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| Poor people are not lazy people | |
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By BRYANT ALLEN RECENT letters to The National have asserted that in PNG, because everyone has access to land back in their villages, as long as they are prepared to work hard, there is no reason for anyone to be hungry or poor. Therefore, people who are in “poverty” have only themselves to blame. They are “lazy”. Leaving aside the likelihood that not everyone in PNG has access to land (for example unmarried youths, women, migrants), there is a great deal of evidence that there are significant numbers of poor people in PNG. They live in remote locations that are mountainous, with high rainfall, high levels of cloud cover and poor soils, or are on flood plains that are inundated regularly, or are on small islands. They have limited or no access to basic services, including health and education services and importantly, to markets where they can sell agricultural produce in exchange for cash. They also have poor access to information and knowledge about important matters like health care, nutrition and political developments. They cannot afford to buy imported foods to supplement their traditional diets that are low in protein and oils. They are often poorly represented politically and are “invisible” from the main centres of the country. The 1996 Papua New Guinea Household Survey, the first nation-wide survey of consumption and living standards in PNG was similar to surveys used to identify poverty in many other countries in the world. There is not the space here to describe the technical details of this survey, but it estimated that 34% of rural people and 11% of urban people lived in households in which the value of the food eaten and the services used (health, education, etc) was significantly below what was considered acceptable by PNG standards. The places where these poor people live have been previously unidentified in the 1970s and 1980s by researchers in what is now the National Research Institute, as “underdeveloped areas”. They are located in the western parts of PNG along the Indonesian border (eg Telefomin), at high altitudes (eg Lagaiap), along both sides of the Highlands (eg Bosavi, Kaintiba or Bundi), down the length of the main mountain range (eg Tapini), on the Saruwaget and Finnisterre mountains (eg Finschhafen), in inland New Britain (eg Pomio) and on many small offshore islands. These areas are commonly high and mountainous, cold and wet, steep and subject to erosion, are flooded annually (eg Middle Ramu) or are on small islands. Most are isolated from roads and urban centres. The 1982-83 National Nutrition Survey found that in many cases, these are also areas of high child malnutrition. The argument that all it takes to live a “good life” in PNG is a bit of land and some hard work, is questionable. Nutritionists tell us that it is likely that before colonisation, subsistence diets in these same poor places in PNG were inadequate, leading to high rates of disease and high death rates. This is fairly convincing argument as to why, for example, the Highlands valleys were heavily populated, while the Highlands fringes were not. Whether this is true or not, after PNG was colonised, the present day poor places did not attract investment in the form of infrastructure, plantations or village cash cropping. Where village cash cropping provided cash incomes, people were able to supplement their pre-colonial diets, that were exceptionally low in protein and fats with purchased, imported food that are high in protein, fats and oils. This has led to improved human nutrition and to lower infant and child mortality and higher population growth rates in many parts of PNG. But today’s poor areas were left behind, while the more favoured areas became “developed”. Colonial administrators, planters and missionaries were drawn towards the higher potential land, with its higher population densities and easier access and it was here that “development” occurred, in the form of towns, roads, wharves and plantation agriculture. Villagers were able to take advantage of these developments and rapidly adopted cash cropping. These are now the districts with relatively high personal cash incomes from cash cropping and the sale of fresh food. They also have the best access to education and health services. However, those who live in these places are not just sitting down and waiting for help to come to them. They are moving to towns and to the countryside around towns or along the main roads. These poor people move, even though life can be very tough for them in their destinations, where they do not have access to land, they have very low incomes, the price of imported foods like rice has increased by four or five times over the last 10 years and they and their children are branded as raskols. Nevertheless, many of them say they are better off in their destinations than in their home areas, where there is no chance of their children being educated or for them to receive medical treatment should they become sick. The eradication of poverty in PNG will not be easy or simple, because the places where poor people live are very difficult to develop and because there is increasing prejudices against poor migrants, even though most well educated, employed people or their parents have migrated from a rural area somewhere in PNG sometime in the past. Nor will the situation of poor people be helped by calling them “lazy” and blaming them for the predicament they find themselves in. * Dr Bryant Allen is a Senior Fellow at the Australia National University's Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies and consultant to AusAID, FAO and the World Bank. He has taught at the University of PNG and continues to research into PNG’s sustainability of agricultural systems and rural development. He has also worked on food security and on the economic aspects of road maintenance in PNG. He co-edited a special edition of Asia-Pacific Viewpoint on agricultural intensification and the PNG Medical Journal on health and the environment in the Tari area and was co-author of the PNG Rural Development Handbook. Sex and bribery in the property development industry
By JEFFREY FRANCIS |
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