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Sports |
Unflattering imagery
I REFER to the article “Americans
view PNG differently” (The National, May 25) by Paige West, a
visiting New York academic.
I would like to give credit to the positive comments she made.
West stated that constant promotion of the primitive image of
PNG had lodged in the Australian consumer’s mind and was
misleading and might not be the smartest way to promote PNG’s
economic development.
There are also constant promotions through the media and
internet in Australia portraying Papua New Guinea as a violent
and dangerous country.
For example, I quote Smart Traveller: “We advise you to exercise
a high degree of caution in Papua New Guinea because of the high
levels of serious crimes.”
The quoted statement is one of the many unflattering
descriptions creating an impression of us as primitives, poor,
cannibals and uneconomical in our mindsets.
These impressions depict wrong images to potential investors in
Australia and other parts of the world.
Papua New Guinean nationals living and working in other parts of
the world have been confronted with such negative impressions.
What good can come out from Papua New Guinea?
Discrimination is right at the face of Papua New Guineans and it
is merely inciting the credibility of our nationality and its
economy.
On the positive side, our homegrown coffee, produced by
primitive warriors and poor farmers has a flavour that attracts
consumers.
Papua New Guinea has a vision for prosperity as its economy can
be separated into subsistence and market sectors, although the
distinction is blurred by smallholders’ cash cropping of coffee,
cocoa, and copra.
A high percentage of the country’s population relies primarily
on the subsistence economy. But our minerals, timber and fish
sectors are dominated by foreign investors.
The country’s manufacturing sector is limited, as is the formal
labour sector. Our Government should draft policies that prevent
our raw minerals from being exported, but have foreign investors
build factories to produce finished products in PNG.
This could lower the unemployment rate and improve formal labour
sector.
Although China is a developing country, its manufacturing sector
is boosting its economy. PNG can also do the same.
Is this constant branding of PNG as a violent tribal and
primitive community a tactic to prevent our economy from
growing?
Jay Kiambu
China
 
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