I Can See My Country Clearly Now Daniel Kumbon Memoirs of a Papua New Guinean Traveller United Kingdom, USA & Mexico City Copyright © 2016 Daniel Kumbon All rights reserved. ISBN - 10: 1530843952 ISBN-13: 978-1530843954 Cover Photograph: Alponse Menan Agricultural Officer Kandep DEDICATION This book is dedicated to the memory of Lt. Barney Nelson, E A Markham, my parents and Uncle Wariaka. And to all my children and grandchildren - Penial Kumbon, Atu Benedict Kumbon, Dominica & Emmanuel Kumbon Roa, Forstina, Abiniko & Popene Martin and the un-named ones to follow CONTENTS Foreword i Preface v Colonisation and Independence 1 Born Into a Primitive Society 2 My First Christmas: Fr. Gerald J Theis SVD, Rev Dr Otto C Hintze, Pioneer SDA Pastors & A Pastor With an Array of Guns 12 Against All Odds: The Success Stories of Two Village Girls & A Sibling Saves a Life 25 Sir Tei Abal a Founding Father of the Nation & the Aftermath of Independence 34 In the United Kingdom 45 Our Grand Adventure Was to Fly Over Those Mountains and Beyond 46 Life in Cardiff - Wales & Meeting ‘Wantoks’ in the United Kingdom 57 Archie Markham's View of Enga & Dying for a Drink 67 Women at Work and Poverty on the Streets of London and New York. And PNG? 72 Acid Rain, OK Tedi Environmental Damage & Softening the Impact of Change at Porgera 77 Conservation Efforts in the UK & the Sad State of the Great Kandep Swamplands 88 Norman Cathedrals, Thomas Cook, Flag Fen & the Rapid Journey of a Stone Age Highlands People 94 Lost and Found, Talking Space Travel at Cambridge University & My Neighbourhood Friends 98 In the United States of America 104 A Call of Black Kinship 105 Lt Barney Nelson – My World War II Veteran & Generous Americans 111 Flight of the Jews & Thomas Alva Edison the boy with the addled mind 118 Evil Music. Action Movies. Tribal Warfare & Cultures of Violent Death 123 Photographs 127 Clashing with Western Culture Head on & Population Explosion 139 Democracy or Not to Be – Lessons From an African Experience 145 The Slave’s House: Remembering the Cruelty of Man Against Man 150 Racism, Individualism & Making it Big in a Changing Society 153 Unexpected Loss: Sir Michael Somare’s Defeat at the United Nations & New York, the City of Cities 156 Zoos, Galleries & Museums: All Around the World in One Place 161 Country Roads Just Like Home 164 Mexico City & Political Upheavals at Home 167 AIDS: Confessions of a Sinful Life & Crying for a Vaccine in the City of the Gods 168 Losing a Relative to AIDS & Blight of Violent Rapes of Defenseless Women 178 Defeating the Culture of Corruption in PNG: Will ICAC Do It? And a Warning Against Complacency 190 The Mysterious Disappearance of the Five Goroka Scientists 195 Predicted in a Dream: Death of Wabag MP – Takai Kapi & Murder & Lifestyle Disease Depletes PNG’s Shining Stars 201 Dream Unfulfilled: the Political Career of Enga’s Malipu Balakau 209 Don Polye and the K3 billion UBS Loan Controversy for Oil Search Shares 213 The fall of Danely Tindiwi & the Rise of Peter Ipatas 222 PNG is Like Holding a Butterfly in Your Hands and Risk That it Will Fly Away 228 From the German Doctor’s Idea, a Great Project is Born 233 Mountain Home by Luke Puye 237 Glossary 238 Bibliography 240 About the Author 243 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my sincere thanks to Philip Fitzpatrick of Pukpuk Publications, Keith Jackson of PNG Attitude blog, Patrick Levo and Carmella Gware for having published some of the stories in the Post Courier Weekender as well as Robert Upe of Air Niugini’s in flight magazine - Paradise. Dr Polly Wiessner for encouragement and taking the time to write the foreword. And not forgetting Rose Pakio who typed some of the stories on manual typewriters when computers, laptops and digital cameras were not yet available. I owe a debt of graditude to the former British High Commissioner to PNG, His Excellency Michael Howell for showing me the way to travel to his country on my very first visit to a foreign land. And the organisations that made it possible for my study trips – The Commonwealth Media Development Fund, The Thomson Foundation based in Cardiff, Wales, the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship program, now renamed Alfred Friendly Press Partners based at Reynolds Journalism Institute, Missouri School of Journalism and the National Press Foundation based in Washington DC. I thank Jim Fenton, Noline Allan (wife of kiap late Ross Allan), Moira and Lloyd Warr for kindly allowing me to publish precious pictures of Kandep taken during the colonial period. And Arther Williams for allowing me to use his full article published in PNG Attitude about plantation conditions during the Highlands Indentured Labour scheme on Bougainville. I thank all the generous people who helped cushion culture shock in the countries I visited – Val Williams, his