Visits becoming more interesting

THE arrival and visit to Kokoda and Isurava, Northern province, by Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese is quite appropriate at this time.
We, in Papua New Guinea, now have the Chinese government officials quite frequently visiting and chatting up our ministers and politicians.
China is, in fact, already making its mark in and around the Pacific Islands.
Like the Solomon Islands, PNG might soon join the bandwagon and allow more Chinese aid and assistance to flow into our cities, towns, districts and villages. And, why not?
If what China is going to introduce or bring in will be to the benefit of the PNG majority back in our villages and rural areas, we can only say “thank you for that gift of life”, or “thank you for helping me to improve my standard of living”.
Albanese and Australia must look at our societal realities and, perhaps, revisit the types of aid and assistance that it has been providing to PNG.
Asians are great believers of the biblical phrase: “Teach a man to fish, and not feeding him with fish.” That is the story of success.
Other nations with bilateral ties to PNG must also rethink their approaches.
With the current alarming global natural disasters associated with a warming planet, greenhouse noxious gases and climate change, Papua New Guinea would soon be declared as one of the very few places on Earth that will provide life’s last line of defence.
PM James Marape, for far too long, Papua New Guinea has been riding on the choices and decisions of our colonial masters and the so-called civilised world. That mentality must now change: you have started on a right footing by making a people’s call. Continue and make decisions with your people’s lives in mind.
We have the resources, we have the land and we have the oxygen. If they do not want to give us aid, we can take them to our Chinese and Asian friends. They can be our spectators.

Patriot
Last frontier