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“AND why did the Government name the Highlands Highway after Sir Iambakey Okuk if it is not willing to maintain it? Why associate an honourable man with potholes, landslides, armed robberies, looting, compensation, and a list that gathers momentum each year?”
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GOOD morning. That’s the voice of another honourable man, a gifted journalist and an independent thinker who occasionally writes to The National. Big Pat’s thoughts appeared in our letters column yesterday and reflect the silent views of many of us.
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WE rush to append the names of newly dead leaders to all manner of monuments, bridges, ovals and parkland – and then walk away without another thought. We desecrate our cemeteries where our honourable dead lie, slouching drunkenly over their headstones and spitting buai on their graves. Respect for those who have done much for our country and our people, once taken for granted, has virtually disappeared.
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WHO remembers philanthropist Sir Edward Hallstrom? Yet this man gave his name and a great deal more to a large tract of land in the Western Highlands so that it could become a national park and refuge for an amazing range of birds, animals and unique plants and trees. There’s no longer any reason to go there today, even if you have the courage to run the risk of being held up and robbed.
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BIG Pat added a lamentable list of others whose memorials are a national disgrace; Sir John Guise and Sir Ignatius Kilage are but two of that distinguished band. Look at the current state of the stadiums and important roads named after those leaders today. And look at what our generation allowed to happen to the House of Assembly, by far our nation’s most important and valuable colonial landmark ...
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IT’S easy to honour a person at death, or the passing of an institution, or the symbol of a former power. But in PNG, it seems much harder to maintain both the memorial and the memory as years pass. Future generations will judge us harshly for our couldn’t-care-less attitude towards our own history.
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DESPITE which, we wish all our readers the very best of weekends – cheers!

– Dee Nesenolis
Editorial