Last Tuesday I returned from PNG!

February 4, 2013 at 5:50 am (Angoram, East Sepik Province, PNG Health, Wewak)

The National, 30/01/2013                                     Perhaps Gabriel Fito’s description of me as a veteran doctor is over generous!

Stories and pictures will be shortly posted, but for the present I’m suffering from the deadly kus!

I’ve just returned from a month in the Sepik. My many friends there realise what a terrible mess the country is in! The common call I heard in Angoram was, expressed in various Pidgin phrases, but all meaning that the country has gone to the dogs,and when is Australia coming back?

The greatest disservice Australia did to PNG was granting independence in 1975.

Matthias Toliman, Tei Abal, Pita Simogen, and Michael Somare’s father, Ludwig, could all say from the grave, ‘we told you so!’

When I get over the kus mi kisim, I want to write about what the Sepiks really think about the so-called colonial time, and their present ‘elites’, who have largely presided over the demise of government services, and enriched themselves and their families – they can go overseas for medical treatment and educate their children in prestigious institutions abroad.

It’s about time Australia recognises the near chaos in its neighbour, and forget about places like Afghanistan!

Excuse me for going on,and my comment might be immaterial as appropriate to Anthony Radford’s book, but the colonial period compared with the present PNG situation was utopian!

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