Not all is doom and gloom

POLITICAL issues might be a tad out of kilter at the moment but not all things are downhill.
Some things just continue as they should and that is a blessing that we must be thankful for.
We got word yesterday, for instance, on the first day teachers and students were reporting for the new school year, that K185 million in cash had been transferred into school accounts starting last Friday.
Schools with bank accounts that have also submitted the relevant details to the Education Department will now have roughly half of all tuition fees for students attending their schools this year.
We run reports today that Marengo Gold is ready to go into full production of the Yandara gold deposit in Madang. We report that Newcrest mines is investing nearly K1 billion into new equipment in Lihir and upping production in Hidden Valley by  scaling up its exploration and has high hopes of getting Wafi-Golpu into full production soon.
Horizon Oil and Talisman Energy announced too that they might be first to export gas from their fields on the border of PNG and Indonesia in Western province before the PNG LNG by about a year.
This is the beauty of this country. Some things just keep going.
And this is the reason why despite everything, all will be right in the final analysis.
There will come a day when all the mineral resources like oil, copper and gold will be depleted. All our marine and forest resources will be gone and we will be left with our human resources.
If that human resource is half-baked, if it is illiterate and ignorant, this country will be lost. But, if a start can be made now as the government is doing, if this is not just a one half election gimmick and it becomes the country’s true commitment and investment in its human resources as its Constitution pledges, then all is not lost.
The user-pay policy was just plainly unfair and it is only right that the government review it. There is enough money being made in this country. Time it was invested where it can reap handsome rewards for the country in future – in renewable resources such as agriculture and human resources.
More funds ought to be poured into all institutions of higher learning to ensure that they attract the best educators from around the world to the country to impart knowledge and that the institutions are equipped with the right equipment for research and training.
Money ought to be invested in science, in technology and in scientific research. PNG is the pioneer country, the last frontier for science in many aspects yet it is too far behind in having its own people heading the drive towards uncovering the secrets of our land, our forest and our oceans. This must change.
It is true that in 1975, the year of independence under the old Australian rule, university students in Papua New Guinea were building hydropower stations in selected locations throughout the country. What things are the mechanical engineering students inventing today?
Work such as that carried out by the National Agricultural Research Institute in producing drought resistant varieties of a number of PNG’s staple foods ought to be promoted.
Copper was first mined in 1967 and gold for a lot longer than that. Oil was being produced for export in 1989, yet there is no on-shore processing of gold, silver and oil. And gas is now just going to be bottled for export.
There are places such as Dubai where, previously, there has been nothing but sand all the way to the ocean. Today, there is a thriving metropolis with skyscrapers, golf courses with the greenest greens and parks and gardens. Ask Public Service Minister Bart Philemon. That is a favourite subject of his.
PNG too can be transformed into a Dubai overnight and using, perhaps, half of the energy and money required because much of it is already here.
People have to stop gazing in gullies for the rocks and pebbles and look up to see the brightness of the sky and grandeur of the bigger landscape.