Healthy Living

Alcohol also contributes to lifestyle diseases. Good to see billboard such as this one declaring war on alcohol abuse.

Fear of death makes people doing the wrong things. Fear should be a wake up call for one to think about taking advice, council, and changing one’s tactics to avoid death. So often people all around us let fear grip them as if there are no choices to make. We fear death, that’s inevitable, but must also not allow that fear to take complete control of our lives. Think about how to get out of that fear. Think about the options available.

This was part of the discussion I had with Dr. Chris Kinibi, the Medical Director of the University Clinic last week. I had visited him after going through one and half week of illness resulting from severe cold and flu. I contracted the cold and flu illness from staying out late and in the open the previous weeks as a result of visiting several ‘haus krais’. It was that exposure to the elements of dust, airborne bacteria, and contact with others through handshakes that could have provided the opportunity for the infection to take hold of me.

Dr. Kinibi wrote down the meaning of FEAR as he explained many things about life-style diseases, healing in the biomedical sense, and also in the spiritual sense. F stands for False; E stands for Evidence; A stands for Appearing, and R stands for Real, was how the good Doctor explained the meaning of that word to me. 

After he had diagnosed me of my affliction the good Dr. Kinibi shared some of his deep thoughts on what he thinks are some of the things people should know about health, life-style, work, and family. Many young professional between the ages of 45 and 58 die young as a result of life-style diseases. It is true, I agreed with the UPNG medical doctor, but felt guilty because even though at UPNG we have medical advice and service made available to us, most of us fail to use the Clinic. For those of us in the ‘high calories use’ employment bracket the service is open for consultations, yet we ignore it, playing the knowing it all game until death finds us to our own detriment.

Depending on the life-style one has lived in their early years before the critical age of 45 one has to reassess one’s own life, re-examine habits, life-styles, and attitudes to everything from work, money, family, friends, and daily habits. It is important that these are looked at critically and with self-discipline. Make amends where necessary, intervene into negative habits, and adopt positive family oriented life-styles. Simple things like spending time with family more, allowing one’s spiritual faculty to be enriched in prayer and divine interventions, and opting for more balanced approach to one’s life can help save lives.

Our conversation on good health and what each one of us must do to care for our lives is made possible, because Dr. Kinibi has by now full knowledge of what my medical history is when it comes to health problems. I was glad he took the time to talk to me about good healthy living habits and in addition to the medical explanation of illness and healing. The reassuring part of the conversation with Dr. Kinibi was about the spiritual faculty of our lives. It was good to go beyond discussions on biomedicine to spiritual healing. One cannot avoid the experience of spiritual interventions in our societies. The good doctor felt that many people need to allow Jesus into their lives to give them a sense of peace, balance, and restored mind from the pressures and stress associated with work and the contemporary life-styles we are living. The spiritual dimension of our lives must never be under valued or relegated the realm of mysticism.

Bomana Catholic Seminary Chapel

I found out that Apostle Luke was also a medical physician in those days and this is reflected in the style of writing that is different to the other Gospels in the Bible. Luke is more intellectual and challenges us to read and think beyond the ordinary about meanings embedded deep within our lives.

Dr. Kinibi made reference to Romans 8: 28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who live him, who have been called according to his purpose.” I reflected on it later at home. I realized that instead of letting fear take control of my life I need to replace that with the Word of God by programming into the mental hard-drive so that in whatever circumstances I find myself in where fear threatens to control my life I can replace it God’s presence in it. That is a powerful feeling.

The discussion with the UPNG medical doctor was very renewing and rewarding too as a patient but as someone concerned about my own health and life. I want to live a long life, but the way death seems to make its ugly presence felt in my communities and work environment, I have reason to start thinking about more life-changing positive approaches to life.

I have written about fear some time ago after reading the John Maxwell’s book. The two greatest detours in life, according to John Maxwell are: (1) fear of the unknown and (2) fear of failing. These fears are experienced everyday in our lives. The fear of the unknown stops people from taking advantage of the situation, when a problem appears in their journey. People are unwilling to take a detour from their original plans. Some people just resign or give up because they are not willing to learn something new from the situation. The second fear is that of failure, which many people have in their journeys.  Nothing could be overstated with how people deal with their fears.

