Squatter settlements – let’s blame the victim
30 May 2011
BY PHIL FITZPATRICK
SQUATTER SETTLEMENTS are a world-wide phenomenon with an historical pedigree all their own.
In developed countries they are evident in overcrowded low socio-economic suburbs and in tenement buildings and slums. In Australia, Aboriginal squatters live in fringe camps around country towns.
In developing countries they appear as raggedy collections of shacks and lean-tos made out of scavenged materials like scrap timber, sheets of rusty iron roofing, cardboard and bits of discarded carpet. City dumps are a great resource for squatters.
It is generally believed that squatters gravitate to the cities and towns in the hope of a better life and to escape the stultifying ennui and boredom of the village. The truth is much more complex.
Migration into settlements has increased dramatically since the 1970s. In African settlements around towns like Nairobi in Kenya the populations are numbered in their millions.
Demographers tell us that the dramatic increase in rural-urban drift coincides with the rise of materialism and the perceived need to fulfil life’s expectations by accumulating wealth, “stuff” and a concomitant status.
This need to accumulate material wealth has been aided and abetted by the development of sophisticated communications and media which constantly bombard us with messages about buying things. This is the age of conspicuous consumption and the cult of celebrity. PNG hasn’t got the monopoly on cargo cults any more.
In rich western countries people are building bigger and bigger houses to hold all their “stuff”. They cut their lawns with ride-on mowers; soon we will be seeing ride-on vacuum cleaners. Self storage for the “stuff” that overflows from these McMansions is a booming new industry.
In contrast, the people who live in the settlements often revert to petty crime to get by and to get enough to eat. At the same time they become victims of crime themselves. They are preyed upon by organised criminals and slum landlords. They are also increasingly used as recruiting grounds by political warlords.
More often than not they steal from each other. Violence and fear is a constant presence. They are convenient targets for police harassment.
Where it will all end nobody knows; it is out of control and there seem to be no solutions.
Long time generational squatters are now so detached from their village origins that they cannot return even if they wanted. They have become outsiders in their own tribe.
Their rights to land and a place to cultivate a garden have been revoked by absence. The great mythical Melanesian community network has ostracised them.
So how did it all start?
Kaugere in Port Moresby is an interesting case study, although similar developments occurred in most major PNG towns. I was in Mount Hagen in 1967 and the squatter settlements there had reached the “problem” stage. Some of the squatters in Hagen were people who had had their land sold from under them by greedy bigmen so the town could expand.
Kaugere started life as an administration-built, low cost housing suburb for local government officers. There was a primary T school, a welfare and medical centre, several stores and, in the very middle, an old village cemetery.
In addition to the government employees there was a floating population of workers and labourers - both government and private. These people usually had casual employment with no provision for accommodation. They were “living with wantoks” as the expression went, and tended to aggregate into ethnic enclaves.
Many of them were domestic servants, shopgirls from Steamies and Beeps, that sort of thing. Others were just people looking for work.
Their descendants now make up a large proportion of the Kaugere population. They are permanently disenfranchised.
In 1974 the Australian administration, in a belated exercise, introduced a self-help urban housing scheme using the National Housing Commission. The scheme recognised existing urban squatter settlements like Kaugere as a legitimate urban activity that needed upgrading and improvement.
It also recognised the need to develop new settlements in conjunction with employment opportunities. The scheme went well until about two years after independence when it was deemed too costly; another case of too little too late.
Today the people there are labelled as lazy and told to go back to their villages, which they can’t do of course. Some of them don’t even know the name of their home village. They are victims in the meanest sense that they are blamed for their own predicament.
When you see a little kid rummaging around in the bins at the back of the swanky new Ela Beach Hotel for something to eat make sure you stop and remind him that his hunger is his own fault.
If you are a dimdim on a sentimental revisit to PNG consider the possibility that the little kid might conceivably be the grandson of the mankimasta who you bid a tearful farewell to all those years ago.
