No Calvin Dusava (The National, Feb 11), the “ethnic explosion” as you put it in relation to the Mt Hagen clashes between a local tribe and Engan settlers should not be seen as an example of “uncivilised” behaviour by Highlanders as you seem to infer, nor is such unwanted behaviour a private domain of our Highlands brothers.
Such clashes between different groups of people, be they of opposing ethnic groupings, tribes, clans or families are a familiar occurrence in all societies within our country.
Comments such as yours, even with the best of intentions, will not be of any help if they carry sarcastic and thinly veiled discriminatory connotations.
I do agree with you that the best way to eradicate this sort of behaviour is through education. However, we should not see this problem as being predominantly a “Highlands” thing. Rather, we should be asking ourselves why, even after 30 odd years of independence, and with all the “one country, one nation ...” rhetoric, we still have our own people fighting against each other in the Highlands, the Islands and just about everywhere else.
We should also be asking all the other questions Lucas Kiap (The National, Feb 11) posed as well so that we may determine why such behaviour takes place. Then perhaps we can all work on fining solutions to enable all of us to live in a just and peaceful society.
 

Ben Howard
Gerehu.