Putting pearls before swine in PNG

LAST Sunday, Papua New Guinea saw yet another case of a non-governmental organisation, which tries so hard to bring hope and change lives of people in this country, falling victim to a senseless robbery.
This brings more shame to the country.
It only leads us to ask ourselves what PNG is coming to when we steal from, rape and murder people who come in to help us, literally biting the hand that feeds us.
Pearls before swine refers to a quotation from Matthew 7:6 in the discourse on holiness, a section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, implying that things (such as pearls) should not be put in front of people (or, in this case, swine) who do not appreciate their value.
Thieves broke into HOPEworldwide (PNG) 3-Mile office in Port Moresby and stole medical equipment, computers and staff’s belongings worth more than K80,000 and trashed the office. 
Now computers meant for schools in the highlands will have to be used temporarily to replace the stolen ones until new ones can be purchased. So, the theft has robbed needy students of computers.
HOPEworldwide (PNG) is a Christian non-governmental organisation founded in 1994, whose mission is to bring hope and change lives by providing medical, educational and social services to underprivileged Papua New Guineans. 
Those who know HOPEworldwide (PNG) country director Tessa Te Mata will know that she has made huge personal sacrifices to help the disadvantaged in PNG, including leaving a well-paid diplomatic job to head up a small NGO with very few resources but full of people with great hearts.
“What is PNG coming to when thieves rob those who try to help the most-helpless?” she asked angrily when surveying the wreckage at the office.
We ask the same, equally angrily.
This is the third security incident in less than a week for HOPEworldwide (PNG).
It seems that, in PNG, we are self-immolating because of such animalistic behaviour by the lowliest of beasts.
The HOPEworldwide incident add to a growing list of murders, rapes and robberies of NGO staff, overseas volunteers and church workers.
In one of the most-notorious cases, which made headlines around the world, an Australian youth ambassador on a surfing break in Madang was raped last November.
The victim was with three other Australians who had travelled to Madang’s North Coast Road looking for surfing spots. The four were carjacked, robbed and then taken to a secluded spot where they were bound to trees and the female raped.
Last month, a spate of car-jacking in Port Moresby gave rise to a climate of fear among some Australian officials, so much so Australia’s High Commissioner to PNG Ian Kemish met with police chiefs to discuss their concerns.
One of these incidents included a male aid adviser working in PNG’s National AIDS Council Secretariat (NACS) who suffered “serious injuries” in an attack in January during a car-jacking that required him to be flown to Brisbane for treatment.
We hear now that another case of carjacking may have occurred a couple of days back involving two female aid workers.
They had their car stolen by gun-totting criminals.
In Manus, a Japanese volunteer was stoned by drunken youths in 2009 and had to return to his country to undergo brain surgery.
In February 2009, a team of foreign Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) doctors and nurses, who were offering their services free of charge in Tari, Southern Highlands, were evacuated after two of them were attacked by a drunk.
The world-renowned US Peace Corps ceased operations in Papua New Guinea in 2001 due to security concerns.
And the list goes on, and on, and on.
Very soon, PNG will be ostracised from the rest of the world as they will not want to put their “pearls before swines”.
The tragedy, as always, is that the majority of people who are law abiding and good tend to take crime in their stride. Tomorrow, they will haggle on the street with the criminals who stole HOPEworldwide (PNG) computers for the lowest price, knowing full well that the computers have been stolen.
We aid and abet theft of this kind by our very own behaviour. So long as this continues, PNG will soon be ostracised from the rest of the world, a world grown tired of putting its “pearls before swines” in this country.