Youths in PNG

PAPUA New Guinea’s youths can become agents of change or they can become a very destructive force in our society.
You just have to walk the streets of our overcrowded cities and towns to get an impression of what good or evil our youngsters are capable of in a very tough economic environment.
The youths are a force to be reckoned with nowadays.
Their youthful energy has an uncanny ability to multiply itself into a myriad of ugly encounters on the streets where they congregate every day.
Recently, while waiting for a PMV at the Mt Hagen bus stop, a drunk young man walked up to me and pulled out a bush knife tucked under his trouser belt.
I put on a bold face and did not give in to his malicious intent.
He left me and instead grabbed an elderly woman nearby who was also waiting for a PMV bus.
The poor woman was scared out of her wits.
The incident I had witnessed is a scenario that repeats itself across PNG towns every week.
The experience is not new to me, but what is profoundly disturbing is that ordinary citizens are pitted against each other in their never-ending struggle for survival.
The masses are battling against each other for survival, all the while wallowing in the muddy waters of a very stifling socio-economic environment created by sinister forces from both within and beyond our borders.
Like a flock of sheep bound for the slaughterhouse, the masses are being dragged deeper and deeper into the abyss of insecurity and social disintegration.
The common folks are battling against each other all the while, not caring or seeming to know that we can find a way out of our dilemma if only we can channel our collective energies against the institutionalised injustices prevalent in this country.
We can find a way out of our dilemma if only we can seriously fight against corruption, which is the most-serious impediment to progress in our country.

Paul Waugla Wii
Wandi
Chimbu