| Business |
Strike up the band!
SPORT has always been put forward as
the ultimate solution to teenage disaffection, the formation of
criminal youth gangs, the burgeoning drug problems and the
generally false adult perception that anyone under 21 is not to be
tolerated.
And indeed sport can build bridges between communities, create
passionate loyalties to fellow team members and to the relevant
game and generally inculcate some of the virtues of responsibility
and fair play so dear to parents.
But a story in The National’s Lae News yesterday reminded us of
just what a powerful agent music can be in the same process.
Now before we have parents pawing at our front doors and frothing
at the mouth, we hasten to add that we refer to music
that youngsters can make
themselves, rather than the canned idiocy that attacks our adult
ears whenever we switch on the radio.
The article that prompted these thoughts concerned the revival of
the Lae city pipes and drums band.
Lae city council intends to support the revived band and it will
be available for hire for community events, weddings and birthdays
and rallies and other social activities.
And significantly, the council will recruit from the ranks of the
Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides.
We’ve no doubt that later, that process will be extended to cover
kids from other more deprived backgrounds.
All of which brought back to us the remarkable series of choral
concerts that formed a significant social and cultural chapter in
the pre-independence territories of Papua and New Guinea.
Each year literally hundreds of school students and youths from
villages gathered from all over the two territories would meet,
usually in Rabaul.
There were hard fought competitions and there were prizes.
But the memory that will remain with those who were there must be
of the extraordinary precision and harmony and sheer beauty of the
music these youngsters created – and more importantly of the
obvious kick they got out of the process.
That memory in turn reminded us of another place and
another time – a teeming city with a cauldron of slums seething
with youngsters with nothing to do.
That was when the Police Citizens Boys Clubs came to life, and the
bands that they spawned remain a fond memory for many.
Policemen and women and parents in the area joined together,
donating time and energy freely to develop an interest that would
keep those kids off the streets and out of jails.
And it worked.
We’re not denying that there were failures along the way, but we
remember the successes and the many young products of those mean
streets who today are leaders of commerce and the professions in
that same city.
Surely that kind of community effort is not beyond the resources
of the RPNG Constabulary?
And surely there are enough honest and community-oriented police
personnel left in the Force to want to take control of such a
community programme?
There are many business organisations in the community that would
be happy to donate a set of band instruments to clubs that could
eventually provide a positive focus for settlement and unemployed
youths in our urban areas.
Such involvement would engender personal responsibility, a team
spirit, competitiveness based on the highest possible standards
and for some, an introduction to that world of music that is
currently beyond the reach of most of our young people in PNG
today.
We would like to openly appeal to business houses and community
bodies throughout our cities and towns to discuss this idea and
see if they have the capability and the interest to generate a
musical solution to some of our youth problems.
The establishment of bands is one possibility.
The recreation of the choral festivals in a contemporary form is
another.
And the establishment and growth of a PNG youth orchestra is a
third – a group of young musicians who could match the skills,
imagination and expertise of similar orchestras from other
developing and developed countries.
Sport is one solution to involving our youths in a demanding and
worthwhile environment.
And the creation of music is another, one that could guarantee
lifelong pleasure and on-going relationships to a large number of
today’s urban youths.
 
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