| Business |
A Success Story
HARLYNE JOKU
reviews a book written by Governor General Sir Paulias Matane to
be launched tomorrow, to commemorate Sir Paulias and Lady
Kaludia's golden wedding anniversary.
Success stories of marriages are few,
tales of divorces and broken relationships, it seems, abound.
Today young marriages easily fall apart, young couples find the
task of marriage hard to bear and quit, leaving behind broken
homes and families.
Others cope through unhappy marriages for their own reasons,
usually for their children's sake.
But for Grand Chief Governor General Sir Paulias Matane and his
good wife Lady Kaludia, both have overcome obstacles and kept
strong 50 years of marriage life.
Like good wine the longer they kept their bond - the richer the
quality of their marriage.
Theirs is a marriage experience worth telling - a positive story
and role model to encourage Papua New Guineans in marriages today.
Read 50 Golden Years, a Saga of true Love in Marital and National
Life, a book written by Sir Paulias.
The 211 page paperback portrays the unique marriage of Sir Paulias
and Lady Kaludia.
Their marriage did not begin with romance but was traditionally
arranged, was nurtured and grew into a deep relationship of true
love and respect.
It is a marriage that has worked positively against all odds,
traditional and modern.
"Many of us have lived in a dream world for so long, that we do
not know what love is. You see love isn't the feeling we get from
another - it is a feeling we give to another," Sir Paulias writes
in his book.
For him and his strong willed hard working wife Kaludia, they
lived their marriage successfully despite there different
personalities and interests. Both are from Viviran, East New
Britain province.
Sir Paulias was one of the few Papua New Guineans who was educated
during PNG's colonial days. He became an early teacher,
bureaucrat, diplomat and writer. His wife Kaludia could not
further her education due to customary reasons although she was
intelligent. She humbly accepted her role and duties as wife to
her husband, mother to their children and grandmother to her
grandchildren.
Tomorrow, the book will be launched to commemorate Sir Paulias and
Lady Kaludia Matane's golden wedding anniversary (20th of January,
2007). Grand Chief and Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare will
launch the book.
Sir Paulias now 75 years of age dedicates the book 50 Golden Years
to his wife Kaludia;
"My closest confidant and friend, Kaludia, for 50 years of our
fascinating and fruitful marriage. Without your total loyalty,
support and commitment to the sacred marriage, I would not have
achieved anything much in life. Mum (as most adults call you, or
Bubu Mummy to many children), I thank you - Paulias Matane.
Sir Paulias emphasizes the need for couples to understand each
other and trust God in their relationship. He writes that marriage
is sacred, a team effort and that a happy marriage is a one
hundred per cent contribution on both sides.
He stresses that marriage is more than a physical or sexual
relationship. "It is a meeting of minds and souls," he says.
Just why do people marry today, Sir Paulias asks
"Many do so because of physical attraction, money to escape an
unhappy home, for sexual gratification or simply desperation.
These are wrong reasons. When the realities of marriage life hits
home, one quickly finds out that pretty faces and masculine bodies
don't help and all the money in the world cannot buy a happy
marriage. The reason is that what you marry is not a body but a
mind. Marriage is more than a physical relationship or a sexual
relationship. It is a meeting of mind and souls," Sir Paulias
writes in Chapter four of his book.
The ten chapters of the book describe true love -is it romance?
marriage and separation, shaping the total child, building strong
marriages and the perfect wife.
The most fitting foreword for 50 Golden Years is written by Chief
Justice Sir Mari Kapi.
He congratulates the couple and stresses that marriage is part of
Gods divine plan for humanity.
"We have the opportunity to share every aspect of our lives with
another human being. We relate to each other in this special
relationship feeling each other's pain and covering for each
other's weaknesses. We rejoice in each others strengths and
successes. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother
and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh
(Genesis 2.24). This is a foundation of a strong community and
indeed, the nation.
Sir Mari's foreword sums up the book in a nutshell. It tells the
story of Sir Paulias Matane's love affair with Lady Matane, the
struggles in the early years of marriage and the making of a
strong marriage. It is a story of a Papua New Guinean couple who
come from strong traditional backgrounds and who have taken their
place in modern Papua New Guinea and still remain a united and
strong couple.
The book offers guidance and advice for young people who are
planning to get married, for those who are married and the need to
remain married and to build strong marriages.
Anecdotes are also written by Sir Paulias children and all the
grandchildren. They give frank and honest perspectives of Sir
Paulias and Lady Matane.
Sir Mari Kapi describes the book as a milestone and congratulates
Sir Paulias and Laky Kaludia on their golden anniversary.
"It is fitting that Sir Paulias Matane as Governor General should
provide such a role model of a strong marriage and a united family
in this book for all citizens to emulate throughout PNG," Sir
Murray Kapi says.
50 Golden Years: Saga of True Love in Marital and National Life is
published by CBS Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi, India and
is Sir Paulias 35th book published.
 
|
