The capital Port Moresby has a fairly poor reputation,
\nin part deserved, but then, all large cities have their
\nproblems. Having said this, Port Moresby is not a large
\ncity, it is hard to really say where the centre is, as it
\nis small-ish but sprawling. There is a down town of a type
\nwhere there are a few multi storey buildings, including the
\ninfamous Deloittes building. Last year when I was there, I
\nread a newspaper account that said that this building had
\nbeen built three times. The first two times, the
\nconstruction was awarded to a firm who took the money and
\nwent bust. The final time, at hugely escalated costs, it
\nwas finally built and houses the few accountancy firms that
\nremain in Port Moresby and other businesses. Shell have
\noffices around the corner.<\/p>\n
This starts to highlight the real problem with PNG as a
\nwhole: crime, environmental degradation, corruption and
\ncronyism. There is a system called won tok, whereby your
\nwon toks do you a favour, such as getting you a job, and
\nthis holds you in their debt and you are expected to do
\nfavours for them. For example, if someone wrongs you or
\nyour family, you can call on your won toks to right the
\nwrong.<\/p>\n
And this brings me to discuss law and order. The
\npopulation of PNG is 4 million, and there are around 400
\npolice officers. The geography of the area is interesting.
\nOn the other half of New Guinea that is PNG, as opposed to
\nIndonesian, there is a large mountain range separating the
\nnorth from the south. There are no roads that connect the
\ntwo coasts. The interior is very mountainous and remote.
\nThere are a collection of outlying islands, including New
\nBritain, New Ireland, Bougainville and many smaller
\nislands. This geographical dispersion and the remote
\ninterior has resulted in many different tribes of people
\nand over 700 languages.<\/p>\n
Many people from the highlands and islands, unable to
\nmake ends meet, or ambitious for a better life migrate to
\nthe cities, such as Port Moresby, Lae, Kavieng seeking
\nwork. These people are referred to as settlers, and they
\nbuild their own houses from wood, corrugated iron, palm
\nleaves, plastic bags or sheeting etc and maybe cultivate a
\nlittle land by growing mangoes or coconuts etc. In Port
\nMoresby, there are many settlements which an outsider
\ncannot and should not go into. The nearest comparison I can
\nthink of are the shanty towns in Rio or the townships
\naround Johannesburg. They are self policing or completely
\nlawless, depending on which way you look at it.<\/p>\n
Over Christmas 2003, I was in Madang, a very pretty
\nnatural harbour town on the “main” land. The
\ngovernment had previously issued several warnings to the
\nsettlers there that they should leave and go back to their
\noriginal home land. Few settlers did leave. Over Christmas
\nit became real, and the police were deployed to forcibly
\nevict the settlers from their homes, by burning down their
\nhouses and chopping any cultivated trees down. It was a sad
\nsight. There were reports that the police were stealing
\npossessions from inside people’s homes before they set fire
\nto them. In Madang, many of the settlers had been there for
\nover 20 years, and the mood of the people I spoke to was
\nthat the government should have laid on some transport or
\nmeans of helping people to return to their original
\nhomeland. I since read a newspaper report that said that
\nthe PNG government had refused to allow the Red Cross to
\ndistribute aid to the displaced settlers. It was not a good
\ntime and I imagine is still on going. I know this happened
\nin provinces other than Madang.<\/p>\n
There is a small ex-pat population in Port Moresby and
\nthey live in compounds. I visited the Shell compound, and
\nwas quite taken aback by the security: double gates to get
\ninto the compound, razor wire all around, watch towers,
\nguards and guard dogs, electric fences and inside each of
\nthe 6 homes, huge sturdy rape gates on the top floor to
\nprevent entry into the bedrooms.<\/p>\n
The majority of expats are Australian and this is the
\nclosest sizeable country. Many companies have pulled out of
\nPNG as they say it is too difficult to do business there –
\nproblems with land title, bribery and corruption and high
\nlevels of crime.<\/p>\n
The Australian High Commission sits on a hill and the
\nhouses for their staff are right beside it, and look like
\nLego buildings. Locals call this compound “Shit
