Internet sting a norm in the US

Letters, Normal

I AM the Engan featured in the news article “Enga man jailed in US after cyber sting” which appeared in The National on May 19, 2009.
I would like to confirm most of the details as reported in that article.
I can only hope that people consume news articles such as that one with a pinch of salt.
Police internet stings are covered by media in the US and people are generally aware of them.
They are common in internet chat rooms with police acting as girls.
I was not ignorant, careless, complacent, gullible or stupid.
Here is the point. Sometimes, the short-term consequences of breaking a law, without causing damage and injury to a real physical person or property, can provide bigger long-term benefit or relief in another area of life.
The consequence of my planned “misdeed” was the elimination of a major situation my children and I were faced with for some years.
I apologise to no one for what I did in the best interest of my children and myself. We are happy.
I lived in the US for 12 years.
I am privileged to be educated at Vanderbilt University, one of the top private universities.
I was humbled to be offered a faculty position in the same university where I taught hundreds of fine American students during the years I worked there.
I feel honoured to have been given the opportunity to work and give back to America in return for the many missionaries who risked life and limb to come to remote Enga in the 1960s and 1970s.
They educated me and many other Engans like me.
I am appreciative of the firm educational foundation they laid in my life upon which I have built in the later years. I have lived and experienced both sides of American law and society. During my years there, I have worked with the rich.
I have interacted with the poor, homeless, addicts, etc, as a volunteer worker at a soup kitchen every Saturday.
And I have been with and interacted with convicted criminals in jail.
I have truly lived and experienced every category of the American society.
With this background, I feel I am able to make some qualified assessments of the American people.
They are polite, passionate, friendly, considerate, generous, helpful and hardworking people.
They are family oriented, very patriotic and proud of their diverse heritage.

 

L.L. Watai
Port Moresby