John Maxwell’s teaching on dealing with fear and failure are sound advice that helped me to face my own fears of the unknown and the fear of failure.

Next week we will continue to talk about the element of fear as part of our lives. 

A Remarkable Moment

During the Australia Week I had the pleasure, on behalf of the Vice Chancellor, and the University of Papua New Guinea, to host a night of remarkable moment with Dame Carol Kidu, speaking about her life, work, and vision. The talk took place at the Main Lecture Theatre of the UPNG where Dame Carol spoke with the undiminishing passion and affection she has for her family and people.

The PNG Society of Writers, Editors, and Publishers in conjunction with the Australian High Commission initiated the concept and organized the guest lecture, featuring the former politician and MP who had set the bar above, and beyond her peers. It is awe-inspiring to be present in the same space where a person of Dame Carol Kidu is the featured speaker. Part of the appeal is to encourage Papua New Guineans to write for The Crocodile Prize competition.

I had the good fortune of knowing and working with Dame Carol in other professional capacities. Taking on the role of host for her talk is only little I can do to show my respect for someone who is a champion of little people and the rights and plight of urbanites and women. Her simple down-to-earth approach to establishing relationships with those whose paths cross hers has had remarkable impressions on people long after such encounters.

There is respect, envy, and admiration of this person who gave up everything to follow her heart to Papua New Guinea with her boyfriend, who would later become her husband. The man she married, Sir Buri Kidu, would soon become the first Papua New Guinean Chief Justice.

Dame Carol recounts the journey in her first autobiography, A Remarkable Journey, and in her talk at UPNG she reveals more intimate details of the encounter and the journey of her life with her late husband.

“Don’t ask me to choose,” was the preferred title of the book. The reason was that it was the statement that Sir Buri made to Dame Carol during the time they began seeing each other. Sir Buri made no indication as to the question of serious commitment in their relationship during their varsity years at the University of Queensland.  Sir Buri had told Dame Carol that if she asked him to choose between his people and her he would choose his people. Dame Carol thought about it before making her decision to follow him to Papua New Guinea.

In Papua New Guinea Dame Carol recounts the experiences of cultural immersion was taken care off by her mother-in-law. Dame Carol had chosen to follow her heart: Buri Kidu and Papua New Guinea. She had never regretted one moment of that decision.

Dame Carol has so much honor and dignity in her stride that at the passing of her husband, Sir Buri Kidu, she took it on herself to pursue some of the dreams they shared in their partnership. Partly out of respect for her late husband and partly the need to speak about the people she has become part of and they a big part of her life. In their lives she came and settled, become absorbed into social and cultural fabric of the Motu Koitabu society, and made it become hers as well.

Dame Carol Kidu during her talk at MLT, UPNG 2013

Talking about her life during the Australia Week evokes a certain kind of connections and strengthening of existing relationships between the people of Australia and Papua New Guinea. It is one of the most important relationships that exist at both the political and personal level. People from both countries find mutual commonality in various engagements and endeavors, even if historical antecedent is anything to go by.

In her life outside of politics Dame Carol is working at her autobiography, capturing everything, the highs and lows, the leaderships challenges, and the peculiarities of wrestling with power at the male dominant world of politics in PNG.

Knowledge & Wealth

Professor Frank Griffin, Executive Dean of School of  Natural and Physical Sciences, reading our names of graduates in 2013 UPNG Graduation ceremony.

Getting a job in Port Moresby is a very competitive experience. A new graduate will need to take the advice that the degree or diploma is only the starting point, but having additional personal skills, marketable qualities, and highly motivational skills developed through one’s life can make getting a job easier.

The NCD Governor Honorable Powes Parkop, who was the keynote speaker in the afternoon session of the 2013 UPNG Graduation Day drove home a very powerful message of great wisdom and the direction taken by the current regime of O’Neill-Dion led government.

Governor Parkop said something like this: “Let’s not be a nation of job seekers; let’s be wealth creators and employment creators. Go back to the rural areas where land is and use the knowledge you gained to create wealth. The government is putting the money back in to rural areas for the purpose of creating wealth.”  Think about it.

