from the National 18 Nov

"Bart’s home truths BART Philemon may not have been saying anything revolutionary when he addressed the 41st graduation at Busu Secondary school a week ago. Mr Philemon noted that public infrastructure had deteriorated so badly that government services no longer reached the people. He told his listeners that schools, aid posts and health centres, roads and bridges, police and prison services and general administration had collapsed, leaving people without any Government presence in the rural areas. It worsens with each passing year. Maintaining those facilities takes money. Sadly we have had a succession of past governments for whom income has meant the chance for flashy and often doomed investments. National income has been squandered on foolish projects that could never have succeeded. Huge amounts of money have been wasted on bread and circuses, on a kalaiescope of brilliant images as dazzling and as ephemeral as the flight of a bird of paradise. The people have trusted, and again and again, the people have been fooled. Our nation is littered with the incomplete shells of yesterday’s promised infrastructure, and with the ruins of projects whose origins lie far in the past. “I see poorly educated children and rundown buildings. I read news headlines everyday about fraud and corruption within our society. In urban centres like Lae, Port Moresby and Mt Hagen, I see the social effects of poverty expressed in crime and violence,” Mr Philemon said. "