I'll let you know something else

about where I am coming from. I taught for many years in schools where I saw children bullied and left out of playtime and picked last for the team game and had their self esteem squashed out of them by bullies. They would sit by themselves. They might find a friend in a grade two classes below them. The most frustrating thing in teaching was to see the way bullies were able to get a whole class to deride one single child. I saw children wanting to invite others to a birthday party but the "team" put fear into any child who went. I saw children longing to be invited to a party but who were left off the invitation list. As a Father Christmas in a shopping centre once I had a girl tell me that all she wanted was a friend in school. No dolls, nothing. Just a friend in school. Being of a teaching background I got out of my Santa seat and spoke to the Mother. What could I say to that child, about 9 years old?
I wonder what these attitudes and values did to the children and how it affected them in later life. I still see loners and bullies. No man is an island. We are a social being and my dread is that community is becoming more isolating and more lonely for the individual members of the community. If one tries to set oneself up as an island or one tries to isolate another person, something will crack. We are not solitary. We do need each other. That is what I am seeing in PNG - how these people living in undeveloped conditions care for each other. That is why I am passionate about caring community in my own country.