Me go round round long Moresby pinis!

After two grueling days of being stuck in the Geenpeace compound, I finally got to step out of Australian territory and into Papua New Guinea.

Those who knows the modus operandi of the vagabond wannabe would find my behaviour unbecoming. Yesterday, our plans were disrupted due to the absence of the driver who had to send a fellow staff to some remote region in the gulf, thus resulting in me being stuck in the GP compound all day long which led to me learning the local language.

Today on the other hand, me and Kyoko (fellow volunteer from Japan who is also my Pidgin language teacher) managed to finally visit the arts and craft market thanks to our driver James. Kyoko wanted to get herself some souvenirs before heading back to Tokyo this saturday; whereas I, I just wanted to step on Papuan New Guinean soil and see Port Moresby. I'm getting really sick of the harbour view from the GP office, though I won't dispute the beauty of this scenery.

What's the big deal? why bother with a driver? Have I no feet of my own to walk around? Well, I do, but the apparent crime rate of Port Moresby have singlehandedly disabled me. The staff here in the Port Moresby office insisted that we only go out with the driver James due to security reasons. Over the weekend, a guest of GP was robbed when he went sightseeing. He lost 5000 USD worth of money and equipment (he's a photojournalist and he had all his camera and gears with him) when 4 raskals (local lingo for gangsters) approached him with knifes and took everything... cash, cameras, flight tickets. One can only gasp in horror as to how such an experienced photojourno can be so careless despite the repeated warnings on local conditions.

Is the situation here in Port Moresby that bad. I would not hope so, but I sure think so. Port Moresby is rated one of the worst cities to live in, and was rated to be on par with cities like Baghdad and Kabul. No, there are no suicide bombers running around the streets, nor are there bombs that threaten to fall from the sky ramdomly... but having observed the town casually from the insides of GP's four wheel drive vehicle (Gasp...I remember how i absolutely despise those inside the confines of jeeps when I was in indo-china), I can understand why the situation can be so dangerous.

All around town, I saw loads and loads of people just loitering around, some sitting, some standing by the sidewalk doing nothing. It is said that the unemployement rate in Port Moresby is as high as 80 percent (and most of the remainder 20 percent works in security companies as guards). It is your typical cowboy town where people from all over Papua New Guinea flock in hopes of making bigpelah (a lot) money in the big city. Unfortunately, jobs are scarce and unlike back home from where everything is supplied by that big supermarket they call the jungle, they are trapped in a capitalist city where the resource owners demands money from them for access to the necessary resources. And like all third world countries, there are many resource owners whose lifestyles become the envy of the average person on the street. Therefore, having no jobs which ultimately means no money, yet still needing to survive in the city and be attracted to the lifestyle of the glitzy resource owners; leads to one desperate (yet, unfortunately common) solution... To rob from the glitzy resource owners.

Oh excuse me, who are the glitzy resource owners? Well, they're the expats of course, mostly from Australia, and a considerable amount from Malaysia (one would be surprise by the massive presence of Malaysian interest here in PNG, I'll elaborate in my future blog posts). And being foreigners, that also includes people like me and that makes me vulnerable and may add myself to the crime statistics of Port Moresby should I err im my judgement for a second. I hate this feeling of being overtly cautious about my surroundings. Everyday, I feel like I'm in prison trapped within the barbed wires of the Greenpeace office and my moments of pseudo freedom is defined by going out with a guard (though James is a really nice guy, I sometimes feel like he's my warden cause I have to walk with him all the time).

I really hate this situation, but very often I choose to believe that this is an exergerated reality defined by the economic interest of Australian expatriates here in Port Moresby, as explained by David, the Canadian lawyer who sat next to me on my flight from Singapore. It is known that all Australian government employees posted overseas receives a 'hardship severence allowance', and the amount of this allowance is on a sliding ladder where it becomes bigger when a city becomes more dangerous. Given the way this system works, it becomes exteremely advantageous for the Australians to keep reporting to Canberra that Port Moresby is really dangerous, and to overplay and exergerate actual or rumoured incidents of crime. That way, the severance allowance baloons to astronomical proportions.

Sounds very reasonable, I'd like to believe that Port Moresby is not as bad a place as it seems to be, but I reckon I'll just play it safe and follow the instructions of the staff here at Greenpeace. After all, I am in some way a sub-ordinate (though taking instructions from above is not really my forte) and I think (in a rather cynical manner) that it's all for my own good. Anyway, I'm only spending four days in Port Moresby, it's a short period of time compared to the four weeks of freedom I'll get while in Lake Murray. I was told over and over again, by both expats and locals... 'Port Moresby is not Papua New Guinea, do not be fooled by it. It is just a bad first impression. You will see Papua New Guinea when you get out of Port Moresby.' I sure do hope so.

At the craft market, Kyoko was set on buying a carved wooden mask. We set out looking at the hundreds of masks available for sale for more than an hour. We find a few beautiful looking ones that she really likes but unfortunately upon further inspection (as in when we took 10 steps back to view it), she reckoned they don't look as good from afar. I saw one that I really like, But I reckon I'll go buy it when I come back from Lake Murray (hopefully it's still there then); I'm just a little wary about how these masks are sought, So I'm gonna do my research first before I purchase it. I don't want to risk purchasing a sacred item that may contribute to the robbing of PNG's cultural heritage. We saw alot of masks, but unfortunately, Kyoko was spoilt for choice and eventually failed to make a decision as to which one to buy. Soon, James' radio sounds "GPBase to GPGuide... GPBase to GPGuide... please come in... we need you to return right now. Over (static buzz followed by 'beep')". With much disappointment, we were left with no choice but to return to the office.

I wished I had a lollipop then as Kyoko sulked all the way home. Despite that, I reckon we had a good day going out and doing stuff as opposed to doing nothing and hanging around at the office. But then again, maybe her not being able to get anything today at the art market today presents a silver lining, We'll probably go to the art market tomorrow again for a take 2. That means one less boring day.

Upon returning home, Tony (a local staff here at GP) asked me. "So, what have you done today". With much pomp and my chest up, I answered him in Pidgin... "Me go round round long Moresby pinis!", which means "I went around Moresby".