Residents must embrace living in a city like POM

The National Letters

PEOPLE who choose to live, work and do businesses in Port Moresby have to embrace certain facts.
Facts such as:

  • We live in a rapidly changing city;
  • that people from all over the country as well as people from other countries also live here;
  • that it will have more important international visitors coming for major international events like the under 20 women’s Fifa World Cup tournament and 2018 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting;
  • that the indigenous Motu Koita people, who are the traditional landowners of the land on which the city stands, need to be respected and their rights upheld;
  • that people from Central and Gulf, who commute between the city and their homeland to buy and sell or do business, must be respected or be left alone;
  • that living in a city entails respecting the way of life of other people, and tolerating their cultures; and,
  • That most importantly, having an attitude to fully enjoy the benefits and trappings the city provides, you need to learn to give back to the city.

How can one give back, when we are all here to better our lives in whatever way we can, for ourselves?
How much you want from the city depends on an “equal measure” of how much you are willing to give back to the city?
You don’t just expect a city to be peaceful, law abiding, and clean and hygienic.
You have to take certain purposive actions that bring about those results for you and others.
This principle is true for just about everything in life. And all of these entail upholding the rules and regulations that are in place.
And here’s the important piece of the puzzle.
Your sense of appreciation of living in a city heightens.
You get the best value of living in a city by following the rules and regulations put in place by the National Capital District Commission as the municipal authority.
Not against them.
So embrace the fact that NCDC has the right to control and regulate activities and actions of people for the good of all.
If you want peace in your community or suburb, you must be willing to give and promote peace.
If you desire a clean and hygienic environment, you must be willing to at the individual level ensure that where you live or work is clean.
If prosperity and progress are what you after, you must be willing to in your mind and behaviour, cultivate actions and thoughts that promote prosperity and progress.
So there is no real blessing for bag snatchers and petty thieves who lurk at the city bus stops and target unsuspecting mothers and girls for their bag or bilums.
There is no real joy for swindlers who try to swindle something out
of genuine people at every opportunity.
And there are no rewards for those who spit out indiscriminately betel nut spittle from their moving vehicles.
Finally, embracing the city implies that one must be willing to go after the goodness, the beauty and the positives of the city.  And surprisingly, you realise that you will begin to live purposeful, gainful and meaningful lives.
It is important to take heed of this!

John Kamasua
Port Moresby