Re: pocket internet explorer trouble
- From: "Brad" <bradleyden@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 12:28:37 +1000
I'll have a stab at explaining my sig.
<huge pointless rant>
I am an Australian working in Papua New Guinea.
This is a third world country, unemployment is over 90% and poverty is
everywhere. This is the most beautiful country you could imagine and has all
the things that a country needs to be a paradise. Tourists would flock here
to see the jungle covered mountains with the traditional villages dotted
over the landscape (if you want to stay in one you can stay in my holiday
house, just give George the chief a 5 kilo bag of rice), the sandy beaches
where you can stay in a water side hut for less than $5 a night (again let
me know I can arrange this too, a carton of tined fish to the village elders
should get you a weeks accommodation) and the surfing beaches where you can
be the only surfer out on a perfect break. There are rich reserves of oil
and natural gas, gold is being found in many areas, timber reserves are
enormous, all of this should be the foundation for a rich country.
Problem is the crime, I have had a pistol in my face and have seen people
dragged from their car at gunpoint and beaten unconscious because they
stopped for a school crossing.
Highway robbery involves AK47's and people are often killed for
50t (10c). People are killed for witchcraft (6 last week alone). One
tribe that gets money from the gold mines shares only with immediate family
and uses the excess for guns so they can dominate the area. Schools and
hospitals are burnt down at the first sign of a land dispute and the
government is so corrupt it is unbelievable. There are few land titles
meaning nobody can prove ownership which leads to the land being "owned" by
the strongest and most ruthless tribes.
A security guard earns K1 (30c) an hour but rice and other goods are still
the same price. That guard has to provide for 10 family members on his wage
(90% unemployment). My experience has been bad with staff, With a full time
staff of only 6 I have sacked 3 people in the last 2 years because I caught
them stealing. My staff are payed well above average and have a bonus system
set up.
Medical care even in the larger cities is dismal (they run out of sutures
and bandages) even when hundreds of millions are given in foreign aid
(Australia gives over a million AU$ a day). If you build a school the land
owners want millions in compensation but will often give land then 5 years
later come in and demand the money for it even though it is their family
being educated. Same for aid posts. You can not BUY land only lease.
Telephone installations are robbed of solar panels and telephone cable is
ripped up for the copper by thieves kilometres at a time.
The world bank tries to help by providing funding for projects but the money
seems to never actually improve much. The highway system is in a state of
disrepair that nobody living in the developed world could fully understand.
at the moment land slides have closed the highway to heavy vehicles and the
cars that can get through are being extorted by villagers in the area of the
blockages for K50 per car, these are the same villages that removed the
trees from the mountain side thus causing the landslide in the first place.
Trucks that are stranded by the landslides are looted, including full
truckloads of diesel fuel which is drained into coke bottles with most of it
being wasted and spilt on the road.
Potholes, you haven't seen potholes until you've been on the highlands
highway, a 350km trip takes 7 hours. The highlands highway is the busiest
highway in the country linking the port city of Lae with 25% of the
population. It is the only link from the highlands to the port for coffee
and all other cash crops. I supply parts to trucking companies and the
average time between complete overhauls for a highway vehicle is 5000 Km and
an inspection every trip. If they break down (Em go buggerup) the entire
load is looted. Heaven help them if a driver hits one of the many pigs
wandering along the highway.
Many townships are now out of fuel and so have no electricity. The capital
of the highlands, Mt Hargen has now had the water turned off because of
land owners wanting more compensation payments. These landowners have taken
over the buildings at the waterboard and have stolen all the vehicles. Last
month land owner tribes did the same because they wanted the guards working
there from their village to be paid the same wages as an accountant here.
Rape and murder are in plague proportions and women are still bought and
sold (bride price) and are owned by the man.
Aids infection is at 2% in the cities and as high as 10% in some areas. The
church condemns the use of condoms and wants all aids advertising banned and
condoms made illegal because this is a Christian country and Christians
don't need condoms. (this is not church bashing as such, just showing a
point about the thinking here). Pali is legal and is practised by even the
politicans but adultery is illeagal (work that out). A playboy will earn you
jail time but school girls, primary and secondary, in traditional dress,
topless and only a grass skirt will be on the front page of the newspaper.