It is time now for many of us to re-strategize our plans to find economic freedom and create wealth. Maybe we have been looking or heading in the wrong direction? In our rural communities there are many opportunities. I also think that starting technical and vocation colleges in our rural communities can drive such developmental agenda.

Governor Parkop’s UPNG graduation address touched on the very notion of growing wealth in our societies. Among the many things he said was that graduates must return to their villages and rural communities to put to good use the knowledge gained from their sixteen to seventeen years of study, culminating in the award of a degree from a recognized university. He said the degrees are only good if they are put to use in creating wealth.  

If their degree is only good for seeking jobs, then it is a tough and long road. It is important to move away from the job seekers mentality. Such mindsets have not served us well. We need to develop a mind of becoming millionaires through the creation of wealth in our communities. The good Governor was spot on.  

Professor Albert Mellam, UPNG Vice Chancellor sounded off a similar a note in his speech as well by challenging graduates to become responsible and productive citizens who will make their parents, families, communities, and country proud. Very appropriate challenge for any UPNG graduates during the graduation day. The Vice Chancellor’s speech was made with full knowledge that UPNG has produced some of the current crop of top leaders, who at one point were the student leaders of UPNG.

It is no surprise that the current Prime Minister Honorable Peter O’Neill, NCD Governor Honorable Powes Parkop, Defence Minister Honorable Fabian Pok, the Vice Chancellor Professor Albert Melllam, Honorable Kerenga Kua, Attorney General & Justice Minister, and Honorable Tommy Tomscoll, the Minister for Agriculture and Livestock are of the same cohort in their UPNG days.

Being part of the convocation of the University of Papua New Guinea I felt a certain moment of pride. Our cohort had come through with the promise that was had in the decade after Independence of the nation.

What marvels me is the witness of a triumphant journey of young people of this land trudging along, often presented with challenges, necessary and unnecessary, in their formative schooling years, through guts, sheer pride, and love of themselves, their families, and tribe. In whatever event, great or small they were faced with, the young people of our remarkable country often respond with unlimited enthusiasm to learn all they can and sponge the experience for the future of this country.

The hope that we as a nation have in our young people rests in what we have done to prepare, mentor, guide, shape, and lead them on to the platform of greatness. If we had done our part in the formation of our people to lead the nation in future then we can rest easy, but if we have not, then what can we do to bring them up that extra mile that many of us often expect from them. Often such expectations and criticisms, (of our graduates’ performance out in the real world), are made up by those who have not contributed to their growth and development as young people.

Attending every UPNG graduation is important to me. First it is part of my duties and responsibilities as an academic of the institution. Second it is the pride of my life as the institution that prepared me to be the person I am today. Third reason is that I am always proud to see my students graduate on that day because I know I have done my part in preparing them to go out there and contribute to the development of our beautiful country.  Being a witness to their moment of triumph, moment of glory, and moment of achievement brings me to the realization that I had given them a helping hand along the way here.

Celebrating with the tribe as it is good for the community.

I know the pride the family and tribe have on seeing one child graduate with a degree from the University of Papua New Guinea. Every graduation is a crowded affair with so many people turning up to witness the turning point in their child, relative, and tribesman’s journey. It is a moment of celebration. I sometimes think back to my own graduation only to hold back tears because I had only one cousin who attended my graduation because I was the only one and the first in my family and village to graduate from any university. All my people were too poor and could not afford to travel to witness my graduation.

It seems to me that the appeal issued by the NCD Governor for graduates to return to their villages to create wealth is worth every pint of salt now then before.

Educated members must return to their land with some business plans to plough, irrigate, and grow wealth on it.

It is not literarily about agriculture, but about using the land as the foundation for other wealth creation opportunities. 

Responsible PNG Ways

So many issues and ideas seem to fly by, waiting for me to catch them in their flight, as if it’s a battle of ideas for me? Whatever it is I need to write down such ideas for the sake of making sense of the confusing random ideas that flood my world almost every second.

I have already settled for something to begin this discussion. I have decided to write about the burden of responsibilities. We owe it to our families, our communities, and our nation for shouldering our burdens. Our society has instilled in us the values of responsibility and responsible behavior expected of us in our daily lives. The most demanding of these is that we must take on the responsibility of leadership.

