Evil music, tribal warfare & cultures of violent death
24 July 2015
DANIEL KUMBON
THOMAS Edison invented the phonograph with good intentions for people to enjoy music. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone for easy communication.
But in the modern era, with all the advances in technology and knowledge, society has abused these milestone creations to gratify the desires of the flesh. Filth is transmitted through the airwaves.
A friend of mine took me to a night club in Akron, a lively town near the city of Cleveland in America. A crowd of young people was dancing to American rock music.
One of the songs included a newly released rap song about a serial killer named Jeffery Dahmer. He shocked America and the world when he confessed to killing and dismembering 17 young men.
Dahmer also confessed to sexually abusing some of the corpses. He was sentenced to consecutive life sentences for 15 of the murders. My friend encouraged me to dance. But I could not. The disgusting lyrics resonating in the room and in my mind was too much to bear even after a few Canadian Molsons.
Perhaps I was biased, since, in my own Enga Province, people continued to fight and kill each other over the most petty arguments. How could I blame others when a man from the Upper Lagaip area of Laiagam killed his own blood brother over a pig given at a compensation payout?
And how about the brutal murder of an innocent woman and mother of two small children, also in Laiagam, her head severed by a single swing of a bush knife? The man who killed her thought she was his own wife in the company of another man.
In another incident, two men from Laguni in Kandep district were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for killing their relative during an argument over a single pandanus nut tree.
The National Court judge told the two men before sentencing: “None of your clan gave evidence as to who did the killing…. Until you all stop fighting, we cannot get proper development in Papua New Guinea because we waste so much money on police, courts and fixing things up which you destroy.
“It takes many years for a man to grow, yet you kill him in one minute. You are not a big man by fighting. In Papua New Guinea today, big men keep law and order, run businesses, grow coffee and solve problems by talking things through. If you don’t want to, we will send you to jail for many years.”
At one stage, the judge declared the law and order situation in Enga to be out of control. He became tougher.
Kungus Kot was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of murder.
“This was a deliberately planned attack with axes and bows and arrows on the deceased who was working in his garden,” the judge said. “This type of tribal conflict killing is continuing to play havoc with the development of this part of the country and is preventing all attempts to have a peaceful and orderly society….”
In the United States, I witnessed hideous crimes reported in the powerful press. And people continued to kill each other in PNG.
I began to question what was needed to wipe out serious crime altogether in America, PNG and elsewhere in the world.
I ordered a couple more Canadian Molsons and tried to drown out my thoughts as my friend kept dancing.
Peter, I saw the effects of the poll tax riots in Trafalgar Square in the middle of London in 1989. I will bring it to you soon in PNG Attitude.
I smile at Chris's description of us human beings 'No sabre tooth tiger, mammoth or moa was safe in the face of a bunch of smart, armed, organised and determined human hunters.'
This clever little fellow is also stupid like a firefly that plunges to its death in a raging fire at night.
And Paul, I agree: 'the seeds of our own destruction are already within us.'
Posted by: Daniel Ipan Kumbon | 24 July 2015 at 03:18 PM
I think old Stanley was a pacifist and thought that war and violence were caused by eating too much protein and by too much sitting around doing nothing.
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 24 July 2015 at 01:21 PM
Chris - looking at the history of riots in London is interesting.
It includes riots between tailors and goldsmiths, riots against riots against brothels, the weavers riots, and riots against the rise in prices of theatre tickets! And who can forget The Battle of Bow Street, when Australian, American and Canadian servicemen rioted against the Metropolitan Police
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_riots_in_London
PS. If you're interested in the amazing history of old London town I recommend 'London: The Biography' by Peter Ackroyd. (There's even a picture of me as a student in the background of the Stanley Green pic after page 664!
I used to love this old bloke parading up and down with his placard 'Less passion, from protein...and Sitting. There's a message there for all of us.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Green
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 24 July 2015 at 12:28 PM
You've touched on the real problem of the human species. The seeds of our own destruction are already within us. All we see are the symptoms.
Yet no one in authority seems either competent or willing to address the disease. That begs the question: Is there a cure at all?
Are we merely seeing the effects of over population, lack of effective law and order and an unwillingness to confront the real problem since it won't buy any votes.
Experiments years ago with rats in a closed environment with limited food and water produced exactly the same results as we are seeing and have seen since human history has been recorded throughout the world.
A certain percentage of people do not seem able to make the quantum leap from the limited responsibility of a child to the subsequent full responsibility of adulthood.
The harsh treatments handed out in previous times may yet have to be resurrected or as is the case in many countries these days, the rich live behind barb wire and high security measures and the poor bear the brunt of violence and misery. Until the revolution happens......
We seem to be condemned by our own genes to constantly be wound up in a cycle of violence and warfare. Some ancient societies presumably gave up of philosophizing how to be better and just accepted warfare and violence as a fact of life. It remains to be seen if we, with all our knowledge, information and experience can do any better.
Regrettably, it doesn't seem so does it?
Posted by: Paul Oates | 24 July 2015 at 11:08 AM
All human beings share common ancestry.
DNA sequencing has unequivocally demonstrated that no matter who we are or where we live, we are related in some way.
Thus we share many common characteristics, not least of which is the willingness to harm or even kill other humans in the right (or wrong) circumstances.
To become the earth's top predators, we needed to excel in the business of killing and our big brains, manual dexterity, mastery of technology and ability to work together in groups helped us do this.
No Sabre Toothed Tiger, Mammoth or Moa was safe in the face of a bunch of smart, armed, organised and determined human hunters.
The only difference between the so-called "primitive" peoples of the world and those who purport to be "civilised" is the thinnest veneer of moral, social and self control.
A fully armed and armoured Norman Knight, both in training and disposition, was not really very much different to a PNG Fight Leader of the same period, just much more dangerous.
The large scale rioting seen in London a few years ago was carried out mostly by educated, relatively well off youngsters who thought that random acts of violence and theft was a bit of a lark.
So much for civilisation.
As I recall, some 1400 of them subsequently went to prison for varying periods, their previously cossetted lives counting against them in the view of the Courts.
Adherence to the rule of law, patchy as it is in much of the world, mostly keeps murderous anarchy at bay.
We need Police Forces and Courts to help keep our basest, primal instincts in check.
So Daniel should not be too despondent about PNG just yet.
Papua New Guineans do not have a mortgage on violence and murder and they are, in fact, not even close to the worst offenders.
One look at the Middle East, the so-called cradle of civilisation, should be enough to know that.
Posted by: Chris Overland | 24 July 2015 at 09:29 AM