Robert@PNG

A School Fete to celebrate the opening of a
new classroom, a showground full of relatives, lots of rain and photos but more
than anything else… a heap of people off their face and plenty of associated
drunken behaviour.

A shame really, the week long show would
have better been named: “Drunken Fete” rather than “School Fete”.  Most School Board members, the Headmaster,
many men, women and youths, stupefied, undignified and sloshed to the eye
balls.

As an invited guest I was invited to sit on
the main stage whilst waiting my turn to speak. Whilst sitting and listening to
the speeches which seemed to go on forever, one of the School Board members
fell asleep on the stage in view of all. Later in the day and after a youth
smashed up one of the stalls in a drunken rage, Eli and I decided to call it
quits.

Papua New Guineans can drink like there’s
no tomorrow and once drunk can display behaviour that would leave the Visigoths
for dead. When we arrived in “Basis” on the Friday morning we started to hear
stories of how the locals drank, partied and danced all week. Fights ensued,
people were hurt and unfortunately many women and children wandered around in
fear. I’m not particularly frightened of drunks but Eli is and out of respect
for her we tend to avoid antisocial behaviour and drunks like the plague.

The morning after our stay at Ester’s hut
(one of Uncle Joel’s daughters) we heard that the locals had got into a brawl
at which one guy got his face cut up with a broken beer bottle and Uncle Fred’s
car had its windscreen smashed. As we were walking back to Mangiro Junction in
the morning to catch a PMV back to Goroka, we stopped and chatted with Uncle
Fred and associates for a little while. I noticed the lad with the cut up face,
the smashed windscreen and also the general blasé attitude of the “men”.
There’s an expression in Tok Pisin: “drink like a white man and get drunk like
a Papua New Guinean.

The problems with drinking, gambling and
smoking pot in Papua New
Guinea are a grave concern. These social
problems are slowly eating away at the very fabric of PNG society. I’m all for
the occasional head bang and party but not at the expense of respect and
dignity. The amount of money that was spent on grog at the “Basis” show would
have added up to the thousands of Kina. Many of these folk that wasted their
precious bucks on senseless oblivion will now be trying to scratch two coins
together to pay for the school fees of their kids.

I have been in PNG for two years now and been
to a number of sporting, cultural and social events. It seems that antisocial
and drunken behaviour is tolerated by the average Papua New Guinean beyond
reason. I don’t understand this, the nationals and especially the Highlanders
have an incredible sense of justice, an inbuilt mechanism for being able to
discern right from wrong. So why do they tolerate such unacceptable behaviour?
I have mentioned to a few people since the weekend that there is no way I would
take any of my family or friends to the “Basis” School Fete ever. Firstly, the
combination of alcohol and the PNG male generally leads to violence and
secondly it’s an aspect of the Papua New Guinean which is embarrassing,
shameful and potentially deadly.