Vital to get our attitude right

Letters, Normal

SINCE Papua New Guinea became independent in 1975, a lot of resources have been discovered.
But what benefits have these resources bring to our people?
If we look at our villages, we still find our people climbing mountains carrying cargoes on their shoulders as there is no proper road network to send their goods out.
There are no clinics and schools in the majority of these villages.
There is no electricity or other Government services.
As a result, people are flooding the urban centres and causing all sorts of problems for urban residents and planners.
If the rural to urban drift continues, I will not be surprised to find the country’s population of some six million people living in the urban areas with almost half of them living in Port Moresby alone.
You can then calculate the criminal activities and related problems arising.
Will our mothers, sisters and wives be able to move around freely on the streets?
If the National Government fails to use the funds from our resources to deliver basic services to the people in the remote areas, then we are heading for trouble.
PNG is blessed with gold, copper, timber, gas and oil, oil palm, tea, coffee, rubber, nickel and yet to be discovered minerals.
We have about six million people.
If we have managed to distribute basic services and goods throughout the country evenly, Papua New Guineans would be leading a decent lifestyle today.
Look at our fellow South Pacific neighbour Fiji.
The Fijians rely only on their sugar and tourism, yet their currency, the Fiji dollar, is higher than our kina.
The question that remains to be answered is whether PNG can economically develop with the LNG project, and if it does, will Papua New Guineans be better off, say five to 10 years from now?
If we have not been able to manage the existing resources, how are we going to manage this big one as well? – MJP Via email