Phil - The alarming spread of TB and multiple drug resistant strains has been reported here before -
http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2010/11/tuberculosis-an-emerging-health-emergency.html
There are last count 16,000 NEW cases each year.
Just look at the buai spittle covering the roads in Moresby - makes it look like the tarmac is red in some intersections. This must be a contributing factor to the spread of TB.
Buai chewing is considered by health authorities to directly increase risks of diabetes, mouth cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, dental disease etc. There is much medical literature about this.
So maybe buai sellers are little better than the tobacco companies?
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 31 May 2011 at 03:59 PM
I think Martyn Namorong needs to get onto this, he's the resident insider on PNG Attitude. I also didn't realise he is a multi-millionaire entrepreneur.
And we need some health statistics. What happens when HIV positive people use buai?
And some economic data. What actually happens to all this money that slips under the government's radar? Would banning buai stop the illegal arms trade?
What actually is the government's policy on buia? Do they have a policy at all? Who is the responsible minister. Is it a legitimate agricultural pursuit? Are people selling their forests to the loggers so they can plant buai?
This is an important national issue - serious!
Posted by: Phil Fitzpatrick | 31 May 2011 at 02:24 PM
Phil - In the highlands, buai sellers travel down to Madang. From Madang they hire buses or trucks to take them all the way to the border of Madang and East Sepik to a place called Ramu base camp where they purchase their buai.
These entrepreneurs travel with a lot of cash. I once travelled down from Kundiawa to Madang on a Nissan Urvan 15-seater bus bought with buai money by a female buai seller from Kudjip market.
You can also see buses loaded with buai bags going back and forth everyday on the Okuk Highway.
I asked a lady from Wabag where she was going to sell her buai, she told me that she was going take it all the way to the mining town of Pogera. There she would sell it at a much higher price, where she would make a huge profit.
The sellers make more then public servants. For sure, it is a big informal business activity that has been going on for many years.
Posted by: Bernard Yegiora | 30 May 2011 at 10:41 PM
Phil - Re your comment about needing an article on buai. Now there's a subject that would certainly give us something to chew on.
Posted by: Paul Oates | 30 May 2011 at 09:48 PM
Peter - You did try and that matters more than failing. And it's not sad, I mean at least you tried, tried to make a difference. It's better tryng and failing than doing nothing and complaining. Cheers mate.
Posted by: Gelab Piak | 30 May 2011 at 06:37 PM
They are impressive statistics, Sil - and an aspect that I hadn't thought about. People coming to live in settlements so they can sell buai.
Isn't PNG Attitude wonderful in what it throws up as information?
The idea of a buai-millionaire is intriguing. How come the cops and politicians haven't tried to corner the market? Is there a way to collect tax revenue from buai?
That sort of move would probably get the government kicked out for sure.
As I noted in an earlier book review, Josephine Abaijah said that buai selling was the only major industry in PNG not dominated by foreign interests.
The other aspect you mention is also fascinating. All that buai juice must contain zillions of horrible germs. Has anyone got any data on that?
What sort of cancer does it cause? Is it mostly fatal?
I think we need a learned article on buai on the blog.
Posted by: Phil Fitzpatrick | 30 May 2011 at 06:04 PM
We used to live at 2 Mile in the PVA flats. It was a pleasant place with a great view, and we had many SImbu relatives living along Pruth road.
We felt completely safe to wander around at night, chatting and sharing some Buai and beer.
But one night at around 7 we were standing outside in the road waiting for a taxi and got held up at gunpoint by some rascols, who'd been hiding behind a tree. A common occurrence - maybe more fool us.
After a brief struggle they fled with my wife's bilum, my mobile phone and wallet, and our rent money for the week. Luckily no shots were fired,
We rang the police emergency number many times - no answer!. The local residents who we knew were sympathetic, but couldn't really help much.
They said - "they were Golalia boys from Kaugere, not our people. We have warned them to stay away from our street, but in the dark they got through."
One man said "I know who they are - we'll get them tomorrow."
