to be checked for the flight back to Port Moresby. The whole queue of passengers went quiet. The Australian PX staff, appreciated their business, but advised them to stand to the side and wait until the queue was served and cleared, or if they wished they could fall back and joined the queue before it grew longer.
In the 1900’s when Late Sir Anthony Siaguru was the Minister for State in his days in politics, he would often talk about developing a government program where villagers would through a government to government agreement send whole villagers to Australia and New Zealand where they would live there for 2 or 3 months and later return them to PNG. He wanted Papua New Guineans to live and experience the life other nationalities were living, so that they can appreciate and know why the people of other nations exist the way they do. Peaceful, appreciative, clean, respectful, courteous, polite, considerate, dutiful, refined, mannerly and most of all, appreciate the reasons for having an underlying Law that governs all citizens without fear or favour. The idea was rested because it was too expensive.
However, the exposed must make it their business to correct discourteousness, person by person, so that the society can change. To see discourtesies and do nothing is permissiveness...
This article appeared in the Post Courier
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