\nScared Alley”. I spoke to some of the Australian High
\nCommission staff and they said that they barely leave the
\ncompound. Car-jacking is common place, rape, sexual abuse
\nand incest are distressingly too common. All men own
\nmachetes. There did not seem to be too much of a gun
\nculture, but they certainly exist. AIDS is not a huge
\nproblem yet, but it is there. The female expats, mostly
\nwives of ex-pat workers are advised to be extremely careful
\nwhere they drive and not to fill up at petrol stations
\nalone for fear of being car-jacked. The modus operandi is
\nto rape a woman in front of her husband or son and make
\nthem watch. This was every ex-pat woman’s biggest
\nfear and I sensed a huge feeling of vulnerability.<\/p>\n
This probably paints a fairly grim picture of Port
\nMoresby, but it is at least realistic. I stayed there a
\nweek by myself in Christmas of 2002. I stayed at the Magila
\nHotel which was cheap, friendly, clean and safe. It was a
\nfairly transient sort of place, and not in a good part of
\ntown, being in Six Mile – called Six Mile because it is 6
\nmiles from the centre. The motel is surrounded by razor
\nbarbed wire and has a watch tower and 24 hour guards –
\ncommon for Port Moresby. I did not go outside the motel at
\nnight on foot – you really don’t walk anywhere in Port
\nMoresby, but I did go by car with friends I made, into town
\nand had meals there etc.<\/p>\n
Everyone I met was friendly, polite, interested in why I
\nwas in PNG and I have never encountered any problems
\nmyself. The diving in Port Moresby is excellent and there
\nare 2 dive facilities – PNG Dive, where I was, and a
\nresort, the Loloata resort. There are 2 places where
\nex-pats go: the Yacht Club, with good views, a cheap bar
\nand decent food, but predominantly frequented by ex-pats,
\nand there is another place where ex-pats married to local
\nwomen tend to go. Rather uncharitably, a friend of mine
\nsaid you could always tell who would go there because they
\nhave a red nose through drinking too much.<\/p>\n
There isn’t a huge amount to do in Port Moresby and I
\nwould not recommend it to the visitor other than to dive.
\nThere is an interesting designed Houses of Parliament, and
\nmy favourite place is PNG Arts. It is a large shop that
\nsells handicrafts made by people from all over PNG, from
\nthe river Sepik where the work depicts spirits in the form
\nof crocodiles, from the islands and from the highlands. I
\nlove it there and have spent many an afternoon browsing
\naround the masks, ceremonial daggers, tables, wooden
\ncrocodiles and yes, they do make penis gourd holders – the
\nshop told me that the Japanese are the largest customers of
\nthese! The people who work there are great (especially Ken,
\nthe Canadian who went to PNG as a bet in the 1960s) and the
\nman who owns it is local. They can tell you who made the
\nartefact you are interested in and can ship direct to your
\nhome country. I did this last year and had 2 crates sent
\nback to London – it took 5 months to arrive, but it did
\narrive!<\/p>\n
Infrastructure in Port Moresby is better than it used to
\nbe. Many of the roads have been repaired – in December 2002
\nwhen I was first there, there were huge craters throughout
\nall of the roads which created small mini roads around
\nthem! Taxis are very expensive and you need to make sure
\nthat the driver knows exactly where you want to go.
\nElectricity is mostly on although the water is not safe to
\ndrink from the tap, bottled water is widely available. If
\nyou need to stay over in transit, the Airways hotel is
\npretty good, and you can get a free transfer from both the
\ndomestic and international airport as they meet every
\nflight, even if you don’t stay and just want to have lunch
\nor dinner there or sit by the pool. It has a nice green
\nsetting, overlooking the airport, 5 minutes drive away on a
\nhill and they do good food.<\/p>\n
Bride price is still paid by many people. One man I met
\nwho helped with the dive operation I was at last year told
\nme how much he paid in bride price for his wife. It seemed
\nlike an awful lot (won toks are expected to chip in as well
\nas the entire family) and I said jokingly that his wife
\nmust be a princess. He solemnly replied that yes, she was a
\nprincess.<\/p>\n
Once you get outside Port Moresby then you can then
\nappreciate the true beauty of the country and the
\nfriendliness of its people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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