Keynote Address by Hon. John Pundari, MP

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Presented on the Occasion of the Opening of the National Youth Forum and GUIC MOST Workshop, 22nd November 1999

It is indeed an honour for me to have been invited to deliver the keynote address to this week long forum as the Minister responsible for youth. I welcome you all from different youth groups, community-based organisations, voluntary groups, and agencies to this forum.

Our young people have indeed, taken the back seat in our Nation's development for too long. Times have changed and so are the ways in which the affairs of our family and communities are being managed. They want to be heard and to make a contribution to the development of this country positively. They want to be part of the development process. This call from our youth does not necessarily call for discussion without practical plans and solutions. All of you who are gathered here today have a responsibility to help them mould their aspirations into practical plans in this week's forum.

Youth have for too long been associated and defined in the darker side of our society. Many of us tend to look upon them as a group of undisciplined, ruthless, and problematic group of youngsters within our society. In our planning and distribution of our resources, they have been classified as liabilities in our plans and development initiatives. This appears to be true for those outside of the formal school system.

However, how many have thought about the hidden potential these young men and women have? I do not think many people have seriously considered this question. Youth can be a resource for any progress society if it knows exactly what to do with the potential of its young people. This calls for a concentrated effort from all sectors of our society. The government cannot address all the needs of our people. It also needs the support of those in business, churches, informal education sector, agriculture, community governments, community-based organisations and parents themselves.

We live today in a society that is in transition, one that has come out of the traditional society context and is rapidly attempting to be on par with the rest of the world.. In doing so, we are confronted with social, cultural and economic upheavals that has transformed and disorientated the way we plan, judge others and perceive the world around us. The effects of this transformation are real and will be around for some time yet to come. Therefore we must be prepared to change and adopt new approaches to our problems in order to exist as a nation. If we are not able to make amends to our system of government, to our cultural norms and values, hen w will be consumed by our own ignorance of toady's realities.

This calls for us to live in the future, to learn from the mistakes of the past and of other countries so that we can plot our destiny with confidence. Our youth will be the future and will be the custodians of what we build today. A good future awaits them if we plan it now.

However, if our younger generation do not get involved in formulating policies nor involved in our process of governance, the biases that we hold today will only be their detriment in the future.

Papua New Guinea is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Our children their rights and welfare must be protected. On the same note, we have responsibility to our young men and women. Unless we respect and love them as one of our own, they will continue to show disrespect to us if they feel that we do not care for them.

Finally, may I thank the PNG commission for UNESCO and Peace Corps for sponsoring this forum. I also wish to thank all youth volunteers and representatives for making yourselves available to his forum. And I will be looking forward to the recommendations of this forum.

Motu-Koita Youths Voice: the Sleeping Giants

Presented by Eava Geita and Yvonne Kariko Participants and Representatives of the Youths of Motu-Koita Thursday November 25

Introduction

First of all, on behalf of all he Youths of Motu-Koita, I would like to thank UNICEF, UNESCO, Peace Corps and organising Committee for their part and help, one way or another, in organising and ensuring the smooth running of this Workshop and National Youth Forum. I would also like to thank the Organising Committee, Dr Karen, Lindsay and Mr Haraka Gaudi for giving us, the Motu-Koita Youths, the opportunity to air our voice as landowners of Port Moresby.

Giving us this wonderful opportunity merely shows that we - the Motu-Koita Youths are being given some great deal of recognition as least by international organisations and or by concerned and true citizens of this nation.

Challenge of growing up in the city

I grew up in a village where like many other Motu-Koita villages, we are surrounded by squatter settlements on the one hand and on the other hand, there is the swarming of our native villages and traditional land boundaries by the city and its rapid expansion and developments.

From my experiences and from the experiences of many Motu-Koita Youths there has always been very sharp contradictions between our native traditions and customs and the western lifestyle which the city perhaps characterises. It is indeed very sad that, apart from reasons of the introduction of religions and church missions, we have lost almost all of our cultural heritage, our traditions and customs because of the rapids expansion and development of the city and its western lifestyle.

