People need to change their attitude

The National Letters

IS Papua New Guinea facing a chronic attitude problem?
After I uploaded onto Facebook a picture of alcohol consumption in the main market of Mt Hagen city, many of the commentators argued that our people are having an attitude problem.
Attitude is a very complex issue. It is a culture and a way of life that was developed over time.
A technology culture breeds designers. A sporting culture breeds great players. A pop culture breeds superstars. An invention culture breeds inventors. A farming culture breeds farmers. An entrepreneurship culture breeds entrepreneurs.
Positive cultures influences positive attitude that contributes to the greater good of humanity.
For instance, for a farming system to work, farmers needs roads, markets, storages and transportation all must be in place. The same applies to an entrepreneurship system.
A system is an environment. The attitude of the people is largely influenced by the environment in which people are born into and grow up.
In PNG there never existence a culture of technology that can breed designers or a sporting culture to breed great players or a pop culture to breed superstars or an invention culture to breed inventors or a farming culture to breed farmers or a  entrepreneurship culture to breed entrepreneurs.
Our people are naturally born farmers but to produce at a larger scale, we need road infrastructures, transport, markets (overseas and local), storages facilities, quality control, etc. which doesn’t exist in PNG or nobody cares. Under such conditions, how do we expect our people to be productive?
The culture that PNG invented 40 years ago and existed over the last 40 years is greed, selfishness, ignorance, and corruption. These are very destructive cultures.
Hence, these are the cultures responsible for the destruction of our country for the last 40 years. Yet we are still embracing them.
We can’t entirely blame the attitude of the people, which is what we have become as a country over the last 40 years.
People’s living standards and quality of life haven’t been improving over the last 40 years. They don’t feel any better than they were ever before independence.
Greed breeds corruption. Corruption breeds poverty. Poverty breeds violent crimes and law and order problems. That’s exactly what is happening around the country.

Lucas Kiap, Via email