The Papua New Guinea Futurist

Ever since ancient times, roads were the core infrastructure around which civilizations grew and flourished. Towns emerged from cross roads where travelers rested on their way to their destinations. Initially to support the travelers – replenish supplies and care of their pack animals. Good roads enabled the army to mobilize and move quickly to counter a threat in any part of the kingdom. Roads allowed goods and services to flow efficiently and allowed the government to monitor and collect revenue from the business transacted through the roads. It allowed the diffusion of new technology or customs to spread throughout the civilization freely and quickly. Upon roads were civilizations built. The dilemma for PNG is how to bring development to our people. We have a whole host of things that we feel will improve the living standards for our general populations. We have global organizations – UN programs - WHO, World Bank etc all espousing certain indicators which they see from their histor

THE GOVERNEMENT CASH COW The Papua New Guinea government is viewed as a cash cow for ambitious and corrupt groups of individuals both within and outside of the government bodies. Due to the lack of controls and punishments for corruption, this siphoning of public monies is more pervasive and will continue on for some time. Parliament cannot mange this because the key players are complicit in the rorts. Implication Most of the development funds etc will not get to the projects for which they are intended for. The national development indicators will not increase. If this continues for 10-20 years, there will be a strong resentment towards the government felt by the rural people. It is possible that their may be revolts and calls for autonomy. CLOSE TIES BETWEEN BUSINESS & POLITICS. The close ties between business and the kickbacks to politics will affect the free market performance and PNG will loose out on the efficiencies that come from a robust free market – where there is an eve

The future of the country looks bright with the LNG project coming on line, however if one looks closely at the horizon, there are dark clouds of crisis forming that the people of PNG need to be wary of (1) Upcoming elections (2) LNG (3) State Security Services (1) Upcoming Elections The recent Kandep elections is an indication of what will happen when you have determined candidates combined with large sums of money, high powered weapons & supporters determined to do whatever it takes to win the election. The resources of the State were stretched however it was able to manage because there were no other security issues happening concurrently. Now imagine if there were a minimum of 2 or 3 “Kandep” type elections at the same time in 2012. (2) LNG The money flowing into the Hela region as well as into the pockets of a few elite people in Government is huge. Some have been spent on purchasing of weapons. Combine this with frustrations regarding the perceived overbearing behavior of the

The essence of this blog and it's contents are captured in the image above. I will endeavour to explain the past; highlighting the key factors and their impact on our development as a nation. I will then investigate the key trend in the current phase in PNG's development and the current national goals. Then I will look at the alternate development paths in order to achieve our national goals. Bear in mind that this is a journal, so there is no end. The discussion will continue with revisions once new information is uncovered or assumptions are challenged and changed. Thus it is in the best interest of the reader to assist with the most up to date information or the best assumptions for the discussion to bear fruit.

This blog will be my attempt to voice my opinions and hopefully several other peoples opinions regarding the future of Papua New Guinea as a nation. It will be used to generate and shape ideas that can be used now or in the future. It is by looking forward that we can set the right course towards our destiny. There will be commentary and analysis or in lieu, rants and ravings about current practises and events; however these will all be examined with the future in mind. So welcome on this journey of discovery and let's see what the future has in store for PNG. For those who are interested in the discussion & want to contribute, please send your email to levongoj@gmail.com . I aim to post at least weekly.