It's easy to forget the problems when looking out the window of my bush
material hut at Dom Sparkle, outside Kundiawa breathing the high altitude
air with a view of the virtually unspoilt valleys below, gardens dotted on
the hillsides for the subsistance farmers here. The chill in the air is a
welcome relief from the normal 32C temp and 90% humidity found in the costal
places. No aircon here, no power either, the toilet out the back is a
strange design (only one in the area, built because my parents came here for
a holliday) but does have a PVC pipe for ventilation. Running water is
available from the mountain spring emerging from the rock, just up the track
a bit. The house was a gift from the village for helping out some members of
the tribe and bringing them up for a funerel, we also took a quite large
pig, a pink domestic type unlike the multi coloured wild type pigs they
normally have.
I took an inverter and a printer so I could print straight from the camera
and do the A4 borderless prints on the photo paper I took. I put each in a
sheet protector (plastic sleve) so they can pin it on their wall. That was
just my small thank you for the great hospitality I always get there.
The same is true when I stay with a family in Madang in their village carved
into dense forest with houses made entirely from natural materials a short
10 minute walk from another seaside village where I can go swimming or
fishing in complete safety, looked after by the numerous children who will
follow and help the crazy whiteman (whiteman is pidgon and is used for all
white people, not a derogatry term). They also carry my gear across the
river because I might trip and get it wet. I'm 6'2" and a solid build but
they worry about me falling in the swiftly flowing stream, when they are 4'
at the tallest and built like a scarecrow.
Last time I went to stay in Bom village outside Madang I took a computer
with a 17" LCD screen and a small generator so each evening we could have a
slide show of the photos I took during the day. Both nights I was there as
soon as the two stroke generator was started a steady stream of people would
emerge from the jungle from all directions, bringing benches to sit on with
them. Quite an experience having a village of 12 people, in a jungle setting
expand to 200 for a nights entertainment only to shrink again at 10 PM when
the genset was turned off. The Jackie Chan movie went down well too.
Unfortunatly when in my normal address in Lae with the steel bars on the
windows and doors with the 8 foot fence and the razor wire at the top with
the dog handler and his killer companion walking the perimiter it is so easy
to notice these things. The neighbour was killed during the night in
November last year despite these precautions, the night after I was robbed,
thank god I didn't wake up and share his fate. Why? Because I'm white and
earn AU$45 K a year (tax is 42% for that income). That's crap money for most
of you but I wanted to see PNG. I had a computer, camera and a PPC. That and
I'm white makes me a target here in town.
There are no solutions for the problems here despite the fact this could be
paradise on earth.
Money won't fix them (first world answer to almost everything), good will
won't even come close.
Money can't give people pride in themselves and their country.
Malaria is the usual menace to young and old alike, including me. Mr Gates
has given millions in research funding for this, thanks Bill (Truthfully,
thanks), but the world wide problem would take billions. TB is rampant and
would take similar funding. I have already mentioned AIDS.
Traditional ways are gone, greed has taken over. (First world problem)
Taking an unschooled and extremely tribal population into a new century and
trying to provide a safe and fulfilling life for all, without exploiting all
the natural resources that make this country beautiful. That's a third world
problem.
What can be done to release this beautiful country from the grip of what has
taken it hostage.
</huge pointless rant>
Short answer.
Trying to find a 1st world answer to a 3rd world problem aint easy.
A. I use the GPS to plot the bigger potholes so I don't hit them on the way
back.
Trying to find a 3rd world answer to a 1st world problem isn't a walk in the
park either.
A. Try to buy any computer non standard part here!!!
Photos available upon request.
--
Brad Leyden
6° 43.5816' S 146° 59.3097' E WGS84 (My work address, Google earth it)
To mail spam is really hot but please reply to thread so all may benefit (or
laugh at my mistakes)
"haseebsaqaf" <haseebsaqaf@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:haseebsaqaf.258e8m@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I dont understand what is meant by the words
"Trying to find a 1st world answer to a 3rd world problem aint easy.
Trying to find a 3rd world answer to a 1st world problem isn't a walk
in the
park either".
Since i am a new member to this site and the topics,please bear with me
for the mistakes if any
Thank you
Haseeb saqaf
--
haseebsaqaf
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