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Bleak & black year shook Land of the Respected

Big Pat  Fatima Secondary School  Banz
During the year Big Pat turned right instead of left and ended up at Fatima Secondary School in Banz

PATRICK (BIG PAT) LEVO
| Papua New Guinea Post-Courier

PORT MORESBY - In all of the meandering years in the life of Papua New Guinea, 2021 had to be the big meander.

The colours were there, the love and laughter were there, the sadness, emotion, losses, highs and lows, the bleakness of our long-suffering population and blackness of ethereal poor governance were all intertwined to make 2021 stand out.

In a nutshell, 2021 will be remembered as the year that shook PNG to the core.

The biggest and most enduring life changer was Covid-19.

Like a thief in the night, it descended on our lives. It robbed our children of their innocence. It stopped our businesses dead in their tracks. It stole our bread.

It stole the breath of our nation builders.

This year we will still be waking, walking and wandering with Covid-19.

It was and is the most tumultuous health issue ever, hovering over the gardener in a remote valley, the bush driver in town, the business executive in the city.

Big or small, rich or poor, we all face the same anxiety.

Covid-19 was on everyone’s lips and in everyone’s ears.

It is a global event that is still unraveling and we cannot predict what it holds for us in 2022.

Now you can’t go anywhere without a face mask. But we must rise to the occasion.

We must be resilient like our forefathers. We must face it. The Kumul will fly.

So many of our fathers and forefathers left us over the past year: Sir Mekere Morauata, Sir Pita Lus, Sir Philip Bouraga, Sir Paulias Matane, Sir Ramon Thurecht, Sir Ronald Tovue and the Chief of Chiefs, Grand Chief Sir Michael Thomas Somare.

Men who walked and talked with giants, whose dreams and aspirations – Covid-19 or not – we must carry in our hearts and move forward.

That is the challenge that awaits our bones in 2022.

One could only wonder as we wandered tearfully from one hauskrai to the next mourning house. Why?

In one swoop, 2021 took our history book and shook the knights of our realm out of its pages.

Men whose colourful and storied existence led to the birth of our nation.

How said indeed it is that a country loses its foundation so suddenly. Shaken to the core.

While mainland PNG mourned the loss of Sir Mekere, Kerema MP Richard Mendani, Middle Fly MP Roy Biyama and recently Middle Ramu MP Johnny Alonk.

Bougainville was not spared. The island is reeling from losing its Regional MP, Joe Lera, and just two weeks ago, Central Bougainville MP Sam Akoitai. Our leadership shaken to the core.

Doing what he does best  Big Pat confuses Max Tomlinson
Doing what he does best,  Big Pat confuses former Post-Courier chief,  Max Tomlinson

It was also a historic year for PNG. Sixty-four years after Sir Michael shook his fist at Australia and demanded: “Let my people go”.

Bougainville has done the same, voting overwhelmingly to secede from PNG in a referendum.

Two weeks ago, its president declared: “Let my people go!” Shaken to the core!

Ethnic violence — 1,000 tribes in distress with violence becoming an everyday happening, Tari versus Kerema, Kange versus Apo, Kaimo versus Igiri, Goi versus Tari, threatening the very fabric of our unity.

Our knights in their freshly dug tombs would be turning in their graves.

Family and sexual violence against women and children and the ugly head of sorcery related violence.

I mean, how dare we call ourselves a Christian nation and tolerate such evil? How dare you men accuse our women, mothers, sisters and daughters, and murder them in cold blood?

What more can we, as a newspaper, say? We have spent copious amounts of sheet and ink, more than enough on these issues.

We have raised our anger, we have commiserated with those in power. The message is not getting through to the men of this nation. Where have all the good men gone?

Law and order wise, the name Tommy Baker raised the spectre of piracy, armed robbery, shootouts with law enforcement and a million kina manhunt that failed to corner him.

Until he was shot dead by police this past week, the self-styled pirate was still out there in Milne Bay, hiding, abiding in time, waiting to strike again.

The Nankina cult group on the Rai Coast and its murderous rampage also shocks us, as a reminder of the Black Jisas uprising that went wrong two decades before.

Add the consistent and constant power blackouts in the major cities and towns.

This is hardly a sign of progress, especially when the management of the major power company PNG Pawa Ltd has been changed three times.

However, yes, we need to remember this too. In our topsy-turvy perennial spin, some major positive developments need to be mentioned.

The giant Porgera mine was shut down and promised to be reopened, Ok Tedi, Kumul, BSP and IRC all handed the government a gold card standard in millions of kina dividends.

And the government has signed for a gold refinery in PNG for the first time.

The passing of a K22 billion budget. That is, in the finest words of my best friend, “lousy, preposterous”.

Never before has the budget being built around such a humongous money plan.

Spending money is easy but raising it sounds very challenging. Therein lies the challenge.

The most important part is to ensure this money plan reaches the unreached, that service delivery will go where the ballot boxes somehow manage to reach on election days.

Big Pat and portable armrest
Big Pat never goes anywhere without his portable armrest

One noticeable explosion of knowledge is the awareness of social communications platforms.

For better or worse, Facebook has taken a stranglehold of the lives of ordinary Papua New Guineans.

Communication around the country has changed overnight at the touch of a button or dial of a mobile phone.

In sport – the heart of the nation missed a beat when star Justin Olam was overlooked in the Dally M awards.

A major uproar in PNG and popular support down under forced the organisers to realign the stars. Justin easily pocketed the Dally M Centre of the Year.
The good book, the Holy Bible, says there is a season for everything.

Maybe we are in a judgement season, being tried and tested and refined.

Only we can come out of that judgement refined and define the course of our country – from Land of the Unexpected to the Land of the Respected.

We will remember the 365 days of you, as the jingle fiddles our imagination, we were all shook up.

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