HI ho silvers! And quite apart from the over sixties, hi-ho to everybody else as well. The hi-ho salute was actually a horse-man thing, a greeting from one Hopalong Cassidy to his magnificent horse Silver. Nevertheless, those of us whose curly locks have been kissed by the moon deserve an occasional greeting.
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YESTERDAY, we pointed readers to a story in The National. A Mount Hagen man made the remarkable claim that PNG women are “over-protected”. He added that only some two or three thousand PNG men could be regarded as perpetrators of violence against women. We suggested readers might have a comment or two on the issue.
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THE response has been dramatic, and significantly, all e-mails received so far have been from men. The message has been loud, clear, emotional and unanimously critical of the Mount Hagen gentleman’s statement; some have gone so far as to question what planet the correspondent is living on.
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NEARLY all replies questioned the source of the “two or three thousand violent men” figure while others found it incredible that anyone in PNG could express such “outrageous views”. And a reader from Oz e-mailed us – here is part of his response: “On the outskirts of my small coastal town there’s a sign that states that domestic violence should not be tolerated.”
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OUR correspondent continues: “It provides a free-call domestic violence telephone number to ring … I find that when I have others in my car, they often remark positively about the sign’s presence; many add that it should not be necessary to have such a sign. However, the sad truth is that domestic violence still does persist.” That’s an interesting idea – but would it work in PNG? Our thanks to reader Col.
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REGULAR reader Steven took exception to the statement that “Most of these women rights leaders and advocates are failed and problematic mothers who are trying to use the generally happy and stable PNG women, families and mothers as scapegoats.” Steven responded: “That comment is offensive in the extreme, to both peaceful males and female victims alike.”
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TOMORROW, rejoin Quizzer David Wissink who yesterday started to tell the tale of Leonard Cheshire. Cheers!
– Dee Nesenolis