PEOPLE

MP reaches out to grieving families

By SAMSON JOHN HIROWA
HOW often does your elected Member of Parliament (MP) pay a courtesy visit to you in your time of grieving when a loved one in your family has passed on?
Such instances are rare and I have never witnessed in my life an MP paying a personal visit to a family within his or her electorate until the evening of last Friday, Feb 21, 2020 when I witnessed one in the Eastern Highlands’ community of Okapa Block of Saraga Settlement in Moresby South electorate.
It was in the electorate the Minister for Housing and Urbanisation Justin Tkatchenko.

Apart from his ministerial commitments and busy schedules, Tkatchenko had made time available and paid a personal visit to two haus krais in the Okapa Block of Saraga Settlement, Ward Four of Moresby South electorate.
And this is his usual and regular practice, I’m told.
As part of his brief visit, the good MP passed his condolences to the deceased’s families as well making cash donations to help the immediate families in their haus krai needs, and in particular the repatriation of their loved ones back home for burial.
According to Moresby South eectorate humanitarian programmes coordinator, Dickson Mungul, the MP’s support in cash towards haus krais is a regular practice that started back in 2012 when Tkatchenko was elected into Parliament.
“Giving cash assistance to haus krais is part of Tkatchenko’s humanitarian programmes and initiatives that he started when he first got elected into Parliament,” Mungul said.
“The MP’s annual discretionary funds are utilised in these humanitarian programmes and initiatives.”
According to Mungul, the humanitarian programmes and initiatives covers assistance given to haus krais, disability programmes, helping the sick and such other emergency cases like the loss of homes, ethnic clashes, etc.
Mungul said that in terms of giving assistance to haus krais, there are two approaches; firstly, the MP pays a personal visit and gives assistance and secondly, when he is busy or have other commitments, his officers represent him and give assistance upon presentation of valid and certified documentary evidence of the concerned deceased by his or her relatives.
One interesting impact of humanitarian programmes and initiatives of the Moresby South electorate is that from the visits they have been conducting since 2012, they have compiled and collated valuable health data and information that becomes handy to the MP when he wants to do annual health plans and programmes for the electorate.
“Because of the data and information we have been collecting over the years, it has helped us to identify the common illness affecting our people and what sort of plans and actions to take as far as the health and wellbeing of our people in the electorate is concerned,” Mungul said.
“For instance, we have identified that diabetes is a concern in our electorate and we have established a diabetic clinic at Koki.
“Also we have assisted and upgraded the Foursquare Church-run Kaugere Health Centre and now, as I am speaking, works are in progress on a maternity clinic at Kila Kila,” Mungul said.
According to Mungul these humanitarian programmes and initiatives will continue as long Tkatchenko is MP for Moresby South.

• Samson John is a freelance writer.

Strange object at mealtime

By PAUL MINGA
SOME conrners of Papua New Guinea are still embracing western civilisation and the country is yet to reach its full maturity as a developed nation.
One sad and unfortunate thing about my country is that it still lacks a skilled workforce and manufacturing plants. It is also sad for some of us citizens who still continue to live an ‘uncivilised’ lifestyle even after some areas have embraced western civilisation.
That, I believe, is a result of most of us being born and raised in rural villages. For those of us who were born and grew up in isolation from towns and cities, we are not yet fully exposed to the developed countries’ lifestyle and their manufactured products.
To be honest, when I was in primary and high school I was still unfamiliar with things and ideas that were commonplace in the western world. I was still unaware of most manufactured products used in developed countries.
This was why when I was in my first year of high school, and the very first day in the school dining hall, I had been curious to find out about a modern manufactured product. In fact it was a simple product but seemed fascinating and strange to me on my first day at high school.
Even as a big boy I was still unfamiliar with most manufactured goods and machinery in modern factories.
It was the first day of school in February 1988 and I was to enrol as a grade seven student at the all-boys Fatima High School in the Waghi Valley, Jiwaka.
The academic year was to start in a few and Peter, a senior student who was to do grade nine, whose father owned a white Japanese made Toyota Stout vehicle drove us to the school. A bumpy car ride through our dusty country road took us about an hour and we were dropped off at the school with our few belongings.
I was escorted into a grade seven dormitory with the help of some senior students who were from the same village. I was then led into a cubicle and given a locker. After taking up my room, I greeted a few other fresh grade seven students who were to share the same cubicle including those who were to occupy nearby cubicles. After I locked away my things and had furnished with the bed preparation, I went ahead into sharing stories and greeted the late arrivals while waiting for the dinner bell to ring.
While waiting in anticipation for the dinner, I wondered what our first dinner would really consist of. Probably the white man’s favourite meal of rice and tinned fish.
Rice and tinned fish in those times in the eighties was considered a chief’s meal by villagers.
The bell rang at 6pm. Noise was heard from every dormitory with the clattering of spoons and plates. I joined in with the others taking my eating utensils and followed the other students to the dining hall.
As a fresh grade seven student, I was still not familiar with the dining hall routine and its seating arrangements. In order to avoid any embarrassment, I decided to sit at a table with one or two senior students from my own village.
Upon entering the hall, I noticed Martin, a grade eight student who was from the same village trying to take a seat. I went up to him and sat by him at the same table.
After everyone took up their seats, announcements were made by the duty prefects and teachers. Then the table grace was muttered by senior and continuing students. While the new comers including myself simply bowed our heads in a confused state. As soon as grace was over, a senior student from each table rushed out to get a dish of food for their respective tables.
About the same time as the dish of food were brought in there was something else brought in which looked attractively packaged, more or less like packets of biscuits. As soon as I noticed the stuff, I suspected it to be a recently manufactured food but still had no idea of its contents. It must be a manufactured food brought in to supplement our first meal of the year, I assumed.
As we were served our meal, these item were taken out of a big plastic bag and distributed to every student. I got mine and felt that it was not as hard as biscuits but something much softer. Its colourful packet made me even more curious and I wanted to see its content.
I thought it was something edible and expected other students to break open theirs first so I could do the same but nothing was done to the strange item.
We were into the middle of our dinner and still no single student broke open his packet. As we were about to finish our meal, I wondered why nothing was being done to the white men`s colourful and attractive manufactured product.
I was eage to see its contents and get a taste of it for I still suspected it to be food item. I then decided to ask Martin the senior student to tell me what the item was. But I hesitated in fear of being mocked by the other table members.
After we finished our meal and walked out, I poked Martin`s side and asked him if he could reveal to me what that strange white man`s product was. Martin grinned to himself and told me in our mother tongue:“E wal pepa alamb hens er pakle hens ngubon kil ngo ngo enjip wal!” In English that meant: “It’s a paper people use to clean their bottoms.”
I was shocked and embarrassed after Martin’s explanation as I was still unfamiliar with a very simple manufactured product.
That was because I was born and raised in an outback part of the country.
Well, in truth I was not the only one who had mistaken the humble toilet tissue for something else. There are other Papua New Guineans like me who have their own similar stories to tell.

• Paul Minga is a freelance writer.