The challenges that we face growing up in the city are numerous and very difficult. Undoubtedly, we are struggling to cope with the pressures and effects of Urbanisation. For example, we have to force ourselves to live in harmony with the swarming squatter settlers on our traditional lands. We are struggling to cope with the adverse effects and impacts of the city's rapid pace of development and expansion. For example, on one hand there is the overtaking of our traditional lands ie. as apparent in the seashore developments and there impacts on the local environment. On the other hand, there is the sharp contradiction between western lifestyle which the city characterises and our traditional and cultural heritages and customs.

This struggle to cope with the impacts of all aspects of the cities development has led to loss of sense of direction for many young Motu-Koita people growing up in the city. We do not tend to realise what is good for us and what is not. We do not tend to know what really are our needs and what we're expected to do and what is expected of others within our ever changing society. And often this is where maturity plays a big part in our lives. One has to make very difficult decisions between having to lead a more controlled life for the betterment of their future while they're young, while on the other hand pressure is being placed on them to live very loose or uncontrolled lifestyles.

I grew up in a village where like many other Motu-Koita villages we are surrounded by settlements. Over the years young native villagers have been greatly influenced by the unruly behaviour within the surrounding squatter settlements, thus young native villagers end up taking drugs, getting actively involved in drug dealing activities and rascalism. Unemployment or lack of employment opportunities and lack of education incentives are often said to have been the causes. After all these are some of the difficulties evident of young Motu-Koita people growing up in the city.

Political Scenario re Youths involvement in development

You may have heard leaders saying that youths have spoken through their elected representatives. That simply means we voted them into office and so whatever our leaders decided, that's it, the youths together with others have spoken. Unfortunately this is all highly artificial for us Motu-Koita and us young people.

I am very much convinced that very little has been done in terms of our equality and participation on the political, economic and social life and development of this city. For so long now, we have been robbed of our possessions, our rights and our interests in the city's development. Apparently something is wrong somewhere.

Among other things I wish to point to the fact that there are existing legislative framework of our Provincial and Local Level government system that definitely does not do us, the Motu-Koita any good. For example, the reforms on the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level governments provides a mechanism for the efficient delivery of goods and services. It also establishes a framework of political and administrative structures of provinces. Unfortunately however, these reforms are designed for rural areas and the Motu-Koita villages are not in rural areas. They are Urban communities right in the heart of the city. Hence we miss out on a lot of things, for example:

We are missing out on educational incentives that other students in other provinces are proud to have, like the Provincial governments taking care of secondary and tertiary students' schooling expenses. No wonder there are not many of us Motu-Koita advancing into Higher learning institutions.

We also miss out because Motu-Koita Council assembly is a puppet under the current political or administrative arrangements. The National Government calls the shots whenever it likes.

We miss out because sadly the Provincial and Local Government reforms does not recognise the NCD (National Central District) as a Provincial unit so that the people of Motu-Koita can be able to benefit directly from the developments in the city.

Perhaps the best we can opt for is to have Motu-Koita villages recognised as Local Level governments. In that way we can feel that we are part of the reforms meant to develop rural areas. Only then can we be able to participate actively and meaningfully in the political economic and social life of our society, the city and the country as a whole.

Goal No 2. Of our National Constitution envisages all citizens to have an equal opportunity to participate in, and benefit from the development of our country. This is exactly what the young people of Motu-Koita really long for. Among others Paragraph 2 calls for the creation of political structures that will enable effective, meaningful participation by our people in that life and in views of the rich cultural and ethnic diversity of our people for those structures to provide for substantial decentralisation of all forms of government activities.

Motu-Koita Youths Voice

Equal benefit and participation in development is what us- the young people together with the rest of the Motu-Koita people are greatly missing out on in this city. After having gone through a very beneficial workshop conducted by Dr. Karen and Lindsay during the past three days I would like to emphasise the idea that children and/or young people's voices must be heard. Our concerns, our grievances, our ideas and opinions must be seriously taken into account in the decision-making processes. I am somewhat convinced that young people's concerns and ideas etc.. are perhaps more accurate, so to speak, and they make up the best policy guidelines for decisions making processes. After all it is the young people of Motu-Koita who will (still) be living and deciding for themselves when the adults are gone or are no longer active in the future.