Many of us take on the burden of responsibility as a result of the social, political, and economic environment we are in at the present time. Taking on the responsibility means to deal with a situation that no one else would. It also means that the decision to take on responsibility goes with the risk of losing anonymity.

The importance of responsibility is that others are dependent on the decisions and actions of the person tasked with the responsibility to deliver whatever goods or services to increase the happiness and joy of the society. It is an abstract notion, but once translated into concrete situations the appearance of responsibility is anything, but a direct impact of a leader’s responsible behavior, actions, and decisions regarding a particular issue.

In thinking about the importance of responsibility in a Papua New Guinea context I am immediately drawn to the discussions that the late Bernard M. Narokobi had many years ago as a lawyer, philosopher, leader, parliamentarian, judge, and ambassador. In Foundations for Nationhood (2010) Narokobi expounds on the notion of Papua New Guineans Ways. How can we be responsible for the up-keep of Papua New Guinea ways?

“The basic principle of this goal,” Narokobi argues “is that Papua New Guineans are a people. They are a race, a nation. From the star, our ways are what our people find worthwhile to pursue. An emphasis of Papua New Guinean ways seeks to give encouragement to the discovering genius of our people” (2010: 35).

Are you responsible for the burden of Papua New Guinea Ways? Yes, we are responsible to our societies. We are creatures of our own societies. We belong to our society. We must take responsibility to enable our societies continue to uphold Papua New Guinean ways. It is easy losing Papua New Guinean Ways.

“Where we do not have an answer, we will find an answer by searching in the right direction. Where an answer exists, that answer should be preferred. One can isolate many facets of our ways. The fact that we have many ethnic groups is in itself a Papua New Guineans way. Development should consolidate that community living through which loneliness and despair can be eliminated. Community living should replace the senseless urban individualistic living that flourishes in big cities,” writes Narokobi (2010: 35).

The appeal here for us to return to the simple, basic, and fundamental Papua New Guinea ways is to acknowledge the collective responsibility we have as a unique group of people in the world.

“Cooperation, consensus, democracy blossom in small-scale communities,” writes Narokobi. “Participation and involvement are most effective in a small community. Sharing of good things and bad things is inevitable in small communities. Spontaneous culture and religious worship flourish in communities that know and feel their needs, their strengths and their weaknesses.  We must promote our cultures and reject some foreign cultural practices. We must discard some foreign practices such as alcoholic consumption to absurd excesses. Mothers should be able to take their babies to work instead of placing them in nurseries.” (2010: 35).

On the same page Narokobi continues to drum home the point: “By recognizing our ways, we give-due dignity to our lives. After this we are free to adapt our lives to the modern world, to accept some ways of other peoples and ignore others. After this we begin a critical look at our values and discard harmful practices. This leads us to maturity.”

Furthermore the responsibility we have to ourselves is to do some of the things right. We must stop giving excuses after excuses for doing stupid things that lower our standards as decent, self-respecting, and honorable people. We must stop justifying for all the wrongs to make them become normal part of our lives. We must stop gambling our lives away. We must stop littering our streets and neighborhoods with empty cans, thrash, and unnecessary gathering of peoples. We must ask ourselves what is it that we are doing that is not in sync with the rest of society.

Our failure to be responsible to ourselves leads to a society dealing with a psycho-social indifference to itself. Change has to be both psychological and social in order for a people proud of itself to steer it away from stubborn resistance to necessary quality change any society needs from time to time.

I am encouraged often in my reading of Bernard Narokobi’s writings. He urges us all to be responsible citizens of this Independent country.

“Papua New Guinea ways urge government commissions like the Law Reform Commission, the National Cultural Council [Commission], the Minimum Wages Board, the Courts etc., to discover our good laws and enact them in laws for today and tomorrow. Our lives were governed by norms and dictates, as we relate to other people or other property. These norms must be rediscovered and made use of. Change has to be conceptual as well as structural. As our ideas change, so must our institutions change. Our religious belief, our vision of reality and deity, must be studied and adapted to our Christian teachings.”

Narokobi urges us on: “We must know our ways and go on from them. Christianity must be adapted to some of our traditional forms of worship and celebration”