wife and staff of the Thomson Foundation Editorial Study Centre in Cardiff, Steven Sula and his parents, Donna and David Minich, Professor Gary Weaver, Susan Talalay, staff of the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship, members of the Alfred Friendly family, staff of the National Press Foundation who made sure our stay in Mexico City was comfortable, Peggy and late David Nalle, Dr Paul Brennan, his brother David and Janet Brennan, Joe Daprano and his parents, family members of late Lt Barney Nelson, family members of late Archie Markham, Doug Montero and staff members of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, James Smith, Frank Hutchins and staff members of the Charleston Daily Mail and not forgetting Brent Cunningham and his mother in West Virginia. Also Bob Meyers and his staff at the National Press Foundation who made sure our stay in Mexico was comfortable. Diplomate and later member for Lagaip/Porgera, Cappa Yarka who accommodated me in New York City during Sir Michael Somare’s bid for election as President of the United Nations General Assembly. Philip Kikala who took over as member for Lagaip Porgera (2008 – 2012). The Lason Watai family and Cr Paul Kurai of Kaiap village, Wabag, Enga province. And the many collegues I met in England (1989) United Staes of America (1991) and Mexico City (2008) – all of whose company I enjoyed as we explored this wide wide world together. FOREWORD There are few societies that have travelled from the Stone Age into the global economy of today as rapidly as the inhabitants of Enga Province in Papua New Guinea. Prospectors and explorers first moved through the area in the early 1930s, followed the Taylor- Black Hagen-Sepik patrol in 1938-9 and the establishment of a patrol post at Wabag. Isolated by World War II, most of Enga did not come under control of the Australian Administration until the 1950s and 60s. The people of Enga had a cultural heritage that equipped them with the skills to adapt to the changes to come. Traditional values promoted hard work, competition, generosity and cooperation. Complex systems of exchange involving up to 40,000 people and the distribution of over 100,000 pigs were in full swing by the time Australian patrols first entered Enga. From such systems for the exchange of wealth to build social ties, Enga had acquired skills of complex networking, planning, timing and economic calculations necessary to join the global economy. Elaborate religious rituals united entire tribes and fostered cooperation. Other Enga traditions made transitions rocky. When insult, injury and other disputes could not be solved through restorative justice, people turned to inter-clan warfare. This legacy remains today. Young men were strictly educated and disciplined by elders in the Sangai and Sandalu ceremonies that were effective in the past. However, they were discontinued with the arrival of missions and the opening of schools, leaving a serious void in the education of youths. Men’s and women’s houses separated the sexes, with men participating in the public realm and women relegated to the i Daniel Kumbon I Can See My Country Clearly Now domestic. This barrier is only gradually being dismantled today. Daniel Kumbon’s journey begins in his childhood in 1955 with memories of a terrifying eclipse of the sun that brought darkness over PNG. The event was read as the end of the world. In a sense it was, for it marked the beginning of the eclipse of the world as the Enga had known it. Thereafter kiaps and missionaries arrived to build roads, churches, schools and health facilities. Daniel Kumbon’s account alternates from his memories of childhood to short vignettes that chronicle the lives, teaching and influence of missionaries whose dedicated work had lasting impact. Such local histories after contact with Europeans are not well recorded. Future generations will value information about these early agents of change, as well as glimpses into the lives Papua New Guineans who took advantage of opportunities and rose in prominence. The narrative turns to Daniel’s journeys as a journalist to foreign lands and his impressions, encounters and reflections of his own society. While lost in London, he notes the value placed on life by the British in stark contrast to PNG where life is cheap and many lives are lost to accidents and violence. But he also deplores the many homeless begging in the streets and comes to appreciate the wantok system of his own country where the needs of individuals are spontaneously met by relatives. In Wales and East Anglia, he is confronted with environmental concerns for his country where resources are currently being harvested with little care about the impact on environments that appear so abundant. Environmental issues so concerned him that he planted 2000 trees on his land upon returning home.