Conclusion

Let us not be spectators on our own land. Let us not be seen as prisoners on our own land. Our native villages and additional land boundaries must not be squeezed any further, like sponge, by the city, its development and the squatter settlements. It is high time that our voices is heard loud and clear. You and I know what we want and what is best for ourselves. Our elected representatives do not. Their experiences alone does not suffice. They need young people's ideas and opinions.

Finally, whether you realise this or not, we the Young People of Motu-Koita, the true landowners of Port Moresby City are (what I like to call) the SLEEPING GIANTS.

National Youth Forum: opening address

Ms Ambrosia Kavale Pacific Youth Forum Committee Member

The purpose and aim of the forum is to enable us young people of this nation to air our views on the issues affecting us in our families, communities, societies and our country as a whole. As you are aware that this forum is a follow-up of the regional Youth Forum held in Brisbane in 1998, wherein we have met other young people from around the world to discuss the global issues affecting the young people. If all turned out to be that all issues faced by young people of our country are faced by young people in other countries too. These issues among many other issues include:

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Education Employment Family and Marital problems Challenges of rural and urban culture identities Impacts of globalisation and urbanisation Empowerment of today's young generation for the challenge of the next millennium.

Young people are blamed for causing problems to families, communities and society. Perhaps the questions we should be asking each other as youth leaders and leaders for tomorrow are:

Why are young people causing these problems?
Who is to blame foryoung people's actions?
As youth leaders, what can we do to help solve these problems?
Will the government of today support us?

The fact is that these issues are here to stay, so as youth leaders in respective organisations, let us all work together to identify these issues and share these and share these issues with each other and to look at issues and not define them as difficulties but rather identify strengths, assets and potentials.

For the last three days we were taught how to air our views on issues affecting young people especially on the physical environment of our cities, towns and even villages. This workshop has helped us a lot and we believe this would be of great help to the young people where in they participate in evaluating their environment and communities they live in and taking active part in improving it. The workshop has taught us to foster greater awareness among adult policy makers, decision makers and urban professionals of the impacts which their decisions and actions have on young lives and the benefits gained from involving young people - and indeed the families, community and the country as a whole - as partners in the developing of this nation.

To any of the leaders present among the youth today, I can just say…

"INVESTMENTS YOU MAKE IN DEVELOPING YOUNG PEOPLE'S KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES ARE THE BEST INVESTMENTS WE CAN MAKE TOWARDS CREATING A BETTER FUTURE AND LIFE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE"

Taking on the Challenge

Dr Karen Malone, Asia-Pacific Director, UNESCO-MOST Growing Up in Cities project., Closing Address November, 26 1999

Worldwide, the influence of industrialisation, globalisation, population growth, war, violence, poverty, migration, displacement and environmental degradation are placing increasing pressures on our urban environments. Currently around the world twelve cities have ten million plus inhabitants - it is predicted this number could rise as high as 281 cities by the year 2025. As humanity stampedes into the new millennium the vast majority of the world's population will live in cities. United Nations projections reveal by the years 2025 two out of every three people will reside in urban areas - around one third of them will be young people under the age of 18. UNICEF recently stated "The future of the world is unavoidably urban and the well-being of our children will continue to be inextricably tied to that of the cities in which they live". For these reasons, more that any other time in history, it is imperative to document the impact of this rapid acceleration of urbanisation on young people's lives and to provide opportunities for them to be involved in planning, evaluating and improving their local environments.

