Robert@PNG

The 2006 UNITECH Cultural Show started this morning. Although the
official opening is still a couple of hours away (tis now 7:30am), a
couple of floats have already headed into town full of students dressed
in traditional bilas to do some last minute advertising.
The energy on campus has been abuzz as students get ready for this
annual event. In addition to practicing their traditional dance and
songs, the students have also been busy getting the grounds ready,
setting up stalls and putting their “bilas” together. The UNITECH
Cultural show is organised by the Student Body and not the University
Administration. I commend the students for the effort that they are
making to make this year's show possibly the biggest and the best!!
For the past week or so different sing-sing groups have been practicing
of a night around the basketball courts. Last night was the last
practice run and many started wearing their “bilas”. The setting was
almost surreal… minimal lighting, the Hagener's and the Ialibu's
marching around; the Manus drums beating, the Engans doing their thing,
and of course a couple of hundred spectators watching on.
Eli, Geoff (volunteer) and myself we were walking towards the sing-sing
practice area last night when an incident happened. There is a section
of road just before the Christian Center as one heads towards the main
administration building that is particularly dark at night due to the
lack of street lighting.
(Why can't the University spend money on the things they need rather
than the things they want??)
The three of us noticed a couple of young men (probably students) ahead,
doing what drunk people seem to do very well… making a racket,
harassing passers-by and generally being arseholes. I decided to walk
ahead of the other two (just in case) but must of walked ahead a little
to fast because as we passed the drunks one of them tried to accost Eli.
I knew something happened when Eli came running up to me to tell me that
one of the drunks had “touched” her. I started yelling abuse at the boy
in question and challenged him to “come a little closer” but he started
to walk/run away from us.
Eli was fuming and was adamant that we needed to find the culprit. I
just wanted to go and checkout some of the dancing and forget about any
possible trouble or conflict. We eventually made our way into the
practice area but Eli was still quite upset and was locked in on wanting
to find the boy as we had seen him slip under the fence that had been
erected by the students to cordon off the show area.
After about half an hour we spotted him…
By this stage we had tracked down a security guard and also a couple of
“wantoks”. We headed towards the group of Engans (the pissed kid
happened to be an Engan), Eli ready to do battle and me in tow not sure
where this would all lead. I knew I had to support Eli as what had
happened to her was totally unacceptable.
Eli walked up to this kid and slapped him one right across the face. Eli
was ropable and ready to fight. People started to gather around us
(mostly Engans) and a heated argument ensued. For the record I put in my
two bobs worth as well.
To cut a potentially long story short, we ended up in the Security
office with the drunk kid and a few Engans and wantoks in tow. PNG'ers
are born fighters but they are also great conflict resolvers. This
situation had the potential to get totally out of control but the
security staff and also the Engans, the ones that had accompanied the
drunk kid, somehow managed to settle things down. In the end the other
Engans forced an apology out of the kid and because he was very drunk
and was not able to make sense it was agreed that he and Eli would come
back to the Security Office next Tuesday to nut things and for the kid
to make a formal apology to Eli.
We eventually headed back to the dancing and singing…