They did catch one of the alleged rascols and dragged him along the street while he was spat upon (and worse), before taking him to the police.
I remonstrated with them, but to no avail. "You don't understand PNG ways - let us deal with him." I think he was lucky to get to the police alive.
A few days later I wandered down the street and asked - "what can we do to improve community relations here and stop this from happening?" Some local elders said "well, we have some vacant ground down there and our boys like to play volley ball, and so do the Golailas."
So I invested a few hundred kina to start up a local volley ball competition. We got nets, balls etc and organised the local lads who wanted to get involved into a couple of teams and started a lik lik competition.
A week or so later I asked the settlement elders - 'how's the volleyball competition going?"
They said "We need some more money. Someone stole the equipment and now the lads have nothing to play with." I gave a bit more money to the appointed treasurer (we'd formed a little club) and asked her to get things going again.
A week later no volleyball action was to be seen. I asked my friends, what has happened? They replied "the lady that was the treasurer took all the money and disappeared, so we have nothing again."
Maybe I'm a stupid waitman, but enough was enough. My liklik initiative came to nothing.
I regard this as my greatest failure whilst in PNG. Sad but true.
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 30 May 2011 at 01:39 PM
Phil, an interesting thing I noticed about settlements.
The population of the National Capital District is about 400,000. A quarter of these people earn an average income of K9,000 per annum through casual jobs.
They spend about K18,000 per annum through the demands outlined by social cohesion. The difference between 9,000 and 18,000 is financial pressure, however that pressure is easily met by one of the siblings through the selling of betelnut and smokes each day and night.
For example, of the 400,000 people in NCD about 100,000 are regular betelnut chewers so K1.00 x 100,000 x 10 betelnut per day x 365 days equals 365 million.
Yes, about 365 million in untaxed money circulated in the betelnut industry in one year.
Well, that is why the good Governor found it hard to stop the expansion of settlements and betelnut sales in NCD.
More people left the undeveloped rural areas to chance on this trade in NCD. To a settlement dweller in NCD the betelnut is his or her goldmine.
Hence, men and women alike, both in school & out of school young people and old people from the settlements drink more beer and are merry or troublesome from bettlenuts income than those that are enclosed inside razor wire fences who concentrate on plundering or pilfering the state coffers.
Though the living conditions are sordid, a few of these betelnut sellers with strong financial discipline have risen from the ghettos to the skyscrapers already using the settlements as a stepping stone.
By the way, in one year the 100 000 betelnut chewers spew out about three Olympic swimming pools on the streets of Port Moresby.
Posted by: Kela Kapkora Sil Bolkin | 30 May 2011 at 12:59 PM
Phil - Yes, many settlements around Moresby are constructed of lean-tos from scavenged materials and the living conditions would make most westerners look aghast.
But there is a thriving social community in most settlements - provincial groups tend to come together for support, help each other out, and there are schools, clinics, churches and decent houses in some (e.g., the Don Bosco complex near Kaugere).
There is time for mumus and cultural celebrations, playing with the kids, going on outings and seeking to find ways to improve life.
The answer isn't to 'raze the settlements' in some Draconian manner, but to build some decent infrastructure for them (roads, water, power) help improve the standard of housing.
Maybe by providing cheap loans for local housing co-ops - sort out a deal with the traditional owners for fair use of the land, and encourage community development - like Lydia's school is doing.
I have often been invited to events in the midst of settlements and met with great generosity, kindness and a community-sharing of resources which is unlikely to happen in a westernised suburb.
There are also some settlements which are gradually being transformed into decent places to live - such as ATS, the outskirts of Morata, 2 Mile etc.
My bro is building a house for the family at ATS after he was assured of permanent tenure by the local Koari landowners. It will have power and water and will be decent accommodation for families.
Surely this would be a worthwhile use of the windfall millions coming into PNG because of the mining, gas and other resource developments?
What's needed are a few decent leaders (like Parkop and Kidu) with the foresight and vision to make it so.
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 30 May 2011 at 09:33 AM