Students urged to have values

Lae News, Normal
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By EVAH BANIGE

VALUES define the path individuals take in their lives and define a person’s character and who and what they are in life.
They also define how families view their members and how other people see them individually.
And to freshmen entering the working world, high personal values and moral principles are what attract employers.
This was the message delivered the 180 graduates from the Coronation College’s 12th TAFE graduation ceremony last Friday by veteran journalist and The National’s Momase regional editor Oseah Philemon.
Mr Philemon depicted world top golfer Tiger Woods recent infidelity as an example of values being  abused.
Mr Woods referred to values when he said he had let his family down and that he had not been true to his values and the behaviour that his family deserved.
The admission of guilt was made by a man who had been looked upon not only by golfers around the globe but also by a lot of young people, of what it takes to be successful in sports and in life.
Mr Philemon urged the students to uphold good values and to think carefully about what and how they wanted to go in their future.
Another aspect Mr Philemon stressed was attitude.
He said one of the most serious problems facing the country iwas the people’s attitude towards life, their country and their environment.
He highlighted that there had been a huge attitude problem in PNG that transcends from the highest levels of politics to the lowest levels of communal life.
And when elected leaders and their appointed advisors of Government are careless in their attitudes towards public funds including allowing millions of kina to be paid out through improper and illegal ways, then a problem arises.
Mr Philemon said an obvious example of this had been the Lae city road condition over the past years.
“One can only question what has happened to the funds that had been allocated for the maintenance of the roads, where those funds are, and who has them,” he said.
This, he pointed out, had been the questions that have been begging for answers.
He said when K130 million allocated for the rehabilitation of education sector infrastructure disappears without a single job being done, “it speaks volumes of the attitude of the Government”.
And when the Minister for National Planning “stands up and unashamedly states” that there were no more funds and gave no account of where the monies had been spent, it also depicted an attitude problem, he said.
According to Mr Philemon, any leader or Government with that kind of irresponsible attitude, a no-care attitude towards children’s education, did not deserve to be in office.