So proud of you PNG

SOMETHING so obvious in this year’s Independence Day celebrations is the depth of patriotism shown by many people.
This showed in family celebrations which seemed to be the order of the day in the provinces.
The red, yellow, black and white of our country’s flag, and the colours of the provincial flags, depicted something different when compared to past celebrations.
There was something that seemed to have brought together the thousand tribes who speak more than 800 languages as one people.
In an average street of small houses, we noticed PNG flags hanging out of windows, strings of small pennants fluttered from garden shrubs and along roof guttering.
One house displayed a huge PNG flag sturdily mounted on the rook..
We watched and witnessed different activities to mark this anniversary, and saw in them the inherent goodness of our people, their simplicity, and their sense of marking a day of importance in their lives.
Maybe we should invite some overseas leaders to our shores once a decade to join us in celebrating our independence anniversary. Let them feel for themselves the magic, exuberance and excitement. Let them taste our pride of being natives of this wonderful country called Papua New Guinea.
It is not only a national celebration but increasingly it also has become a family event – as if each family has taken ownership of it as a personal property.
We thus have the basis for true nationalism – not the noisy chest-thumping of aggression and misplaced pride, but the quiet growth of individual and family recognition of the importance of the day.
There are distinctions in the expression of pride. To be proud of who we are, and to show pride in our very real achievements, has nothing in common with the conceit that will not entertain the smallest criticism, nor tolerate
anything that stands in the way of its empty bluster and pointless bravado.
Later on Independence Day in Port Moresby, truckloads of youths arrived at the dusty empty field at the end of the road.
It was not some urban invasion hell-bent on creating havoc. The youngsters came from adjoining suburbs to play a variety of challenge games.
It was hot. It was noisy and dusty, and the energy they expended verged on the frenetic.
But it was good-natured, and when the sun began to sink over the horizon, the day had passed without any incident in our area.
Family groups reassembled, cooking was the order of the day, and groups of youths wandered the streets cracking jokes and breaking into lusty if tuneless songs at the drop of a rap.
It is proper that our leaders mark the day with flag-raising, speeches and assemblies at Independence Hill.
But to the ordinary people, the special nature of the day was reflected in the unconscious strengthening of family and community bonds.
The people involved come from nearly every province in PNG.
Their ability to interact suggested that the strength of PNG and its people, so often invisible to critics, continue to be expressed throughout the nation.
It was a fitting completion to Independence Day 2017 with all the promises implied by the birth of a new citizen of our nation.
The verse from the song Papua New Guinea composed by Geofrrey Baskett sums it all well as we look forward to the future: “There’s a bright new day dawning for our land, as every tribe and race unite, sons and daughters arise, we’ll advance together with God to guide in the right”.
So proud of you PNG.