Be generous this Christmas

CHRISTMAS is a time of great joy for many Papua New Guineans, especially those who can afford to celebrate this special occasion.
The nation’s capital is teeming with beggars, many of them young children.
These unfortunate kids roam the city streets every day, begging for a few kina or leftover food.
Most well-to-do people ignore them, believing that helping these poor and hungry children will only encourage them to go on begging.
It is sad to see young boys begging for a few kina at the traffic lights or on the street, while the well-to-do are busy buying, eating and entertaining in the country’s most-modern shopping complex.
For a lucky country like Papua New Guinea, it is a disturbing trend that reflects poorly on the nation’s ability to look after its poor and under-privileged people.
While the Government preaches about its billion-kina budgets and the billions more it will receive from the liquefied natural gas project, our leaders seem to have turned a blind eye on helping our poor and under-privileged citizens.
Their attitude seems to be: we have bigger and better things to do than worry about some helpless and hopeless children whose parents should take better care of them.
Unfortunately, the parents are as helpless and hopeless as their children.
For a relatively small country with about seven million inhabitants, PNG has a lot to learn about looking after its poor and under-privileged citizens.
Of course, the politicians will always blame urban drift as the major cause of poverty, unemployment, crime and other social evils that have plagued our cities and towns in recent years.
Rural folks who migrate to the cities and towns without proper employment or other means of sustenance, risk drowning in a melting pot of poverty and crime that is the norm in cities like Port Moresby and Lae.
It is easy to preach about poverty alleviation, but to put food on the table for these impoverished people requires more than lip-service.
The Catholic Church this Christmas is calling on all church leaders and workers to commit and devote a little of what they have to those on the street.
Look around and one will realise that people had in the past this common and mutual understanding and sharing between one another in good and bad times.
The disparity in our communities is obvious with people on the streets selling, asking and begging for money.
They are doing that because they are in need of it.
Regardless of one’s religious beliefs or cultural background, Christmas should be a time for all of us to join in helping the less-fortunate.
For those who are alone, those who live in poverty, and those who are refugees fleeing conflict, those who have experienced the trauma of loss, the holiday season can be a painful occasion that amplifies their difficulties.
The spirit of Christmas cannot be bought or made.
It does not appear in a stocking hanging over the hearth or come gift-wrapped under the tree.
The true meaning dwells within people’s hearts.
If you celebrate on this day, Merry Christmas.
If you do not, we extend the greetings of your season.