The current rise in urban populations as we have seen in fast growing cities around the world supports a host of social, environmental and economic problems. The resource demands of economic growth, coupled with the growth rates of the world's population have imposed a self-perpetuating system of demands on nature. Due to the culmination of industrial and human waste - air, water and land pollution are at their worse levels and increasing at a daunting rate. The critical issue ignored by almost all discussions of environment problems among politicians, economists and people in general is that there are limits to growth and affluence and that in many regions of the globe we have already gone beyond many of them. We are living in ways that are totally unsustainable. Historically governments have ignored the weeping landscape and the impact of a monopolisation of the earth's resources by a small minority and its detrimental effects on the silent majority. If we are to begin to negotiate a way of planning which is sustainable we need to replace models of economic planning to ones based on participation, democratic process, respect for human rights and environmental sustainability.

Like canaries in the mines, the children and youth of our communities alert us to the dangers that seep into our environments - whether it be the unraveling of the social fabric due to the influence of drugs, alcohol, disease and poverty or the loss of dignity and hope when our lands are taken from us - if we do not respond to these signs then we are compromising their future.

For me, Papua New Guinea finds itself in a unique position at this time of rapid change and urbanisation. The physical terrain, your unique land ownership and kinship system and your ability to hold onto your culture, when cultural diversity has been eroded from individuals and communities around the globe, has acted as a buffer and allowed you to be a wonderfully diverse and culturally rich nation. I have felt honoured and privileged during my short stay here to have you share this with me.

But beware the predatory greed of globalisation is knocking at the door ready to consume all that you hold sacred. For good or bad, McDonaldisation is coming to PNG as far as I can see you have three options:

Either to be consumed by its insatiable appetite in silence;
To run away and try to hide from its evocative desires and hope it goes away; or
To confront the challenge that it presents and be prepared to control and manage your future, only accepting what is useful and learning from others who have come before you.

My advice would be to learn by the mistakes that are evident in cities around the globe where communities have unknowingly compromised their future and the futures of their children - either through lack of knowledge, silent acceptance by not expressing their rights of participation or by putting their head in the sand (a habitual defence behaviour of our large flightless bird the Emu when in danger - not a smart for bird which is over six foot tall!). To be smart is to have the tools and the ammunition to make reasoned choices - not to be pushed and hurried into decisions without exploring how these decisions will impact on the social and environmental fabric of your communities. It is your human and democratic right to have a voice and be heard - it is your right to be consulted and the governments responsibility to provide these opportunities - but ultimately it is up to you. Whether you have impact, whether you influence the decision makers it often about how prepared you are to challenge what you think is a bad decision and to provide worthwhile alternatives. Change is coming, it is inevitable - but you have a chance right now to share a vision and construct your future. Unlike many cities and countries around the globe who are now desperately trying to reconstruct their environments from the remnants that have been left after the wave of globalisation has monopolised and stripped their countries of their own identities.

During this week we have witnessed the first evidence of this wave - with the planned developments in the Port here in Port Moresby and the silent cries of the Motu-Koitabu youth we have shared the first pains of labour. It is a warning - but more than this it is a challenge which you need to share as a nation - it is not just a fight for the Motu-Koitabu people to save their culture and heritage - it is a fight for all the young people and communities of PNG who will find themselves in similar battles in the future. The challenge exists - there is no denying that PNG is and will continue to be drawn into the urbanising world - it has too much to offer a hungry world economy.

The task you have as young people and custodians of this awesome and inspiring land is to create a shared vision of a future built on the dignity of human rights and your right to an environmentally sustainable, healthy and safe future - and to fight to maintain that vision. The declaration we constructed today, the skills you have learnt during the workshop and the connection and links with others are what you have in your suitcase as you start this journey - you - the youth of PNG- have as Lindsay said earlier today made one footprint in the sand.

I leave you with the challenge to collect data so you can begin to construct a possible shared future with your young people. My task is to find ways represent your struggle to others, to encourage an international community to support you in the journey ahead and to continue to map your footprints.

In closing I want to share with you a final thought and issue you the challenge:

Time runs short. We need courage, creativity and self-determination. In our rush to action we may make mistakes - but it would be a far greater mistake to never respond to the challenge and live out the consequences of our hesitation