The Papua New Guinea Futurist

K6 billion in trust funds have been reduced to K600 million kina. Billions have gone out the door without anyone knowing who has taken it, where it has gone? We have just passed K6 billion budget for 2011 which is a record for PNG’s history. Meanwhile development in POM is booming and consumption of luxuries has increased which is reflected in the SP Brewery expansion project showing the demand for alcohol etc. Luxury cars with a lot of property being purchased in Australia. Meanwhile, outside of Port Moresby, women are dying in childbirth. People are dying from preventable diseases. Schools with no school books or buildings. Impassable roads. No electricity. No government presence. Development funds used to fund personal bank accounts for politicians and their cronies. Given the fragmentation of society driven by the geographical features of PNG, it can result in many individual developments where people in an area will get together and contribute and build an aid post. Then they will

Given the population size in Papua New Guinea and the assumption that the standard deviation applies across large populations, you would think that there will be a majority of normal people with a small percentage of mentally retarded people and also a small percentage of genius within the 6 million people of PNG. All great nations have fostered their genius’s who have developed innovative solutions and have provided the impetus for national growth. The challenge for us especially the education system is to identify these individuals wherever they may be and to develop them quickly through the system so that they are able to contribute fully to national development. Think about Genghis Khan, who was known to have massacred everyone he conquered, always saved the best and brightest from all the nations he conquered because he knew that they would contribute more to his kingdom. Think of Los Alamos and the American effort to develop the Atom Bomb. Think about the American drive to put a

The current education system cannot cater for the growing population. The quality of education is not preparing PNG to be able to compete in the future world where the world will be more connected with money, materials and people being able to move around more easily, PNG workers will always be at a disadvantage. Over 90% of the population attend the public school system where even the brightest students are “dumbed down” by the experience. The privileged few who can send their children to private schools or even better to overseas schools will find that their children will have the pick of the jobs and will be in positions to perpetuate the power that their parents have started to build. The vast majority will end up as security guards and shop keepers whilst this country’s resources are controlled by the few elites.