Tis the season for giving

CHRISTMAS is a time of great joy for many Papua New Guineans, especially those who can afford to go all out during this special occasion.
For some, it’s just another day trying to make it in the big city.
The nation’s capital is teeming with beggars, many of them young children.
These unfortunate kids roam the city streets every day begging for money or leftover food.
Most people ignore them believing that helping these poor and hungry children will only encourage them to go on begging.
But it’s a sad sight — young boys begging at the traffic lights near the Vision City Mega Mall for a few toea and a drink you just opened while only a few metres away, hundreds of city residents are busy buying, eating and being entertained in the country’s biggest shopping complex.
For a country as lucky as Papua New Guinea, it is a disturbing trend that reflects poorly on the nation’s ability to look after its poor and under-privileged.
While the Government preaches about its billion-kina budgets and the billions more it will receive from the liquefied natural gas project, our leaders seem to have turned a blind eye on helping the not so fortunate.
Their attitude seems to be – we have bigger and better things to do than worry about some helpless and hopeless children whose parents should take better care of them. Unfortunately, the parents are just as helpless and hopeless as their children.
For a relatively small country with about eight million inhabitants, PNG has a lot to learn about looking after its poor and under-privileged citizens.
Of course, the politicians will always blame urban drift as the major cause of poverty, unemployment, crime and other social evils that have plagued
our cities and towns in recent years.
Rural folks who migrate to the cities and towns without proper employment or other means of sustenance risk drowning in a melting pot of poverty and crime that is the norm in cities like Port Moresby and Lae.
It is easy to preach about poverty alleviation, but to put food on the table for these impoverished people requires more than lip-service.
Our story today on 15-year-old Koma Tiu is reality for the not so well-off families who live on what fate brings every day.
Koma will not enjoy the spoils of Christmas like a boy his age from the well-to-do family. He feels obliged that he has to sell peanuts to at least bring home K20 to his mother for their meal.
Imagine what K20 can get for Koma’s family. One does not have to be a mathematics genius to know Koma’s mother can put on out for her children this Christmas.
Spare a thought for that.
Regardless of one’s religious beliefs or cultural background, Christmas has become a time for all of us to join in helping the less fortunate.
For those who are alone, those who live in poverty, and those who are refugees fleeing conflict, those who have experienced the trauma of loss, the holiday season can be a painful occasion that amplifies their difficulties.
The spirit of Christmas cannot be bought or made.
It does not appear in a stocking hanging over the hearth or come gift-wrapped under the tree.
The true meaning dwells within people’s hearts.
If you celebrate on this day, Merry Christmas.
If you do not, we extend the greetings of your season.