Too rich to be poor, What is wrong with Papua New Guinea?

The commentators of Papua New Guinea economy cite contradictions of a country so blessed with so many natural resources in the world to be so rich to be so poor. It is so poor that its citizens live in appalling conditions of human life. Papua New Guinea has never fared well in social indicators. The social indicators put the biggest and richest country in the South Pacific as having highest percentage in illiteracy, infant mortality, gender inequality, accessibility to basic government services in the region and to some indicators in the world. It is also ranked as  one of the most corrupt countries in the world.   As an ordinary citizen and a person who work with ordinary people I do ask the same question, Papua New Guinea is too rich to be poor. What is wrong with PNG?

PNG is also a country where poverty is a difficult term to define. In traditional Papua New Guinean life, poverty and wealth is not measured as the western cultures do.  A Papua New Guinean does not necessarily determine monetary possession as an only indicator of wealth. A Papua New Guinea definition of wealth can include land, family, water, bush, relatives, possessions of pigs, number of wives etc where s/he lives off those things.  This definition of wealth comes to an end of era which Papua New Guineans cannot live meaningfully with this perception. The country is living in a global community where its citizens are to be measured in terms of their ability to make money and accumulate them, use them to improve their life to the standards the world measures.

The civilised world measures riches by how much money a person makes by using resources that traditional Papua New Guineans use them to sustain life. These resources are potential wealth that can be processed for consumption which will generate revenue, that once these resources are processed and value added to their former state, buyers and consumers buy them for use.  Money is then shared through the chain of the production, the manufacturer, the recourse owners, the government,   and retailers, workers all get their share of money generated whether through labour, services or merchandizing.  That is, if all the process involved is done with honesty and integrity and fair sharing is maintained then all people involved have money in their pockets to buy goods and services to improve the quality of their life.

Because of the current state of poor social standard in Papua New Guinea, where you hardly see government services in the many parts of rural areas you do not need to be a rocket scientist to work out what happened to all those money made through the exportation of the natural resources and the foreign exchange that come into the country. What happens to all the taxes of all sorts collected by the internal revenue commission? What happened to all the international aid money incoming to the country, especially the sole major donor since colonial era, Australia?   

The contradiction we get is the economic data and analysis by so called experts who continue to give a good picture of the economy of the country, and yet the real life of the people is so bad. The road are riddle with pothole, some are even deeper than a normal standard grave depth. The bridges built by the colonial Australian administration are no longer safe to cross by truck. Some are washed away by flood cutting off communication for masses of the country. Many airstrips are unserviceable which turn quickly into playing for children. Hospitals can be confused for garages and schools for plantation shed.  Yet the politicians claim Papua New Guinea is developing and advancing. It seems to us the people that our politicians are living in the dream world and if they are not, then it only tells us that they are a bunch of liars. They have to wake up to the reality.