outback to jungle

Musings on experiences of volunteering in Papua New Guinea with some gratuitous domestic social and public comment

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

David came with me on Saturday morning

He's one of the PNG guys, very quiet and assuming and modest like most people here and something about correct enrolment for the elections next year came over the radio. I asked David if he was correctly enrolled and he replied so unemphatically and unassertively that no he wasn't going to vote. I expressed surprise and he equally as unassertively said that he had vowed to never vote while corruption was so rife. " Those politicians spend K200 000 like we spend K2," was all he said.

People are not stupid so why they are treated as being stupid by the greedy and corrupt ones makes their crimes all the more abhorrent. One politician promised to pay the school fees of students at a high school at his electorate. Another promised a large sum to the new Salvation Army school (not yet received - promise now 2 years old). It is common practice for politicians to donate an ambulance or police or rubbish collecting vehicle and have "This vehicle donated by X, Member for Y" painted on the side.

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