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It is pathetic to see people like Kondervan to hide behind pen name and write out of context in support of others to advocate for a view that is narrow, regressive and ill conceived. Kondervan argues that betel nut sellers are "lazy" and therefore "migrate" to urban areas to make ends meet. As a result cash crops are diminishing. He also define development as regressing into subsistence living. My article neither condone nor support betel nut selling but challenges those who call for a total ban on betel nut to provide alternative income earning opportunities for betel nut sellers to diversify from. I argued in my earlier article that restrictive rules would not work because people out of necessity would always defy reasons, logics and restrictive rules. It is a survival issue that is at stake. The struggle for survival becomes more apparent with the increase in population, increase in the number of unemployed school leavers and limited opportunities for formal employment. Is there a need for political decisions to provide hope for the hopeless? I totally oppose the ill conceived idea that betel nut sellers are lazy. Betel nut trade involves a lot of courage, perseverance and commitment. Betel nut traders brave the cold weather, stood against the heat of the sun and even harassment, travel long and tiring distance that is often risky. Mr Kondervan should relate this well to your own people as a good case in point. Betel nut sellers from Western Highlands, both men and women would take a PMV bus from Mt Hagen all the way to Madang and again hire a boat from Madang to outer Karkar Island and return just for betel nuts. Is it not risky, time consuming and involve great odds? They spend days to buy buai to sell in order to earn a dignified living instead of resorting to crime and prostitution. From the income generated from the sale of buai, they pay school fees for their children, pay medical bills, meet social obligations, place food on the table, clothing for the family etc. Can you brand them as lazy? Western Highlands have fertile valleys to cultivate unlike other rugged terrains in the highlands, why do other Western Highlanders resort to selling betel nut? You must have been blind, if you do not see your own uncles and aunties doing it. Call them lazy and they will spew betel nut onto your face. In my article that you criticized, I argued that multiple external factors influenced urban migration such as rapid urban development at the expense of the rural, deteriorating and appalling road and transport infrastructure with poor basic services, lack of consistent income earning opportunities for the rural majority coupled with lack of political leadership and appropriate policies and program interventions to empower and enhance the livelihood of the rural majority. And I conclude that if our MPs are inconsiderate of these pressing national issues and yet becoming richer and richer overnight at the expense of the poor suffering majority, I consider it as an offence against humanity. Is it not a matter of principle? Mr. Kondervan, you sound so hypocritical with a naive world view of development and still living in a dreaming world. Therefore you failed to realise that PNG had progressed, changed, evolved and improved from Stone Age to jet and computer age. We are progressing and not regressing. PNG is part of the global village. What happens globally, affects us locally. The changes are here to stay and there is no way we can regress to the period of the bygone days. We are transiting from traditional subsistence economy to modern cash economy, which is one aspect of development where your "sweat, blistered hands and bountiful harvest" can be translated into cash to buy what your subsistence economy cannot produce so that you can "eat well" and "live healthier and happier". You forgot that you are no longer using stone axe and digging stick today. But how these changes translate into improving the live of the majority is nothing sexy but political. John Varey Port Moresby |
LETTERS
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